wooly

Tagged out! Got out this afternoon for a bit and noticed some good sign of movement on my cams last night and this morning. I slipped back to my blind for the night and about an hour before dark had 2 yearlings come within 10 yds of me. I let them pass and watched as they fed through the creekbottom for the next 1/2 hour. I began to wonder why I let them walk as the shivvers were beginning to set in and I could deffinately use a few days off before ML season. At that point I decided I'd take the shot if they did anything stupid like come back.....what were the odds of that anyhow? Well, actually pretty good. ;D This one came in to 60 yrds or so and bedded down facing me. I dropped the hammer and the little rascal exploded from his bed and took off on a dead run out of sight. I packed up my gear and took chase to find the little button buck piled up 100yds away just about as far as I could see. I was pretty amazed at his reaction after the shot as he took it right at the base of his neck straight on up into his body. How he managed to even get to his feet is beyond me. So far this dang ML is 6 for 6 over the last 2 seasons and I still have both my tags left for the late season. Freakin' love this gun. All I know is he'll make some nice tender vittles and some tastey peppersticks! Finaly a few days off before I get back after them again!

I bring home quite a few dead buck heads after season while shed hunting. Not 100% sure on the legalities but I assume as long as it's not being sold you're ok. A monster may draw some unwanted negative attention and rumors when folks start finding out about it so I'd call a CO on it to get a carcass tag to keep with the rack just to cover my own butt.

A little of both....can't have one without the other. :-\ I've been fortunate, or unfortunate, depending on how you prioritize things, to be unemployed for quite some time now. Most every day over this long spell have been in the deer woods gleaning all the information I can. From shed hunting, pre and post-season scouting, summer time photographing, running trail cams, glassing fields, time spent shooting and honing shooting skills, understanding how deer use terrain.....just being around deer every chance I get no matter what the weather may dictate as sane behaivior. Without a doubt the better you can understand the wiley whitetail in its environment the better your luck will be. On the flip side, all the skill in the world is no trade-off for a little bit of luck from time to time.

Probably an illegal spotlighter, shooting Robo deer from the cab with a crossgun, while speeding in his pick-em-up truck, with glass packed exhaust, while under the influence.

Few questions to kick some opinions around.....I have formed my own on all of these already but curious what the rest of you believe. 1- Do deer sleep? If so when? 2- Will deer remains ex.(gutpiles, winterkills, unrecovered deer, micellanious parts) left in the woods alter whitetail patterns and behaivior in that area? Basicaly, will it ruin future hunts in close proximity to that area? 3- Do deer associate the sight of human footprints in the snow as being human and thus a threat, or are they just another set of random tracks to them? (barring any obvious threatening scent left behind)

Super 6'er! He sure found a use for all that bone he didn't use growing extra pts.

Lol- that was for our hunters in the 40 year old age class. Still takes me back far enough to test my memmory.

Few things that came to mind from this thread. good ole days..... a trail cam was a piece of string attached to a digital watch strung across a deer trail. Sight pins were painted with nailpolish not fiber optic You wore a safety belt.... not a safety harness. If you wanted to kill deer, you sat still and stayed quiet. No coughing, ,grunting, rattling crunching anything You had to spin test your alluminum shafts to check straightness before hunting. There was no fixed blade vs mechanical debate. Everyone shot fixed blade. we put a dab of deer, skunk, or fox piss on our hunting coats as cover scent....no stix, wicks, wafers to light or bombs to set off. You could find an apple in 99% of hunters lunch bags. Taxidermists were starving while piles of sawed off antlers deteriorated in hunters garages and wood sheds or just hung outside around camp. We had to drag deer out of the woods not give them a ride on the wheeler. Low man on the totem pole gutted the deer. :

That's great! Be sure to check out her new video series "Cumming To The Call" :-*

TSA patdown. Probably heading home with a non-resident hunter.

I don't think I ever stopped looking. Kind of a year round thing for me anytime I'm in the woods there's always a chance of stumbling upon one you've missed the prior spring or a chewed up oldie. Generally start right after the late ML season and take it right into turkey season. My earliest find I can't remember the exact date but 2 yrs ago found a fresh antler on December 19'th. The bulk of the sheds I pick up come in February and March. Rainy overcast days are the best when the woods floor is darkened those antlers will really pop out at you. That doesn't stop me from hiking when we have several feet of snow piled up. This will give you a good idea of where the bucks get locked in on feeding and bedding areas, as well as the trails that connect them in between. Finding winter food sources is at the top of my list. Winter bachelor groups will be in the area. It's up to you to put in the time and legwork to cover as much of the high percentage spots, and everywhere in between if you want to pick up any fresh drops. Some folks don't like to get into these areas too early and push the bucks from their wintering grounds so it's really up to you when to start. If you have trail cams, they can help you scout bucks winter core areas and time the drop of freshies. There's no wrong or right way to shed hunt that's what makes it fun. Everyone will have their own style and technique. The more promising propperty you have access to.....the better your odds. Good luck this shed season.

