I'm giving my kid first shot at hunting tomorrow and I'm going to jump in the saddle next to him and film. It's going to be a little windy and we aren't hunting our best spot, but we're going to make it work and hope for the best. Ready or not, here we go!
Sure will! I'm planning on a weekly diary/vlog starting this week so you'll be able to follow along with my season in all of it's glory.
Good luck to everyone who makes it out this week. I won’t make it out this evening, but definitely tomorrow morning, probably speed scout for some white oaks with decent sign mid day and hunt what I find from scouting in the evening. Here we go!
Had some slick top encounters over the weekend in Wisconsin, but nothing that presented a slam dunk shot at the right moment. Probably won't be back out until Oct 24 unless I get the itch and run over to Indiana for some evening sits.
Evening #1 was a success even though no arrows were launched. I filmed my son on his first hunt with a compound from a treestand, and it was nice to be there to coach him on a few little things we take for granted, like how to pull your bow up into the tree, where to hang your pack, your quiver, etc. We had two does come into the clover plot around 6:15, and I thought for sure they would hang around and feed for a while, but they had other plans and moved off just as quickly as they arrived. Then, about 10 minutes before the end of the legal shooting light, we had two bucks show up, including one of the big shooters on the farm. They hung out at the edge of the plot for about 5 minutes and then moved off in a similar direction the does had gone in earlier. All things considered, it was a good night. Joey was excited to get out and see deer, and his heart was pounding both times we had deer within 50 yards. And that, my friends, is what it's all about. I'm planning on hunting Friday evening on my own and then Sunday evening, possibly with the kid again.
Got called in to work at 2am. Got about an hour of sleep after I got back home, skunked this morning. Went back out this afternoon, got all set up, forgot my phone. I knew if I didn’t have it, my wife would have the search and rescue out here looking for me if I didn’t text her back. Back in the tree now. The ol first hunt of the year shakedown
I'm still planning a Friday afternoon sit. I have a spot where a bunch of does have been coming through in the evening, so I'm going to set up there and hope to stick one. NE wind is going to require a run-and-gun sit in the saddle, but I should be able to pull it off. My plans to hunt Sunday evening with the kid fell through—they moved his football game from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. instead. So now I've given him the option of hunting the morning or taking the boat out for one last fishing trip before we put it up for the winter. He's still deciding what he wants to do. I want to go fishing, but it's his call.
based on my last weekend sits, static cam pulls, and checking cell cams since leaving the property Monday evening; looks like the mature bucks went completely nocturnal about 10 days ago and by last Friday had completely moved off our property, which is the norm for that parcel. I never have been able to tell where their October range is. But they will be back in November. I have been running cams on that 40 acres since 2013, and while all summer long it looks like a Booner/P&Y frat party, I bet in that 11 year span I have only gotten 20 or less mature bucks on cam between October 1 - 27th, and probably 5 or less were in daylight. Going forward, I really need to convince my buddy to hunt more in September and less in October.
It's pretty crazy that ALL the bucks leave before October. I always have a few that disperse, but a good amount stay home all fall. Of the ones that leave after velvet shed, I would say about half come back during late November or December and stick around for the rest of winter. I call them Amish deer leaving for their Rumspringa.
Yeah, I can think of only one year where we didn't run at least 4 cams on that property and they cover it pretty well, all the major travel corridors, food plots, and water tanks. I'm sure one sporadically slips through undected but they definitely do not hang out. Summer-September we will almost always have 5-10 legit 145+ regulars, then poof they are gone except for a rare pass through at night. They don't even hit our water. The only notable exception to this was we had a tank of a deer, I called him Potbelly, probably peaked as a perfect typical 150s 10pt with freakishly long G3s that at about 6yo started hanging around through October. I got him on cam mid-day a few times that year to the point it was obvious he was bedding nearby, but I didn't hunt until the rut so he was already on the prowl by then. Same thing the following season, his body was bigger but he lost his 2 points and was now an 8pt with freakishly long G2s. Neighbor got him in September the following season, he had lost body mass and was then barely more than a 110" 8pt.
Well he’s gonna have the ends of his main beams wore off by the end of season bc they drag the ground when he eats
That's a stud! Hope you get a shot at him. I really don't want to go hunt this afternoon, but I feel like I need to as I probably won't have another opportunity for awhile. So I'm gonna go try to whack a doe, just for you guys.
I am taking a father-son camping trip with my middle son this weekend, part of his 13th birthday present. We were too busy to do it last month. So, no hunting for me this weekend. I have to take off Oct 14/15 because my kids are out of school for fall break. I plan on hunting all day Saturday of next weekend, possible Sunday afternoon as well since I will be pulling extra dad-duty those days while my wife is at work.
I need all the luck I can get. The wife has found 12 four leaf clovers in the yard this year, so I’ll take a few of those and my lucky $2 bill. I’m not sure if I saw this buck last year while hunting or not. I watched a really nice 10 for about 20 minutes through the binos last year, but couldn’t get him to commit crossing a ravine to the ridge I was on, so this year I have stands on both ridges. I really hope to see the one sided buck from last year only with both sides, thing was built like a bull.
first possible shooter in over a week. I got some subsequent shots as he walked away but this is the most clear. I think he's a real nice 4x5 that I posted here earlier in September.
