To top off my frustration this season. This weather and these weathermen are driving me crazy. It's literaly changing everyday. I make decisions not to wake up because of bad winds, sure enough I go to work and the winds are perfect. Then vice versa. Woke up this morning wind is just howling like 30mph and gusts of 40. Really annoyed this year. Well I'll go in anyways.
I'm with you Chago.....if it is brown it is down. Everything that I seem to do this year is wrong. Last Saturday I hunted the edge of a bean field where they sometimes come across in the AM so I figured I would hunt there until 8am and move to my other stand deeper in the woods. I watched about 10 turkey to my right for about a half an hour and when they were finally out of sight I started to pack up. Just then I see 4 does and they must have seen me because they were running with tails in the air. So I move to the other stand and I was looking to my right and when I scanned to my left this guy was standing right in my shooting lane quartering away. By the time I was ready he had walked out of the lane. I watched him for about 10 minutes circle behind me at no more than 30 yards. I tried grunting at him and he never even looked in my direction no matter how loud I did it. I watched him walk away, hung up my bow, sat down, and got out my phone to text my wife what had just happened and I look up and there is a spike looking right at me. He of course had seen me and took off tail in the air. That evening I was packing up because it was too dark to shoot and of course a hand rack buck shows up right behind my tree. I decide that that if he is in the right spot i might be able to make a shot so get my arrow out of my quiver and get it knocked up and right then he looks up right at me.We stare at each other for about 15 seconds and he takes off with his tail in the air. My timing couldnt be any worse. If I was facing the right way I would have seen this 9 pointer come down the ridge and been prepared for the shot. If I had sat down 10 seconds earlier that spike wouldnt have seen me and came right in. If I had waited 15 seconds more to pack up that night I would probably had shot at that hand rack buck. Oh, same deal with the does. Every time I check the trail cam there are pics of deer in daylight hours, except for when I am there. Just one of those years I guess. I do still have the gun season and muzzleloader too so hopefully I can get one in the freezer.
Ya I think I quit morning hunts as of now. Lock down should be starting now up here. May already be on. I'm just gonna hit food source evenings now. Maybe tomorrow night. Have not been down at that spot for over a week now. Just gona go there to poke a doe. I just need to shoot something.
Passed up a 120-125 tonight in my food plot. Good looking 3 yr old but not what I'm looking for. When I got back to work this evening my cell cam started blowing up. Several different good bucks came into the food plot. THEN.... the deer I've been after but haven't seen for 2 weeks showed back up. Its a deer I named Wowza.... I put pics of him up several pages back. A big racked buck with tons of mass and palmation. He's a slammer but still moving at night. Think I may take some leave again tomorrow to hunt the evening and see how things go. Still grinding but have yet to see a solid shooter from stand that "I" would be happy with.
LOL Rutin Nov 12 you pass a 125" LOL All the power to you, I hope you get that monster. Up here the bushes are so big and connected deer can travel to different counties without crossing a single field. We see deer crossing roads more then we see them crossing fields. I think I mentioned before me and my local buddies we rarely see the same buck on cams year after year. And hunting pressure in my particular town is very low, because most of our local business here is horse boarding. And although the farmers would love to allow hunters as most are... they can't because their clients are bark eating, city slicking, liberals who need to give their butlers a day off and go to a therapist if they even saw a hunter in the woods while they rode their horses. So what I'm trying to say is, I see a 125" deer he is dead all season long LMAO I'm going in tonight, were getting some nice flurries this morning and its supposed to fade off this afternoon. PErfect time to get in. Rutin get that big boy down.
All the previous snow we have had melted as soon as it hit the ground. All day yesterday we had wild winds bringing in a front. This morning it snowed a blowed all day. Stopped maybe 30 mins ago. Calm breeze now, clear skies. I quickly jumped in my power line bush stand. Let's see if I get lucky.
you guys pretty much give it a rest now for a week or so? I never had luck this time of year. I usually wait it out until December when the post rut feeding starts up again. Hunt evenings at that point over food sources. Late November is a great time for ducks up here, the northern birds are arriving now. How do you guys hunt deer late November?
