I'm going to give it my best. Won't be hunting much Monday, maybe a few hours in the morning. Uncle needs help pouring some concrete and I owe him so much more than that for the opportunity to hunt.
Tomorrow is Operation Kill Doe! Whack em and stack em! Good luck, aim straight, kill quick! Sent from my arrow using Mathews
Don't you love trespassers. Looks like I'm going hunting for trespassers today! Should be fun! Not... Sent from my arrow using Mathews
Great work Cls! It's gonna be a great evening sit. I can tell. Let's not make Tony a lier and put some more antlers on the ground! Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
Tomorrow is a big day for me. Moving into one of my better areas...perfect wind an 34 degrees tonight with cloud cover all day tomorrow. I couldnt ask for better. I just need some buck to cooperate.
Every year you have one of those sits where you should have stayed at home. Luckily I had mine out of the way earlier this season, so I thought, then today comes along. Started out like any other hunt, except this would be the first time hunting the day after killing a buck. It's Nov. 8th, just shot a cruiser yesterday and I have another buck tag and 2 doe tags left. Get out there. Anyhow I get to the property and start getting dressed, other hunters show up. They've been seeing all kinds of deer, me not so much. We all head to stands and they were going to head out around 9:30. Perfect, much like yesterday I'll switch stands and hunt midday down in the bottoms where cruising bucks like to roam. Morning goes right along with the rest, little movement by deer, but catch a glimpse of something and grab my crossbow. Here comes a coyote, small and fluffy just how my rages like them. Put my scope on it as it works its way in from 50yds out. Click the safety off and it freezes behind a tree. Finally steps out and I pull the trigger, whiff and a miss right over his back. I kept him in he scope instead of watching him, had no idea how close he had gotten. With a coyote's scent and the not so quiet discharge of my crossbow fresh I climbed down to double check and more importantly grab my bolt. Fur, no blood, no bolt. Continue looking for the bolt but no avail, $30 haircut on me. Climb back in the tree and wait for 9:30 when the rest are supposed to leave. Keep listening for them but nothing but the hounds at the house barking a few times. Gets close to 10 and figure they were quieter leaving today than yesterday and the dogs barking was them getting back up to the house. I climb down, and like always still hunt my way to where I am going. I've walked up on many deer doing this, yet to get the kill. Get just below the pond where I've bumped several and slow my pace, watching the ground for sticks and scanning through the shrubs. Something catches my eye on the ground. Kneel down and it's a drop of blood on a leaf. I am now due south of where I shot at the coyote, start thinking maybe I hit it and it ran through here. Look to the north and south for more blood and nothing, east and west, still nothing. Go back and mark the blood with a couple sticks just in case. Continue on my way, a bit puzzled but I'll get in stand and come back later if needed. Still trying to still hunt but now I'm looking for blood too. Up a small hill where it Y's, right to the pond or left to the bottom. At the top I find more blood, this time bigger and then another spot. At this point I'm convinced one of the others shot a deer, and seconds later hear dome talking near the pond. Yell out if they shot something I have some blood. They come out and confirm one shot a small buck and they were tracking. We go to the first blood I found which is the last we found in the direction it went. Then the bombshell, his dad also shot a small buck. So two deer are being tracked. They said they bumped something out of the trees in front of where I found the blood at the top of the hill. I'm guessing it was the deer that left the blood I found. They call his dad, and then start yelling to each other for locating purposes. He comes out and says he found a big pool of blood inside the treeline in the vicinity of where they said they bumped one. I immediately say it was probably a muscle hit and he stood there awhile and started clotting up, explains why little blood afterwards plus he was on a run from being bumped. They head to the house to get something to drink before continuing the search. I, knowing the likely outcome hangs back. I was under he impression one was shot at the pond and the 2nd out of the same tree I killed from yesterday. I decide to go farther back on the south end of the property to a stand I have sat one time. Thinking they will push things south walking all the north of the property. On my way there I see there bows and arrows on the ground at the tree I sat yesterday and was headed for originally today. Just as I pass it an opossum comes out of the gutpile from yesterdays kill, so i start practicing my stalking skills As I get closer and closer I notice something isn't right. Turns out his whole face was gone?!?! WTF, at this point I am down to 2 arrows. Wanted to go back for a 3rd before the switch but decided since