I'm pretty much just an animal shooter with some hunting skills.
In TX most of the hunting land is private and neither my family or myself have owned any hunting land. No real luxury of just walking out on to land and hunting
We do "lease" land from property owners to hunt on which is the norm. The problem with that is again you don't own the land and being on someone else's land even when paying to lease it 90%+ of the time doesn't last long because it comes with all the problems of being on someone else's land and them "allowing" you to be on it. So this leads to what seems to be a never ending search for a good property to lease, then when you find one the owner up and sells it hahaha, so the lease hunt starts again.
Since 2011 I have switched to paid hunts for 4-5 days but I don't trophy hunt I meat hunt because my goal is to enjoy nature, the hunt, and fill the freezer so there elements of hunting, vacation, and since it's a meat animal hunt, there is a much larger animal shooting factor.
From 2011 to 2016 I was able to hunt the same ranch which was amazing and allowed me develop more familiarity with that property and therefore build up my "hunting" skills by going to that property repeatedly, even though it was for only like 5 days a year.
I greatly increased my tracking skills because I was not the one who setup the hunting and areas, stands, and feeders so I had no choice but but to follow sign and blood trail if there was any. I learned to mentally take pictures when I could of where the animal was and where it ran and what it ran by since the animal was often out of sight into trees, brush, and rocky/hilly terrain within 4 seconds of being shot.
That property is no longer huntable for me because the owners divorced and the property was sold so back to the land hunt again. These paid hunts are ideal for me now due to my work schedule, availability, and the short period of time I can get off of work. I live in the city so for me to get into any hunting land is minimal 2 hr 30 min so again these trips really fit the bill and I would have to get lucky to be able to lease the land and work the land to hunt it.
With the 300BLk i have taken animals subsonic, super sonic, and with a variety of bullets and have easily taken 25-30+ deer personally and another 5-6 deer taken with my 300BLk + handloads that others in the hunting party used. It kills for sure.
I have always been in search of the best bullet for leaving blood trail and/or knocking them down quickly in combination with making the best shot placement possible. A problem I run into is I don't and can't intimately know my terrain so tracking skills greatly increasing is great but I also have the disadvantage of not having a known place AND not being able to walk it... its not my property
I have lost 2 deer hunting with the 300BLK. 1 Where blood and sign ended and there wasnt much blood to begin with and when in a combination rocky + grassy area there is not always a lot of sign to work with when the blood stops and there is no dirt to see kicked up.
The other was a fluke where the bullet had to take a funny turn because a leg bone was hit on the way to a heart shot. The bullet didnt hit the heart and went some other way because the leg was trashed. So call it bad shot placement but Ive gone straight through the tubular and should blade bone of a deer with the 300BLk plenty of times but this is the 1 time it must have hit and didnt go my way. We jumped that deer twice and never saw it again.
Finally, I now only hunt with my 300BLK in the morning since I'm hunting a different property every year for my meat hunts and I use my 30-06 (my only other serious hunting rifle) in the evening. Often with little blood trail and being COMPLETELY unfamiliar with the land I need the advantage of daylight to help with tracking and I also setup my phone so with a single button click I can start the camera to recording a wide angle shot to help with the tracking. I don't want to disrespect these animals by losing them when I have the means to drastically increase my chances of finding them when they quickly run out of sight.
In the evening the 30-06 leaves plenty of blood or drops em on sight which is great for me since tracking in the dark in unfamiliar terrain is a DRASTICALLY more difficult task than in the daylight.
So far no deer hunting for me this year, an unplanned 6 months of no work (I do contract work and am self employed) kinda took away the luxury of going on my yearly paid meat hunt. I almost got to do some hog hunting but the 1 time I go out for 2 hours to visit some old friends in a nearly empty restaurant, one of their idiot friends shows up and then an hour and 45 min in tells us all his "funny" story of how the day before his mother golfed and hung out with a woman who tested positive for COVID the same day this idiot decides to come visit with us... this idiot still lives off his parents and thought it would be a good idea to just wander around the world knowing this.
I had to quarantine, miss Thanksgiving, and miss my planned trip to go to my cousin's deer lease to help with their pig problem.
The good news is I didn't risk killing my elderly parents and I showed no symptoms of sickness during my 14 days of quarantine so I'll gladly sacrifice hog hunting to keep from killing my elderly parents and potentially, any of my other loved ones, and hell anyone else out there I could have come into contact with.
If you've made it this far thanks for listening and it's good to drop in during hunting season as I do these last few years