Update from opening weekend. Unsuccessful in terms of putting something on the ground but successful in finding deer. We haven't seen anything at our tree stand this year since the land owner has put cows in on the land earlier than usual. So I sat in some rocks opening morning in a place deer usually travel through to bed but only saw 4 hen turkey. Set up on a small pond Saturday evening and only saw a coyote. Almost got him but he picked up the movement when I reached for my range finder. Sunday morning sat at the same pod on the ground 15 yards from a trail the deer are using to get water. Almost got ran over by a skunk but luckily he diverted his path away from me. Then I was packing up slowly to head out and about 5 minutes after I put my camera away, a decent forkie came walking by right on the trail. He didn't make as much noise as I was expecting and got on me too quick to do anything that close. Walked within 15 yards of me on the trail and I just had to let him walk down to the pod. If I had moved, he would have busted me instantly. He was so close I was afraid to blink! I let him pass and picked up my bow. About 5 minutes later, a doe and smaller forkie came to the pod from another direction. Waited about 10 minutes to get a shot but nothing stepped into a clear lane. They goofed around for a bit and then left. None of them had a clue I was there so that was the best thing. Amazing encounter having that buck within 15 yards and me on the ground and him not knowing I was there. Very cool! The better of the 2 bucks was decent. Nothing huge, probably wouldn't even score 90 points but my heart was pumping and it took me a few minutes to calm down after he walked by. I think there are a few better bucks in the area so hopefully be able to hold out a little longer. The neighboring properties don't archery hunt, they gun hunt, and usually have some pretty good bucks living on their land. I might wait a few weeks until our general season opens and see what they run our way. The last couple of years we've sat on our hillside for the general season opener and ran a few petty good bucks out way. They're a bit in the run and gun side of hunting so they've helped us out before. Glad to see things are shaping up for the promise land of white tails! I'll keep you guys updated how things are going out west here!
Thanks and ya it was great to be out there again! Having that buck walk by me was amazing. I've never had an encounter like that on the ground being right there and the animal not knowing the difference. I'd almost swear we locked eyes at one point and he didn't think anything of it. It was really cool!
Nice encounter Jedi but you need some patience son. I laughed when I read "so hopefully be able to hold out a bit longer". This was opening weekend. HOLD OUT A BIT LONGER! You can do it.
I'm good with Buck Brothers and vote Joe Bow for captain. We need to get this info to Fitz soon. 31 days till Ohio opener!
Okay folks, I think Buck Brothers won by a wide margin and I'm submitting that to Fitz. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Thanks! Haha! One of my limitations, if you wanna call it that, is I can't get doe tags the way most others can. I kinda figure taking a smaller buck it like using my doe tag since I can get 2 buck tags. The bummer thing for the contest is I have to enter my first buck killed as the buck and then if I get a second, we only get another 50 points. But I'm getting there. This is only my 3rd season bow hunting so the "buck fever" still kicks in quite a bit! So far we only have one buck on camera I know is bigger than the fork I encountered this weekend so I have that in the back of my mind too. I really wish CA would issue one doe and one buck tag a year. But for now, that's all we got. Reason #497 to move out of CA the first chance I get!
Sweet! Did we pick a captain yet? It's really not much to do. We can all keep up on entries. That's the biggest part with the pictures.
Just making sure when we submit an entry it is submitted correctly with 2 pics with you and the deer with your bow.
Don't stress. Being captain is pretty simple. You just need to be online pretty often after season starts to make sure everyone is submitting their entries correctly.
Ya the team captain just keeps up on entries and makes sure all the information is there. One thing to note with the pics we enter is don't crop the same picture to make it smaller or bigger. Fitz is pretty good at recognizing those from what I saw last year and won't accept them. You really only have one chance with the animal on the ground to get the photos. Just do something to make the 2nd pic different; turn the animals head, flip your bow around, take your hat off.... something to make the pic different.
