First off, Way to go Burglar!! It feels good to get one under your belt. Secondly, I am finally going to get to go hunting this weekend. My brother-in-law and I are heading down on Friday morning for the weekend. I am hoping to get 4 sits in before I have to head back. The weather isn't going to be terrible, but Saturday will still be a little warm. Temperatures will be within reason, so early morning and evening activity should still be ok. I will definitly try to get 50 points for the team, and who knows maybe more. The first few weeks I always like to get in the areas on our farm that have a lot of white oaks. I try to get between the oaks and the food plots. They like to travel between the two early in the year. Anyway, keep up the good work everyone. Hopefully I will have some good reports soon.
Good luck dtk! Shed, HOLY crud, awesome bucks. I might have picked up some private property to hunt for the first time in my life today. Maybe 100 acres of land, 20-30 of which is wooded, maybe more. Seems to have great topography (hill country). I am going to try and get out there in the next week to scout prior to the pre-rut. If it is loaded with the right sign, I will spend most of my pre-rut/rut days out there instead of battling the public land. KILL
Dan, Good luck this weekend! Brett, congrats on the possible land score The forecasted rain today was almost non-existent, which made me ponder going out for a sit... the current thunder comforts me in my decision to stay in.
Work Sucks Man now that the Moose season is over I can now start targeting some deer. Sucks not having the time I used to have to hunt . Used to have 5 weeks set aside to hunt, now I have a 5 day window, that is broken up into 2 segments. Six days during the rut of November with the one day holiday mixed in,that'll enable me to hunt November 11th to and including the 16th which in fact is almost a whole week,6 days to be exact during the prime of the rut. Saving my last 2 days for December on the 2nd,3rd,4th 5th & 6th,another 5 days in a time I feel is the best time to be afield. Over the last 8 years I have seen the best and biggest deer of every season past in this 1st week of December. It's a transition zone that the mature deer are searching and roaming new properties for the second rut in search of a receptive doe. The younger deer are all beat up and aren't into getting their butts kicked any more and are there but not as visible. Got out for an hour sit last night and all I heard were deer snort wheezing at my buddy 60 yards away from me. Never saw anything either. Got my trail cam out with 100 or more pics of moose and one spike buck and one doe. Not to worried about this spot as it's a rut spot and I know the mature deer will show up as this 60 arces of trees is prime cover ,holds about 30 does in all. The bucks will come. My buddy has Scent-Loc under his camo clothing and makes me LMAO @Him because he'll come out of his house all ready for the bush and ride in my truck to the hunt spot. I ask how come he doesn't where the Scent-Lock I got him? He says hes got it on underneath and thinks nothing of all the house odors and car smells that contaminate his clothing. He asks me last night after the hunt if I thought the deer were reacting to him. I just walk away and shake my head. This guy is the best and most sought after Moose hunting guide in Alberta period! He can take you out every single night and if you listen to him,he'll get you into a position to take a shot at a Moose. Come's to Whitetails ,he's lost,mind you,he's got 2 Whitetails on his wall that score in the high 160's. I didn't think I would have to teach another how to Whitetail hunt . Thought that would be for my grandson. Sorry guys, just lost my hunting partner of 17 years who I have hunted with for over 22 years with to what I call the scared syndrome! He fell from 27 feet on his 1st night on stand after shooting a 5x5 and broke his right elbow ,snapped of his left wrist completely and broke 5 ribs. He's older than I and not in the best of shape due to those injuries. Since that fall I have done every thing for him and this past week he's called it quits due to his feelings of being up in a stand. He never did get over that night. Sorry guys, Long read, just needed to vent . Question What would Jesus do in this situation? I know the answer , I'm getting tired of continually helping Rocky
Rocky, go enjoy yourself in the woods! Best of luck to you. If you get a chance, I would love to see some pictures of your hunting grounds.
Well, I finally made it out yesterday. Nothing to report though. It wasn't a bad evening to sit, but the weather conditions did change my plans. The wind was blowing about 20-25 mph and gusting over 30 mph, so instead of sitting in an oak flat on a ridge top I settled for a riverbottom funnel area that the wind was perfect for. Didn't work out this time, but it is a good spot and one I will be revisiting. I am heading to the oak flat stand we call "Boones" this morning. The wind has settled and it should be a good morning. On a side note, yesterday my brother-in-law amd I set up a willow tree we had cut down in the middle of one of our unpicked bean plots. I have seen trail cam pics of bucks racking these setups, so I decided to give it a try. If any of you guys have ever done this I would love to hear how it worked and any pointers you have. I will get a picture of the setup this morning and post it. GOOD LUCK to everyone else!!
Good luck this weekend guys. My hunting plans fell through today. My son's football game was moved to the late afternoon today due to the rain. I won't be able to hunt. However, I am going out to scout a new piece of property tomorrow and will hunt it Monday. KILL something this weekend gentlemen!
