**** Team 9 Double Lung Liquidators *****

The orange flood moves in tomorrow. I think I may join them with my shotgun. Bow season runs till the end of the year though. I have time, but this whole rut thing really isn't what I expected. I've always ditched the rut to hunt ducks (which is what I hunt most). This is the first year I've really hunted the rut and it seems all the deer are gone.

 

Chris,
Your frustrations are similar to many this year - very weird year here for rut as well. My days off during the rut resulted in less deer sightings than typical early Oct hunts. Hope to get one more hunt in this week before our Orange Army on Friday-Sunday...then "doe season" is on for remaining season as I need to draw blood a couple times with my bow - I shoot it entirely too much not to.

Don't give up - and if anything, try anything different that makes it fun - still hunt, call and move around spots ground hunting, decoy, sleep in and go later...sometimes just have to do something to make it fun again. And one deer can make it the best season ever Still beats the offseason!!!

 

congrats on the addition to the family Tim!!

 

the orange flood will push deer to you....stay the course with your bow!!! LOL!!! (seriously though, use whatever you would like!)

 

Going to try and go in the morning. My back has been hurting though from moving a few hundred cases of pop at work and winds are supposed to blowing 25 with rain in the morning so there is a chance I'll be staying home.

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Pretty nasty thunderstorms this morning. Lots of lightning and rain. Along with some pretty hard winds so I stayed home.

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Got out for about 2 hour hunt after work yesterday - 5 does, no bucks - I'm baffled, haven't seen the slightest amount of rut/chasing activity this year. Mature doe at 10 yards - I nearly shot but I've always been "do does" from Nov 1 till gun season as I know that is my best chance of a mature buck walking in at any minute. Gun season is Fri, I will be hunting Fri and Sat morning with the family, and taking my two oldest after school Friday/Sat morning...always look forward to it.

Stay at it guys - although many of us have used our vacation time - there is a lot of season yet, and I have seen some of my biggest bucks in late Nov as they continue to search for those final does to breed.

 

Well. I basically have 4 days of hunting left until gun season provided the weather permits. Our gun season comes in Dec. 4 and runs through the 15th. At that point I'll probably take both a gun and bow in. I'll continue to bowhunt for a good buck and meat hunt with the gun for a couple of does. Hopefully something changes in the next few days. Since November 9th I have seen 7 deer. Usually in this same time span I will see 100+ and had days the last two years of seeing 40+ deer in one sit. Thats why I have been so frustrated this year. Crazy part is I have found more scrapes and rubs on the property than in the last 4 years combined and still nothing. Hope everyones luck starts to turn over the next few weeks. My next days of hunting will be Saturday and Sunday really wanting to put the Slick Tricks to work. Good Luck everybody.

 

Well we just got some snow last night so hoping to get out today since gun season starts Saturday and we can't hunt the Friday before gun season. Our gun season is 9 days and then a 10 day muzzleloading season after that. You can bow hunt through bow and bow season ends around the first weekend in January so still plenty of time to get a buck.

 

Yesterday morning I drove up to the mountains to fill my feeder up since I'm off all next week I was really looking forward to hunting up there especially since I've not hunted it for 3 weeks.
When I walked up to my feeder t I found a dead spike laying 15 feet from it. Don't know if it was killed by yotes or another hunter or what but it was very discouraging. I moved my feeder to another area an when I get up there this weekend I'll move my stand to a different spot to.

 

OK, here is link to my turkey kill. Terrible quality, but it was just my phone rigged up to mount on my bow with a few parts laying around the garage, and stabilizer holds it on, it just sits slightly off to left side of bow.
Takes a while for turkeys to come into view, then you'll see my arrow draw back with shakes the screen quite a bit as I try to draw slowly and not be seen. I then started making some squeaking noises with mouth to try and stop these birds as the first few just would not stop for an open shot. When I pan to right after shot you can hear the other retreating make a couple faint gobbles...then the rest of my video will not load for some reason but only missing when I turn phone around and recap the hunt.

Over a dozen gobblers came in, most all long beards, couple jakes.

Here is LINK:

 

ok boys!!!! TIME TO SACK UP!!!!!! Let's get those bows ready for the weekend! I'm heading out for an all day sit tomorrow I know the big boys around here are moving, I saw the 8 pointer I passed on last weekend walking the woodline behind my house yesterday around 3pm checking his scrapes!!! I have a good feeling im finally going to see my target buck on the hoof tomorrow, and will arrow him @25 yards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck to everyone going out!! STAY POSITIVE!!!!!!!!

o ya, I have 2 Illinois videos out to on my youtube page, if anyone cares/ is interested

 

Very nice video Matt! Congrats again on the bird!

 

it's 7:02am....I forgot to set my alarm!!!! UGGHHH!!!!! lol!! we have 25mph winds here today. I'm gonna take my time and try a run and gun setup on my property with my new lonewolf setup for a few hours to see what happens!

 

Didn't go this morning. Had a 15 hour day yesterday so I was ready for some sleep. Got a couple errands to run this morning then I go out this afternoon and tomorrow.

In other news my buddy shot a doe and finally saw a lot off rut activity on Wednesday. He went back yesterday to see if he could get a shot at a buck and someone had stolen several stands including his.he ran into someone else who said his was stolen along with at least 2 other people's stands. Not sure if mine is still there. Sounds like it happened overnight on Thursday night. I hate stupid people.

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Hopefully those winds die down soon. We've had some crazy winds, but NV deer seasons are done now.

 

Glad to hear that the rut is picking up! That's a bummer about your buddy's stand. It's a damned shame that people will just take other people's stuff like that. Hopefully the stands get recovered and the jerk get what's coming to him!

