I'll be heading out next Saturday evening for my first hunt of the year. cool front moving in Friday so hopefully there will be some movement. I will shoot the first doe that gets within 40 yds and presents a shot. Now the bucks I'll be picky about.....till December.
Well I am back from my nice four day weekend on the farm. I hunted one morning and three nights during this trip and saw about 20 deer and 15 turkeys. The only buck I was able to lay eyes on was a big bodies spike and whats worse is my cameras backed up my lack of antler on the farm with only one decent buck on camera that I will probably pass because I think he might be to young for what I want to do at our place. Overall it was a pretty good trip with me being able to take a doe and not only get some meat for the freezer but some points for the team. Another great part of this hunt was the fact that my father in law would be hunting for the first time ever. After owning this place for about 7 years now he decided to get a crossbow and put some meat in the freezer which is good because it takes the pressure off of me to get them some meat. But even though overall it was a good trip with lots of great memories it was still not without its low points as well. The first one took place when we went to retrieve my doe. She was 32 yards and quartering kind of hard when I shot her at 5:50 pm (est). The arrow entered just in front of her back leg and exited in a downward angle just behind the far front leg. While it was a gut shot I also was able to hit lungs. The blood trail was pretty good and we were able to find her about 100 yards from where I shot her. Now the issue occurred when I was trying to figure out how to get her out of the bottoms she died in. I was able to get my atv fairly close to her and got her loaded up but when I was trying to leave I got turned around in the dark and almost rolled my atv on some uneven terrain. Eventually I got my bearings and was able to get her back to the house. The downside was that it was so late the processor was closed so I had to ice her down and take her in the morning luckily it was a pretty cool evening. The second low point of the weekend was when my father in law using his crossbow shot his first deer ever. You might ask why is this a bad thing? Well I met up with him about 45 minutes after he shot the doe and we started to ease into the timber to see if we could find some blood. As I was creeping along I happen to look up and see his doe lying there in the hill side. The only problem was she was looking right back at me! She hopped up and jogged just over the hill and stopped. I grabbed my FIL and we backed out for a couple hours grabbed some food and then decided to go back out and see if she had expired yet. When we got out to the area I thought she bedded down we found her still alive just bedded down. Since she was in the bottom of a ravine with no real good access to try and take care of her and it was eleven o'clock at night we made the decision to leave her until the morning. The next morning we went out to find her only to find what was left of her. The coyotes had found her at some point in the night and made a meal of this poor doe. My only hope is that she was dead when they found her. My father in law was pretty upset about the situation but I took this time to use it as a teaching moment and we discussed the importance of shot placement, practice, and just how **** happens sometimes when you bow hunt that you have no control over. Luckily he is not discouraged and wants to keep hunting. And finally the third and most troubling thing that happened on the trip was the fact that I forgot my bow down at the farm and won't be able to get back until Halloween weekend! But hey I shot a doe, spent time in the woods, and introduced a new hunter to the sport we love. Even though it had its ups and downs it was still a great weekend!
Guys sorry that I have been quiet the last few weeks. Things were a little crazy and to be honest just wasn't in the talking mood. Season opened for me Saturday but I didn't make it out till the afternoon hunt on Monday. Actually the crappy weather had me not wanting to hunt over the weekend so instead I stayed under a nice dry duck blind and took out some aggression with a 12 gauge on some ducks until my gun broke. Anyways Monday's sit was very uneventful but I will be back at it hard starting Saturday morning. I have a 5 day weekend coming up so planning on putting in a lot of tree time! We are off to a great start so let's keep it up!
Rifle season opens on the 10th so I'll be heading out with the wife to hopefully fill her tag. An you better believe that I'll have my bow with me. Weather here has been pretty cold. The mountains got a few inches of snow. I only get that day to hunt before I head back to work for two weeks. Can't wait to be back in the woods. Gonna go check out a couple different areas around the river bottoms since my second archery season will be whitetails only. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Well dragging deer out just got a ton easier'. Just purchased a new quad! Can't wait to pick it up next week!
Well I now have the next 5 days off so I am ready to hit a stand tomorrow afternoon and will be out probably the rest of my time off except Wednesday morning! Good luck this weekend guys! Let's put some more points on the board and knock down some antlers!
42 degrees here at home. I wasn't able to hunt today but I have a few cousins participating in the Illinois youth hunt so I hope they have good luck. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
