That's how I feel already 9 days into the season .. The mosquito's, snakes, lack of deer, opening day starting on the down of the full moon cycle, Ghost deer, 90+ 100% humidity at 5pm better hope you picked a spot in the shade. This state is ruthless, it's so hard to come from bow hunting Ohio, to bow hunting this.. It's my second year bow hunting Florida, and It's taking it's toll on me very quickly.. hell it's a snow storm, yeah lets go hunting!! hey its almost 100degrees and there are 50 cotton mouth's, and 25billion mosquito's between you and you're stand, GOOD LUCK walking out alive at night! ending rant about how bad Florida sucks..
I feel your pain. It has been a hot start to the season, I am soked in sweat by the time I get set up in the tree. I have been busted and blown at on nearly every hunt this year. Good thing is it will be getting cooler but it wont get to cold.
x2 on all that, also got rained on almost every hunt so far. I hunt the swamp and even with layering my clothes and a thermacell the mosquitos still get me! So not only am I soaking wet covered in mosquitos, I'm hunting deer the size of a dog that only come out at night! I feel your pain! Makes hunting my lease in GA a dream!
I feel you Jtrump, I'm just up from the Florida border at Ft Rucker and it's the same here. Season opens Oct 25th so hopefully it cools down some by then.
71 here and the ac is running. Wind is at zero so no need to go mess up a good spot. The river bottoms here the mequistoes rip a man apart.
I agree but with that said this summer has been pretty mild with all the rain. It only really got hot 6 weeks ago. You do need to be prepare for the mosquitos though. Seem worse at sun up and sun down.
In a month from now it will be perfect everyday down here through to May. We'll be complaining cause it's 30 degrees while the rest of the country is shoveling snow and trying to keep there heat on. I'll take Fl over any of that.
So, I just got out of my stand, sat from 6-10:20, no sign of any life whatsoever. I did find a very large fresh rub about 100yards from my stand pretty sure its the buck that only comes out at night on camera. My dad has a very small piece of property in a very populated area and while sighting in my HHA Optimizer to 60 yards the other day when I went to pull arrows from the target I saw 3 doe's run into the woods about 15 yards away from me. I set up a camera on the trail they had made back there on Saturday afternoon, I pulled the card on the way home this morning, no does.... But there is an 8 or 10, wide and tall on camera every single day at around 9-10am.. On 4 acres of property.... and here I've been driving 52miles round trip to get eaten alive by mosquito's and see nothing day and night since opening day haha.. It's the biggest buck I have on camera in Florida so far, I'll be in that tree tomorrow morning waiting for him EDIT: This is St. Johns county for anyone interested about rubs/scrapes/ or any chasing activity if you have seen any of this and hunt the st.johns, elkton, hastings area feel free to chime in. Can't ever tell when the damn rut is here.
im right there with you. Florida is a beast to hunt. Its hot, its humid, theres a million tiny bugs waiting to eat you alive, and did i mention it was hot? haha Ive seen 2 deer so far this season, had a small 6pt at 18yds yesterday morning at first light...and before that i had 2 deer bedded underneath one of my stands one morning...right idea deer.....wrong time haha. i cant wait for the cold weather...as far as ghost deer, this guy just showed up on the farm a couple days ago...
I'm in St. Augustine.. This picture I'm uploading is the deer literally behind my dads house... the sun light coming through the trees makes it very hard for me to estimate, guestimate exactly his size and age etc. I'll be sitting in the morning, I know this picture quality sucks but what do you think.
Welcome to the South son. I/we feel your pain, trust me on that. It's tough hunting here in the south east in Sept. Thermocell my friend, get one if you already haven't. And yes coming out of the swamps around these parts at night is a real treat, isn't it. I'm usually waiting for big foot to cart me off during the night on my walk out. I have solid 20 min walk out of the low ground on our farm, and it is just slam with everything that bites and stings. Enjoy and best of luck.
I'm hunting out of Mayakka, near Arcadia, FL. We,ve had rain all last week so my hunting land is flooded, bunch of hogs running around tho!
i had to search for the deer at first...but from what i can tell id say 3.5. looks like a solid rack but smaller body, be easier with a better pic of course
Shwacker broad heads... What to say what to say.. 10:30am, here comes a nice size eating doe.. First deer I've seen this year. She walks in front of me at 15yards I stop her put the pin dead on, let the arrow fly and hear the odd sound like a fluttering Engine.. Blades opened on arrow release, arrow fly's really funny deer runs away and stops at 30 yards stands still for a second and then walks off like she was spooked. I can see my arrow, buried into the Ground, I see no blood on white fletching's.. How could I have possibly missed that shot. So I wait 45 minutes since there is a buck that usually follows. Not today. I get down and retrieve my arrow, it has hair on and and green stuff.. We know what that means.. her entire stomach contents were splatted all over the ground with very few Specs of blood.. So I pack my climber, put away all my equipment, change clothes its been over an hour now.. I go to where I saw here standing still, more stomach contents on the ground and some blood.. Ok I'm pretty good at tracking I can work with this. Follow blood for 20 feet and it stops.. I walk across my neighbors yard with zero sign of blood, but I do see a deer trailing leading into the woods, I find blood there.. a little farther massive amounts of blood, She takes a left I go in about 20 yards and her entire intestinal tract/stomach and maybe liver? are all laying on the ground.... gobs of blood everywhere. Out of no where, torrential downpour begins. I'm searching for which way she went @ last known blood. after 45 seconds the massive amount of blood was washed away. I grid searched a small piece of woods for about an hour, searched ditches and the only source of water near by, pretty ticked off right now. Sad part, had two arrows with Solid broadheads sitting in the quiver. I'm sure that would have been a different outcome. I complain to my old lady about not seeing any deer this entire season so far, but I'd rather see/shoot no deer then shoot one that i can't find, because of a malfunction on the broad head, and drastic weather change. I feel like an idiot, Hope it doesn't happen again. TLDR: Shwacker practice tip fly's like a dream, real world operation head opened on arrow release, caused a gut shot deer and then rain washed away the only chance I had to recover her. I may go grid search more if this downpour let's up.
