I give up on trying to vectorize this photo, so i just put a black border around it with the team name and our slogan, Lemme know if you guys like it.
4 Days and counting. Saw a big 10 point cross in front of the house yesterday morning and found some fresh tracks in the food plot that's about 100 yards away from where I saw him. Both of my cameras are out at my other property so I guess I'll be making a trip out to pick one up and move it to the plot behind the house. I planted that spot so I'd have a place to take my 6 year old that's close to home. It may turn out to be my early season honey hole though! Time will tell.
I have a couple 125+ bucks running my property, but I intend to hold out until at least the rut unless a mature buck walks through.
2 more days until the Illinois opener. Got some photos of my top two shooters hard horned after shedding velvet.
Well good news on the Big 8 I missed last week. He is back in the same food plot and walking right underneath the stand I tried to shoot him out of, during daylight hours. Going to be really windy here the next couple days. Hope to get in the stand after that.
Well opening day is here!! My A.M. sit was Uneventful. I only saw two does and neither of them offered me a shot. I’m hoping the afternoon sit will go better.
When I finally found the stand in the fog this morning, I couldnt see the seat from the ground. Once I was up in the stand, I couldn't see the ground. I HEARD creatures for the first hour and then nothing. After the fog burned off an hour after sunrise and I hadn't heard anything in over an hour, I came back to the house. Cameras showing activity along the timber's edge starting up around 5:30 every evening. I'll be back in the stand at 4:30 to ride it out until darkness. Good luck everyone and STAY SAFE!!!
Got out for an evening sit tonight, all I ended up seeing were squirrels. However on my way out I grabbed my trail camera. The story goes that last Saturday I had intended on going out in the morning, but the alarm on my cell phone never went off. I woke up around 7:30, but by then it was too late. Sure enough, guess what walks broadside past the stand I was intending on hunting that morning? This guy. I'm guessing he's 3 1/2 and would go 137, thoughts?
The Lucky 8 got by me again. Came to the food plot I was hunting and stay about 50+ yards out, then walked right underneath the stand I was going to sit in that evening but when I got to it the wind was telling to sit in the stand across the plot. My buddy Ryan had him at 46 yards last night. Time to get a little aggressive with him. Thinking I'm going to make a ground blind on the opposite corner of the food plot where he keeps popping out. This waiting game isn't paying off.
Hunting season is here boys!!! I got another 50pts for TEAM 25, whacked my first doe of the season this am. Around 8:30 I had a nice sized doe sneak right in on me, I was about to draw on her when I noticed her fawn button buck was trailing her. I usually don't mind shooting does with their fawns since I've heard they run them off in a few weeks anyways? It was just still so early and the weather was perfect. We had our first real hard frost this am and their was barely any wind and I felt like the deer would be moving. I had her at 17yds broadside in a wide open lane. I was kicking myself about 15 minutes later when she circled with her fawn, caught wind of me, and then started snorting. I had a lot to do today so I planned on getting down earlier then normal, at 9:38 I texted my friend to ask if he was ready, I was just standing up when I caught a doe on the edge of the hardwoods. She was heading right towards a nice lane I had cut and I ranged a nearby tree before and knew it was right about 30 yds. I pulled back the string on my brand new virgin Elite Hunter and let the arrow fly. The shot was a tad far back but I still felt confident it was a fatal shot. The arrow was covered in blood from fletching to broadhead. Now my friend was hunting about 200 yds away from me and ended up having two deer come in, this was right after he read my text that I was ready to head out so he knew since I had a lot to do he passed on one of the does allowing us to leave the woods without all the extra work. The text I sent I was ready to get going was at 9:38am and my next text at 9:40 was "stuck one!" It's crazy how it can happen so fast! Now when we were tracking blood the trail kept getting closer to his stand, this is when I questioned if one of the deer he saw was the one I shot? He mentioned that one of the does mouths looked strange but he said she was walking and he couldn't see any type of wound. We started to lose the trail and I was really starting to lose confidence about the shot. I thought to myself it had to be one of the deer he saw, we walked 100 yards not following blood just to get on a trail he saw the two does take, sure enough more blood! About 100 yards on that trail she was laying right next to a swamp with a lot of white foam coming out of the mouth. I caught one lung and the liver, she went 500 yards I would say all together. Always keep your hopes up when the blood trail isn't the best!!! I'll post pics soon!!
