***Team 24 - Boneheads***

Well each zone is different. There are many where you can still shoot a few a year. I might ve heading up to just south of Lake Superior National Forest on some private ground right before gun season which would be awesome and could get an extra doe.

 

Trying to figure out a way to get out this evening. I'm throwing out some last minute hail marys to see if this can be done and change some appointments. It is killing me sitting in an office and not hunting.

 

Things are bound to get crazy here at the end of the week. Wednesday's high- 83. Saturday's high- 44.

It'll be a good weekend to be a deer hunter.

 

That is for sure. Things might start moving early. Looking forward to the cooler temps. Would have went out this morning, but if I got one I wouldn't have had time to debone everything and get cooling. Nice to be able to hang the deer for a couple days if the temperatures permit.

 

Yep! The high here Saturday is 65! That is 20 degrees cooler then what it has been. The wind Saturday is going to be out of the west and be pretty breezy during the day and taper off into the evening hours. This is should be perfect.

I have a new spot I have just been waiting for the right wind. I'll wait until about 2 PM. I'll come into the property from the east. Next am going to drop down into the creek, hoping that there isn't to much water. Walk it .25 miles to the south. Pop up out of the creek bottom and set my stand on the west side of the creek where the corn meets the drainage. This should allow me to get in undetected between being down in the creek, the standing corn, and the wind. I'll set a camera up while I am in there.

 

75 Wednesday and 48 Saturday here!

 

Yupp I am along highway 14

 

The suspense continues.... What will it score!

 

Man I love that thing! I may have missed it earlier on or in another thread but have you been watching this buck all summer or previous years?

 

No history at all with this buck! It was a new property for this year. I scouted a portion of the property September 1st. Opening day it had rained that night and throughout the day. I hunted it that evening. All the fresh tracks gave me a really good idea where they had been traveling / feeding. I believe I saw him that night. 4 days later I hunted the property again. Set a new stand, cut the lanes, and killed him that same night. He along with 3 other bucks and a doe showed up all at the same time. They fed in standing corn for some time where I would get glimpses of his rack.. I maybe had 30 seconds to make a decision to shoot once he stepped out of the corn. I hesitated at first. When he passed in front / under me at 5 yards I could see all the wild stuff going on. Very similar view to what is shown in the image above. That is when I made the decision to take him. So it was either dumb luck or good instincts. I would like to think the latter of the two. Maybe a little of both!

The bucks I have history with on private ground should grow another year! Puts me in a really good position to kill a 180+ class bucks next year if all goes well!

 

Awesome and congrats again!!

 

Heck that things is just crazy.

Well opening day was very slow, sat the morning over one of are food plots and only had turkeys and ducks by us all morning, warmer temps and the fog stayed low all morning. Went out in the evening to a stand where my ex arrowed a good buck last year, again things where slow with temps around 75 and wind gusting over 20 only had a doe and her spotted fawn come by at 6:30.
Weather this weekend is looking like 78 on saturday so im gonna head to one of my differnt properties and see if a doe will move. Sunday drops down to 64 as a high then i will head back out to the lease and see if that will get one of the boys moving.

 

Only made it out very briefly yesterday. Hardly much of a hunt, but I got my bow in my hand and got an hour of hunting in. It was 100 yards from where we park at the front of our farm. Not a spot I've ever tried to hunt, but last second option. We see deer there when coming out some so I thought it was worth a shot.

I'll be out this afternoon and really trying strictly for a doe. Excited to sit in new stand location and hope to see some deer. I would be okay if a giant buck ruins my plans though. Won't be out until Saturday afternoon after today. Wedding Friday night limits Friday night and Saturday morning.

 

This year I am keeping a journal of all of my hunts. Thought I posted this earlier, but here is what my weekend entitled.

Date: 9/28 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 AM Property: Hatchery Stand: East
Temp: 48 Wind: 15, WNW Weapon: Bow Deer Seen: 2

Opening morning! This was the end of a two day cold snap. I saw the first deer right at first sunlight. It was moving north to south about 100 yards out but it was still too dark to tell what it was. About ten minutes into shooting light I caught movement right at the edge of the trees. It was a basket rack that I’ve had on camera quite a bit. He was feeding along the field edge at less than ten yards.

Chris was hunting the west stand and had a doe walk right under his stand. It was all he saw this morning. It felt so good to be in a tree stand!


Date: 9/28 Time: 6:00 – 7:45 PM Property: Casey’s Stand: Pallet
Temp: 60 Wind: 5, NW Weapon: Bow Deer Seen: 3

I haven’t been in Casey’s bottom much this year. The grass is incredibly overgrown and the trails aren’t very predictable. Checked my trail camera coming in and it had a good 4x4 on it, I’m thinking he would go about 125. Definitely a shooter.

