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Well this was my first crossbow kill, as well as first kill from the ground. I decided to sit down at the base of a tree near where there are a lot of rubs. A baby buck comes by, then a baby doe, then this big doe. She is the only one that sees me, and stands 10 yards in front of me stomping. I thought that this was way too easy, let her go. After about 5 minutes she gives up and walks behind the baby doe, where I can’t get a shot. Another 5 minutes pass, and something spooks all three of them and they all run. The big doe pauses for a second, and I hit her in the lung. The strange thing is that there was barely any blood on the ground...for some reason she didn’t bleed until she fell here about 70 yards away.

Finally getting back on the forum! It’s been a crazy year with work since COVID started and I’m sorry to all those that reached out about leasing... I’m just seeing those messages and didn’t intentionally ignore you so please don’t take it personally! I haven’t been out as much as normal and had planned to take two weeks off in November after a big work project but I was fortunate to harvest a beautiful public land buck (my #2 target) the day before my final presentation. It’s been pretty hard sitting out the rut lol but I’ve at least got all my stuff in order to hit the ground running Saturday. Rut still going strong in 8H/F, watched my #1 target tend a doe yesterday afternoon when I was pulling cards and seeing good cruising activity on the cams. Congrats to all those that have scored and good luck to you all trying to punch a tag before gun! Looking forward to contributing more on here going forward Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gonna let her chill out while I wait for her friends and or boyfriend Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I just got permission to hunt a new property last week, so I have a lot to learn about the deer patterns on it. After the nasty storm last night, and being mid-Nov, I had high expectations for this mornings hunt. It would rain a while, then would sleet a while, and kept going back and forth all morning. About 8:15, I was kinda suprised that I hadn't seen anything yet. Just then, I glanced over my shoulder and saw a big doe hauling ass towards me and she stopped 15 yards away. Her mouth was open and panting, while she stared intently at her back trail. I had NO intentions of shooting a doe, but I didn't get any deer last year and I sure would like to have some in the freezer this year. As I was deciding if I wanted to shoot her, I kept watching her backtrail that I could see for 100 yards, but didn't see any bucks pushing her. I figured I would draw my bow, then make up my mind. (Yep, I fell for it!) I figured being my luck, it would be just a small buck/non-shooter chasing her and I would lose my bird-in-the hand freezer meat. The best I can figure, the brain must have told the trigger finger that it was "Go time" and that sealed her fate! The Hoyt launched an arrow her way! She spun, ran ~75 yards and tipped over within sight! NICE!! I nocked another arrow, just incase, and watched her backtrail. 2-3 min later, I saw a buck about 100 yards away, running frantically and zig-zagging, nose to the ground trying to pick up her trail. At first, I didn't think he was a shooter, but as he got closer and I got a better look, I changed my mind!! As if it was meant to be, he stopped for the one and only time 18 yards away and broadside, about 5 yards from where I had shot the doe! I thought my shot appeared a little high on the doe, so I purposely aimed low for the heart. The Hoyt launched another arrow to it's mark! The buck ran ~75 yards and tipped over!! Thank God!! Got to break in the new truck too!

Big 6 ptr chasing a doe grunting the whole time.

Three doe just tore by me. I got a shot at the fourth and took it. She's down about 100yds from me. 32yd shot Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I'm negative....No big surprise, because it's been two weeks since my possible exposure, and I have shown no symptoms... Better safe than sorry, though...Now I can call The Legion and tell them that they won't be needing to file Chapter 11....

Live from the butcher shop... A consistent temp of 40-42 means I’ll hang my buck for at least a week. The doe was killed 4 days ago and she’s getting all my attention today.

Lighted nock is in the first pic, white belly in the second Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the kind words and congrats today fellas! He might be my best buck yet or close to it! I've only had permission to hunt that property for the past 5 days. I wasn't really sure where to put up stands or what the quality of bucks was like out there. Knew that no one else has had permission to hunt it, so there "should" be some good bucks out there. Just got lucky! My morning went from seeing nothing, to having a big rut crazed buck come busting through frantically chasing a doe, and having 2 deer on the ground in a ~3min span! LOL Good luck!

My Dad passed, in 2006, so I've used his .300 Win Mag every year for him. It was his baby...

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Sako 85 Classic in 270, shooting my hand loads with 140g Nosler BTs, propelled by 59.5 grains of H4831 at about 3000fps Topped with a Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40. It has dropped every deer it ever shot at. Even a couple from it's first owner moog.

...my friend sent this the other day ...10 ft away in a park in NJ...they allow archery hunting there...

