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Got this great blonde 6pt today at 9:56 AM. My bud and I were hunting about 300 yards from each other on the same ridge, on either side of a huge, thick and swampy bedding area. We know it's a great area and last Thursday morning I saw our #1 double drop tine buck (made a thread on him) heading back into the bedding as well as a 140 class 8 dogging some does. So, I knew this stand is in a great spot (shot my first buck in my avatar in this stand last year) and was hoping to see one of these bucks. Well, hunted the stand Friday morning and saw a few does so I decided to end the season in the stand. Saw nothing and neither did my buddy so he said he was going to slowly walk a trail we cut through the swamp. After 10 minutes a doe ran past a full speed. After another 10 min I see something come over the top of the hill and I figured it was my friend. But then I saw the rack and he did a once over of the area and headed towards me. I was going to pass when I counted his points (thought he was a 4) but I saw his tines and spread and wanted him. He spotted me when I reached for my gun but he kept it moving and I stopped him at 20yds with a "mah" and let a round go the best I could as I was shaking really bad. He ran 50yds towards the bedding and stopped behind a tree and just froze. His vitals were blocked but i could see a little blood. After a minute, he took two steps forward towards bedding and I shot again a 65yds and he dropped right there. Turns out first shot was true, taking out his lung, liver and stomach and the second shot came out high and somehow dropped him. Beautiful blonde 6pt. I'll try my best to tan his hide and I'll boil the skull. Not one of the huge guys I was after but he is an awesome deer and I am just as happy to take him.

After a long bow season with several good encounters but no back straps. I was happy to take this guy with a gun. Dec 8th is cutting it a little too close for my liking. Believe it or not this guy was dogging a doe hard. We have so many does in my area (4O) that not all get breed the first go round. 28 days later it starts to heat up again. I guess that is one benefit of having a buck to doe ratio of about 1:20. Put a pretty good shot on him @ about 150yrds. Knew he was hit good but he was running pretty hard across open field so sent another one at him took out his right front leg. tumbled him and there he laid. Saved my doe permit for muzzleloader so will be back at it this weekend. Thank you to everyone who posted I really enjoy reading all the stories. Helps me get though the work week and motivated to get up and get to the stand on those cold mornings..

i dont know..... my dog is smart enough to stay inside when its cold, and i sit on the ice for 10 hours and not catch anything. maybe im just dumb. lol.

My last day of muzzleloader 8. First and only late muzz buck this far.

drilled this big doe this am in 7A.35 yards with a 308,she ran 40 yards and pilled up!!

You should let that go, otherwise you are going to have a bad time every season. That's hunting. Anybody can be fortunate enough to be at the right spot at the right time. Just enjoy your hunt no matter the results. Have a great time out there and appreciate the fact that you can be out there. In my opinion, the problem lies in the culture of counting inches. Counting inches of bone is what is diminishing the hunting tradition and turning it into a sport of numbers. Everyone should just be grateful and happy for what they harvest because as you all know, walking into the woods and doing it all yourself is never easy. Some years you might get a nice buck. Others you might get a nice Doe. Others you might get a fawn, and others you might get nothing. Just enjoy the tradition and stop counting meaningless inches. Deer no longer are respected as deer. They are now simply called 140's, 150's, 200's, etc... To me its not about jealousy over how many inches another person gets, either with tons of money or on his own. You just have to appreciate every day in the woods no matter the outcome. It will destress you and make the act of hunting much more enjoyable. It is good to be concerned about these shows and the businesses supporting them. They are the reason anti hunters have so much ammo against the hunting tradition. One of the most repeated anti hunter remarks is trophy shooting. That is what these shows represent.

Big fat doe. Dropped her around 3:45PM with the muzzleloader. This drag is killing me! Details to come.

$ for my taxidermy bills, lol.

That's amazing. Wonder what it's going to cost in Scent Lock?

The truthful answer is that most inline MZ with a quality load will outshoot the skill level of 99% of hunters. I know my Vortek UL does. I rarely hunt in places with shots longer than 100 yards, and that's typically going to be my max.

I had 6 come out on the wrong side of the field just before the end of legal light. Had the road hunting poachers stop and get out of their truck until they saw my orange then they hopped back in their truck and took off. Makes me wonder whats been shot out of that spot this year since I havent been around much. My father is actually trying to buy the chunk of land. If he does, I will be planting a double row of pines along the road to get rid of the road hunter temptation.

