First-light

Anytime of the day or does it have to be night?

Went to same spot as last night didn't see a deer. Pulled two cards as I went out. Bunch of Doe and small bucks but 1 really nice one I've caught a few times.

Enjoy the day guys!!!! Happy Birthday!

So I get out of work by 1:30 get home by 2. In the woods by 2:30 most of the time. Today it was 3:30 in the woods down to a spot wher I shot at the big buck on opening day. I'm not giving up on not seeing him again. Got a strange feeling. So it's 4:15 gotta pee so I go and turn around and a small spike is 30 feet from me. You can't hear them in the snow. He snorts and runs to the planted pines. FML I say. Should I stay or hunt my way out? I stayed and started to do some doe calls and buck grunts. 5 minutes later here come 4 doe from trhe pines where the spike went. They go right past me. Looked like 1 mature doe with 3 yearlings. I was happy I stayed. 10 minutes later here come 3 more doe from another direction. They head to the pines and out of the corner of my eye I see a big dark brown deer coming up my left shoulder. He was big so I was excited to think it might be that buck or another mature buck. As he cleared some trees I saw he was an 8 pt with a small rack. Body size was big and he was all rutted up but not the deer I was looking for. I have no idea if my grunting stirred up the deer or not? It didn't bother them!

No not the same deer.

Sure do. Find those major runs to the corn and set up on them.

Sounds like my place, I have 20 acres in corn. They cut it this year the Monday after the opener. I don't put any pressure on the farmer to cut it. Cut corn field is great to hunt late season. They always leave some standing for the deer, nice of them!

My next door neighbor left and did the Maryland opener and finished up at their PA camp opener. They actually have to take a boat to the camp and hike in. Been in the family many years. One of these years I'll go!

Just heard this buck was taken down the road from me. What a stud!

Same here, two shots thats it. We really have a huge moon out there???? Just picked up a deer from the butcher he is at 320 which is ok not great. Said the weekend was real slow.

It's like everyone leaves after opening weekend and that's it. Heard 2 shots this afternoon. I have way too much private land around me that does not get pressured. We are all good friends so you can go wherever. I was hoping my crew would come back up but too many commitments. I have to start reading up on low pressure areas and late season hunting. Think out of the box!

Love the horns!

This weekend was pretty slow. Saw a few Doe and 1 nice 6 pt too small for me to shoot. So few weeks a go my brother is bow hunting and a grey house cat comes along with a Doe in tow. The Doe followed the cat. I brushed it off but on Saturday morning here comes the grey house cat with the 6pt following it. Weirdest thing! My neighbor shot a Coywolf Sunday. Weighed 60 lbs. Big dog!!!! The guy holding it is over 6'.

We had two sows with 3 and 4 cubs in the area. Tonight the three cubs showed up on there own under my tree stand. They were running around like a chicken with out a head. 5 minutes no Sow should up. Heard a shot at 3 pm from the direction they showed up from at 4 pm. Called DEC they are not back until Monday morning.

I also sat in the stand I shot him from this afternoon. A lot of saplings in the way not many clear shots. I will fix that.

Some spots in the beginning were more. Beds had a football size area of blood. My thought the same on jumping him. I think he was hit in the leg. He was very easy to trake even without blood. He wasn't walking right.

So I posted I hit a real big one opening day. Long story short we jumped him three times but never got off a shot. He bled from 10:50 am until about 3:30 pm. Neighbor said he hit him high once. The deer had trouble making it through the real brushy area between us. When he did I saw he was at least a giant 12 pt. It was about 75-85 yards and I shot 5 times. He was in a bunch of saplings with not much openings. My third shot hot him and he stumbled but kept going. That was the last I would see of this deer. He made it to a big pine forest and bedded. I started tracking about 11:30. He took me right where I thought he would go. Got in at about 40 yards and he jumped and ran. Followed him for a bit more and saw he hit a logging road. He started to go down the road to a swampy area. I stoped called my neighbor and met up with his crew at his cabin. There were 8 of us. We came up with a plan to push this deer. The plan we put together was wrong and the deer went back into the pines. My neighbor and I tracked him again and he turned north then west. I stoped in my track at one point and told my neighbor I smelled him. Sure enough he was bedded about 20 yards from us but it was too thick to see. We got in touch with the crew to move them north but less than 20 seconds later the deer bolted into open hardwoods. We tried one last time but did not push him. I did find a pile of blood by a scrape and told my neighbor I had to continue. He agreed and the both of us tracked to later in the afternoon. All the time finding blood but specs of it here and there but where he stoped the pictures show you what we found. In the end the blood dried up and My neighbor said he saw the buck bounding across a golden rod field. We called it but hope to run into him again. I talked to my processor and he thinks yhe shot in the back hobbled him from the shock of the slug. My shot hit some meaty area with no vitals and thats where most of the blood was from. Just thought I would share the story. Damn tough animals.

I had o sign a document once for my neighbor. They had a fence installed and was short of the property line by about a foot. Didn't make sense to reinstall so he had a lawyer write up a document saying I would never claim the property. As far as I know you can claim property after a certain amount of time. Worth checking into.

I've been texting more often and have to break the habit. Just taking it in and out of my pocket is going to spook a deer! I wouldn't trade her for all the deer in the woods. atta boy!

I have a bunch of traps set along with a rat trap. I'm away for a few days, I'll report back.

Have a great Thanksgiving with your families!

My kennel called last night and asked me to not brings the dogs for thanksgiving. One of their dogs has all the symptoms. I head to long Island tomorrow. My brother agreed to stay until Friday morning, I'll be back in the afternoon. Thankful for his help. He has always wanted to hunt Thanksgiving, now he can!

I went out because they started shelling my corn. Saw nothing but they will be back. Brother is staying out till it rains.

That sucks, I'll keep on trapping them.

Great time to get a barn cat.