***Official Team Gulf Coast Battle of the States Thread***

I set out a camera yesterday watching a place where there is a scrape nearly every year. Any of you have good pics of bucks yet this year?

 

We've had a couple cameras out all summer. Had several bucks coming in early on but haven't had anything other than spikes and does lately

 

Got a couple decent bucks on camera but not in daytime yet. Going to move one camera to a new 150 acre tract we just picked up. Also going to go look at a new 450 acre tract we picked up about a month ago. That one is in a county notorious for producing state records.

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I have another tract of land I need to get cameras on, I have been putting it off because a summertime trip out there requires wearing snake boots and carrying a shotgun. Hopefully our trail into there will be dry enough for me to drive in this week and do some scouting. That tract also has a few hogs on it to hunt.

 

The closer we get to season the more bucks we have start showing up at our place. I don't know why but it happens every year

 

Does anyone know what happens if a teammate never checks in or participates, will there score of 0 count against us. I know we have time left before hunting starts, but I'm wondering what happens just in case.

 

I was wondering the same.. Someone will have to ask tynimiller. It shouldn't count against us

 

Greetings fellas! Sorry for the late post but I actually forgot about this contest. My name is Jerry and I live in north Texas. Ironically I don't usually hunt in Texas as I am mostly a public land hunter and Texas has little to offer in that area. I did draw a tag for a three day hunt at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge that I am pretty pumped about. I've only drawn the tag one time in 2009 and took a 130 inch buck. Typically I hunt in Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma and this year will be typical minus Kansas. The area I hunt there got hit by EHD in 2012 and it will be a few years before it recovers so I'll save my money and hunt Oklahoma a little more. My season starts in Wyoming on September 1. I will be hunting mostly mule deer but may spend a little time hunting whitetail as well. I have an antelope tag and that season opened on August 15. I leave this Wed, the 27th and can't wait to get on the road.

A little background on me. I am 56 and have been bow hunting off and on most of my life. I have been serious about it since 2007 and have managed to bag a few animals since then. My son is a pro staff member on this site and owns an outfitting business in Wyoming. Interestingly, I hunt on the opposite side of the mountain from where he lives and hunts but I get in lots of visiting. September is special to me as I go back home to hunt whatever I draw a tag for, fly fish and play golf. I have a grandson who turns a year old the first week of the month so we celebrate our birthdays together.

I look forward to getting to know you guys and to hear some of your stories. I am looking forward to seeing some of jackflap's photos. You'll see why once he starts sharing. :D

Good luck all!

 

Glad to have you with us. Judging by where you get to hunt I'd say you have a good chance of putting some big points on the board compared to some of us.

 

Getting close to opening day! When do you all open up?

 

I'll be in the stand next weekend!

 

I still have over three weeks to wait and I can't stop thinking about it. I'm about to take my kids out to the woods to set up a couple cameras, it will be a short trip since their too young for me to bring into "snakey" areas but I have to do something to get into the woods.

 

Greetings all,

I returned from Wyoming and here is the write up I posted on my team thread.

Greetings fellas. I just returned from my trip to Wyoming and while it was a ton of fun, I got skunked. The first couple of days were spent antelope hunting and I had a string of bad luck. The first morning I did a spot and stalk on a really nice buck and I got in almost perfect position. He walked into the draw I had worked my way into and at the moment of truth...my range finder quit working. That's normally not a huge deal sitting in a tree but in wide open spaces I don't judge distance well after 35 to 40 yards. I mashed the button on the finder at least fifty times before giving up and deciding to estimate the distance. I figured the goat was about 60 to 62 yards and held my 60 pin behind the shoulder and let it fly...short. I stepped it off from my shot location to the arrow and it was 75 paces. Had I known that, I would never have taken the shot. The rest of the day I did spot and stalk hunts but never got to a comfortable distance so I passed a few shots. At the end of the day I spotted a nice goat bedded just over the crest of a hill and the wind was right for a stalk. I made my way around the hill and once I was above him, glassed the top of his horns one last time to confirm his exact location. I had to drop into a shallow draw before working up the back side of the hill he was bedded on and should have had a 20 to 25 yard shot. I worked quickly but quietly only to find he had decided to get up from his nap and move down the hill to start feeding. Once I realized he was no longer bedded, I peeked over the hill and saw him feeding 80 to 100 yards below me on an open flat that allowed no chance for a stalk. I went to town and bought a new range finder. I continued to stalk antelope and finally got a broadside shot at exactly 60 yards which is right in my comfort zone. I let the arrow go and shot 8 inches under the antelope. I was incredulous! I worked hard for that shot and then missed by a pretty big margin. I got back to the truck and took two shots at my target only to find out my 60 pin had moved and was about 10 inches low. The other pins were fine so I guess with all the stalking, laying my bow in the brush, etc. it got bumped. It was a bummer but still a lot of fun. I didn't really have a desire to sit at a water hole which would have likely presented my a few shot opportunities. I hope to have plenty of time to do that when I run out of patience with stalking goats.

My deer hunt was just as uneventful. I saw tons of mule deer and even bought two doe tags to shoot whitetails on private land. Both of my buddies shot a doe each and they each missed one. I had several does come by but not in range. I was hunting in a blind on an alfalfa field and they were both in tree stands. We hunted two evenings there and most of the deer came in late due to the full moon. I got some nice pics but was a little bummed that I never got a chance to fill a doe tag.

I glassed some huge mule deer but could never close the deal. On of my buddies shot a small buck and the other two shot pretty nice deer. I have added their pics here. I passed a number of immature bucks. On the last day with only 15 minutes left in my hunt, I decided to try to take a 2 year old mule deer that was 35 yards below me at an extremely sharp angle. I held the 30 yard pin at the lower part of his rib cage and watched the arrow bounce off his back. I have shot deer at 30 to 35 yards from a tree stand but never 35 yards below me. That arrow was going high from the beginning and I was certain I held the pin low enough.

I had a close encounter with a young bull moose and had a couple hundred head of elk pass by 60 yards from me while in a tree stand waiting on a mule deer. It was a ton of fun but it passed too quickly. Now, I'll be hunting whitetails come Oct 1.

 

Had my first sit tonight and had a BIG FL buck (8pt+) come in after visible shooting light, had him 20yrds away and then lost sight of him, he was like a ghost! Hopefully I'll get him next time!

 

Sweet. Hope you can connect. I finally was able to get down and check that camera today that I put out on that new property. Got a new hit lister will share pics tomorrow. Been up for 17 hours. Going to go crash

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Dang ghost deer are tough to kill. I think I had them all over me last season...never even got a look at them just their tracks. :D Good luck!

 

forgot to post up a pic. Meet Curly!

 

I'm going to pull a camera I have high expectations for tomorrow. I was gonna get it a few days ago but a cold front moved in so I decided to leave it up and try to catch any action that triggered. October 1st feels like it's a long ways away.

 

Picked up that camera earlier, I'm a little disappointed in the pics I got. A couple of four points, a six point, and a group of does.

 

Hopefully the big boys were just out of range. Keep at it.