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Today’s thanksgiving gift

I have a big doe i had to swim out to get her. Now I can't drag her up the bank

Congrats@cynthiafu on a nice doe. We didn't leave empty handed today my buddy took this nice 7 point. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Decent 8/9pt with broken g3 bit the dust. Snuck up on me and I didn’t know he was directly behind me until I moved and I heard him running away. Scoped myself in the rush to shoot him and hold on to tree while turning around. Lol. But perfect shot. Honestly wasnt sure how big he was as it happened really fast but no complaints. Fun hunt with Treeguy.

I got up this morning and really didn't want to hunt with forecasted winds in the 20-30 mph range, rain, and temps in the 50's. It is always been the tradition to hunt Thanksgiving day so I dragged myself to some state land I have been hunting pretty regular. Got there before 6: 00a.m. and there were already guys in the woods with sunrise being 7:14. I'm not a big fan of gun season and after spending 58 hrs. in stands during bow; not seeing much, and only having shot opportunities on small ones I was not very optimistic. I have scouted this area a lot and hunted it enough to know there are deer here. I was also pretty sure I had their travel routes figured out despite all the pressure they have been getting and from hunters, hikers etc. I decided to leave the climber in the truck and hunt from the ground. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit in a tree in 30 mph winds. I got in by 6:45 and am thinking to myself what the hell am I doing hunting on a day like this. The wind blew for about an hour and then it started to rain, Shots started ringing out between 6:50 and 7:00 with sunrise @ 7:14. Finally at 7:20 things quiet down. I started thinking about Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays and how dismal it will be without the loved ones I have lost in the past year or so and miss dearly, not being able to celebrate with family members because of all the covid business, how messed up the world has become, and how much worse it can get in the future. After being there a short time the wind died down and now I am wishing I had my climber. Oh well I'll just stick it out for a couple of hours, go home and chalk it up as another day of deer hunting. At 7:40 this guy comes down one of the travel routes. He stops turns his head, and I can see how his rack is not symmetrical. Thinking to myself that he needed to be removed from the gene pool I took the shot. After eating my tags last year I didn't want a repeat performance this year, While I was hoping for a trophy I really did not want to take my chances like last year and end up empty handed. After the shot he takes off and shows no indication of being hit whatsoever and I think to myself WTF. I wait for ½ hr. and knew I had to at least go check to be certain. I get to where he stood and it starts pouring rain. My day is only getting better. After looking pretty hard and not seeing any hair or blood I am thinking a miss for sure. Just when I am about to kick myself even harder for missing; I spot some blood but there isn't much so worse yet I only wounded him. The rain gets worse and there is only blood here and there. I followed it the best I could and finally had to start leaving markers so I could back track to try to pick it up again. After about 40 yards the blood is getting harder and harder to find. I look down through the woods and I see the white belly in a section of brush about 60 yards from the shot. Come to find out it was a decent shot and all the blood was confined in the chest. Both lungs were destroyed but the heart was not damaged at all. The drag was long but luckily mostly downhill. By the GPS it was just a little over 3 tenths of a mile. Dressed weight is 129 lbs. He has a broken tine from fighting on the right side and one sticker that wasn't an inch so on the tag he is recorded as a 5 point. Not as nice as most of the bucks taken here, not my biggest or best; but gave me something to be thankful for in these trying times; and happy I won't be eating all my tags this year. A state land buck on Thanksgiving day. Mossberg 9200 semi-auto 12 gauge/federal sabot slug.