Having a rough go with hunting this year. I guess the only "bright" spot was having a big buck under me yesterday morning, 10-12 yds in a clear shooting lane, it was just too dark. I tried pulling EVERY lumen of light my eyes could but just could not make things out enough to shoot. I'm talking, I needed him to hang around seconds longer, not even minutes. I have no real idea how big he was, I needed binos @ that distance just to gather enough light to see his rack. But he was a HUGE bodied deer compared to (assuming) the other buck he was with. After that my morning went all downhill. Lost a doe. I have no idea what happened, or where I ended up hitting her. It certainly wasn't in the heart/lungs. It should have been as "textbook" as it gets. Long story short, gridded with near 100% certainty we didn't miss her cause it ain't that thick, the woodlot she ran into. Then searched the outlying bedding areas. No dice anywhere. Hell for all I know it was a flesh wound???? I suppose small comfort is that this is the 1st deer I've lost in 20+ years, eventually my luck had to run out. Almost as disheartening as that, was while searching the entire property of prime deer areas, we did not kick out a single deer, found only one fresh rub, and very little deer sign. Hopefully the rut changes thier patterns cause right now it's not looking too promising. After tromping my grounds down & faced with 40 mph gusts this evening, I'm bagging the evening sit, so my next time out will be next friday.
Tough luck Ryan! Stick with it though, the chase changes everything. The Woods should start heating up in a week or so
What a hunting day Ryan. Even though it was tough to stomach, that is what it is all about. You are going to be very succesful this year.
Rybo Sorry to hear about the doe,like you said,sooner or later it happens to all of us.Check for birds in the next day to see if any are bunching up feasting on your doe. I don't know if I should say enjoy your next week out of the woods or not. Re,energize is a good thing though. Best of luck on your next outing. Heading out tomorow night to grab my last trail cam and maybe get a doe down. Haven't been seeing many does this year,specialy with fawns. Winter had to have been rough on them last year. Good luck Rybo and write it off as a learning experience. If you don't learn something new each and every day in life, then we're missing out. Rocky
Last night I went out and sat in some HIGH speed winds (25+) and didnt expect to see much but my hunting is limited with a little guy. At 5pm I saw a nice young buck skirt me at 70 yards, at 615pm I saw a button buck dogging a doe and then a small 3 pt behind him. They grazed on acorns for awhile out in front of my and I thought about shooting her but didnt. Then at 705 I check the camera and i dont have any light inside the time so I get ready to pack it up and then I hear foot steps. I look back and a nice 10pt is walking right at me. Hes prob 135-140", we've got trail cam pics of him and determined 2 hrs before I went out he was not a shooter bc hes only 3.5 yrs old. This was definatly the hardest sit Ive had all year considering the biggest buck ive seen on stand is 50"! Theres plenty of other older bucks running around and its still early, hopefully this doesnt bite me!
I hate sitting in high winds! That's why I haven't been hunting this weekend at all. Looks like it might calm down tuesday... of course there's a 30% chance of snow Good luck Rutin, sounds like your luck is beginging to change!
Fitz Snow ,I would welcome in a heartbeat, can't stand the warmth that were still getting ,temps are above normal for this time of year. Normal is a high of 8 and a low of -5. Were getting highs of 14 and lows of 2. Going out this evening with a south West wind,should be perfect for this setup. Does always come out this end as do some bucks also and I need to get my last Trail Cam out too. Let you's know how I do later tonight. Rocky
Sat Tonight What a waste ,well I shouldn't say that as I had to get my TC out. One good 140 buck was on it in video,other than that there are does in the area. I haven't seen a one. There all showing up at 7 till 8 am daily too. Need to be in there in a morning sit then. There were 6 combines out in the feilds so nothing showed up tonight. Probably won't get out till the weekend now as I need to get the rest of the flowers cut down and pots put away for the season and clean up the back yard and all the exterior windows need to be cleanedWhoo hoo,LOL.Good luck Fitz when the wind dies down for you. Be safe folks . Rocky
I was organizing my files yesterday and I had forgotten how many videos I had of Blade. I emailed my brother to see if he had more photos of him, but in the mean time, here's a compilation of what I got... [video=youtube_share;2d5ep-LZp-Y]http://youtu.be/2d5ep-LZp-Y[/video]
Fitz Wish I knew how to put pictures and video together like that, I just have mine in one file and that's hard enough, LMAO , Good luck with Blade ,he looks to be a 4 1/2 and score 140- 150. Rocky
OK, looks like the winds are going to be manageable tonight, so I think I'll go out for a sit. I'm going to hang my stand in a new tree across the creek, between the two beaverdams. If nothing else, it will be a good observation stand. I can pick out which dam I'd like to favor. I might even tickle the horns a bit tonight. It snowed off and on today. No accumulation, but it's got me in the mood.
Hey guys, how's it going, busy weekend here, my bro whom works about 80-100 hours per week got to come up. So I wanted to make sure he got a buck while he was up. Put him in a dynomite rifle stand thats basically an observation stand for my archery hunting.... anyway God was good to us as he filled his tag within 1 hour of his hunt. I had him watch from a good distance one of my best scrapes.. 3 bucks and a doe filtered out from it Fri evening. He smoked the best buck, a 3.5 year old 125-130 class 6x5 ... I then spent all day Sunday trying to get him his bull and we got fogged out bigtime... Sunday I had to take him back... I get to hunt this evening. Can't wait! Ryan, sorry bud, hope that big ole buck shows back up for you. Keep after it man, Halloween is closing in and thats always a big buck hammer day for you!