Nice buck Bry...way to go man!! Well, I just couldnt get into it this year...same as last year, lol. Back to work for me, may get to hunt a couple more times. Passed a few small bucks, the best one was about a 130" 7 point...just not what I want to shoot. Took a pic of him with my cell, pic. sucks, lol. Good luck to all still chasing'em!!!
Thanks all. Gri22, that is a tough buck to pass on, but we know what you are after. For those that haven't seen I posted a link to the story and pictures from my trip. It's a long read, but folks have seemed to enjoy it so far. Here is a link to that thread. http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php?41466-IL-Buck-Taken-in-the-11th-Hour Finch, get that buck scored and registered man! We need to represent! Good luck everyone. I'll be trying to add 50 more points to the team as soon as I can.
Here is the only pic I have of the buck I spooked up on the morning I shots doe. The second one is a buck that has been making himself easy to pattern the last week.
Here is the view for the evening. Found out the nice 9 above was found dead this morning unless there's another with a split g2 running around like that. Sounded like EHD probably. This will be my last sit till thanksgiving and after that I will probably be in a if its brown its down scenario. I don't like wasting tags.
well team, i've got a doe and a nine pointer to add to our totals. the 9 isnt to impressive but its something. i hit a big 8 (prolly 140ish) but couldnt find him. i know i got 1 lung for sure from the blood but after letting him sit overnite we got about an inch of snow along with rain in the afternoon and the trail was never found again. i looked for another day and a half with no luck. my buddies are up gun hunting and are going to take another look, but im not to optimistic that he will be found. been busy with work but i will get photos and score up soon. congrats to everybody on their success so far.
This was killed on the neighboring property today(firearm). Why couldn't it have come by me when I was out with a bow. Then again I missed my biggest buck yet so might be a good thing
Well, round 1 of gun season is over. I shot one Saturday, but the shot was low which seems to be my theme this year. Thinking I hit his offside leg by not sure how low. Blood dried up after about 80yds which would have been about 6 seconds after the shot probably. Didn't even bother going out today, just wasn't feeling it after yesterday. Next possible chance to get out the bow would have been Thanksgiving. Having it at my house and thought I'd be able to sneak in a morning hunt, then I found out my new stove doesn't have a delayed start feature. So looks like I'll be waiting until at least Friday, won't know if I'm working after T'day until Wednesday. The one good thing I learned yesterday was the actual property lines. After searching for my buck yesterday we drove the other end of the property. Wow, I underestimated just how big 57 acres is. In a sense it sounds small, but when it's all woods it's hard to visualize. What I thought was my boundaries is really only about 1/3 of the land I can access. So now my main goal by next season is to come up with about 5 stands and maybe 2 more trail cams. I've literally been hunting on about 4 acres the past 5 seasons. Once second firearm season is done most of the other hunters will be done for the season. I might be able to make some late season moves I hadn't thought possible before. I've got way too many tags to fill, but still think I can make something happen. Also got a better idea of the neighboring property, never been more than 10yds into it on deer recovery. I now have a better idea of where the deer are traveling to and from. I've never been optimistic after the rut until now. Actually looking forward to some late season action.
I just had to pass on the biggest buck I have ever seen while hunting. Huge 8. Tall tines awesome mass his brows were insane. His g2s were in the 12-14 range and his brows came up almost as tall as them. Just a crazy big rack ans body. It was legal shooting time but it was still just a touch too dark to see through my peep. When I looked through there he just became a blob and I couldn't pick anything out. Kinda proud of myself for keeping my head clear and actually looking for a spot. Last year I would've just shot from excitement. He was 12 yards. Probably 2 minutes later and it would have good. That time of morning where every time you blink it seems a little brighter.
Folks, not for the lack of trying.... I have worked about 3 days in about as many weeks to score a good buck for our team. Last Monday I was off and about 10:00 a great buck I put in the 150ish range came in perfect. You know the saying, when it seems to good to be true, well it probably is. I let an arrow fly as he was quartering twards me in what seemed like wide open. However there was one small twig that my arrow seemed to find sending my arrow high so it just grazed his back.... GRRRR.... Then I hunted a fgew more days with little results. I just got back from gun hunting in ILL with noresults as well. Wed. will be my next day in the stand. I will be hunting again hard through Monday trying to turn my poor fortune around. Good luck tot he rest of you as well.
