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My son scored this AM ..... 8 Pointer

Score wife found her just inside the woodshed

Steuben County Bucks taking a beating early on...

Odd year for me. I spent 5 hours in a tree stand for the entire bow season and shot a busted up 9pt and then Opening day in the Catskills at camp I was in the woods on the ground for an hour and 5 minutes and shot a 7pt. First time I can remember filling both buck tags in a season but I suffer from CRS. Unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to be out and enjoy the outdoors. Wish my son had made the trip to camp with us as this could have been his first deer but at 15 yrs old, girlfriends are just as important as WiFi [emoji2357]. Hopefully I can post with him later this season. Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

And the pic. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Didn't want to mess my buddy up so I sat till dark. Saw 10ish more deer one mature buck, two smaller. Walking out I could smell the other bucks I had previously seen. Could have and should have plugged a doe but was worried about messing up my buddy. Feels weird only having a crossbow tag left. Today definitely made up for sitting yesterday out. Congratulations to all who connected today!

My son Eric and I sat together this morning and he was able to drop this buck at 312 yds. Pretty sure he’s a 31/2 yr old we called him Hank the Tank. I missed him w the the bow on October 29th but my son didn’t with the .270 this morning. As you can see the grandkids enjoyed it as much as their Dad. We’re very fortunate to get to spend such quality moments….these are the best memories that last.

So a friend posted the picture of me and the buck on CNY big buck facebook. Within minutes someone said they new the buck. Actually missed him last year during bow but had a bunch of trail camera pictures of him. The guy was nice enough to send them to us and was very happy someone local took him. Told us congrats and good luck with the rest of the season. So he has th3 last 3 years of pictures of him so we are guessing he's 5.5-6.5 yrs old. Unfortunately I forgot to ask the taxidermist to keep his jaw bone but he said he was all of 4.5 and probably older. Cool little ending to a great stateland deer.

Doe down 16:34, not as big as the one earlier but ł had a clean shot and was tempted to use the pistol at this range.

Hunted opening morning with my wife and we experienced the quietest opening morning ever. Few sightings of small deer and only half a dozen distant shots. Got back out about 3:00 Saturday afternoon, a bit later than I wanted but didn’t bump anything on the way in, at least that I know of. I went to a ladder stand on the tree line of a swampy stand of pines to the right and a 4 acre field on the left. My daughter was 800 yds away in the tower stand that I was in that morning. I was just settled in there for a few minutes and I get a glimpse of a high spike walking toward me along the field edge about 100 yards out. At one point he’s inside 30 yds and just about directly down wind of me. I’m just thinking to myself how the heck are you not smelling me when it looked like he walked into an electric fence when he got a whiff of me. He instantly reared back and bolted back about 30 yds. He really wanted to keep going back in his original direction so he came walking back, stiff legged and nose in the air. Got just a bit closer, got another whiff of me and quickly spun around and took off into the pines. About 4:00 a doe and two fawns come ripping across the field and stop, looking back at where they came from about 100 yds away. I’m thinking OK, here we go, who’s chasing you, as I slide the gun over to my left. Another spike, followed by yet another spike galloping behind him. The doe took kind of an aggressive stance toward the lead spike, and then everyone just started feeding in the field and milling around for 15 minutes or so before filtering off through the far tree line. All quiet after that. Around 5:00 it’s getting somewhat dark so I figured oh well, no shots tonight so I’d pour a cup of coffee and sit until after legal light ended which was at 5:13 here. I usually sit till it’s dark enough to sneak out unseen if possible. I look at my watch and it’s a couple minutes after 5:00. A minute or two later I see a deer step out of the pines at about 80 yards and take the exact same walking path toward me as that first spike did. Big body, nose to the ground, steady walk. I already had the gun up, put the scope on him and am trying to quickly judge the rack. Ease the safety off. Seemed wide enough for me but with his nose to the ground, his tines were pointing right at me at 60 yds and I couldn’t judge height at all. Getting closer. Crap, he’s going to walk right into my scent cone just like that first spike did and bolt right out of my life. 50 yards and he picked his head up and ever slightly quartered away. High tines. Shot was base of the neck, and went out pretty much mid chest and he dropped instantly. Went down like I flipped his off switch. It got dark quickly after that and he fell in a position that I really couldn’t see the rack. I sat for 5 minutes before I got down and walking toward him, the feeling of ground shrinkage is creeping in. Nah, not tonight. Lit him up with the flashlight and took a quick pic. I went to get the tractor before I dressed him out. We hear lots of Coyotes every night and my buddy lost a next-day recovery doe here to a bear a few years back. Figured I’d keep the smells down til I could get him out. And the tractor lights sure do help. Daughter Stephanie followed me out on one of the quads to get some field pics. There’s a bit of long-arming here but not much, just wanted to stay trendy. I started oddly this season by retiring on the Bow opener but quickly got busy with other stuff for a few weeks while it was warm. Got at it a few days before the crossbow opener and after about a dozen sits, I didn’t really see much of anything but does and spikes and nothing even close to being in range. Then last Monday I took a doe with the xbow and my best buck on Saturday. Still have a doe tag to stay in the game but I want to keep that open to be able to transfer to one of the kids if needed. Got to watch that horrible Bills game yesterday, but now I’m up for a week with family, staying up too late, and hopefully being put to work recovering deer for wife and daughter. Son in law is coming over from his Dad’s camp in Allegheny for a day or two to hunt too. I’m glad for the little scent education that first spike gave me, and without that extra 30 minutes this year, I wouldn’t have gotten my best buck to date. Great end to day that started so quietly! This guy turned out to be a frequent trail cam visitor on a few different trail cams all year. He messed up that lump of a brow tine in velvet. He was probably the #2 buck and as far as I know, #1 is still pushing does around.