This is my favorite stand. It still needs shooting lanes trimmed. No action until about sundown when a skunk starts moving through the grass. This would be the first of three skunks I saw tonight. It makes me nervous for walking in and out of here in the dark. Not long later I hear the first movement that I know is deer. They are coming from the bedding area.

I lay eyes on them at about 60 yards. It is three bucks. A basket rack, a young 5x5 and the 4x4 that I saw on camera coming in. The two bigger bucks walk around the base of a small tree. I can’t tell if they are making a scrape or eating leaves. They hang around for about five minutes at this same tree. The bigger buck postures like he wants to fight with the other one. Finally they walk off the way they came from instead of using the trail that comes right to me.

About ten minutes later I hear the bucks sparring. They are less than 75 yards and in the thick brush right in front of me. This is the last I hear or see of them. This hunt was super encouraging because I have already seen two more bucks than last year on this ground! Called Dylan after hunting, he passed on a buck that was about 120 inches.


Date: 9/29 Time: 6:30 – 9:00AM Property: Casey’s Stand: Pallet
Temp: 55 Wind: 10, N Weapon: Bow Deer Seen: 0

Absolutely soaked my boots walking in through the tall grass, it made for a ****ty morning of wet feet. No deer seen. I elected to go deer hunting instead of duck hunting with Jake, they limited out on teal.

The weather was super nice. I had wood ducks flying over my head all morning. Most were landing at the bend of the river just east of the stand. Saw some geese that were coming from the south and flew over my stand.

Talked to dad and Philip, they are at the lake and aren’t killing any ducks like planned.


Date: 9/29 Time: 5:30 – 7:45 PM Property: Casey’s Stand: Pallet
Temp: 65 Wind: 25, NW Weapon: Bow Deer Seen: 0

Super windy tonight. I sat in the tree stand right away, but didn’t feel comfortable so I got out. I moved about 50 yards up the trail that I saw the bucks on the night before. If they were going to be using the same trail, I would be eye to eye with them at 10 yards.

Spent most of the night swatting mosquitos. No deer seen, which wasn’t unexpected. I did have ducks flying over me all night though. Some groups as big as 50 at a time. Saw an eagle before I got out of the stand, it was right over the river. Being that close makes you realize how big they are.

I knew the hunt wouldn’t be great but wanted to go out anyways since D-Days was the following weekend. Now rushing home to watch the Breaking Bad series finale with Shelby.

 

I know, right? Makes him difficult to score.... He is going to fall short of being a booner but he will definitely make P&Y. Looks like you guys are hard at it. This is great! Boof, the journal is a MUST! I've been doing that for years myself! Good luck you guys! Go get'm!

 

It is! I wish my dad had a journal so I could go back and read about what he was seeing 10-20 years ago on the same ground!

 

Heck- Booner or not thats still big, how many points did it come out to be?

Journal is something I have really been considering starting. I dont know if I would go as in deep but more so just a log. I know I have seen a few people mention some but you guys know of a good app. since i would pretty much be filling it out from stand.

 

I have a iPhone app that called "The Journal" that's pretty good for being free. I think the buck has 20 or 21 points. Not all of them will score though. He is pretty wide but I think his spread is wider then he longest main beam so that is going to take a hit.

 

Like the journal. Never done one. Would be cool to look back at temps, wind, etc and deer sightings.

 

First sit tonight. Got out at 4:00. Very slow to start. Saw 4 toms. 2 were really big.

Around 6:30 or I'm guessing around 30 minutes to sunset I saw a nice 10 point or bigger. Not a giant, but a really nice deer. I only saw him for a couple seconds. He was right by my dads box blind stand. Dad was sick today or he might have been out there. Wish he could have gotten him. Would have been his biggest buck with a bow by far.

10-15 minutes later I saw a 8 pointer making its way towards me. I looked him over in binocs pretty well. Not a bad deer at all, but not something I wanted to shoot. He was probably 120-130. Later in the year I would probably have a hard time passing. He came to 25-30 yards and stopped broadside. I had my bow up ready to draw, but never did. That buck had two other deer without antlers with him.

Fun to see some decent bucks during light already. It was unusually slow to start, but ended up to be a great sit. It has me jacked up to hunt this weekend with the cold front. I didn't expect to see any bucks tonight besides small ones. Got my blood pumping pretty well. The wind was perfect for the direction they were coming from too. As far as I know they didn't know I was there. The 8 pointer got behind me so he might have figured me out.