Looks like I may get in a morning unr tomorrow after all. Talking to a guy at work he lives right on the outskirts of town, following him home after work and going to hunt there in the morning. Said there's a lot of does out there and a few good bucks but haven't been seen for a bit. I'm all about the meat though so hopefully it will pay off. Looks like a 4 day weekend as well, plus learned they are shutting down Christmas Eve through New Years. Happy Thanksgiving guys, and good luck all who are going out!
Didn't make it out yesterday sue to turkey cooking restraints, would have had to get down way earlier than it would have been worth. Sat today out due to near 40mph gusts, but winds have died down and coldest temps of the season overnight. Should be in the low 20's when I get in my stand in the morning. Brown and down in the morning, haven't had much luck so not overly optimistic. Been a week since I've been in the woods, just ready to enjoy nature again
Good luck cls. Two more days down here on wi, then home sweet home. I'm anxious to check my cams when I get back.
Interesting morning today. Got in the woods about 545. I was about 10 yards inside the woods heard something looked up and there were 3 deer standing there looking at me about 10 yards away. I heard and glimpsed more further down the hill. They just stood there. I kept expecting them to walk/run away but they didn't. I shut my light off and just leaned against a tree expecting them to go on there merry way. I heard 2 leave but 1 was coming towards me. I flipped my light back on and it was a little spike less than 10 ft away. He took a couple of steps back then started taking baby steps toward me again. Wasn't blowing or acting spooked at all. I finally just made some sounds with my mouth and waved my bow and arm around. He turned and ran about 20 yards then I thought he walked on down the hill. I waited about 5 minutes then as I got to stand 5-7 deer jumped up and went about 20 yards from my stand and there was that spike eyeing me again. I decided to hell with and just climbed up with them standing there watching me. Honestly I didn't want to be on the ground with that spike anymore. He was just kind of freaking me out the way he was acting. After I climbed up the all came back over. Some laid down some just milled around. As daylight broke they all got up went out of the woods. Just weird. All in all it was an eventful morning I continued to see deer throughout the morning and at about 830 it got interesting again when coyote was coming down the trail. All the sudden he just stopped and sat down looking down in the bottoms below my stand. I was trying to download some coyote calls on my phone when I notice a yearling at the bottom of the hill. As he started to walk up the coyote tried to slink around behind my stand and get to where the trail the deer was on intersected another about 10 yards behind my stand. I got into position when all the sudden I'm assuming the mother doe came busting over the hill blowing and stomping at the coyote. He hi tailed it out and they milled around till almost 10. Had a squirrell try and get in the stand with me shortly after that, and they were going nuts in general all morning. All in all it was a good day on stand. Saw 2 things I have never seen before. A deer a little too curious for my liking and a coyote try and pull of a stalk.
Congrats to all who have taken deer......... I am checking in....been hitting it hard between bow and gun ( I hunt all seasons here hard......my passion is bowhunting but some seasons are also big family time) My bow season has been the worst I have ever had I think.......either very warm and windy or I have to be at work. But it is still better to have a low deer sighting hunt then work. Will be hitting the northern area hard the next couple of weeks as very little pressure there.Will give the southern area some time to settle down after the gun/ML seasons. I have five weeks left.....and I love second season.
Well gun season starts here tomorrow. Think I will be splitting my time between the gun and bow until gun season goes out. When I hunt private I may take both and use whichever I can in the situation. Other than that not much happening. My dad did shoot a doe with his crossbow. First time he's ever shot it at a deer in the 3 years he has had it. Couldn't find it though. Awesome blood trail, had bubbles in the blood and it was really bright red. We followed it for about 200 yards then it just stopped. Don't know where that thing went. It went into a CRP field and we could follow it for about 50 yards then it just ended. We searched until dark (We started the search at 9:30am) but the temp got to about 70 and we knew the only way we were going to find it is if we tripped over it. I'm sure the coyotes got it overnight if not sooner. They have gotten way worse than I have ever seen them this year.
