Gun Season

[jhjimbo]

Deer gun season opens Monday for 11 days. Straight wall cartridges so I will use my Marlin .450Marlin. How many shells to carry ?
I usually carry extra but minimum of 3. This year one guest is coming. If bad weather I can hunt closer to camp and warm up or dry off. A storm is heading this way but not expected to be too bad. I am still asking the guy to only take a doe - the bucks are doing good but can grow a little more. Shoot any coyote but not the foxes or other small game. Two years ago I was sitting below camp and a grouse kept pestering me. I must have been near her nest. Turkeys are also doing good.

[fitch270]

Grouse wouldn’t be nesting in November. But they can be curious, a couple years back a friend of mine had one that would fly up into the tree he had a stand in and come within arms reach. It got so it would follow him in.

I just load 3 into my 1895G, if that don’t do it something’s wrong. Of course I can always walk to the house and get more ammo. 😎

[FirstBubba]

"... Of course I can always walk to the house and get more ammo. 😎 ..."

.....but will that 30 point buck still be standing there when you get back? 🤔

[fitch270]

"... Of course I can always walk to the house and get more ammo. 😎 ..."

.....but will that 30 point buck still be standing there when you get back? 🤔

If I missed three times he wasn’t standing there in the first place…..

[jhjimbo]

Sunday I carried 10 rounds for my single-shot .45-70 Handi Rifle. I keep them in an old flip phone zippered case on my belt. Carrying that many rounds is a habit developed from years of hunting pigs far from the vehicle. But now the possibility is almost zero of me using more than 3 rounds hunting deer from a blind.

I've told the story before about one morning using all 10 rounds of .30-06 I had with me. I ambushed a sounder of pigs, getting the sow with the first round out of the Remington 7400. The other 4 in the magazine were misses at fleeing ones. I reloaded the next 5 rounds and used two on a boar that returned. 2 hours later, the last three rounds were fired at a running buck and it dropped on the last shot.

10 rounds, three animals. I've never claimed to be a marksman. But, I still had the 5-shot Ruger .357 magnum so I wasn't totally out of resources.

I think 3 is enough but in Northern NY the rule was to carry a box. In case you are lost, the signal is 3 shots in about 5 sec straight up in the air if lost or needing help. This is done about an hour after dark as some may be working on deer or dinner, etc. That was the instruction from the guide. One eve we did hear 3 shots and he left by boat and helped a client bring in a deer.

[FirstBubba]

If I missed three times he wasn’t standing there in the first place…..

LMBO!!!!!

You sound like the hunter who was hunting a power line right-of-way. When a monster buck showed up, he got so excited, he dropped his gun and broke his scope!

"But I wasn't worried", he said, "the bucks massive antlers were hung up in the overhead power lines and he couldn't get away!" 🤣😂🤣

[FirstBubba]

Look at it this way, ammo is relatively small and lightweight. Why not take a few extra cartridges into the woods? Is it some badge of honor to go light on rounds? What's wrong about having at least enough to load 1 in the chamber and 4 in the tube?

When you hunt areas that have feral hogs, I'm not sure you can carry TOO MUCH ammo! LOL!

A single hog is no biggie, but if you stumble into a "sounder", it can be a different story.

As a general rule, the first shot and a sounder scatters like a covey of quail! All directions!
I have seen, twice, the stunned silence of an entire sounder going absolutely dead still at the crack of a rifle.
If the sounder is in a big open area, you may need (want?) bunches of ammo.
First hog I killed with an AR, the sounder was in head high weeds! You could hear them, but you couldn't see them.

[fitch270]

Look at it this way, ammo is relatively small and lightweight. Why not take a few extra cartridges into the woods? Is it some badge of honor to go light on rounds? What's wrong about having at least enough to load 1 in the chamber and 4 in the tube?

Less to lose mainly, a few times over the years when unloading I’ve dropped rounds that I couldn’t find. In deep snow usually. With the lever gun once in a muddy ditch next to the parked truck. I started popping them back through the loading gate after that instead of jacking them through. I’ve never liked dropping shells on the ground anyway. Easier to catch a couple than four when dumping the floor plate on the bolt guns as well. I always have one in hand from clearing the chamber first.

The other thing is the past several years I’ve been carrying my kid’s ammo in addition to mine until we get situated. First couple years with my son and now with my daughter. No extra ammo in pockets after the guns are loaded to avoid any mixups.


In Montana the kid and I each carried a box with us every day. Extras rode in the packs.

[jhjimbo]

I had a rifle that when the safety was on it would not lock the bolt. Operative word 'had'. Lost one shell until I finally sold the rifle - Mauser 7mmRemMag' The culpert.

[FirstBubba]

Less to lose mainly, a few times over the years when unloading I’ve dropped rounds that I couldn’t find. In deep snow usually. With the lever gun once in a muddy ditch next to the parked truck. I started popping them back through the loading gate after that instead of jacking them through. I’ve never liked dropping shells on the ground anyway. Easier to catch a couple than four when dumping the floor plate on the bolt guns as well. I always have one in hand from clearing the chamber first.

The other thing is the past several years I’ve been carrying my kid’s ammo in addition to mine until we get situated. First couple years with my son and now with my daughter. No extra ammo in pockets after the guns are loaded to avoid any mixups.


In Montana the kid and I each carried a box with us every day. Extras rode in the packs.

Yes siree Bob! In a situation like that, "lack-of-ammo" is a malady you DO NOT want to suffer from! LOL!

[DakotaMan]

My first few years of deer hunting, my dad rationed slugs to my brothers and me. We got two shells each and were advised to use them wisely. We seemed to do fine and we were thankful of the forethought it gave us in hunting.

I was sitting in a brush pile near an active trail one morning when a hunter came down the trail in front of me. I waved at him and he said "Hey kid, can you give me some shells? I only brought two boxes and I've already shot almost all of them up." I said "I only brought two shells but you can sure have one of them." He looked at me like I was being a smart *ss and just stomped on. Later that day, I got my deer and had one shell left for the next season.

[DakotaMan]

I have a nice compact little ammo pack that I carry on my belt. It holds 10 rounds quietly. I carry that for emergency signaling. I've only used it once when we were walking a four mile stretch of the Missouri river breaks for coyotes. About half way though the walk, a nasty blizzard whipped up and visibility went to about 15 feet. My sister got disoriented and never showed up at the end of the walk. I walked back about a mile and started to fire three shots every 10 minutes until I saw her appear out of the snow about 15 feet away. She was familiar with the signal and came right to it. She said she never worried because she knew exactly what we would do.

I carry a full magazine with one in the chamber when hunting.

[CD2]

I carry a blind or box mags worth in rifle, and toss a spare or two in a pocket.
Hunt Sat and Sun and season over.
Cuz got this one mid week and textd this pic while I was at rehab place working on my shoulder.

[CD2]

When I hunted a place that got a lot of trespassers, carried a shotgun full, extra rounds, plus a handgun and extra rounds. Figured if a war started I was gonna stay in the fight a good while.

Clint Smith........Thunder rants. Good stuff......language warning

https://youtu.be/8mCAd7giD2o

[Milldawg]

Pack my rifle 4+1 and carry at least another box. And carry my sidearm and extra mag. Some of the worlds toughest problems are solved with extra ammo.