Well....another night of hunting and plenty of doe sightings, couple young bucks but still no mature bucks spotted on stand or shoot even on cam during daylight (besides Bertier). Incredibly off year here....
Congrats FERG! I am back to work till Thursday.. Be at it the last two days hard.... Saturday I suit up in orange!
I have only seen one mature buck since 10/25 and that was long distance.... and no does that I wanted to mess with. That's going to change hopefully this Thur/Fri...
Not getting out today myself....hope to tomorrow but Thursday now is looking rough to make it. Working stinks... LOL
IF I have numbers right this is where we sit currently: Team 25 - 250 pts Oldcarp - 50 (Fergie) bry2211 - 50 Galen - 50 MUDSHARK - 50 NEB Bucks - 50 *NEB Bucks - 124 6/8 *Galen - 130 4/8 *T FERG - 50 *entered but not in contest scoring yet TOTAL: 605 2/8 Rain is gonna keep me from hunting this afternoon....I gotta be at hearings tomorrow bout an hour away but not till 1/130 so gonna hunt morning for a couple hours....fingers crossed.
score card has been updated, they have us at 555 2/8 TY i think your math is off by 50 We are in 9th place we have 5 does done (2nd bucks). There is only 2 other team with more Does Down Team 27 & 4 they have 6 and 7, Team 4 in the top 3. Keep up the Good work on slaying the deer, I'll be caring my bow from the 2nd day of rifle season to the end. First day i'll have a rifle with my daughter .
First all day sit of the year.. saw 5 bucks -- the biggest maybe 150 8 point. Would have shot him in heart beat, but he never came closer than 60 yards. All bucks walking alone. I need some hot does tomorrow or one of the good ones is gonna have lead for lunch this weekend... Tomorrow is another day! Matter of fact last day of another day... Gotta get it done...
Well fellas rattled in oddball a 2x3 ,buck I've passed previously that has a brow and swooping right beam and other side barely has a 2 inch g2. Saw a few others but nothing but him was close enough. I am gonna leave here in a bit for a stand Pops has sat just once all year. Great spot till firearm hits which is tomorrow....
Well......I cannot believe this and I'm experiencing some serious regret at this point...I passed the biggest buck I've ever let walk. I fear I'll live to regret this decision but it was a combination of a bunch of stuff. As I've said we haven't been getting any pictures and this is a buck we'd only heard was around (neighbor shot his shoulder days earlier) but no pics and no eyes on. So needless to say when he popped out literally from under my tree from behind me without warning as I watch some does on one side of tree he caught me off guard. I had only moments to decide and his short G3s, being a stranger and not have an immense amount of time to decide and knowing there was a bigger 10 around this property (finally got pics of him week or so ago) I chose to not shoot him at 23 yards to my left rear....I also wouldn't have got it on film which I now believe played a roll as well. I couldn't get camera around my body and tree to film where he was. It also ran through my mind that he didn't seem bigger than the numerous bucks I got in the mancave or wall at home (granted I had him pegged around 120....I now think he is pushing 130 maybe??). SO I then watched him come back behind the tree in thicker cover and I filmed him (linked video below)......as I studied him I realized he was bigger than I thought, no giant but hunting small properties was a definite top 15% buck for the area and I decided IF he hooked around into the other lane in front of me I'd shoot him and cam was clear and ready to get it all....he did not. So....it was an oddly restless night....internally trying to figure out if I made the right call or not....in the end I didn't choose to shoot him, and now with firearms season upon us I must shift my focus to Bertier or a surprise visitor to the New22. Now the stand I was in I can still hunt and it is near my parents place....but come firearms season this spot can really change due to a neighboring hunter with a stand literally 70 yards to west, and he hunts no care for wind or anything.
Off topic a bit.. got a nice surprise yesterday from SIL. I had taken him turkey hunting this past spring to show him the ropes a bit. Long story short... I got my biggest Tom to date hunting late in the season... with hm in he blind with me. He had asked when were cleaning it if I was going to do a mount and I told him probably a fan mount. He asked if he could do it for me and I said sure. He took everything left after we breasted the bird? Here is what he came up with. Not the best lighting. It was a nice surprise!
