Bow only for me from here on out, was able to tag out on two small does with the shotgun today. Only equate to one big doe, but it's meat in the freezer. Good news is I still have 4 tags left for the bow, 2 of which are still good for bucks. And from the looks and sounds of it, not much hitting the ground under the full moon this 2nd shotgun season. So their should be plenty still out there. Bad news is any non fergie clause bucks have disappeared or went nocturnal on my cam. The deer have endured 2 months of bow hunting and 2 shotgun seasons, the primary rut is all but over and who knows when or what any secondary rut will be like. I've got a month and a half of season left, but in reality I only have at most Fri-Sun each week to get it done. My work will be closing down for 12 days weekend before Christmas thru New Years day, I'm going to have to budget for that as well but should get some hunts in. Especially if it snows, I'll ride a bike to hunt in the snow don't care if it is 55 miles lol. From this point forward any deer I put a tag on will be points on the board, whether I can get to or break 100 is another story. I'm hoping my luck has finally turned around.
Well today is the last day of gun season. I am sitting it out. I have the day off and decided to use it to clean up my truck wash clothes and just in general get ready for my next move. Honestly I have seen nothing I wanted to shoot besides a big 8 which I don't expect to see again and a cool 7 point which I haven't seen for a while either. Nothing of note on cams and my friend who has been hunting the Corp ground has not seen anything in a week of hunting. So in other words I don't know what to do. Late season, no good bucks that I know of, warm weather and a continuing drought. Just don't know. At the moment I am contemplating spending the rest of the day scouring public land on Google Earth in western KS and taking my two days off next week and going there. I'll basically be going in blind but I'm not seeing anything here can't be much worse there I guess. I know I talked about if its brown its down for the month of December but I have 2 more weeks in January where my buck tag is only good for a doe so I decided that if its a buck and doesn't reach my goal of 140" I won't shoot it. What are your guys thoughts? I have thousands of acres of public land at my disposal in Western KS. I know it will be sight unseen but I am really thinking of giving it a shot.
I'll be going out Friday, I've got to try to get part of my 4 tags filled so doe to spike they're all fair game. Winter doesn't look to be showing up anytime soon, so the mild weather continues. I'll probably sit Saturday out due to rain and Sunday I'll be back home by 11 if I go out. Have to watch my Steelers whoop the Cowboys, and wouldn't mind the Broncos handing the Ravens another loss in the early game. I hope to post back with some good news on Friday, deerless with the bow heading into the late season. Really don't want to say the same for post season.
Just realized today is the latest I have ever been sitting in a stand. Hopefully it will work out. Randomly Met a guy in the parking lot going out to check traps. He's starting at the other end of the bottoms and is working my way. Maybe he'll push something to me.
Well am going to set out on the last bow hunt of the year tomorrow. Should be a light north wind and light snow all day long. I love hunting in the snow. Hopefully something with a rack will walk by.
I hear ya, I'll also be out in the falling snow tomorrow. Been looking forward to a snow hunt all year, love it! This season has been absolute crap for me, hoping a little snow love will up my odds. Season is quickly coming to a close and I've yet to put one down with the bow. Last trail cam pic I got of a buck was on the 17th and it happened to be snowing. I'm still trying guys, never in a million yeas would I have guessed it to go like this
Well that was a bust. A few squirrels around mid day. A coon about 30 minutes ago. That was it for me today. No buck this year. Guess ill see if I can't pop a doe with my rifle and get this tag out of my pocket. Very disappointing year. Only saw two bucks I wanted to shoot and only saw each a single time. One was too far the other about 3 minutes early for shooting light. Wouldn't be as bad but the doe I killed made an awful shot on and just got lucky. I think a lot of it had to do with the weather and I know my #1 buck going in was found dead in early November died of EHD I guess. Anyway time to put the bow down till march and get after the yotes and squirrels.
My season ended as well. No buck on the ground. Hard for me to be too disappointed though, best year ever for me as far as sightings & opportunities.
Having only one more weekend for the contest and 2 weekends left to hunt, I'm not liking my odds. I've been really lazy lately, setting my alarm and waking up but just couldn't muster up the desire to go sit in a tree. I had 13 straight days off and hunted 1 day of it. I'm going to regret it once the season closes and the option is no longer there. Supposed to warm up into the 50's towards the weekend so I'm going to get out at least a day or two. Need to take down my trail cam anyhow. As far as bow season goes, the only good thing is next year can't be any worse. Never seen this coming.
Sorry team... I have been a real dud this year for a team member. I hunted hard. Missed an IOWA giant Nove 11th by hitting a small twig. Can not belive it. I have not had a year like this in a long while. Wish I was better for our team but the reality is I was not. Congrats to all that scored.
Well my season was a dud also. I drew back once and that was opening day.......never saw a shooter on stand and never had a doe with in range for the rest of the season that ended Sunday. Days I took off to hunt were warm and windy or I picked the wrong stand period. It's still better then working. LOL Congrats to all the scored.
Congrats on both deer, could you do us a favor and put time of kills on both deer and also need the scoring breakdown on your buck. They won't count if this information is missing. Thanks, and congrats again!
I finally scored my buck tonight. I'm really not a fan of scoring and so I procrastinated for a couple months. I joked with cls74 that I let my rack dry for 60 days...well, now 71 days. Anyway, here's the score but he was a 7 pointer with 4 on the left and 3 on the right. Do I add the left G3 if he didn't have a right one? What about the left H4 measurement? I wanna make sure this is right before I enter it. --------Left--------Right MB:-- 20 1/8 ------19 6/8 G1:---2 1/8--------3 2/8 G2:---6 4/8--------7 5/8 G3:---5 7/8-------- N/A H1:---3 6/8--------3 7/8 H2:---3------------3 1/8 H3:---2 5/8--------2 3/8 H4:---2 1/8--------2 3/8 Inside spread: 13 3/8 Total: 101 7/8"
AND here's the last day doe I scored on within the last 30 minutes of the season. This same doe picked me out like it was nothing a couple weeks before. Shot her on Jan. 5th at 5:15PM. She went 250 yards according to my "My Tracks" app. My dog Molly went right to her...she's getting good! All I had to do was follow the flashing lights we attached to her collar. Something got a hold of this doe in the 4 hours I let her lay and I'm thinking it was a opossum. When I was packing up my climber (about 20 minutes after I shot), I saw it come off the ridge. The wind was blowing to it and I think he/she smelled her. I told my 6 month pregnant wife (she went with me to retrieve) that I bet something had gotten to it. I salvaged all but that left front shoulder. I never could get back on the big boy. I had him at 25 yards and a few times between 60 & 80 yards. I hunted hard this year...266 hours to be exact. I'm glad it's over but can't wait until next year. Sorry I didn't participate much in this thread toward the end; I kinda lose interest in the forums as the season progresses. I'll try to do better next year. Maybe next year!
You won't count the G3 twice if one is missing. Both sides will have 4 H or circumference measurements. The 4th finql H measurement should be half way between te last point and tip of beam measurement. You'll always have 4 H measurements regardless of points.