I got my second buck ever today. Nice wide 6 with beautiful blonde head. 3rd deer this hunting season. Good season for me.

I wouldn't leave my bow in the woods for anything I wouldn't get sleep at night thinking if it's still their. Lol good luck though.

I do.I love to ice fish.Something to look foward to at the end of a good or lousy deer season. where do you fish and what for. I fish sandy pond mostly for perch but this year i plan on doing quite a bit of onieda lake for perch and walleye. Might try for some pike but not much into trophy fishing.Im a meat fisher.

Did anyone else see the SCI Safari hunting show on the Outdoor Channel where they hunt with "Quest Haven Guides" in Pennsylvania? This place has 200"-400" deer walking all over it. I have never seen such f#$%ery in my life!! They credit their deer to optimum does and bucks, good food, low pressure, and "world class management". YEAH RIGHT!! What a crock that is!! I credit it to high fences, yuppie money, and steroids. They claim that they grow 1 1/2 year old deer that sport 180" of antler . The entire time, everyone they showed hunting was doing so in plain clothes, (one girl in flip flops!) and hunting out of shooting houses fit for a king. I can only imagine what these people are paying to hunt these deer! Their website says that price's on trophy animals are priced on an "individual basis". I can promise you I will never donate an ounce of money to SCI after seeing that garbage. That's not hunting, that's killing and that's cowardice! Any hunter with half a brain on whitetail deer knows that bucks don't grow like that, they just don't.

So my rifle season is over! Second year since i got into hunting and although i still have yet to get a deer i am so happy i decided to take this wonderful age old american tradition up in the first place. All the beautiful little places i have found trailblazing through state parks. I find it amazing how much better you get at hunting as time goes on. I cant wait for next spring for turkey season and i am def going to get a bow for the following bow season! I have learned so much from this site and fellow hunters and i am extremely grateful. For you muzzleloaders i wish u the best of luck!

so according to this it can be used to harvest a doe in the late MZL season

I will be out on the island Wed. for my last bow hunt before the shotgun season in Jan.

actually...you guys need to read the book....your regular [gun] season buck tag is good for buck...and can be used to tag a doe as well

NY...He is from Chicago. He could have a steamer trunk full of them with the numbers taken off...lol. I am betting he couldn't hit the side of a barn if he was standing inside of it.

This is my time of year to donate a few does to the Venison drive.. I'll be out with both muzzleloader and bow depending on the weather.

we have evolved as a culture so to look at current hunting practices as a decline in the tradition is not fair. The average household has 2 automobiles, years ago only the rich had cars. Today 99% of houses have floors instead of dirt and we are not worried about bandits jumping us on a hike. Because most of us are fortunate to still be able to feed our families without hunting and when you add up what most of us spend on hunting, venison becomes very expensive. While I'll agree with you that social media has turned some of us into jealous haters, it's not fair to compare the 1800's to modern day hunting. It's apples to oranges. For me, taking a deer has always been a bonus as simply spending time in the woods has always been the cure to what ales me.

Maybe thats the new Rage bullet "Its like throwing an Axe through an animal!!"

Haha, a sheep or alaskan brown bear hunt would be nice of Santa lol.

When you are teaching the lessons be sure to include the one about not jumping to conclusions based on no facts.

You are just recruiting the wrong guys for deer drives. You need a healthy combination of marathon runners, world's strongest men, tree climbers, etc.

When I was a kid people hunted to feed there family's in most cases. Family is from deep in adk, it was a tradition, friends get together, hunt, tell stories ect u get the picture, it was looked down on to hunt in southern zone(easy pickings), things change, times sure have changed, it is sad that a lot of people are just thinking about things in inches, deer are challenging period, think that is what keeps a lot of us intrested, I try to keep it me vs ......... Whatever I am hunting, hopefully I can show my kids the tradition of hunting, the older I get the more it is about the hunt not just the kill or how big ect, wouldn't try to impose my two cents on anyone whatever my belief all I know is what hunting is and means to me and that's all that counts whatever it may be, never tell anyone how to raise their kids and don't tell anyone the way they should hunt

You have been on her wayyyyyyyyyyyyy long enought to know that isn't true...lol

its doe..... not dow.

The fundamental difference is the lack of limbs and string. Its an easy concept once you let go of the NYB brainwashing and lies. An arrow fired from a string powered by the tension from the limbs = archery equipment. Air or powder propelled projectile (bullet, arrow, etc) = gun. I wont fall into your childish "he started it" nonsense.