ai was using a crossbow I would just take safe shots and be ok with 2. I decided not to shoot it. Hindsight says I should have but it was not super fresh and he was still eating etc, I am a big advocate of nature taking its course on a lot of things. I have no problem with mercy or compassion kills, but opted not to hunt with 1 arrow. I'm still hunting on the way back. Looking up little mown lanes along the way. Get to one and there's a small doe eating leaves off a small tree. Standing there watching her, deciding whether to shoot, 35yds away no problem. Then start wondering where the buck is. Looking around for him she looks at me, grabs a few leaves and looks again. At this point I step forward and put a tree between us, she stays. I look for the buck and don't see one. Say screw it I'm going to take her and be done with it. Back step and she looks at me and then takes a few steps towards me. I raise my bow and put her in the scope and she turns and bounces off 2 leaps and stops broadside. At that point I can't tell if it's a button or not, so I drop the crossbow. She/he takes another step towards me and I walk away. Climb the tree and let things start settling. Then I hear it, the low tone at first and then getting louder. Here comes a 4 wheeler down the same path I just walked. Closer and closer until it's obvious they are coming to this stand. I climb back down and go an meet them. Turns out the younger one shot his buck from this stand, no use hunting any longer so I help them in their search. We start at the shot site, small spot dark blood. Said it was right behind the shoulder pass through. It wasn't lung blood. So we start trailing, I'm leading the way blood starts to trickle but still finding drops. Get to a point where he one trail turns to 3. One up the ridge, one down to the creek and the third straight ahead. Start searching each one when I hear someone else call out, got blood up here. It was the 2nd shooter, he started tracking his buck from where he shot it and we were tracking the other buck from where the 1st shooter shot it. Somehow we end up with the same trail?!?! WTF again At this point I'm not sure what to think. Did they shoot the same buck? One was a pass through, one wasn't. Both thought they double lunged. Neither thought the blood 1/4 mile away was their buck, he blood I found by happenstance while switching stands. I slowly made my way away and eventually topped the ridge. At this point I'm sweating a storm and realized it was a fruitless effort. Made my way back to the house. Turns out these were the 4th or 5th wounded this year, this morning one said they stopped shooting yesterday because they ran out of arrows not deer. So I am sitting at home watching delayed football during the best portion of the day of the best time of season. I have beer, I am happy
It's the same 2 guys we Kicked out last time. They called us trespassers and that some guy down the road owns it not us. So we called the sheriffs department and they where tickets heavily and we will be prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law. They had our 3 stands taking down and in the back of their truck. And had set back up their bait and tree stands that we left at the base of the tree in a big pile. 2 weeks ago. We rarely hunt this property we have been waiting to get our cat dozer up there so we can clear a road and build our cabin but now we have been dealing with trespassers and other people and might just sell it and buy a small piece closer to our main hunting land, to put our cabin on. Sent from my arrow using Mathews
The after math of the big miss. It's a trophy to me! Just another conversation piece for deer camp! Sent from my arrow using Mathews
No. I forgot to upload this picture. I got the 2ft log and the whole arrow! Makes a good trophie! Sent from my arrow using Mathews
I looked at the branch tonight and I hit the little twig square as can be and it sent that arrow 6" over his back. Shooting down a 30+ degree slope doesn't make it any easier. It happens. Just makes the redemption even sweeter! Sent from my arrow using Mathews
Why are we on page 2? If I have to stop this deer hunting and turn this..... I'm running out of gusto, patience and time. I have an all day sit tomorrow and probably a mid morning sit(if need be) Wednesday. I will drop something if presented the shot, I'd like to say I won't burn a buck tag but I need another deer in the freezer. A few guys are turning the deer upside down and backwards lately with shoulder shots and lost/injured deer. I'm a big weather fan and I will be glued to my phone Wed and enjoying beer and storms that afternoon/evening. After that winds are going to be carzy through at least Friday afternoon. I may try an all day sit Saturday and another morning sit Sunday. It's back to work after that and then guns a blazing(literally) as IL 1st firearm season opens.
I'll be sitting sat morning then going to sight in the rifles for gun season then back out to hunt. Sunday hopefully an all day sit. Sent from my arrow using Mathews
all the bucks are locked down with does in north western wi. our property in Trempealeau co was really dead on big buck movement.