At 8am my good friend takes a shot at the lead deer in a group of 4. He felt the shot was a bit back and was down on himself pretty hard. He still won’t tell me how far of a shot it was so I assume it was a chip shot. I tell him to stay put and don’t move we need to give it time. We get a text group going to devise a plan to get on that deer mid day before the rain comes in. The plan gets assembled and now it’s a waiting game. 10:45 hits and the game plan goes into motion. We got boots on the ground so I decided to come out of the hut and stand on the balcony leaving my daughter inside nice and warm with the windows closed. No idea why because our guys where a good 400 yards out yet but this Big buck gets out of his bed. I’m instantly tracking him in the scope but I don’t have a shot. He gets behind a bunch of trees so I look back inside my hut hoping to make eye contact with my daughter to tell her to stay still and plug her ears. She’s already up out of her seat ears plugged looking at me. I give her a thumbs up and turn my attention back to the buck. He hits the main trail and I instantly know where he’s going but I don’t have a gun rest out on the balcony. He gets behind another tree and I drop down to a knee and take the best shooting position I can given the situation. He steps out from the tree offering his head and front shoulder. I just want one more step from him so I can see his entire boiler room and tuck a shot just behind the front shoulder. Wouldn’t you know it he catches something and snaps his head over looking right at me still only offering up his front shoulder. It’s now or never he’s only moments away from bugging out of my life for good. I squeeze the trigger zeroed in on his shoulder. Bang the gun pops off and he drops down into the infamous death run. I can see red coming out of the exact spot I was aiming at. He travels 20 yards in a heart beat and all of a sudden his legs are under him and his head and tail are up running through the woods. He jumps up onto the dike slows down and walks out of view. WTF just happened I’m dying inside! This is going to a very painful wait. The guys on the ground are blowing up my phone. I tell them what happened and to continue with the game plan and let’s find the first deer shot. The buck and myself need time. Thankfully we recover the first deer and now 3 guys are headed my way 45 min after the shot to check out the hit sight and walk the dike where the buck was last seen. No blood and no hair at the hit sight but blood on the dike. Seconds later one of the guys on the dike spots the buck getting out of his bed and he tosses a shot down range in desperation just before the buck hits the water and runs out of life. We now have a dead buck in the creek that needs recovery. A 200 year old row boat and one very very wet hunter later the buck is on land and I have my hands on bone. My initial shot went though the shoulder hit 1 lung and nicked the heart. The desperation shot never connected. I’m very thankful for the group of guys I hunt with and to be able to share this moment with them and my daughter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just shot a buck I’d never shoot, but a single mother of 3 I know requested some meat yesterday. Thats more important to me.

And I got her to the truck . And here comes my helper lololol

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I got her up half way woohoo go me

I’ll post the story in the harvest thread later when I have time. Beautiful 10 pointer shot at 11:00am Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just heard a volley from my buddy, he killed an 8 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

We’re up til dusk. Same stand I shot buck out of. She may possibly stay awake the whole time but we’ll see.

I’ve always been awful at staging deer for pictures. The pictures I had yesterday on my phone where nice but they really didn’t capture the bucks true mass. Today I get sent a few pictures from a friend who was also snapping pictures that capture the buck much better even though we are not looking at the camera. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Butcher weight her 104 pounds take a few off for being super wet i say 97 98 . I need a jack and coke

He wasn't close to being the highest scoring deer that I had on trailcam this year but this brute of a buck was very near the top of the most wanted list. The 3 year history with "the big one horner" came to an end tuesday afternoon.

Nothing this morning, but I had my hunting buddy out at dark. He’s sitting the evening hunt out though.

11-21-2020

Lol. Looks worse than it is. One handed with 20g should be shouldered. Double lung though. It will heal. Happy daughter!

Team Nomad in and occupying stands 4&5 , no wind wet leaves going to require sharp eyes . I’ve taken 10Pts out of each stand , what will tonight bring ? Im backing up stand 5 and covering 14 acre field .

Morning sit with my daughter! Got in at 7 about 830 she started getting antsi. I said 15 more min and we can go. I hear crack. See a fawn run out of the wood like he was hit with a hot poker. Then I see another deer run out and back in. Then boom a big deer steps. Just a big doe. I ask my daughter what she wants me to do. She says" shoot dad" so I did. 85 yard shot she ran 30.. Awsome Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a great day.

I moved a stand last Friday after getting some decent pics in a different area. Sat there a few times since and noticed a lot of deer about 200 yards to my west. Today I entered the stand from that spot and found these! Just moved that stand again and am sitting tight until dark. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spent but recovered. I love finding spent bullets on deer and here's another. I killed a buck Saturday afternoon with my 7mm-08 at 200 yards. The bullet is/was a 120gr Nosler BT and it performed as advertised. I butchered the buck this morning and found the bullet under the hide on the off-side. She weighs 75 grains now so it shed 45gr. When I pulled the trigger, in recoil I saw the bucks head through the scope flip backwards and then the entire deer vanished in the grass and fading light. The shot was perfect and right on the money, taking out the right front running gear and heart. I know a few guys enjoy this stuff along with the pictures as much as me so here ya go, Happy Thanksgiving friends!