How so? Oh wait, your an NYB member thats gonna say a crossbow is a gun. Nevermind, silly me!

After a few trips around 3A in the Catskills and seeing nothing but does and spike bucks that were not legal to take, I admitted that hunting one of the scarcest regions for bucks as a beginner with no "Hunting" skill might not yield me anything. Luckily my cousins took me to some private property in 3M where my doe tags were yesterday. After fumbling my way up a tree with a climber stand (first time using one of those too) I sat for a few hours and froze. Felt like my toes were getting stabbed it was so cold for me. Just after 10am I texted my cousins and said I'm dying up here and not seeing anything moving they then decided to push the edge of the property. They texted back, be ready they are going to be coming. I stood up and rolled the hammer back on my Model 94, 30 30 from the early 1950's(lots of family history) and stood ready. A dozen does came barreling over the hillside. one stopped for a moment giving me the chance I needed. I let the boomstick roar and my aim was true.(thank you shooting every weekend for the past few years) the result? a textbook hit right through the lung and top of the heart. I was glad as a first timer I was able to give the deer a quick humane death. Today, my first time butchering. Considering that field dressing was easier then I thought, and didn't even phase me the butchering stage should be easy enough. I'm choosing to do the butchering myself for the taste, I've heard that having a place do it will leave the white/silvery covering on the meat and that makes it very gaming and not taste that great. The couple times I've had venison its been from hand butchered deer so thats what I'm going for. And also heres my winning picture! Next weekend however now that ill have meat in the freezer, I'm going back to 3A for my Catskill buck.

I am in it to the end. Muzzleloader is my weapon.

Are you being serious? You thought you were only one on State land?

I do understand what it is that bothers some people about some of the tactics used these days. I might even be a little more hard-core in my judgement of these things than many others. I am even to the point where I wouldn't use a guide because to me he is essentially doing all the hunting and I am doing the shooting. I am also heavily against what I consider a canned hunt. So I am not without my biases. And on occasion, I have let my biases show a little bit .... lol. I generally try not to make a big deal of it, but I will say that when someone fills their den with mounts from a game farm, it does put a bit of a stigma on those kills. It really does cheapen the achievement and in my eyes makes it all kind of a worthless accomplishment that shows nothing other than he has deep pockets and can afford to buy his trophies. I try not to be that close-minded, but I just can't help having those thoughts creep into my mind. The only thing that I find unfortunate is when I hear non-hunters start talking like that sort of stuff is what hunting is all about. That tells me that in a lot of cases I and whatever achievements that I have accomplished are being lumped in with these "short-cutted" versions of hunting. That bothers me a bit.

Not really. I know quite a few guys that shoot them 100% legally and they never let the cat out of the bag when they get a good one. You might get a chance to see the racks if you go to their house, but unless you know where they hunt, they dont give hints where they were taken. In other words, you may never hear about them unless you have a direct tie to the person.

When you are using 300ft of rope to get out of where you are leaving eveything in the tree except your headlight does help with the climb in the dark!

I hunted over 2 piles of droppings, and deer tracks. Looked pretty fresh, maybe a few days old at most. Natually I saw NOTHING, except sh!t. At least I know they survived the season for next year.

10 folks from the city....lol

haha.You can see their eyes glow when they look up at ya.

Hunting out of my camp in Cameron County, PA we've been pretty successful since we started hunting bears, taking 12 in 11 years. Our largest was taken two years ago, live weight 470 lbs. Up until this year I had never seen a bear during the season. I'd run into them hunting archery or rifle for deer but never while actively pursuing them. I got into my camp early Friday afternoon and joined my cousins and uncles who were already there. After planning our hunt and enjoying the camp atmosphere, we setup our things for the opener the next morning. We drove all day, covered roughly 7 miles of ground but never saw/heard a bear. But arriving back at camp we realize one of our older members had shot a bear on the top bench of the property. Being energized by the success we planned our hunt for Monday. Climbing the hill Monday morning my cousin told me that since I was younger I got to be top watcher, aka got to climb the furthest. So I set up on a rock in the middle of thick cover. I couldn't see more than 30 yards clearly in any direction. The drive starts and I find my shooting lanes, now just to wait. After roughly 30 minutes I hear something coming, but since past experiences had provided deer not bear I wasn't all that nervous. Then I saw the black body coming through the laurel, no more than 20 yards from me and directly on my level. I shoulder my gun and fire, he runs down the hill and I put another into him and he drops. I radio to my group that we had a bear down and the reaction is incredible. We meet up and take pictures/enjoy the moment. The best thing about these bear hunts are that if someone gets one you feel successful, regardless of who it is. You feel like you had a part in it and it really is a special hunt. He weighed in at 177 lbs live weight and I'm currently waiting for him to get mounted. Getting a half body, couldn't be happier!