This is supposed to be Logunn's first year hunting with the recent age drop to 12. However, he injured himself carving a pumpkin and can't shoot until his cast is off. (Severed flexor tendon on the pinky of his shooting hand, hard cast with only the thumb hanging out.) Fortunately for me, his spirits are still high and he came out for a dark to dark crossbow sit previously and continues joining me until Thanksgiving morning as ł work to fill my tags. Despite the cold and this all being new to him, he has jumped right in and is endeavoring to prove himself as a hunter. Yesterday, 11.20.2021 we were out well before legal light and nestled in to our tower blind for a dark to dark sit, quiet as can be hoping there may be some action once the moon light was replaced by the rising sun. We made it until after 4pm without seeing a thing except melting snow and a squirrel. Despite the lack of activity, Logunn was very attentive and took two short breaks to read and a 15 minute nap. Around 4:30 ł seen movement coming from the ridge down the slope of the hill we're set up on, ł whispered to him and worked to get him focused on the movement. We exchanged 10⁰clock? 11⁰clock and even descriptions of shrubs/trees to get his eyes on it. ł tell him ł think it's a coyote as it seems awfully small and has a very odd walk, he catches movement as it enters a strip of wild rose and sumac. Moments later ł see a nice bodied deer come over the ridge in the same area, nose to the ground... Quickly drawing Logunn's attention working to get his eyes on this deer, ł hand him the range finder and direct his attention to the only green shrub in front of us, "Look at the green bush, he's above it to the left of the dark tree"... Logunn made some sudden movement and the deer caught it and is now posturing, beginning to snort and stomp. ł wasn't able to work his eyes towards the deer anymore, threw a round out paused and threw a second. It was a very tight window to shoot through with far too many branches but it was manageable even with my .243 The buck was stomping and had moved his head towards us as ł shot, he did a bit of a kick and seemed to spin around on his side but it was tough to tell as he disappeared behind the thick stiff for a moment. Next thing he was up on his feet, angling up the hill towards blow downs, not running down towards the ravine. Against my better judgment we got down to check for blood with a little over a half hour of legal light left. Logunn went first and ł followed, catching a nice sized deer running the opposite direction ł assumed he was startled but unscathed and heading off on a new route from when we had last seen him. We made our way to where he was when the shot was taken, referencing landmarks and teaching him how to locate the possible kill sight to begin tracking. We bumped the tiny doe which appeared to be walking odd due to an old injury. Once at the site, ł explained that we could see the stomping in the tracks and we checked for blood, ł picked up leaves rubbing them against my hand, nothing. ł explained we needed to walk the tracks regardless, setting out in the same direction we followed them and ł explained how we could tell apart the running from the slowed down walking. Fooled for a moment by a crossing set we quickly doubled back and found the buck had jumped over a large log and landed a few feet away and we were back on the tracks. We found him piled up in the blow downs, his reaction when he realized the buck was down is priceless. Byfar one of my best hunting moments yet. We made our approach and once the kill was confirmed ł let him grab the rack and pose for a picture, he gave me a thumbs up with his immobilized shooting hand. The shot went through the neck. We stopped and ł let Logunn watch a video on how to gut a deer and then ł explained each step as ł gutted and drained the chest cavity. We dragged the buck out, carefully avoiding any standing water, eventually passing our tower and worked to hang him from an "A" frame at the cabin. We had to relocate him to a high branch on a maple tree in front of the cabin because his head was on the ground when hung from the "A" frame. What's odd is that ł shot a very similar 8pt after my great uncle put in a bit of work to get me in a good spot years' back... after struggling to get our spot ready in time this year with very limited time off of work and to have to hang it from the same spot as my past 8 pt in that very maple tree, it was almost as if my great uncle was smiling down on our adventure together. All in all we made memories and meat. ł couldn't be more proud of him and can't wait for him to fully enjoy the experience once he can handle his rifle again. ł've got a hunting partner for life.