Yes I hunt up to January 31. I had a great day today. Had bucks chasing does all day today with multiple close encounters, just no shooers for me. A buddy hunted about 100 yards from me and just after 3:00 had a nice 9 pt come in and shot it. It drop 50 yards in front of my stand, it was cool to see his hunt unfold. Then half hour later a big mature buck came thru about 100 yards out dogging doe for 30 minutes, then left. Today's total was around 6 does and 6 bucks.
had an awesome hunt in south central WI this weekend! I came really close shooting a nice 130-140 in. buck at 25 yards! Too much brush in the way and chasing a doe... Still working hard to get one on the ground!
I'm giving IT a few days to allow the lock down to pass. Was hoping end of the month and all of December to get back on food sources. Don't know what the weather is like for you Guys but today is -28 Celsius. Not sure what that is in Fahrenheit. I punched it in conversion calculator and it responded with "that's f ing cold". Wind is gusting 40-50mph. Been like this for two days.
Passed a low 130's the other day on the back of my property. If was very tough as I am mentally getting weaker and would like to be done but I know I will not be satisfied. I went back out 2 days later in a snow storm with 20+ mph winds and a hour before dark I look across the creek and see a doe coming at me. I grab my binos and look up and there's a STUD following her. I grab my bow bc she is coming right down the same trail the 130 did days before. She stops right at 32 yards in my shooting lane and he's following closely. As soon as he steps in the lane he nudges her and gets all frisky and takes off chasing her all around! My heart drops!!! He stops at 55 yards and a 120" 8pt comes into the shooting lane. The big guy snort wheezes at him and stands his ground. I keep praying he comes over to run the smaller 8 off and give me another shot since he screwed me out of the first one. He never does.... stays around me snort wheezing for 25 mins and then walks off into the sunset with the doe. The next morning I go out and see 9 deer. It's -10 with the windchill so I only last about 2.5 hrs in stand, plus the deer have all bedded by now. I cant hunt the evening bc I have my son (single dad w/4 yr old). I let my boy and the dog out in the front yard to play in the snow. They play for 30 mins and then I call them in bc his cheeks are getting bright red. We walk in the house and my covert ops camera goes off. There's several deer in the back of my property based off the photo it sends me. I grab my camera and step onto the front porch, and guess who is standing in my beans an hour before dark?!? The stud from the night before! I call this deer Wowza bc I sent a pic of him to a close buddy and that was his response. Either way maybe it will happen tonight or tomorrow. If he breaks off the doe he could be gone for good. I love the week of Thanksgiving around here but man I am struggling! Here's some pics to recap my last 2 weeks hunting and some photos of Wowza.
I'm going in for the recovery tomorrow. Its a pretty jacked up story lol! I was actually watching my son when I saw him out the back window and put a spot and stalk on. He did the same thing last night and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my 4 yr old alone while I attempted this adventure but I couldn't hold back tonight. He made the same decision to come into my food plot and I put a heck of a stalk on. Kept the shed between me and him, belly crawled to the edge of my beans and he then he crested the hill and came right back up to where he was last night. Ranged him at 45 yards.... but he just looked closer (maybe he's that big). I finally got a chance to draw and when I did I couldn't get a clear shot so I had to raise up a little bit. I set my 40 pin on the top of his lungs and let it fly. Well I "think" I hit him right where I was aiming, I think he was only 40 yards. It was hard for me to see the impact bc I'm not using lighted nocks this year and as soon as it hit he ran dead away. I couldn't see the arrow but he ran like a raped ape with his tail spinning so I'm hoping a drilled him. Second guessing everything right now though since I never saw the impact, which is why I am waiting until the morning to go and look for him. Plus I want my 4yr old to go with me before he has to go to school.
