I was able to make it home and hunt yesterday. I headed out for both a morning and an afternoon hunt.Before getting out I went shining Friday night and seen some bruisers on properties we lease or own. They were doing a lot of chasing so this made me optimistic about the next days hunt. More corn is coming off and now all the beans around are off. However, there is still a lot of corn on which I hope changes before next Thursday as I have 4 days off to hunt. For the morning I slipped back into the timber with my brother and sat 2 stands that have been consistent for us over the past few years Pre-rut and during the rut. This was not the case this time. While in stand an hour before light there was activity everywhere. I had bucks grunting and could hear one raking a tree just behind me. However, once the lights got flipped on the movement was done. I only seen 2 meandering does and a fisher. I did some grunting just before light as well as had no response. The weather was great for both sits. Was about 34 degrees with a 3mph west wind in the morning and was 56 dropping to 41 in the evening with a 6mph west wind. For the evening hunt my brother sat with me to film. It was a loud walk in (dried out leaves), but we did a nice job getting in without bumping deer until about 30 yards away from the stand when their were 3 bedded underneath where we would hunt from. The rest of the sit was again uneventful as we seen only 3 more doe and a few turkeys. My brothers hunts mirrored the same as he seen only 1 in the a.m. and 3 in the p.m. The p.m. hunt was a doe being dogged by 2 1 1/2 year olds. I pulled 2 cameras this week and they had a lot of activity at them. 1 was still on a mineral site while the other was on a scrape. Lots of bucks, however, only 1 real good buck made the camera. The camera told me just what I found out in my 2 hunts which was there is still little daytime movement and no mature buck movement in the areas I hunt. Like I said I hope the flip switches here in the next couple of days as I want to spend my whole day in the woods Thursday through Sunday and get a little more aggressive with some calling and decoying. As always continued luck to the team as we get out chasing whitetails and be sure to shoot straight!
I'm getting excited for this week! Hopefully the rut is really starting to kick in. I plan to be out all week if I can (not sure I'll be able to handle the 4 hour drive each day), but at least 2 days I'll be in the woods. It's getting to that time of the season! On a side note: If anyone in Missouri with BIG deer needs another hunter, let me know! My cousin's ground might produce a buck for me this year, but I don't have hopes of it being over 130 (not really sure of it producing a buck for me at all). The deer just don't get that big around his farm. People shoot anything that moves. Who knows though, maybe I'll get lucky!
Well I'm sorry guys. I had a chance to put some great points on our board with this buck broad side at 35 yds. he Bedded down and I was hoping for a closer shot he was there for about an hour when out of nowhere an absolute beast like creator (Ghost) 170"+ appeared out of nowhere and literally stepped on this buck, then headed away from me. he was in the thickest part of the woods. he was rubbing a good size tree and then bedded down again. The first buck appeared at 2PM then Ghost appeared after 3PM. Had I seen Ghost coming I would have been prepared to take a shoot. I am so grateful that I didn't shoot at the smaller buck, as I would have most likely ruined any chance at Ghost this year. He must have been bedding there to. I'm On call all this week, but I'm seriously considering taking some PTO next week. I strongly recommend all day sits from now on. Concratz on the doe.
This is the Doe I shot on 10/22/11. And a picture of the long haul back to deer camp with her. She died in one of the hardest places on the property to get her out. I almost didnt kill this deer due to my arrow deflecting off a branch. The piece of branch was actually imbedded in the wound. I will post a picture of the entry wound later. I have 4 real nice bucks on my property that I am targeting next. I posted her up in the scoring thread also. Good luck to everyone.
Again, good job. Got the first page updated. So far we are at 234.5, a bit behind the others but the season should start picking up with the rut beginning soon.
shot a slick head tonight. she was on a trail and jumped 5 feet into the thick **** and dissapeared, crawled around on my hands and knees a bit to see if I could find her with my flashlight no luck that stuff she went inot is soo thick I cant believe it. Anyway I'll be trying to pick up the trail in the morning.
My brother seen 6 bucks from stand tonight. 2 shooters that were hot on the trail of does. I hope this means the switch has flipped. I can't wait for Thursday through Sunday! Congrats to the team members who are putting down deer. LEts keep hacking away at this and spending time in the woods and we will be towards to top of the leader-board in no time!
shot looked good but arrow looked like it hade some **** on it but was covered in blood. It was slightly quartered to me and it was a little tiny doe. 20 yard shot. If she wouldnt have went into that thick stuff I think I'd be cutting up meat right now. I have high hopes for the morning. just too hard to see in there at night.
shot looked good but arrow looked like it hade some **** on it but was covered in blood. It was slightly quartered to me and it was a little tiny doe. 20 yard shot. If she wouldnt have went into that thick stuff I think I'd be cutting up meat right now. I have high hopes for the morning. just too hard to see in there at night.
I was talking shop with a couple of guys at Wal-Mart near my work in South STL. One guy was covered in blood, and I asked him if he won the fight? lol. He had shot a doe and soon after the shot a buck came in behind her, then followed by another buck. he didn't get a shoot at either one, because he had put his bow down without knocking a new arrow. He said that those buck were walking fast with their noses to the ground follow that doe he shot. after awhile passed he got down to track the doe and then he spooked one of the bucks that was bedding next to his dead doe. It's on right! The other fellow, said that he was out hanging stands and heard a what he thought was someone tresspassing and using rattling antlers. he walk towards the noice until he was at the edge of a hill and at the bottom was do big bucks fighting. He was at Walmart to get a bow tag and start bow hunting. lol I said if he needed some help I know someone in STL looking for some hunting ground closer. Vendetta. Sorry he said no thanks! The moral of this story is only meant to pump each of us up, because thats a lot of rut activity early in this area. Good God, can you at least allow me one day this weekend to not be on call???? I can't take Monday off son's first walking halloween, Tuesday I have an all hands meeting in Columbia, MO, so I am thinking about Friday Not sure yet, but thinking seriously.
No deer, picked up blood trail for ten yards then it died off scoured the woods with friends until I had to go back to work with no luck, after further examination of the arrow it was cover in not just blood but a green color with specks of fecec in it. Must have gut **** her. The days here far too hot and she belongs to the yotes now. I will look for vultures friday to see if they can lead me to her. It's good to have that closure but I think epic fail is the word that best describes this.
Thanks for your support I've really been having a hard time lately, I've been bowhunting for around 10 years and have only blundered twice and now as soon as I hit the woods its been one bad shot after another. so make that 4 times. It's been tearing me up to say the least. It's hard to enjoy your favorite thing in the world when things like this happen. I literally cried the other day after the first bad shot. I'm sure I'll come out of it.