Big body 8 point I grunted in at about 3:30. Sat behind a rock wall for about 45 minutes. Quick efficient hunt for once lol. Hopefully my buddy doubles up.

Was able to get out for the last hour or so behind my house. Figured with the light snow falling and a favorable wind direction, I would start my wood stove…very cozy! (Recently finished the stone work).

Dad just shot a buck, he was worried he blew out both shoulders but it snowplowed outa sight, driving to spot I found him by road still alive and he finished him. He woulda been dead in minutes however. best part I convinced him to go sit in my stand on a close property to my house while we were cutting up my deer.

What better way to kick this off this year’s thread than meeting with @Chef this morning to swap some pork fat for some ground venison with the heart. Curious how the heart will change things up. Ratio is about 2 pounds of trim to 5oz of pork fat and 10oz of heart. As an aside to this quick meeting, I sent him a text last night asking where I could order fat…he was here at my school 16 hours later with 3 pounds from his private stash. #FreeChef!!!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A friend just sent this to me. In his backyard at 15-20 yards as he was raking leaves. He doesn’t hunt

By far my biggest buck. Shot in my little honey hole on stateland. I saw him at 150yards trotting with his nose to the ground. Had to grunt at him 10times until he stopped and then through a snort wheeze at him. That's all it took. He came into 80yards. The wind was at his face but he was looking for a fight. He turned and I pulled the trigger. I honestly thought I missed because i had a paper plate size hole to shoot through. Well it hit the mark he went about 25yrds. Best part was 5 guys showed up to drag. One jumped out of his stand when he heard me yelling in excitement and came running. 8pt, 15 3/4 spread g2s are both 10inches. I'm guessing his weight to be 160-190 he has a big body.

I think I have a problem!!!@

Shot a doe this morning at 10AM. Had 4 come through, could've shot the other big doe too but dragging one through the swamp is bad enough by yourself. Hit her through the heart, she went 40 yds. Dressed at 119 on the scale. Sent from my moto g fast using Tapatalk

Late to post but took a decent 6pt back on 11/11 up on the hill on state land. Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

This one stings a little...

