stubbz

Didnt see anything saturday so i slept in a bit sunday and decided to take a walk out to my stand at about 9:30 am sunday morning. Around 10 a couple does came by taking their sweet time, then this guy was following behind. I got kicked out of a spot i had permission to hunt on saturday which is only reason i went to this other spot on sunday, guess everything does happen for a reason cuz theres noway i woulda been there if i hadn't been asked not to hunt where i was seeing more deer. I consider this guy quite the bruiser for my area, and my biggest buck yet! 7F

Me and my cousin hunt the same very small piece of property but its attached to a lot of great deer hunting woods just isn't ours but noone hunts near where we do so its a great spot. had trail cam out in diff spots all year with a bunch of nice bucks on it. well him and i work at the same place but work different shifts. i work 830-5 he works 630-3, his stand is 80yards from mine and we can see one another very well after leaves fall. well i got a call at 4:30 one day of him going crazy saying he just arrowed a monster buck, (i'm already pissed lol) this was on October 9th. Here is the pic of his beautiful buck, nice 12pt. 203lbs hanging just a monster. This was literally his 3rd time in the woods and first year hunting, my second year but i hunt morning, evening and everything in between as often as possible, i hunt more in a week than he does the season. So next morning i go to my stand and check my trail camera which is 18 yards in front of my stand and i see this picture. can even see my stand off to the right was such a horrible feeling knowing this big guy was 18 yards in front of me and i wasnt there ugh. and my cousin who was sleeping in his stand for an hour wakes up and shoots him with his greasy workboots still on from his workdday. Story gets even worse. few weeks later im in my stand till about noontime get down and decide im gonna move my camera for a change but i had forgot my camera to check the pix so i bring the sd card home to check it and this is what i found. By now you can imagine what happens, found this saturday at noon so i run back out to stand for the afternoon and passed on a nice 6pt that walks right by me knowing theres a monster i really wanna put down. well he never does. monday rolls around i go to work and find out a kid that works same place i do and hunts the next property over shot him that saturday........ ouch. happy for my cousin and thats all a part of sharing a spot near mine but was really hopin to get a shot at the other big guy who was actually even bigger than my cousins.

best bet is to get out there with a shotgun and get a bird down first, bow is gonna be real hard for bo and without a big blind to draw back inside of nearly impossible. ive gotten turkeys with gun and am going for one with bow this year also but im doing it for the challenge really, and wont mind if i miss or get busted. got a shot at one last fall but went under him by an inch, took out his right leg tho but couldnt get another shot off in time

try bow huntin for turkey thats where its at, but can be dissapointing very easily cuz it is so hard (not using a blind). i clipped one in the leg this fall but have not tried or seen a turkey when i tried in the spring to get one to come in to calls or anything, i wouldnt say its so much harder tho especially not with a gun. may 1st last year i got a 25lbder thats pretty much a trophy for a turkey to me and most others. deer huntin is a completely different game its way more luck than anything, sure scoutin puts you in the right spot but deer dont really tend to reel right in like ya can with turkeys but sometimes it does work, 8 for 10 tho its just being in the right spot when they walk on by.

i agree and it is very easy to get hooked on turkey hunting and any form of hunting for that matter, got some scentlok and so on myself but find that i like having to get the birds in within 30 yards with normal shot shells or with a bow but its why i love bow hunting so much more than any kind of gun, much more challengine, up close and personal, no better feelin thn taking an animal at close range cuz not getting busted is the hardest part.

i agree with Belo's statement on tom decoys, they can hurt your hunt as quickly as help it but depends on what your going for. i also agree with some others that mentioned you do not need to use high end chokes and hevi shot rounds which are stupid expensive. i shoot a 20 gauge for turkey with a extra full choke and normal 3inch remington rounds. dropped my 25lbder at about 25yards last year right where he stood. all i had out was 2 small cheap 10 dollar hen decoys. a vest is nice for guys who like to be on the move but not needed. my goal for this year is to get one with the bow without using a blind at all. shotgun will stay home in may this year.

trail cam worked perfect for me last year, i put it up just before april and watched it each week for the month and found a perfect spot they like to come across the main truck trail into this new field so i setup blind under a tree in the corner of that field and called 3 big toms in to my decoys on may 1st, took the biggest home with me he was pushing 25lbs. 24.6 to be exact. deff be putting my cam back up in next couple months

id have to disagree with that statement. sure some areas do get a lot more pressure. opeing day in May there pretty damn easy to bring in to ya. i would say merriams are harder cuz the land is so much more spread out in the west.

RITBlake didn't you already get a buck early in the season or are you in north country where regular season opened up for ya

our season is open down here, i was trying to bump up a big 8 or 10 pt my brother saw early sunday morning when he radiod to me sayin a bunch of turkeys were heading up my way, im more of a turkey hunter than i am a deer hunter so i was all for it, they came right to me i was shocked i got to draw without them busting me, i waited for one to come out in a small clearing i had and was ready to take him, he was a tom also with a decent beard. he was roughly about 20 yards from me, i put my 20 pin on him and took my time and shot, caught him right in the top of his left leg not an inch or 2 higher and i woulda had him, woulda been first turkey with bow that ive been wanting so bad. got a feelin he did the ol hop when i shot tho and thats why i missed him, tried to get a second one in him while he was hoppin around on one foot but missed him and they all took off. tried to round them back up but to no avail. gonna be tryin again this weekend i hope

yeah im sure he'll get others but in all honesty around us to top that would be a huge deer, maybe not rack wise but body wise it was just unreal but early season hasnt started chasing does and losing that body fat yet so im sure that helped a lot. my cousin is a 6 footer and he looks like a kid next to it. we put it in the back of his full size dodge ram and had to fold him up a bit to be able to close the tailgate lol. hopefully this means more bucks will start to move at all hours cuz noone around has ever seen this buck on cams or anything so to find him cruising at 430 in the afternoon is pretty shocking.

thanks guys i hope to see one even close to him. and id believe it all day long i was shocked when he told me it was only 203lb hanging cuz id have thought it was a lot bigger. id put money on 240-250lb dressed walkin. either way its a monster and biggest deer he may ever get in his life let alone first year out.

this isnt my buck but i have to share with everyone, this is my cousins buck, his first year hunting anything and we both got into bow shootin a lot at end of last year, i hunted last year but he didn't, so this is his first bow buck and first deer ever. this thing is an absolute monster, biggest deer we have seen by far around our area and even my brothers and cousins who have been hunting for 20 years have not seen one on the ground this big. 12pt 203lbs hanging, had to be near 240 or so dressed. he has only been out in the afternoons and this was his 4th time sitting for a couple of hours, said he slept for almost an hour n woke up 15 minutes prior to this guy being 20 yards from his stand. worst part about it is i now have pix of him on my trail cam that was about 100 yards away right near my stand 10 minutes before he sho him, i cant hunt afternoons durin the week cuz i have my kids as my fiance works late durin the week. im happy as heck for him to get this but wished it coulda been mine and woulda if i was sittin there.

i made a small L bracket for my camera to mount it right behind my stabilizer, only problem is my camera makes a noise when it turns on so i cant really use it, gotta figure out if i can turn it off somehow, i like ur setup tho, i shoot the same Mission Venture bow and love it

whats warmness have to do with anything, sure deer dont move as much in warmer weather but its not 90 out anymore. id rather be comfy with light layers than freezin and bundled like crazy. i was thinkin same thing tho, 20+ does and bucks thats just crazy id be in that spot everyday