Congrats on a truely impressive buck. Kinda funny how we can make connections from our personal lives to the trophies we're rewarded with from time to time. There's something VERY deeply rooted there that goes far beyond any kill.

A lot of the same here FE. Got out for a couple hours in a fresh 8" of white stuff from morning till 2. Crick I normally can cross comfortably runs about a 1-1 1/2ft. Today she was swollen well above the banks. Got an emergency blowdown crossing across a beaver dam that's usually 5ft above the water.......not today. Water was flowing over the top of it when I first went in. Seems to be subsiding some finally. Heavy snow had limbs falling everywhere as well......never did see a deer with all that snow clinging to the branches. Sure was pretty out there though.

I like those wacky racks. Congrats on making good with your oppertunity. Does your buddy know you hung your tag on that one? Time to rub it in a bit.

I move mine around all winter long to keep tabs on potential shed donors and time the drop. I like to see what's made it through season and not have to wait for the following springs new growth.

Thanks for the kind comments all. I finally got around to typing up the whole story with a few better pics for anyone interested. 11/27/2010 Another cold windy day in the deer woods was on the agenda with expectations nearing an all time low. So far my archery season was a huge dissapointment in terms of total number of deer sightings overall and my own performance when oppertunities arose. Almost 2 weeks into the regular firearms season having to yet see a single buck, I was beginning to feel as if I were just going through the motions but still unwilling to accept defeat due to lack of effort. As is the case, I am in essence only an avid meat hunter that finds great satisfaction in taking a nice doe or subordinate buck that others may not find as much a sence of accomplishment in as I do. To me that's the beauty of deer hunting is no matter how low you set your standards, the posability always exists for any hunt to become the trophy hunt of a lifetime at any momment. Earlier in the day I was feeling pretty good to have spotted 6 antlerless deer across the road from me on the mornings hunt. I had to pass on a golden oppertunity on a mature doe as she stood in a safe zone 50yds across the neighbors posted propperty where hunting is not allowed. I decided this afternoon to make my way to higher ground behind the house if for nothing more than the anticipation of checking my trail cameras. 45 minutes to the top I reached my first cam set and pulled the card to reveal what I'd become so accustomed to already expect.......nothing. I figured the high winds and wintery weather had kept deer movement to a minimum durring the overnight in an area where they had already been pressured hard and perhaps maybe even evacuated at this point. Without seeing any fresh sign up to now in the 6 inches of fresh snow we received, my hopes were just to fight off the wind and cold long enough to finish my rounds and check my other 2 cams around the perimeter of the propperty. Half way between my first and second cam sets I stumbled upon a few sets of fresh tracks working their way through the hemlocks. My mind drifted to a family group of does and fawns using this cover to escape the elements so I worked my way to a stick blind I had not far from here. Once at the blind I hunkered down in hopes of spending the last 3 hours of daylight in an area that showed the most promising sign to fill my doe permit on. The sit was a short lived 1 hour as the wind cut right through me once I stopped moving. I strapped my pack back on, grabbed my gun and decided to hit the other 2 cams and work my way home. If all went according to plan, I should arrive just before dark and maybe catch a plate of hot dinner before feeding time was over. I made my way around the green field and noticed the deer had been using it the night before. My cudde was close, and my excitement level grew as I neared the set. Unfortunately, it was no surprise when I got there that they had eluded that cam too.......I had one more to check with 2 1/2 hrs of light left so away I went. I made my way through another dense set of hemlocks. This patch was full of fresh tracks as well as fresh beds but the sight of running deer tracks leaving the cover quickly snapped me to the reality that I had already spooked them out without ever getting a glimpse of one. With my head hung in dissapointment I got sidetracked following the tracks to see that they ran off in a circle back from where I had just come from. For kicks and giggles I'd poke around in here for a while to see where they have all been hiding and maybe understand things a little better. After an hour or so I'd seen enough and headed off to my last cam set about a 1/4 mile away. Giving some serious consideration to just skipping this one and taking the straight line back downhill towards home sounded like a much more pleasant experience at the time but I was really doubting I'd find the drive to make the return trek the following day. At least now I would know all my batteries were good to go untill I found my way back up here. At some point my mind just began to wander about other things un hunting related including where the heck I was heading. When I snapped out of it and looked up the snow covered woods I was looking at before me wasn't farmiliar at all........barin fart,lol. I stood there like an idiot for a bit trying to regain my berrings after I had not hit the trail I was looking for for quite a while. Finally recognized a distant hillside and cussed myself for being so unobservant......it was no wonder to me I was having such a hard time killing a deer this year......geeze. In the homestreach now having reached the trail I was looking for I only had 2 more ridges to cross to get to the last cam set. It wouldn't be long now.....I wonder what's cooking at home, I'm getting pretty hungry. Turning back uphill to come to the head of the ravine was gonna be a lot less work than cutting straight across the 60 foot plunge so that's what I'll do. My pack and gun were gaining weight and my body was starting to feel the aches and stiffness setting in from the long walk about with all this gear. Just before hitting the top of the ridge off to my left down in a briar thicket I noticed a deer browsing along nipping the ends off branches overhead. Now I'm pumped! This dumb deer was only 40-50 yds away and had no clue I was there watching it. There was just too much crap in between us to get a good look at what it was but I could have swore I saw some antler flash through the brush. I shouldered the muzzleloader and peered through the scope which was set at 4 power. Holy moley it was a buck for sure but I still have no clue as to how many points he has or how big it is yet. That's ok....he's working his way out of the thicket heading uphill and would be in the clear soon. Anticipating the upcoming shot oppertunity that was about to unfold, I checked to make sure my safety was on and then proceeded to pull the hammer back. Like something from a bad dream.....my hammer was stuck....it wouldn't pull back....WTH was going on. I looked up and saw the buck in all his glory for the first time. A wide beauty slowly making his way along. Back to my gun. I quickly opened the break open action and checked the primer for some reason, then cracked it back closed and got the hammer back for good. Apparently I didn't have it locked closed, thus preventing me from cocking it. Now my buck was in the clear, my gun cocked, and my crosshairs settled on him standing statue still in a perfect shot scenario... I couldn't possibly ask for better. I calmly clicked the safety off and it was show time! 1....2....3....BOOOOOOOM!!! I could see right through the smoke like never before as the beast went 0-60 in an instant. Not far into his escape dash he slipped to the ground but quickly regained his feet and sped out of sight just over the hill. All of a sudden I got distracted when another beautiful buck emerged and staired off in the direction my buck had run. Together, we both stood and listened to my buck crash. I watched as the other buck slowly made his way down the ridge seemingly without a care in the world about his friends demise. Not wanting to take any chances of following up unloaded, I ran a few patches through my barrel and loaded up another round before taking up the trail. As I'm swabbing the barrel movement catches my eye and another one horned spiker is trotting in to 20 yds before stopping to look off in my buck direction trying to figure things out. I could only smile and take it all in at this point. What a freaking hunt this had turned out to be on a hunt that almost didn't happen. I ended up shooing the spiker away and headed off to follow up on my beasty. At the top of the ridge lied success in the form of a magnificant 19 inch wide 11 point buck that left me breathless. All I could do was sit on the ground beside him and admire what an incredibly impresssive creature he was dead before me as he was just momments before in life breathing the same air as myself. A quick thank you to our common creator was first and foremost even though I'm not much of the religious kind...it was obvious at this point there was no denying what God had planned for this glorious day where hunter meets the hunted. The drag home was a long one but I managed to cover the ground and return just after dark. Probably would have gotten there a lot sooner but I couldn't help but to stop a few times and look back at trophy leaving the skid marks in the snow behind me! 8-) Thanks for tagging along everybody, here's a few more pics.

