I am sick to my stomach. Through a friend of a friend, I just got a trail camera picture of the big 8 point I missed Friday afternoon. Another reminder, check your equipment. He was broadside at 22 and I shot under him. Shooting the next day showed that my arrow was hitting 10” low at 25 yards. I have deerpression. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Hey guys sorry I haven’t been on much. I’ve been hunting hard had a few close encounters just not close enough to seal the deal yet.
I feel your pain. Put a bad hit on a really good buck on Columbus after my arrow deflected. Wasn’t a fatal hit. Been hunting a ton with no luck. Finally yesterday morning had a decent buck wind me at 40 then early afternoon had a 140” 10 point come 5 yards from at 100mph chasing a doe. Couldn’t stop him. Not sure if I can get out again before the orange army hits the woods next Saturday
Don't feel bad fellas, I suck just as bad as the rest of you! Not even sure where I left off last week? Friday morning I hunted over my decoy and saw a 1.5 year old and a doe. The little buck came in close enough for a shot before spooking. The doe - not so much. Then I took a little walkabout to do some scouting and fix a couple trail cameras. Found that a monster tree has fallen over right next to one of my stands - taking all of my surrounding covering with it and blocking the trails I was hunting. Yay. No hunting Saturday for me. I hunted pretty much all day yesterday with the exception of a 45 min break at the truck for lunch. I went alllllllllll day without seeing a single deer until the last 10 minutes of light. I had a 1.5 year old come into the decoy, then a couple does trickled into the field after legal shooting light. And that was it! I expected more for November 10th! Work today then I'll be back out tomorrow when this wind dies down and the weather cools off. But we have an East wind AGAIN. Awesome. This weekend my daughter has state cheer competition and my son's football team made it to their championship game so I'm pretty well hosed.
Well guys, I gave it my best shot over the weekend. My earlier post alluded to my failure on Friday afternoon. I am thinking that the doe I missed mid-October was also due to the sight being off and just failed to check it. My bad, I should know better. I haven't missed two deer in a row since I first started bowhunting 18 years ago. Saturday afternoon I took my oldest into a spot that is normally a killer rut spot, literally. Over the past four years, hunting the same tree between Nov 7-11, I have killed three does and had close calls with four bucks, where I couldn't quite get the shot I wanted. That place was a flooded creek bottom, sign was there but the heavy rains over the last week pushed the deer out of there. I should have thought about that before going in there. Didn't hunt Sunday, was too busy with church and family stuff. I went yesterday afternoon, didn't see anything and had two other hunters and a some dude walking his dog in the middle of the woods, come in on me. One of the hunters walked out past me with 20 minutes of light left. I probably won't be back out until some time during Thanksgiving. Wrestling season has started and that will take up about half my Saturdays for the next four months.
Hunted for 3.5 hours this morning and saw exactly ZERO deer. I'm not sure it's possible to suck any harder than I am right now. The next time I can get out might be Thursday morning and possibly Saturday afternoon. Man, this is miserable.
Maybe this Beaver moon on Friday will turn our luck around. I don’t normally put too much into the moon phases, but I gotta hope for something. No big bucks on camera, just a ton of forkies and spikes. I’ll be out thurs-sun. The cold front I intended on taking off for ended up coming through today and yesterday. It looks like I’ll be able to hunt 360 degrees of wind direction in three days. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Saturday is our firearms opener and I’ll be hunting with my brother in law. If I kill a buck Thursday or Friday, I’ll definitely have the ‘06 out Saturday morning.
I have no idea what a Beaver Moon is, but I'm hunting this afternoon because it's November 13th and I can. Also, I thought this was a funny series of pics from yesterday. Me leaving to head to work and wondering where all the deer are at.
@Justin this episode seemed aimed at me and it made me sad. also, ony time I am ever going to say this, Todd was right- the ticks are terrible this season. The buck I shot last week probably had almost 100 ticks on him as I processed him. Sucked. After killing like the 30th I was regretting not having him processed by a pro.
Definitely not aimed at you. Don't be so hard on yourself! It's one thing to have a bad year or two. It's another to have a bad decade or more. Hunted tonight and actually saw deer! I had 5 does and fawns all within bow range but was on a buck-or-nothing mission tonight. I did have a nice 2 year old come in and work a scrape at 15 yards, just wasn't the deer I wanted to kill tonight. Tomorrow I have to film a review for the new Mathews bow and get mine sighted in, then I'll be back out on Friday night. New bow, new luck? We'll see!
What pack are you wearing in the trail cam pic? Does it have a frame? I am trying to find a frame pack that I use for packing out deer, but that is also shorter than most elk packs for hunting out west.
That is a Mystery Ranch Treehouse 38 - a great pack for stand and saddle hunting, but it doesn't have a frame. Look into the Eberlestock X2, you may like that one. It has a frame and can pack/haul gear but isn't huge. The only thing I didn't like about it is that the inner liner gets very noisy/crinkly when it's cold. If you can get past that, it's a pretty solid "do all" type of pack.
I have used Badlands packs, and have their 2200. It is a great pack but a little bigger than I would like to have in the tree with me.
Tough day hunting. It was 53 but rainy and windy. I saw a tiny doe and a full grown doe this afternoon. Nothing in the am. Besides this huge rub that wasn’t there last weekend. This afternoon I hunted a ridge over from the food plot. The deer aren’t using it much but it sure looks nice. Thought this buck might pass through that came through last night. Be back at it tomorrow.
Good luck this weekend guys, family stuff is keeping busy, so I won't be out. Probably be next weekend or Thanksgiving before I get out again.
I'm headed out to my daughter's state cheer competition this morning (since when did these things happen on weekdays?). I'll be in a tree tonight, just not sure where. I'll figure that out when it's time to go. Personally speaking, I love hunting mid-to-late November. I've killed a handful of good bucks between the 15th and the end of the month. The insanity of the peak rut is winding down, which means the bucks are much more responsive to calling and not flying at Mach 10 around the woods, but they are still moving during daylight and very killable. It's far from over my dudes!