Would you guys rather miss clean or not see anything that day , i would rather not see anything than miss clean , missing just haunts you for ever ,im usually over not seeing anything before i get out in the woods for the next hunt.

Did it a few times then it dawned on me, "If God wanted me to fish in the winter he wouldn't have closed the lake!". Who am I to argue? I take my beagles and chase rabbits.

I got the $ to shoot a 200"+ deer, but I would feel like a loser doing it.

You have a point there ,Aaron...If all of those hundreds of mountain lions that people report seeing can exist with no physical evidence other than eye witness reports, an animal with much HIGHER intelligence, like a sasquatch, should be able to exist in fairly large numbers without detection... Shucks, there may be THOUSANDS of them out there...I suspect that a large number of them voted for Obama......

No, they arent. Many of the outfitters offer both low and high fence, and the reasons would be 1, exotics, and 2, people pay. Honestly, there are alot of people that say paying for any outfitter (unless one is required) or guide is no longer real hunting. What say you on that train of thought?

Ok, I always get this knee-jerk reaction when I read about these kinds of hunts. It's kind of disgusting what is being done in the name of hunting these days. Always people looking for short-cuts to impress their peers with their hunting prowess. They want to take the credit and claim achievements without all the handicaps and features that level the playing field somewhat for the prey. We really don't liek that mentality, or at least so we tell ourselves. However, once I get over that initial rant, I begin to think about what it is that is so maddening about these kinds of hunts. Why the heck do I take these things so personal? Well, it seems that these so-called hunters are trying to make themselves appear to be great hunters by taking advantage of animals that have been "created" through agricultural methods of animal husbandry. These animals are no longer truely wild, but basically dumb semi-domestic farm animals. There are tactics and techniques that place the advantages squarely in the favor of the hunters through technology and human manipulation to the point where the prey almost has no chance of survival. The element of challenge has been compromised and pretty much eliminated. The quality of the deer have been artificially maneuvered and manipulated through careful habitat manicuring such that they do not represent the natural fetures o the species. But then, isn't this sort of thing just the natural extension of every deer hunting evolution of techniques over the decades that we are now all accepting as standard hunting activities these days? It's all the same thing except that hunting preserve owners have taken it all to its natural conclusion. Consider the efforts that we all go through to equip ourselves with the latest technolgy in our hunting. Look at the weapons we use today. Some of them bear no resemblance to weapons of years ago. That too is a form of trying to erase the challenge, and a pursuit of gadgets and gimmicks to put the advantages in our favor to a greater and greater extent. We haven't found any limit yet that I can see as we continue the march toward space age weapons. Whatever technology can come up with is readily accepted by hunters and eventually by conservation law. Look at how many would like to have the advantage of baiting legalized. Look at how we devote hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on food plots to improve the herd and antler size. Many of the things we do on a regular basis are activities aimed at coming up with as close to a guaranteed result in our hunts as we can possibly arrange. Most of what we see on hunter's wish lists involves changes that would eliminate other layers of challenge. No we haven't taken it all to the extent of these pay-to-hunt game farms (yet), but it all points toward the same thing. The difference only lies in extent. So maybe these game farm hunts shouldn't really irritate me so. Those people have merely moved the line a little farther out than we are willing to accept today. It may very well simply be a peek at what future hunting will evolve into. In many ways, we have pushed hunting and everything relating to hunting in the direction of guarantees. Maybe these hunting preserves are just a little ahead of their time. Having the advantage of a 69 year perspective sometimes gives us a good look at the indicators that point out the future and provides us with something to think about.

I just saw on ancient aliens tv show that big foot is indeed lowered from a UFO to do the hunting for the aliens and then returns to the ship , seems like he is just a fellow hunter like us. It has to be true or they couldn't put it on tv.

I wouldn't shoot it. I would just take a grainy shaky video of it to show everyone.

Chupicabrah is worth more than a foot.