***Team 24 - Boneheads***

Thanks for all the congrats.

Coheley665- I was lucky enough 20 yrs ago to meet some people from Ohio and became friends. One of the guys I met family had a coal mining operation years ago. They have a pile of land, which they use to just give permits out to hunt. We have a group of guys/friends that have always hunted together "8 of us". Over the years they stopped giving public permits out on pieces that we wanted to hunt. We also started leasing land from a tree farmer who's property
mostly butted up to to the coal land we hunt. Which gave us some large tracks of land to put a management plan together. So all together we probally have about 1600-1800 acres of private land to hunt. I can go whenever I want to hunt and 2 of the guys only gun hunt so there are only 6 of us that bowhunt. I consider my self very lucky to have this and it's fairly cheap as we all only have to pay about $800 each a year for the leased property.

 

Wow that's awesome!

 

Man that thing is beautiful!!

 

Heck
Looking good,must be itching to get him home & hung huh!
Rocky

 

I am! To be completely honest I was beating myself up pretty bad for using my only buck tag in KS four days into the season. Especially after seeing a monster in Nov. Once I saw these pictures I told myself I would have been crazy to let him walk.

 

If we were closer I would have @! $&# slapped you if you passed on that buck!

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Bucks looking real good Heck. Yeah you would of been crazy to pass him. You know how it goes though if you had a buck tag those bigger ones would of stayed out of range. So whats you biggest buck you have if you had any regrets of shooting him?

Mark I would say thats a heck of a deal. Would be nice if you could find deals like that all the time. Reason I was asking is because Ohio might be in the picture instead of Missouri. Theres a guy hunting where I was gonna go and they are having a real hard time finding any deer. Plus Ohio would be a lot closer and cheaper for me (only a hour from ohio). Wasnt sure if you where hunting public ground down there or had any leads on places to check out down there.

 

I have some on my wall that are bigger but none really with this much character. Just to be clear it was never about the size of the deer but just the time in the woods and the selection process. It would be nice to see some more bucks before I chose to take one!

I am just sick I didn't harvest the 150" buck in NE. I certainty want to @! $&# slap myself. And I am sure taking the first buck I had in bow range in KS this year had a lot to do with it. To have a better understanding you need to know a what has happened in past years.

In 2011 I killed a buck on my 3rd sit. I really didn't deer hunt a hole lot after that. I just didn't have the drive.

In 2012 I went the entire season seeing very few deer and not one was a shooter buck. And even if they were I had 0 opportunities in bow range.

This year I killed my KS buck 2 hours into my second sit. The first sit was short as I got rained out.

So I buy a Nebraska tag. Have a opportunity at a really nice buck which I can say with almost certainty I could have harvested. I chose not to because it was my first sit and I had been there less then 2 hours.

So stack everything up from the last three years and the fact I didn't want to sit in camp three days while my friend hunted I made a really bad decision. Granted I have seen a lot of nice bucks in Nebraska just not any more shot opportunities.

I am not sure I told you this but to add insult to injury the buck I passed on my first sit in Nebraska also walked by my buddy at 50 yards. When I told him I had him quartered away from 5 to 20 yards he called me a jackass. :p

 

Nick - Basecampleasing ties up a bunch of ground in the area I hunt might want to check out there site and see what they got. Pretty expensive tho. As for public ground I have not hunted any but there is plenty of it. Check out Ohio Lakes | Camping | Water Conservation | Muskingum Watershed and https://www.aepohio.com/info/recreation/ I've heard some good thing about the aep land.

 

Heck I get what your saying when you only have one tag you dont wanna tag out then not be able to hunt any more really. But then again having a 160s and a 150s deer in the same year would by far be a amazing year. You definitely have done your home work though to be able to close in like that right off the bat. It still just makes me sick all these bucks on public ground lol. Michigan if you see a 100-110 class buck on public ground you are lucky. Im really curious about this spot im checking out now. Talked with a guy on tuesday when I went to put cams out and he said they have killed a big 8 and 11 out of there this year. Hoping to hunt it every evening tomorrow- sunday. Starting to see some big bucks getting killed around me again with the colder temps we are having.

Mark- Thank you I will check into those. Yeah i have noticed a lot of the websites that post leasing have some real high prices. They gotta make there money to though I guess.

 

Mark I am glad you realize how fortunate you are! This is how it used to be until hunting became so commercialized. I won't ever lease through Base Camp or any other similar type of service regardless of the price on principle alone.

I remember the day I use to be able to knock on a door and asked to hunt and it was rare I would get a No. I would go out of my way to go things in return, give them gifts, provide meat, and some cash occasionally for Christmas ect..... Then it became a matter of the property owner demanding quite a bit more cash to secure your seat and it was far from exclusive access. Now you could walk up to most land owners and offer them a $100 a day to hunt and they would just laugh and slam the door in your face

Hunting has become big business. I have been trying to figure out a way to explain this stuff to my boys without it being discouraging.

 

Things have definitely changed over the years and it does suck! Luckily we know the guy that we lease from and he somewhat takes care of us. But every couple years he bumps the price up on us. Basecamp has already offered him more money than we pay. A lot of the local people were pissed when we leased it because they would give out permits to hunt and blamed us for the start of leasing wars in the area. But it was coming no matter what if we didn't take it someone else would have. Its only going to get worse.

 

I dont wanna hear its only going to get worse. Its already hard enough around here.

 

It's really crazy the money people have and willing to spend on hunting. One of my friends in OH has some of his own property and leases a couple other pieces. He tries to get some hunters in on one piece to help him offset his cost. Again if he doesn't keep it leased someone else will. He has a guy and a youth that hunted youth season "2 days" and 3 days of regular gun season and they have dished out over $5000 for 5 days of hunting. The guy just whips out a wad of money starts tearin off $100 dollar bills we want corn piles! Go get more stands and hang em! It's insane!

 

People don't want to hunt anymore they just want to kill big deer. The fun of it for me is doing the hard work hanging stands, cams and figuring deer out. Hopefully being rewarded with a trophy animal if im lucky enough.

 

Heck- I am still amazed with your public land stories!

 

Wow just crazy. Makes it hard for us average joes trying to compete for property to hunt. I can say I am very fortunate with my lease. I hear you on putting in the work thats where I get all the enjoyment, I wanna earn my deer. Dont get me wrong if I go out of state with limited time yeah I wanna have all leads possible just cause I dont have the time to scout it out real good and everything but I still dont wanna be spoon fed.

 

I've always been worried about tagging out too soon on a buck. You can be stupid both ways. Shooting or not that is. Getting a good bow shot doesn't always happen, but being out there with the hope of a buck is the best.

I always get a little moody after shooting a buck and knowing I'm done for a little while. I didn't figure out until last year that I could use my bow for late muzzleloader. Im going to really try to only take my bow out during that time. I'll have about two weeks of cold weather, but we have food source so it could get good.

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Moody! Ha Ha ha! I pout like a little baby. I never have figured out how to get past that. I know from experience if the opportunity happens to take the shot. Good deer in bow range can be few and far between. I had to remind myself of that in NE this year. Kind of like drinking. Have to get plowed every once and while, and have a massive hanger to remind myself why I don't drink but on occasion.

 

Have to get plowed every once and while, and have a massive hanger to remind myself why I don't drink but on occasion.[/QUOTE]

Haha.

It's also amazing how much I look forward to turkey hunting in the spring just to get out again.

Anybody still got hunting possibilities for points? Not that it matters that much. I look at the teams as a different group of guys to bounce your season off of whether it be up/down or both.

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