Ground shrinkage, deer and elk version

[520 Road Sow]

I wanted to hear the story

It actually went about the other way..... after a night of -30 and fireball shots too cope with it. I was weeble wabling around the next morning and damn near took her boyfriend home too.

#blessed

 

[LukeDuke]

It actually went about the other way..... after a night of -30 and fireball shots too cope with it. I was weeble wabling around the next morning and damn near took her boyfriend home too.

#blessed

Who’s the twisted person that came up the the ice cream bucket of fireball shots and why do people think they need to bring them to every outing.

 

[520 Road Sow]

I knew he wasn't a monster..... thought he was a little better though. Never judge from the back.


Here he lies. Dad was happy but, not fulfilled.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Idaho elk. Was lucky enough to draw a good tag. Reoccurring theme when you see animals in the timber or cover it is deceiving. When I shot this bull I thought he was huge it happened quickly, when I walked up to it everything shrunk. A lot. Also a very fun hunt.

That's still a cool looking bull. Double royals on his left?

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

View attachment 228070

Future monster.

 

[DFS]

That's still a cool looking bull. Double royals on his left?

He matched on both sides but was broke up

 

[DFS]

@Carl 9.3x62

 

[Nick87]

View attachment 228092
@Carl 9.3x62

I like the bottle opener.

 

[520 Road Sow]

WAS A Future monster.

 

[antlerradar]

View attachment 228092
@Carl 9.3x62

I am calling you the next time I need a field photo.

 

[SwaggyD]

Ok. I’ll play. I thought this guy was much bigger than he ended up. Busted him walking a couple, snap decision. Still happy, but the shrinkage was plenty. All the other major shrinkage photos I have are not digital.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I probably haven't killed enough critters to have ground shrinkage like some of you discuss but I'm sure some of the "big" animals that got away were really not as big as I thought Might also be my pessimistic nature that frequently keeps me from being disappointed.

The only real example I can think of is in WY, the first nice (on my scale) bull i called in and shot came running at me screaming and had me rattled. I made a lousy shot and it took 2 days to find him, with a black bear eating him. He was a solid 330ish bull when I thought he was lost but turned out to be 314ish after measuring. In close encounters if I see good fronts, 3rds, 4ths i usually quit sizing them up and focus on trying to kill them. I killed my second "nice" bull in MT later that year in rifle season and I thought he was smaller because I focused on the bottom half of the rack too.

 

[Foxtrot1]

No photos, this is an old story from when I was a kid.

My uncles best friend shot a really nice 10pt whitetail on a primitive weapons hunt on one of the local WMAs. Each deer had to be checked in, and with 1200 hunters on the WMA, the warden station was always full of people just watching deer come in. The crowd had gathered to admire Jesse's buck, very few rack bucks came off that WMA back then. After weighting it, my Uncle JB went to the truck to get his deer. Picked it up by the ear and carried it with one hand to drop on the scales. 32lbs. You could hear the snickering start in the crowd and roll thru it. Uncle JB turned around and said " Hell, I dont know what y'all are laughing at. Anybody could hit that buck, it took a damn fine shot to kill this one".

I've never been able to look at a dink someone has shot since then and not thought about that line.

 

[noharleyyet]

I had seen this one in low light the evening before and shot him in low light the next morning. His mass fooled me a little...not much though.

https://flic.kr/p/2dnK7rM

https://flic.kr/p/PS8Dtz

 

[Pucky Freak]

 

[LuketheDog]

View attachment 228275

My second buck, waaaay back in the day. Central CA blacktail, I assumed he was a forkie when I pulled the trigger because I didn't know they could be smaller than a 2x2...oops

 

[vanish]

Some really high standards on this thread.

 

[Dsnow9]

Thanks @LuketheDog for actually posting realistic ground shrinkage photos. Some of you are just being jerks posting your monsters and claiming ground shrinkage! Lol

 

[Dsnow9]

I wish I could claim ground shrinkage with these but new exactly what I was doing… Showed up to my “spot” opening morning and ran into 16 people over the course of my 2.5 mile hike. It was a great spot to hike through at first light but they all came in before first light and blew everything out to private and didn’t even know it. I was frustrated to say the least, I was almost back to the truck when this guy popped out. He froze broadside long enough to have a conversation with my brother on wether I should shoot it or not. Frustration got the better of my and a dropped him, boy was that a tasty deer though!

 

[runningmt]

I’ve had a few…..they fit nicely above the garage door spring

No shrinkage however, none of these were a surprise