So the morning was filled with counting squirrels, no deer sightings at all by us or my father. My son had obligations at school to help set up for a vetrans ceremony tomorrow, so i took some time mid day to move a blind to a spot i figured could have potential. He got home around 130 and he wanted to try the blind out. By 230 it was very apparent too many people were hunting a small chunk of woods. My father was sitting 75 yards away, a neighbor was maybe 100. So i asked him where he wanted to go. "Back corner" was the answer. Ok lets go. We were settled in the new spot by 315. Within minutes i could hear deer running in the brush and a swamp to our right. A minute later i see a doe just inside the brush line , he gets on it and asks if its ok to shoot, i give him the ok. Then we hear a grunt, then another. He gives me a look and i just nod, the doe trots off and then the buck appears. I give him the good old mehhh to stop him, unfortunately he stops with a branch covering the vitals. He stares in our direction for just short of eternity, then takes 2 steps and i throw another mehhh at him, this time he stops in a opening and the rest is history. He made a great long range shot that was pushing 35 yards lol. Buck ran 50 yards and drops. So proud of him. The last few years hunting has changed for me, i tried my hardest to get my brother in law a good buck and last bow season he put his 1st "big" buck on the wall, this year was all about Ryan. I kinda like getting "old" lol.

It was a tough bow season. Our back yard was only active at night. Only 2 of dozens of buck pics were in daylight. So my son was pretty discouraged as he’d passed up a bunch of small bucks waiting. We were never in the right place at the right time. Opening day we sat in a new setup basically on our property line. I wanted to be far away from our neighbors on one side who shoot kinda wildly. This side is much safer and were in a good spot to see each direction fairly far. Well early morning 2 doe come trotting down towards us, happening so fast they crossed our property line before he could even get ready. They proceeded to browse 35 yrds away on the other side (oh well). That afternoon we sat over the food plot only to see a button buck. This am we were skunked, he has been so discouraged he said he was about done hunting this year, yeah I felt terrible Ive been trying so hard. After a late breakfast at camp and a quick nap we were back in the redneck around 1:30 overlooking the food plot as it was going to rain. Around 2:30 he said deer, I took a peek thru the bino’s and confirmed it was a doe. I opened the window and he got settled on her and touched off the tikka 7–mm-08 and sent the hornady 120gr sst. Dropped her instantly. He was pretty excited afterwards!! I took video on my phone so we will always have that!! Once we skinned her we found the bullet too!

Well just got back from @Swamp_bucks. What a trip! Evan is a great guy and his knowledge of deer hunting is phenomenal. He was very welcoming I visited his house a couple times. He found me a lake house that was great. We went out to eat a couple time. Let me tell you what his wife makes a great chili. He came through I seen deer and got my first archery shot opportunity but I shot in front of it. He gave me some great advice and even went to search cuz he was 60 yards behind me and heard a thwack. He offered me a good spot Friday night but wind wasn't right and had a white out. He also helped me setup my stand in a great spot. Opening day was like no other I seen 32 deer came through where I was at. I had a shot opportunity at a big 6 or 8. Shot he stood between 100-125 yards pulled the trigger click re racked click he was still there moved alittle repacked again click. So he got away. Got to drag out one hell of a buck Evan got. Long drag with help of a few friends. Let me tell you what he's got some great friends. After helping drag the buck to the truck. I went back on stand I'm glad I did mid day was awesome deer were moving like crazy. I couldn't find any horns. 23 deer come through. I sat till I could in my stand 330 then got down legs and hip killing me surprised I made it back to truck. Went back to the lake house had a few beers and debated launching the rifle in lake lol. Hunted today 515 to 930 no deer but a hunting party member shot a buck. The hunting, hospitality,food,friends and his family were fantastic. His friends offered me to hunt more midday but had to check out of house and take a ride to the taxidermist. Thanks Evan for the offer to comeback next year. Memories to last a lifetime.

Got it done today around 2pm. First day in the woods was a great one

11/20/21 opening day: 3N (Putnam County) 36 yard shot at 657am. Frontal Shot. Dead right there. Story in my journal. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Can't make it up 6 deer by 8:00. I got the big one. 4 bucks 2 doe.