Finally connected on a nice 11pt this afternoon. This was the 1'st buck I've seen since 3 days before regular season opened. He had a 19" spread and I couldn't be happier than I am right now. It's been a tough season and I've been feeling a little burned out lately with all the hunting and dismal deer sightings up to this point. I believe I have his sheds from last year. The ol' smokepole has proven itself once again and continues to remind me why I've given up the slug gun!

Few of the bucks running around my neighborhood this year. I've yet to see a buck durring our firearms season. >

Got another shot of the big dude and a healthy 6 pt.

Good grief, what a buck! Sweet shots Dave.

Really depends on how I feel that day and how my seasons going far as sightings. I try to pass the young bucks but sometimes I cave when I need a boost in confidance. Never regretted doing it that way and always enjoy all my hunts for what they are.

Wow- I think I'd probably turn the truck around and go to the zoo to take pictures of "wild animals" instead. Those barn pigs can get pretty testy too. I had two slaughter pigs we raised from 40lb'ers that got to 250 by harvest. Always thought about slipping an arrow in them nasty suckers when the time came but the butcher took care of dispatching them while I was at work. Some mean SOB's but I think I'd be a little embarrased to show anyone my field photos of the pink Pa. piggy I payed to pursue. :-[

Some sweet shots there and some nice looking coats on them k-9's. Suckers almost look like wolves in some of them pics. Thanks for sharing those.

OMG- lol, Frank Poncherella's running Eddies woods!

My how times have changed... I think I have a few field photos of me in hot pink! No lie,lol :-*