Thanks Jeff. It was an interesting track job. I thought I heard her crash about 30 seconds after the shot, yet was on my hands and knees last night going through a thicket. I knew I hit sweet and the shot was lethal. I fuond her no more than 50 yards from where I shot her. When I opened her up I found the muzzy 3 blade hole right through the center of one lung and liver with some guts mixed in...the guts had plugged the exit hold slightly, leaving only a spatter of blood here and there to follow. I only found pin drips every 10 yards or so. I knew she was hit hard because blood sprayed at the scene and because at 30 yards she stopped briefly and the bubbled blood had misted out everywhere, then all of the sudden the blood trail just slowed down to a halt when the guts plugged. Plus, she crossed a creek and then circled back around and went back in the creek! Even though slow track jobs are stressful, they only make you a better tracker.
Super Job VS way to get out there and get it done! Nothing like fresh meat for the rest of the season!
Congrats guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 does down, lets see some horns now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! score is up, all of you are starting off in a good way congrats
Well I'm done trying to get myself a bear, time to switch gears Into whitetail mode. 2 days ago I went out and put out 2 different mock scrapes In a couple different spots just up wind where I think I "might" have a buck bedding. Never tried this before In the early season but a well known bowhunter from Idaho who knows a thing or 2 about shooting old mature bucks gave me some friendly advise on this (thanks teach). I put a trail camera on each one so we'll see If I put these In the right spots, plan on checking them In a week or so. Good luck Illinois boys, your season opens soon I believe and best of luck to the rest of you!!
Tomorrow tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow!!!! Well I've got about 4 hours til I leave school and head for home. I won't be getting home early enough to get a sit in tonight, but I'll be in the stand for morning/afternoon hunts on Saturday and at least a morning hunt Sunday if not an afternoon as well. I'm so excited to finally get back in the woods! I'll let ya guys know what kinda activity I see. I was talking to Ryan yesterday and told him my Dad tagged a 2.5 y/o 10-pointer with our truck. Minimal damage though and all is okay.
Well hunt number one was fairly uneventful. No deer seen, about 20-30 squirrels, a raccoon, and a couple hawks. Despite the lack of activity, it's still great to be back in the deer stand. Gotta love the sound of toms gobbling from roost and hens doing a little soft tree calling. The hawks were pretty cool too, gliding in between trees only 6 feet from the ground. Oh how I love this time of year!
Well after a pretty uneventful Saturday morning I switched stands to a location that is along a railroad track and a known crossing for deer. Saturday evening I saw a doe with twin fawns, but I think they were spooked by the cars driving by on the highway and the doe didn't stop long enough in any of my shooting lanes to present a shot. I wasn't able to get out on Sunday morning due to previous obligations, but was back at it on Sunday evening. I saw 7 deer on Sunday evening with 3 does and 4 fawns. The same doe with twin fawns came by and crossed a creek about 30 yards in front of me, but once again no shot. A little later in the sit, the twin fawns came running back, with no mom to follow. I figured she may have gotten shot on a neighboring property, and it turned out I was right. About an hour after I saw her, she came back, but this time had an arrow sticking out of her. The shot was far back, and had very little penetration. She was only about 15 yards away from me, but was walking along the fenceline on which my stand sits. I was never able to get a shot, and when she finally did give me a possible shot I didn't feel comfortable with it because it was getting very dark and I didn't want to take the chance of wounding her farther. I'm pretty confident that the arrow in here was non-fatal, and that she will survive. I'll be back at it next weekend for sure though.
I've had a pretty active couple of mornings.. Yesterday I saw 2 spikes mill around under me for quite a while, then later a really nice 5 point came along. I had plenty of time to watch him as he fed back and forth on the abundance of acorns. He'll be something if he makes it another year or 2. He was Heavy racked carrying great mass. He had some palmation on his one side. It was a great sit. Today in on a local farm, I watched 5 doe cross from feeding to a bedding area at 8:00 am, no chance for any type of shot. Prior to that a "deer" slipped the opposite way. I couldn't tell much more than that. I'm going in at noon-ish to relocate a stand to an area closer to where they were crossing. It's much to thick to have any chance from my current set-up.
Gr8---I am heading in around 1pm today for my first real hunt here in Virginia. We have a weird east wind, and I have two spots already scoped out. But one never knows on the military base I hunt, they could have all my spots closed down and I will just have to hunt by the seat of my pants and a map.
Well I finally have computer access, at least for the day, to catch up. Me and Paul had a pretty exciting hunt Monday morning. He was sitting with me when we had a nice buck come in. He got a much better look than I did but he said it was probably 130 something. He took off tho, and I thought he smelled us. Come to find out I stepped in cat crap on the way out to the stand :-( Needless to say there is one less running around now
lol that was probably the funniest thing when he looked at his boot and seen a big ol wad of cat crap on it. I'm still laughing about that
LOL you guys! Cat crap. Nickname that buck, the "cat crap buck"! I had a great day today, saw 10 deer, 7 within range. Had a wide little 4 pointer walk 3 yards from the stand. Also saw a spike at 15 yards. Only two bucks I observed.