Sure have my work cut out for me today!! Story later!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

She's waiting for me, good girl! Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

On Friday, I was able to sneak out of work some hours early. I hit the woods with my sticks and saddle for some run and gun fun. An either / or tag and a doe tag in hand, and a baby due in a few, if it offered me a good shot with the bow, I planned to accept. After the fog rolled out for the second time, the sun shone, and the Blue Jays lit up over by where I thought the deer bedded. Not long after, I could see movement in the thick of the Hemlocks. Send a grunt. I did. A short while later, this doe and another came in to investigate. She gave me a clean broadside shot, but stepped forward as I loosed the arrow, and at 25 yards (elevated), she tried ducking the string. I hit her way back. She offered me luck, as it turned out. A severed artery led me to her on an easy track, and my gratitude soared as the sun went down.

A few from this morning. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

Depending on where I set up either the Model 70 243 or 30-06. (Middle gun is @Savagehunter Model 70 308 and will be in his hands)

A few year old backstrap I had from a family friend, who moved south, and didn’t want to haul the venison!

First post ever! I have enjoyed this forum since discovering it two weeks ago. Grew up hunting in PA and joined the military and did not get to hunt that much. Now that I am back in the northeast for good it has been nice to get back into the woods! First day weapon is a Stevens 7mm-08. I won the thing three years ago at a local fire department gun raffle. The thing has been great and taken down 8 deer! Myself 2 does and 6 point, my 9 year old daughter a doe and a button buck and my brother 2 bucks and my sister in law a doe. I hunt northern zone so I already took a doe down last week with it and hope to get my buck tomorrow morning, it is suppose to be super cold so I am hopeful. Based on how close and the type of terrain I have been getting these deer at I am looking to switch to a 30-30 or 45-70 sometime in the next few years.. other than my daughter's deer which were shot in PA during the mentored hunt days all of them have been taken inside 100yds. Need more of a brush gun as opposed to my sniper rifle. Good luck to everyone going out for the first time this Saturday!

11/16: I didn’t hunt but Dad did dark to dark in 3N. He was down to the afternoon magic hour about to finish off 7.5 days of being 0 for the season in sightings when he spotted a spike. He had the spike 20-40 yards in and out for 20min. He was hunting a wide open valley I hunted with xbow the morning of the 9th. Heavy pines to left and heavy bedding to the right. But in this open valley you can see a long way. He was sitting on ground against a tree (no blind or chair). Anyway, Everytime the spike left my dad did a light grunt and he came back. He sent me some cool video but I can’t upload them so here’s a screenshot at 18yds. He was playing around with him and then all of sudden noticed and second deer. The other buck was at least a 6pt (3 on each side) but like 8pt with small brows. Not huge but respectable. The bigger buck never saw my dad. He actually ranged him at 46yds. And was on right on him behind shoulder but lots of brush. So he didn't take the shot. He waited for sunset before slipping away unnoticed. He'll go back in tomorrow and hopefully get him. Likely try to grunt Him again. I will say my Dad has had a lot of success over the years seeing the same deer 2 days in a row, so I think he's got a chance. Goes to show how quick a horrible season can (almost) become great. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Retired coworker of mine was in Rockefeller State park. Looks like breeding has started there. I am not very familiar with the park, but since he walked right up to this pair, I can't imagine it gets much pressure if hunting is even allowed. Crazy. Guy doesn't hunt and sent me this to break my chops about how easy it must be. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I really like this. It's made in Cooperstown.

OK....Just settle down a bit. All you are feeling is the pre-opening day jitters! That condition has been around longer than I've been hunting! Heck, I still get em!! What stand? Where are the deer? Will I see any here? Where are other hunters? I've scouted here, and seen a ton of deer sign but no deer?? I haven't scouted there, but there always seems to be deer? I saw a big one from this spot while bowhunting? Joe says to go here or there? I killed one there five years ago! Just to name a few..... The pre-opening day jitters always have us guessing and thinking, where is THE BEST spot to go on opening day of deer season? No easy answer to that one. Seems like no matter where I decide to go, the deer go somewhere else! I have only killed a couple deer on opening day in 47 opening days! So it usually takes me a few days to sort through everything, as I'm not the best, or smartest hunter to stumble through the woods. But once I do, it usually works out just fine. I guess if I didn't get the opening day jitters, it would be time to hang up the ol' hunting hat. So enjoy them! I would take the climber only when you are well practiced, and familiar with it. Just pick a spot and go!!!

