Well our dreaded rifle season comes in on 11/11 so if you are bowhunting then I'd think you would want to be there in that Nov 1-10 stretch. Even the last few days of Oct might be good if the weather is decent. That will be your big problem. We get a lot of weather in late Oct and early Nov that is too warm to support good rut hunting. I always just save the Vac days and I'm fortunate enough that I can be flexible and just take off the better weather days. All of my hunting takes place a good bit to the Southwest of Lexington so I can't tell you much about that area. Eastern KY is getting slammed by EHD right now. Hopefully it isn't hitting the area where you will be going but you might want to stay on top of that situation as it gets closer to time.
Yeah right now were deciding between the week before rifle season or the week it starts, unfortunately we have to decide when to go up soon so whatever weather is thrown at us is what we are gonna have to take. We are most likely going to go to the Kentucky property instead of the Ga property. My father hunted the Kentucky property last year and said there are a significantly more deer there than our Ga lease and they got trail camera pics of the Kentucky property with some monsters on there...if I can find those pics ill post them!
Yea I'd imagine all else equaled you will have a chance at much better deer in KY as long as lack of familiarity with the property doesn't put you at a disadvantage vs your GA spot.
Thankfully the previous owner of the Kentucky property was a serious bow hunter and he left all his old stands up and many of them are hang-on stands with another stand in the same spot for filming, I have yet to see them but my father says they are all in pretty good spots! This is the Kentucky property, about 300-400 acres of woods surrounded by farming fields.
Put up two stands last weekend and checked two cameras. Checked on another stand we left in last year and cut better shooting lanes for it. Nothing really on the cams (plenty of bear). Two decent buck, not sure if either will be a shooter for me. Confirmed a couple major runs and put a cam on one of them. Continuing to be excited for the season.
Going to pull a camera on a guys goat farm here in a little bit. In a turn of events, the property where I was going after a 200" last year that was sold is apparently not sold. The sale fell through so I'm going to get to hunt it after all.
Fantastic news. You kill a 200" and the rest of us will only have to shoot does and raghorns. Lol. Always great to get good news on hunting spots because it's usually the other way around.
So guys and gals I'm just not sure about this deer. So far I only have pics from the cell camera App but he looks pretty nice and he's been there 2 of 3 afternoons well before dark right by the stand. I've got bigger deer to hunt but none that are currently behaving themselves. I'm torn on whether or not to hunt this deer. Maybe I just go hunt this weekend and make a game time decision if he shows up.
To shoot that buck or not, that is the question. Here's the best advice I could find on the internet to help answer your question...
I cannot get over some of the potential we have here!! When is everyones season opener? Do you plan on going out first day or waiting a bit?
Opens in the morning here but I don't hunt mornings before 10/25 for bucks so I won't get out. We have some cooler weather coming after Harvey moves on so I may just spend the long weekend getting ducks in a row and try and decide where I want to be one cooler afternoon next week. I might get out Sunday or Monday morning to some low impact spot and try to go ahead and kill a doe. I am out of backstrap after all.
9/16 here. I will be out on day 1 and hit the ground running. Checking cameras on Sunday for the last time before season starts. Will provide updates if there is anything exciting.
Season starts the 11th here in Kansas. I'll most likely be out the first afternoon as long as I have a favorable wind. I really want a North wind but I 'll be happy with whatever happens. I'm attaching this document where I outlined my stand locations and the preference for hunting them morning or evening. Now that is prior to the rut, so it all goes out the window then. A lot of times I will forget what wind I need for different hunting spots. So I wrote them all out with the winds I need to hunt them and how accessible I believe that they are. I have been guilty so many times of just going out because I have the opportunity and not pay any attention to the wind. That stops for me this season and this sheet is going to help me stick to my game plan. Maybe it will help some of you if you struggle with the same thing.
I'll be on stand in the morning. Haven't checked the cams on this farm so don't know if there are any bucks around. Hoping to start the season off with a doe. Good luck folks!