O a hunting we will go A hunting we will go we'll have a sit and won't see shit A hunting we will go

That happened to me a few years ago. Two things I did subsequently: 1) have a backup gun with you (leave in the vehicle--potential risks, I know) and 2) I bring two plastic spring clams (see pic below) and clamp them on the sides of the shooting rail, about 3/4 of the way up. It makes for a gun cradle when I am not holding the gun in my armpit and hand.

Beat this for a bad morning - drove an hour to hunt an exciting new property. In my stand by 6:00. Slight shift and my shotgun fell 20’ to the ground, fully loaded. Luckily didn’t go-off, but broke the stock and ended my hunting this morning. I’ll sit quietly until after sunrise to take off. I’ll drive the hour back for another weapon to return this afternoon. Thankful that I wasn’t injured.

This needs to be known. This buck and the doe from opening weekend where both shot with the re-loads that Larry gave me in September. I can honestly say that both shots hit their target spot on. I have complete faith in these reloads. If I do my job these bullets will do their’s Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gotta love trail cams. The big 9 pt we have had on cam the night before opening day of gun putting down a scrape. Then a doe opening day and my buddy Corey walking out 45 min later. (Time is an hour fast) Always about timing. He was in a stand just out of sight of this spot.

This is the spike I found and one of the rubs.

Finished it up today, my wife chemical striped the oak and I sanded them to clean them up. She stained it all , door, window trim , jamb extensions , door trim , base boards etc. I made the trim around the base of the stairs, I cut 1/2 by 1/2 inch oak strips and ran the router on the tops. The base board is old door trim that the edges were beat to hell . So I cut about 5/8 off the bad side and ran the router on them to finish the tops . Only thing we have left is painting the entrance door jamb extensions. Well wait and do that over the summer as we have to take off the door and hinges to paint . Super happy how it turned out . A few before photos..

Love the buck, hate the scope bite...........BTW, most of us that do any amount of hunting or shooting have been corked by the eye piece of their scope once or twice. You could end up with a shiner and that my friends brings mega brownie points in my book.

Snack time! My wonderful wife sent me out with a bag of homemade Snickerdoodle cookies. Most exciting part of my day, so far. Hope the deer decide to change that.

It is not moving the season later. It's in addition to the current late SZ season.

No school for the kids, wife doesn’t have to work, and no social obligations means I am free!! With no scouting, I decided to head back to an old spot I had success in years ago. Hunted from sunrise till noon. Could have had me a doe but don’t have tags so I had to let her go. Didn’t see anything else. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Add a 11 points for team 4. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've seen nothing but heard a shot about 10 minutes ago and just got a text that one of my hunting buddies has a BBD. That's awesome I'm happy for him and can't wait to see it. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

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Never added my buck to this thread. Team 4 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wife cooked all day while I was outside capping him out .tomarrow he gets dropped off to the taxedermist

OK guys a little late on this but I got 2 deer to enter for team 1. A 6 point buck and a Doe, so that makes 7 points if im correct. Both shot during bow season

9 pointer and more points for team weak this concluded my seaseon

Finally caught up with my big guy. Shot at 7:30am today with browning bolt action slug gun, lightfield slugs. Deer was shot at about 70 yards and went 30 before dropping. Now for some doe action.

Opening morning 10 ish my cousin more than likely pushed 2 doe to me. Marlin Slugmaster 12GA. Winchester BRI slug at 50-55 yds. State land in 8N. May be the biggest doe I have ever killed. My bow season doe was big,this one was bigger. Only saw one buck all bow season so full figured doe are cool too.

First year hunter at 16, first shot and first deer! She passed on 3 other bucks one was a nice 8 pt. She thought shots were not great. I applaud her. Nothing my girl can't do!!! FYI we are on the George Washington bridge and she says U-turn I need to back it was so great!!! I have two girls and just love how they are so cool with Dad! Congrats Teddi!!!!!

Yes she fell down the bank and kicked around and pushed herself out . I was up to my chest in water nasty water

We have been in since 2:45.......hoping for a visitor to the cut corn Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Actually that makes 8 points Sir! Don't Jip us! #ThankYouForLessOverzealousModding #WeDemandUnlimitedLikes #WeDemandADislikeButton

That’s called over pressure, I’ve seen tons of deer. Happens every gun season, if you wanna see numbers you need to be out in bow.

Neighbors are away. Figured I’d use their kitchen when I let their dog out for them.

Ruger American Compact in 7mm-08 shooting Federal Trophy Copper put meat in the freezer for me today. 30 yards shot. Now to fill that buck tag.