Smith and wesson model 19-4 6 inch 357 magnum. Wife is using my Venture 7mm08. We will be in the same blind.

Nothing moving here checking cams on the way out and have 2 good bucks cruzing around. 1 day time pic too. Be back out this evening.

Abe Lincoln and Walt Disney went bankrupt. Henry Ford went bankrupt many times. Playing the system? No. Taking risks with opportunities for great success.

You guys talking about leaving your scoped guns behind and toting a gun with open sights on rainy or snowy days ever heard of Butler Creek lens caps? Lol, look ‘em up.

30/30 Might take my Savage 25/06 on state land in a certain long range clear cut. some days .44 Dan Wesson revolver Mission MXB 400 crossbow at my 3M spot I switch up a lot in regular season, depending on spot, and my mood.

I will be taking my Christinsen Arms Ridgeline in 6.5 PRC with hand loaded ammo that I have spent alot of time working up. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I will be sitting with a young lady letting her do the shooting with my Mossberg .270 that she killed a couple bucks with during the youth weekends years ago. She has gone deerless for a few years now and asked for my help, and I gladly offered up my spot and gun. We will have a good time and should be able to fill a couple tags( buck and doe) just to rile up her hubby.

I'll have my Win M70 lightweight in .280 Rem.....I bought it in 1988 from Ron Shirk's Gun Supply in PA for $289..... It has traveled all over the continent and killed everything from woodchucks to Alaska bull moose..... My current load features a Barnes TTSX 140 grain at around 3000 fps.... Never been a bughole shooter....I am happy with 100 yard groups of 2" or a bit less, but it shoots "minute of ribcage" out to 300 yards or so, which is as far as I can shoot from my tower stand.. It currently wears a fixed 6X Leupold, but most of the game has been killed with a fixed 4X Leupold, including a few 300 yard + kills..

Yes I do realize that. My wife wants to hunt this weekend and Sunday is rain. She will not hunt public land, especially down here on the opener. It's my fault, her first season I took her out down here for the opener, and she hated it. She doesn't like being around when a bunch of people are blasting rounds at deer like shooting at clay pigeons. I don't blame her at all. I happen to enjoy hunting with my wife. I'll hunt down here during the regular season because it's closer and I can get more time in, but I prefer to hunt the NZ. If I ever decided to drop the cash to buy land, it will not be in the SZ, it will be in the ADK's.

Finally got them both loaded! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

11/03/2020 - Election Day It was a quick hunt, and just about everything went according to plan. I saw a young buck nose down, and a doe group walk the trail the day prior, and figured I should set up on it first thing in the morning. Given the expected snow on the ground, I figured the pine boughs would hang low, and decided on a ground hunt from a patch of Hemlocks downwind on the trail. I was also feeling pretty lazy about setting up sticks and such to climb a tree. I walked in an hour before sunrise, the snow crunched under my feet. It was crisp, calm and clear, the forest lit up in a high contrast black and white. No fresh tracks, so the deer hadn't moved off their feeding, I thought. My bow in my right hand, my stool in my left, and my pack on my back, I situated myself under hanging cover of the point Hemlock, and sat still. My wandering thoughts whipped back to attention at first light when a turkey blew out of the branches above me. Snow drifted in my face like stinging down feathers, and I worked on lowering my heart rate. Some time passed, and the sun crested behind me, bringing sharp focus to my surroundings. It was like a late December morning, a holiday morning, and all was still, but for a tree bending on its way to break some yards up the hill to my left. My head on a slow swivel, my bow resting up against the outside of my right leg, hands in my pass-thru pocket. The turkey wasn't alone. All at once, a flock busted out from the remaining Hemlocks, sending more snow down like a smoke-screen in all directions. I looked to my right, through the settling drift, and caught deer legs moving along the trail. I held still until I knew which direction they'd take. The lead doe took the main trail upwind of me. Perfect. Turkeys clucking their way off, I pulled my hands out, and leaned a bit to get my bow, and the lead doe pauses, her front half behind a tree. The train of does stopped and stared at her, waiting for some direction. I knew it, she saw me move. 25 yards away, a snow screen, in the dark of the Hemlock cover, and she saw me move. I couldn't see her head, but I felt her staring at me. I raised the bow, and came to full-draw unsure of what would happen next. Crash... The tree up the way fell. The train of does shifted their attention, ears swiveling like radar dishes. I didn't see a muscle move on the lead doe. She was locked on. Startled, but still sharp, I held at full draw. I saw her head peak around the tree trunk. She left the trail, and started walking towards me, trying to get downwind. She was alert, but not yet scared. She kept coming closer, head-on, each cautious step ratcheting up the shoulder burn from holding at full-draw. She closed the distance to what I thought was 15 yards, and held still, just in front of a small Hemlock bough. My mind raced around the idea of a frontal shot, and just as I was about to press the trigger, she stepped to her left, and in a flash, I knew this was the moment she was deciding to bound off, and I was going to stay ahead of her. She was staring right at me, quartered-to, pin in the V of her shoulder, I pressed the trigger, the arrow flew, I heard a pop. Suddenly, the woods erupted with hooves pounding away, everything lost in swaying branches and snow floating down into deer tracks. 30 minutes later, I left the security of the cover, and walked over to find my arrow stuck in a sapling trunk, blood and bubbles on the fletching, brown hair on the snow, a spray of blood behind where she had stood. I took up the track. I found her just over a stone wall, 115 yards from the shot site. She stumbled a few times on her track, disoriented by the lack of oxygen. She expired in a Hemlock grove, melting the thin layer of snow around where she lay. I took the time to thank her and the woods for their offering, and was grateful for the harvest, and that just about everything went according to plan.

