Did you see were we can use are bow to fill are gun tags this yr?im going to look more into it but if im reading it right ill use my gun deer tags bowhunting during muzzle loader if I dont get them with the rifle
Lot of my public land is small real small. I have week days off so this helps. Just hunted some small public last week for the first time. Unfortunately I arrowed and lost my first archery deer. Look for hrs came back with help in the afternoon and still nothing. Celebrating 8 yrs with my wife this week will be back at it next week. The farthest public I hunt is maybe 45 min away closet maybe 10 min.
I believe the law says you can fill your gun tag with your bow during gun season. So yes, I'll be hunting bucks again during the rifle and muzzeloader season.
Just had 115-120" 8 point walk right out of the bed, past us at 20 yards and the shooter shot over its back. It was her first deer releasing an arrow on, think she caught a little buck fever! I was pretty jacked, pretty nerve racking when it's out of your hands, I was shaking worse then when I have the bow in hand.
i called the wi dnr. they call it lesser arms. u can use a bow or crossbow with the gun tag. but you can only use it on the gunseason date. I just got my nonresident wi bow tag. my first time on thats gonna be on public land there. gonna do some scouting there when i got time
I am going to check 3 spots as I walk in slowly this afternoon. A south wind moved in so those 3 spots are my south wind red oak spots. Haven't seen a single white oak dropping.
This past weekend was youth gun season ... we had two big does and a spike come to within 5 yards and stare us down for almost five minutes while my 12-year-old and I sat on a log. Very cool experience! We got the wind we needed to head to an old favorite spot of mine... Even with the warmer temps, the deer began moving early. We watched a doe and fawn come out of the woodlot across from us about 15 minutes before Matthew whispered up to me "Dad, buck!!" (We had used two climbers to get up in the same tree, with me sitting over him.) I shifted my gaze to the right and finally saw a nice 2 1/2-year old 8-pointer emerge from the grass that had grown up between the woodline we were in and the cut corn field we were overlooking. The buck cleared the grass, and turned dead away from us. I examined him closely through my binos as he began walking away at 50 yards. I quickly tossed him a contact grunt which caused him to snap his head back at us. A few more grunts every time he put his head down and finally he couldn't take it anymore and did a 360 and walked back our direction. When he got to about 35, he turned back towards the woods and began entering them. I voice-grunted him to a stop when he was completely broadside, and Matthew dumped him in his tracks with the 20-guage slug gun. I took my youngest, who's 8, the next afternoon and we nestled in some weeks overlooking another cut corn field a few miles away as the sun began to sink in the sky. We hadn't been there but about 30 minutes before a HUGE doe walked out at 14 yards, oblivious to our presence. I helped him settle the gun on the Trigger Stick before he started whimpering he was scared to shoot... No dice on a double for the boys this year. It would have been cool to see them both fill their tags on public land in consecutive days, but it'll come... Yesterday morning, I had 11 deer around me as they filtered back to their bedding areas... I picked the biggest two does out of each group and let the Muzzys eat... the second doe I skewered was standing close to the bank of a slough I was hunting beside and she bolted directly out in the water, turning on her side 45 yards straight out into the mucky mess. That's her at the very top of this pic, taken from my stand: I recovered the first doe I shot and got her loaded up before returning to the water's edge to collect this one. One, I knew the cold water would keep the meat better as the temps rose during the morning, and two... well, I knew as soon as I got wet I'd be ready to head for the house. I stripped to my skivvies and began easing out into the water. It came up to my armpits for most of the way, but it would have probably only been about to my belly button except with every step I sank into the squishy bottom about a foot. Here's the daily double after getting them home and unloaded: Gotta love public-land hunting!!
Sounds like a heck of a weekend. Congrats to your whole family. Was he just not ready to take a deer yet or was it the recoil? He'll come around
I think a little of both. . He's taken a couple turkeys already (including what would be the #8 all-time bird in the state of OK had we chosen to enter it...) and I was whispering VERY forcibly to him that it was JUST like shooting a turkey. I realized a little bit after that that the deer wasn't that important ... Our time together was. We sat there for a bit more and then made a mutual decision to leave before we screwed up the area any more. I bought him a milkshake on the way home
I'm actually sitting in the tree right above where we were nestled into the weeds together; if that doe dies the same thing again, she's toast
Congrats! Hoping for my first ever public land bow kill this weekend. Have 4 sits planned, 3 if Saturday turns into an all day sit. Wish I knew where other hunters were set up surrounding the area I'm hunting. Might be worth the gamble to sit all day, high temp will stay in the lower 50's, could get some midday movement with bumped deer.
Passed a super-nice up-and-comer last night at 14 yards as he worked over a little tree behind me... would have probably gone around 125-130 as a 2 1/2-year-old. Sure hope he makes it past all the brown-and-downers.
That's commendable. I actually let lesser, yet legal, bucks go as well. I can't control what others shoot, but I can control what I shoot. Also, a 125"-130" buck wouldn't get a pass from me, that's a great buck for my woods! lol
So for those of you that have been hunting public land for a while, a question. Do you ever see a spot you think might be good, but turn it down due to what it would take to get the deer out? Or.... Do you hunt first and worry about recovery last?