Good luck this afternoon.

 

Very cold sit this afternoon. Uneventful as well. Didn't even see a squirrel. Going out in the morning.

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My 13 yr old son crushed his first buck on WI 2013 gun opener. Here is the story...

Next to my wedding day this had to be one of the best days of my life. I was privileged to be sitting with my 13yr old son when he killed his first buck on WI 2013 gun opener. Here's the story...

We arrived at my uncles land in Jackson County around 7 am which was about a half hour later than we wanted but that was okay since we would be able to see if there was any deer on our way in to our blind at a pinch point in the field. On our way to our blind my son say "deer" and I look up the field and there is a mid 130's 10 pointer trotting at an angle away from us at about 200 yards. I was carrying the gun and decided not to take the shot because I wanted my son to be the one to get a shot at a buck. Finally we go settled into our blind and started the wait. Around 8:00 I noticed a deer coming out of the woods to our left and he started feeding in the field(some sort of radish planted by farmer that rents the field). I checked the deer out and saw that it was a 1.5yr old buck and told my son to get ready. So he got his gun on the shooting sticks and tried finding the deer in the scope. The buck was feeding broadside to use so I told him to shoot whenever he had the opportunity. He said that he couldn't get on him because there was a branch in the way so we waited. While waiting a bigger buck ran across the upper part of the field and the 1.5yr old buck decided to follow him and ran pretty much straight away from us offering my son no shot opportunities. He was kinda bummed but kept a positive attitude. Around 9:30 his feet were getting so cold that I asked him if he wanted to go home for awhile and then come back in the afternoon and hunt and he said sure.

We arrived back at my uncle's land around 3:30pm(later than we had wanted) and started to trek down the edge of the field to our blind. On the way there I looked at the hillside behind our blind and saw a deer walking. I put the scope on it and saw that it was a big spike. I told my son what it was and he said that he wanted to shoot it so I gave him the gun. He placed the gun on his shooting sticks and was trying to find the buck in the scope as he was slowly walking through the trees. As he was moving his gun the shooting stick fell and the buck finally noticed us and took off trotting over the top of the hill. Again a little disappointed of the missed opportunity but as we would later find out it was a blessing. After seeing that deer on his feet already we slipped into the edge of the woods and slowly made our way to our blind. Once there we quietly got settled in and began the wait. As we were sitting there my son who is trach dependent had to cough a couple times and I thought in my mind that with less than an hour to hunt our chances now went down after his coughing. About 15 minutes later I caught movement to the right of us and immediately saw that it was a buck. I told him to get ready as the buck was slowly walking across the field and stopping occasionally. I told him that he was about 100 yards out and to hold upper shoulder on him and to take the shot when he had it. The buck stopped a third time and the shot rang out! The buck mule kicked and ran about 50 yards and into the woods. From my seat I saw him circle and crash. I was so excited and told my son that his buck just crashed inside the woods. We fist bumped and I congratulated him on an awesome shot and getting his first buck.

Neither of us knew how big the buck was when he shot, I knew he was at least a 2.5yr old but wasn't sure how many points. Even though I saw him crash I decided we should wait about 15 minutes before we went out to track him. During that 15 minutes I texted all of my friends and family that Jacob had just crushed his first buck. After the 15 mins we walked out in the field to find the blood trail and follow it. To my surprise we couldn't find any blood so we headed to where I saw him tip over. As we got close to the edge of the woods I saw the buck lying there dead facing us and saw how big his rack was. I told my son there's your buck and at first he couldn't see it but eventually saw him lying there. We circled around him and I poked him with the gun and there wasn't any movement. I gave my son a huge hug and told him how proud I was of his perfect shot and getting his first buck. Neither of us could believe how big he was. He was a huge bodied 8 pointer with long brows that I had on my trail camera. We figure he is a 3.5 yr old even though his rack isn't huge we have noticed that most of the bucks have smaller racks this year due to the hard winter and late green up in our area.

It doesn't matter if I get a buck this year with gun or bow it will still be my best hunting season to date! Here are some pics of Jacob with his Jackson County buck.

 

Very Cool. Wibowhntr. Congrats to you and your son!!

Speaking of cool. It was 9 degrees when I got up this morning. I couldn't bring myself to get out. I'm good till about 15 but colder than that and I just have a tough time getting up especially with being struck out so much this year. Hard to get motivated to be out when its that cold and you haven't been seeing anything. Going to eat breakfast and get up there early. The stand I sat last night I noticed had a nut that came loose on the seat so I need to get that tightened up and I want to get a thing or two moved around for gun season.

I do think I figured out 1 reason my season has been slow. I was thinking he other day that 5 and 6 years ago I had seasons like this. Just didn't see anything. Well we kind of figured out that this field that actually on the neighbors property didn't get planted in anything on those years. Seems like its on a 2 year rotation. Beans/corn/nothing. We can't really see the field unless we drive the next road over and stop just in the right spot on a hill over looking the creek bottom and glass down into it. Can't see it at all with the foliage on. I did that the other day and sure enough just grass. I think not having this planted keeps the deer more on his property as his frontage road fields are planted this year.

I have no crops of any kind on the land that I hunt or on any bordering farms so its more of bedding/travel area. Well now I'm an addition 1/2 mile from any type of crops than what I normally am. Thinking this spring/summer seeing if I can get the landlord to let me put in a food plot or two and will probably try and get a home made feeder or two going. Have thought about this before but funds haven't really been available for it. But if I want to have good deer hunting I may have to make it more of a priority. Especially on the years the immediate neighbor doesn't plant his fields.