I thought I would post this here being as a lot of us really do enjoy the "old" harvest thread format. I decided not to hunt Saturday morning and instead head out for an afternoon sit. I walked the 1/2 miles through the loudest crunchiest leaves I have ever heard. I got to the stand, hung my bow on the rope, took off my pack, hung it on the rope, took two steps up the ladder and it creaked. Instantly I heard the "snap!" of a branch and looked up to see a very nice 8 point trotting away, not 30 yards from me. Directly down wind. He must have stood or was bedded right there and watched me over the last 80 yard approach and begin my climb. It was really cool to see and it was a buck we do not have pics of. 4 hours later, I'm getting ready for the last hour of the day and I catch movement from below as a deer moves up the hill on the trail I'm posted on. The setting sun made it difficult to really see what it was, but as he cleared a briar patch the left beam shined like a beacon in the sunlight. I thought I knew this buck! We have had pics of him since July. He looked to be a beast on camera. I started shaking. I thought to myself "come ON... this is nothing new, get it together." A few deep breaths and he walked behind a big oak, I drew and he stopped dead. For about a minute I held a full draw until he began moving again, another 15 yards into an opening, I grunted, he stopped and I let it fly. I could see the hit was high, it looked really high. I was a wreck. I watched him run about 150 yards from me before disappearing. I waited a few minutes and looked for the arrow. Nothing. Small amounts of blood. I figured I looked a little further and found good blood, but looked down the hill to see what appears to be his head bobbing left and right. I backed out. Went in the next morning and found him right there. After comparing the pics and the videos we have, it was clear that this deer was not the one I thought he was, very similar, but not the same deer. The deer I thought he was has two brows, this one only has one and he was not as big-bodied. We do not have any pics of this deer on camera. I am super happy with him and very thankful that I had the chance to take him. Thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement after the shot. He's going on the wall!

11 years ago I mentored Zach. He was 14 and on his first bow hunt. He managed to kill his first deer. This year it's my 16 year old on her first gun hunt. I couldn't be more excited. I hope the good lord looks down on us and gives a thumbs up!

I'm pretty sure I'll be using a 7mm-08.......I thought about taking the 300WSM but it only takes two in the belly when the 7mm-08 takes three. It shouldn't make much difference if I do my part. Maybe I'm overthinking it? LOL

I guess I didn't bang the scope at all.

My wife better thank me... It’s not technically doing the dishes, but it’s close.

Always lots of replies to threads like this.. I guess we all enjoy talking about our guns !!....

In East Aurora this morning. Snow in the air and the light wind is perfect. Nothing yet but some squirrel.

Here is a few pics of the mock scrap I did a couple weeks ago just to see if it really works. I just took my foot scraped the ground and pissed on it.

Honestly, you wouldn’t know. I bet its 4 yrs old, at minimum 3, that I am positive of. It was in tightly wrapped freezer paper direct from the processor, zero freezer burn, but the very outside was starting to slightly turn gray. I used course sea salt, fresh coarse black pepper, and granulated garlic. Medium-ish cooked, very good. No way I could have wasted the meat. Jenn loved it too.

50 cal Hawken style flintlock with spit patch and round ball wearing my loin cloth! Cannot wait!!

i rub down with one of these

X-bolt Medallion 30-06.

2 great shots! Congrats!