@Treeguy took this one…this coon ate lots of corn!!

Been working on barn and have it all enclosed 90% done , soffets,trim , baton boards left will wait till spring

I helped track a nice buck the other night and was rewarded with a hind quarter. When I have time I’ll write up a summary of the track. I definitely learned a lot on that one. And for the record… Luna and Konux are underpaid!!

We keep a few smaller hind quarters whole each year for “caveman roasts” https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2010/03/how-cook-leg-venison/

Consider the Venison Donation Coalition Venison Donation Coalition, Inc. Check out the "Find a Processor" tab to find one near you. Might want to call to confirm they are still participating first. Just drop the deer off and they take care of the rest! Goes to a good cause feeding those in need.

Basket 8 out chasing hot doe this morning. Good luck to all out there today

Was a good opening morning , 1 coyote and 5 buck taken a couple of other passed up a couple small ones. Nephews both got their 1st buck one a nice 8 and the other a broken 8. Those 2 kept me busy guiding them.how to gut their bucks and then hauling 5 deer out of woods before 9 am.. couplemgiys tagged out now so camp goes from 10 to 2 for most of the week..

My first buck! 8 point, hanging weight is 140. I was watching another buck that was trailing a doe in and out of the woods and thickette. I sneezed and reached for the TP and a buck was looking right at me. He snorted and ran a short distance and stopped, I grabbed my gun and I shot and he turned just as I shot. So it entered front right shoulder and exited left hip. It was a stinking mess! He dropped in his tracks. I think I will do a mount since it's my first

60 yards from your stand! That hurts, and now you are doing the taxi work for it. It's ok if you cry a little every time you work on it. I won't judge LOL

Got some work to do before Turkey day…mama Crappy doesn’t want them hanging next to the deep fryer for the Turkey Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Even with the light rain you'll almost most definitely have better luck looking on foot vs on the 4wheeler. Much easier to find blood and track her that way.

Son shot his first doe with his tikka!!

40 years of hunting and never shot a doe before. Because of the shortages this year, I told myself If a lone big older doe comes by me this year I would take her. Got into my tripod stand at about 10 to seven and she came by at 7:00 and gave me that opportunity. My very first doe!

Muzzle brakes on a deer gun? Come on, man up!!

So a friend posted the picture of me and the buck on CNY big buck facebook. Within minutes someone said they new the buck. Actually missed him last year during bow but had a bunch of trail camera pictures of him. The guy was nice enough to send them to us. Told us congrats and good luck with the rest of the season. So he has th3 last 3 years of pictures of him so we are guessing he's 5.5-6.5 yrs old. Unfortunately I forgot to ask the taxidermist to keep his jaw bone but he said he was all of 4.5 and probably older. Cool little ending to a great stateland deer.

I’ll venture a guess and say you’re shooting a Remington 7400-740,etc. they don’t call them jamomatics for nothing. Take the forend off and I’ll bet the spring in there is dirty or rusty. If it’s not then check your magazine lips, they’re easy to bend if dropped and that will make them not feed/cycle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can’t explain this year, been one for the record books for us. Thankful to be able to help some local families out with some meat.

I rode around a little tonight but it was dark and lite rain .. I’ll be able to see better in the morning . Its 40 degs so the meat should be ok.. I just hope I can find her .. it’s all goldenrod

Big girl. Heart shot Sent from my moto g fast using Tapatalk

BBD my sons. Will update later but it’s a great morning.

Posting better late in the day than never. This guy closed the distance across a cut bean field from 300 yards to 75....my son whispered "take him" and the rest is history. Same blind we shot our opening day turkey from. He is pumped the he a day will be on his wall and hopefully he is hooked for life. Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk

Sat with my brother for afternoon hunt and he harvested! Two bucks from the same stand!

Congrats Hockey, Dino, Redneck, Paula, Sodfather and anyone I missed. I’ll update my journal later but today was my Dad’s 55th straight gun opener and 54th anniversary to the day he shot his first buck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro