***** Team 26 - "Draggin Rights" Official Thread *****

How much snow did you get? We're suppose to get some snow Monday morning so I'm looking forward to hunting out in the white stuff.

 

It ended up being about 1/4 inch of ice then 8 inches or so of snow on top of it. We got all the ice from the night before last then the snow yesterday during the day.

 

WOW was it cold this morning! I sat in a ground blind in a new patch of woods with my bow in hand. All the other guys had rifles and shotguns. One of the Amish guys got a small doe with his 7mm-08 - nobody else even saw a deer (including me). HOWEVER... I got to see where they bed and their escape routes because of the snow. Going back next week (muzzy season and late bow - hopefully I can connect with the 'brute' that is still in the area!).

 

I ended up not hunting tonight, I just watched a couple of the fields that I hunt. Saw about 75 deer this evening, but no shooters in all of them. I'm struggling to find a mature buck to hunt.

 

Been a while fellas. Glad to see we're still active and you guys aren't giving up.

In case you didn't see it in the Water Cooler a week back, my dad shot my target 8 on the PA opening day of rifle. An absolute stud! I'm more happy he shot it than I did, that's for sure. Thought I would share a few photos:

 

GL, thanks!

We've had restrictions now for 11 seasons. You will certainly hear mixed thoughts on the subject, but from my own personal observations both at our farm and our club (which is 20 minutes away), the quality of bucks have increased tremendously. As I said, my last 4 bucks I've shot all we bigger than all but one of my dad's 30+ bucks taken during his career here in PA (until this season of course :D ). I wasn't a fan of Gary Alt's herd reduction plan in much of the state, but I am a fan of the antler restrictions.

 

Wasn't my year with my bow, but gun season has been good for me. Shot a nice 8 pointer opening weekend of the WI gun season and shot a doe with my muzzleloader last night. Good luck to all you guys still hunting.

 

Well I just got some pictures printed from some of the cards I had pulled out of my cams in the early season. Somehow I overlooked a buck that I really wanted to kill. His rack wasn't that big, maybe 120, but he is 4.5 and didn't get any bigger from last year. I should've really tried hard to kill him. The bad part is that I had him at 25 yards wide open during the rut but I didn't realize what buck it was and thought he was 3.5. What an idiot. I'm still trying, but it will be friday before I get a chance to hunt again. These 12 hour nights are rough on the hunting.

 

Congrats pops!!!
I am still going at it but man it is one cold motha here in Wisconsin.

 

That's a stud of a deer!

 

No I'm not dead... but haven't been out as much as I would like due to gun season. Heading back up to property this weekend finally. Will be filming mostly but might get in driver seat to take a doe.

 

Going out after them again this weekend in the fierce cold but i hope there finally turned onto the food plot and i can pull a big boy in close to seal the deal on my second illinois tag. i do haver a ground blind tucked intot he plot also who knows i might even hunt out of it with a heater if its to darn cold. i cant wait to check the cameras on the plot ive got two different angles looking over it one up high in the stand as well as one on a stic n pic ground level should be intersting either weay.

 

Sadness on my part as I have not been out since before gun season. I shall be out this Monday no matter
how cold out it gets.

 

There is another buck to add to the board for us. I shot a buck in November and thought I didn't kill him. Well, turns out I did. I found him exactly one month from when I shot him. It's a long story, I'll try and post it in the next couple days.

 

Wow, snake! Really looking forward to the story!


On a side note, my dad got his rack/skull plate back from the taxi the other day, and so last evening we taped him out at 137 1/8" An absolute awesome achievement here in PA! So happy for him.

 

I feel terrible... I hunted more this year than I have in the past 10 but did not get a deer [I did miss one]! I saw fewer deer and sign even though I hunted one area I know by heart. The other area I'm still learning. I'm so sad that I did not contribute to the team's score.

Congratulations to all you guys that did though. Take care, have a Merry Christmas, Blessed New Year, and enjoy that venison!

 

Richie did you enter this yet?

 

Ok, so here goes on the story of my 2013 buck. On the 20th of November, I shot a buck that I believed at the time was my #1 target buck for the year. I thought that I had shot the 7.5 year old 7 pointer that I had been after and was ecstatic. At 5 yards, I thought that I made a good shot, although my penetration didn't look to be as good as I had hoped for. Well I gave the buck a couple hours and started on the trail. After searching for another couple hours, I couldn't find any more blood and so I went to get my dog to help me look for the deer. She too couldn't come up with anything. It was getting dark and I decided to go back the next morning and resume the search when I had some more light.

The next day it was the same story. I had absolutely nothing to go on. There was no blood, no tracks, nothing. The deer was shot in a very narrow strip of woods and was headed in the direction where the woods would run out several hundred yards away. After walking back and forth through the woods, I couldn't find anything. If he had been laying in the field or woods I would've known. I was able to search everything pretty thoroughly because of how the land lays. I was pretty bummed out and was thinking that maybe I just shot into the shoulder and didn't get into the vitals. That's all that I could come up with.

Well, a week or so after the shot I checked a camera and a had a pic of the 7 pointer alive and well, so I was pretty pumped about it. I thought that he was doing fine and that he would make it. Turns out I was way off.

So last week I was headed out to hunt and decided to walk along the channel where I shot the buck at. I was looking for some beaver runs and just looking around out of curiosity. I was walking the bank when something caught my eye about 100 yards away. I threw my binoculars up and sure enough there was a buck next to the opposite bank with my arrow sticking out of him.

I went around and pulled him up out of the water. At this point about all that I could salvage of course was the rack. I'm still sick about the way that everything happened. I guess that he had tried to cross this water and just went down mid ways through, which would explain why I could never find him. He was about 400 yards from where I shot him, but he could've floated down that far, I'll never know for sure. I'm glad that I found him, just wish it would'nt have been like this. I never would've thought that he would've tried to cross the water. Looking back, I should've paid more attention to my dog on this. She kept wanting to walk along the water like she thought he was there, but I thought that she was just smelling something else since she seemed kind of disinterested the whole time we were looking for blood.

I'll post some pics tomorrow or Monday, since my SD card is at the house. I didn't get any full body pics with the buck, but I got some with just the head and my bow. I've already talked to Fitz about what happened, so I'll post it in the scorecard once I get a tape on him.

 

Last hunt this coming saturday!