I hope you guys are seeing some great rut action, my taxidermist was firearm hunting south central Illinois and he said it sounded like a war zone down there with shots constantly going off but at 8:30am it was like someone flipped a switch and the shooting stopped either the deer were on their bellies or the gun hunters all but gaveup for the morning. I got my buck rack back yesterday and will hopefully get it scored this evening since I have to work all day today.
Yeah it has been hit or miss around here too. 1 1/2 weeks ago I saw 3 big bucks chasing a hot doe. Since then I have seen a few nice bucks kind of bothering does, and I've had some positive responses to bleats and estrous scent. I'm still seeing some good buck movement though so hopefully I can close the deal on one of these close encounters soon.
Well, opening day of rifle was pretty good. I did see about 8 different hunters - all over the border of the property I hunt. The land is bow only and I'm the only one hunting it. Morning was slow - only saw a few does. But the evening was unreal; I saw 20+ deer including 8 different bucks chasing does. Nothing came close enough for a shot but I had a great 8 point at 60 yards! This is probably all the hunting I have left for Wisconsin... might try a late season hunt, but it's not looking good! Will definitely keep you posted. Anyone else have any luck this weekend?
Hey guys, I'm one that thinks every animal deserves a story, I hadn't had time to finish putting mine together until now. As you guys know I spent the next 2 days looking for the buck, we had blood for only about 100 yards. From there it was a matter of walking trails, peaking into bedding areas and checking the creeks. No luck. Fast forward to 11/8/12 With time ticking away before rifle season and the prerut finally kicking in we had an all day hunt planned. My buddy and I head out to my property where 2 days before we had seen some action. We get out there early, dress and into our set ups, the morning passes with only 2 coyotes and a small group of yearling does coming by on my end, my buddy saw no deer and was very frustrated. We texted back and forth on our options and decided we would go sit his place in the afternoon. After grabbing lunch we headed out to his place, it was around 12:30 when we arrived and dressed. I wasn't ready to get in the stand, it had been slow hunting the last few days with almost no movement until dusk. My buddy pulled away and I found a spot that looked comfy, laid down and took a nap. Around 1:15 I woke up and figured I probably should work my way into my stand. Nature was calling so I walked back into the woods a few feet and relieved myself, as I stood there I realized I had never really scouted this area of the woods. It is right up against elevated train tracks and it is near the main driveway, never had been attractive until now. The creek snakes its way through the property and was only 20-30 yards from where I stood. I went back and grabbed my pack and bow, today I would sneak into my stand through the creek rather than walking the field edge as I always do. As I walked towards the creek I found it has a nice gentle slope down into the creek unlike most areas of the property that have 10’-15’ banks. It is definitely a natural crossing, I needed to check it out more closely. Moving down the slope into the creek and rounding the first bend, I spot a carcass lying on sandbar. My first thought is dang that’s a pretty good buck, it wasn't until I crossed the creek and put my hands on it that I realized it was my buck from early October. There was no doubt it was him, what I had said was a good 10 at first was actually an 11. I hadn't seen the small point in the fading light but everything else about the rack was spot on. I had shown my buddy trail cam pics of the 11 a few days after I shot him and told him then I thought that had to be the deer and I just couldn't see the G5 in the low light. I texted my buddy and then tried to call when he didn't respond right away, turns out he was napping in his truck and called me back after just a couple minutes. He came over and helped me take some pictures and “celebrate the recovery”. This deer had really haunted me, I had never had a bad hit on a buck. I've had a couple on does over the years and they bugged me a lot but this one really stuck with me. As you guys all know you maybe get one chance a year on a good buck if you are lucky. I had screwed up an incredible hunting experience having that many good bucks close and it was eating at me. To have it end up like this was a real blessing, as bitter sweet as it was I certainly didn't deserve to find him. Here are a couple trail cam pictures of the buck and the results.
me and my brother are heading out in a few for some pre turkey day hunting hopefully i can put one down today
happy turkey day everyone we didnt see anything today but found some awesome sign found a huge scrape biggest one ive ever seen it was huge and did it stink lol pumped gonna head out again tomorrow again.hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday
Well guys, I got it done this morning! Unfortunetly we wont get any points because I resorted to the ol smokepole but Im darn proud of this buck. I named him 8Ball and he is one of the first deer I found on this new property. I got only one game cam pic but I saw him once during preseason scouting and also on the 4th of November while bowhunting. He was chasing 4 doe and never came closer than 60 yards. I knew he was bedding in a large CRP field near the landowners house so I decided to grab the gun and set up overlooking that field. My original plan was to sit in a stand with my bow overlooking a trail leading out of the CRP. When I got up this morning though the wind was wrong so thats when i figured I would take the gun. I snuck in and set up well before light. As the sun came up I started to glass the field. After a few minutes i notice a deer stand up and face directly away from me. I pulled the binos up and saw he was a good buck so I traded the the binos for my scope. That darn deer stayed pointed directly away from me for 15 minutes! I was in a good prone position and set up with a bipod so I knew i could wait him out comfortably. He finally took a step and quartered away from me at about a 35 degree angle. Thats all I needed and I dropped the hammer and he dissappeared into the CRP. I waited a little while and then walked slowly towards where I last saw him. As I walked up and found him I knew the shot was true, he dropped in his bed. When its all said and done I guess I would rather have taken him with the bow but I am super proud of him no matter what I got him with. Now that some pressure is lifted Im gonna take a week off and get back after it in the late season. There is more bucks on the list and I got more time!
Alright thanks, that helps a lot. I looked around on how to score because it's my first one to score too haha I'll try to get those last measurements and repost soon.
Sweet buck RUT JUNKIE! I'm trying it again tonight - If I get a crack at a doe I might take it. I'm hunting metro area - so at least there has been 0 gun pressure! Neal
im pulling my hair out have only seen one deer in a while between stand problems being sick and only really getting one day aweek to hunt not looking to great for my season
Keep up the good work team were looking fairly decent among the others. I'm going this weekend and finally got permission to fill that doe tag from my pops haha so maybe I can get another fifty points for us. I'll probably have time to finish those measurements friday.
Ok so I just checked the scoreboard and fitz has already entered my score so should I even repost it for the couple of points or just let it go because were at like 700 and the leaders are at like 1100 haha
Alright that's fine with me I just didn't want to make someone mad that is serious about a couple of points.
Anyone still hunting? Looks like round 2 is starting to heat up out there, the last couple days I've seen some decent bucks on their feet during daylight scent checking does around work. I'll probably try to go hunt a couple times this weekend and see if I can catch a bruiser on his feet.
Same here i've been hunting for a doe and unusually haven't hardly seen very many, but caught some decent buck trailing.
