wooly

I moved my gut pile a little closer yesterday (about 3' from cam) and it did a little better. Yote and fox tracks all around but they knew something was up and stayed behind it. Some sunshine sure would help with the hawk shot I'm after. I set my camera to "instant trigger" so as soon as it's done recording one pic it'll take one after the other as soon as it detects motion. I think the most I ever got was 16 pics in a minute using this setting during daylight. This set recorded 6500+ pics in 1 1/2 days of crows and the hawk. Screw them deer,lol

#1- GREAT job on the recovery effort! It's unfortunate you had to deal with the rollercoaster of emotions that comes after a less than ideal hit, but give yourself a big pat on the back for doing everything right after that point! Seriously.., you handled yourself like a seasoned veteran from the time you realized you made a poor shot, right up to when you pushed yourself to march on with the search even though you were feeling under the weather! That would have been the end of it for a lot of guys right there. You had me on the edge of my seat right from the start, and my excitement kept building as you kept making one good decision after another using all the resources available to you! I was hoping it would end this way, and I'm very happy for you that it did! Congrats on your deer.... you EARNED this one and learned some valuable lessons I'm sure you'll carry over on future hunts! Super job, great story, and at the end of the day the best possible outcome you could have asked for, considering everything that led up to you finally getting your hands on him!

This cam struggles with light here but it caught a pretty cool burst today. Made a few adjustments so we'll see what I get next.

You're such a bad azz Pygmy! I bet you're the kinda guy that would get into a pizzin' match with a skunk with a weak bladder! No wonder you carry so many bullets,lol

Looks like you need to drop a few moth balls in the tote you store your facemask in for the summer,lol This stuff ain't so bad in the late ML season, but it's still too early for me to venture out in Snowvember!

It is clear as day that's what it is on my 19" monitor. I think TF if checking his cam pics on a itty bitty phone screen. I took away some of the shadows so maybe that'll help clear things up.

Jumbo doe for the opener with my smokepole!

Looks like twilight shots through the timber. That glowing is the sky... likely there is a clearing or field beyond the tree line that is peeking through. At least that's what it looks like to me.

Archery season came and went like a firecracker that never popped for me. For some reason, the action I was seeing didn't line up with my expectations. Opening day of the regular season sparked a new level of excitement for me though. Me and sis spent the morning in our blind across the road from me. I should have listened to all my uncertainty setting up the blind yesterday. This morning we saw deer crossing everywhere except where we were offering zero shot opportunities. The neighbors on the other hand were having a blast..... literally! Between two of them they let 8 shots rip less than 100yds to each side of us. On our way out around noon we bumped into them hot on a bloodtrail I'm almost certain they never found the end of. Sis had some things to do this evening and didn't want to risk getting stuck in the predicted storm so she headed home early. That left me with a few hours to myself to sneak off to one of my more remote blinds I'd been saving behind the house. The weather was really suckin' but I was content to sit till dark here. Around 4PM the sound of gunfire began to echo through the hills again and my senses heightened. Not long after the initial wave of shots, I spotted a group of antlerless running out the right window of my blind where they came to a screeching halt when they hit my cloud of cherry and berry vape,lol One doe stood out from all the rest. She was the mother doe... the swamp donkey.... an absolute frickin' PIG! It didn't take long for me to decide she was the trophy I was after today! I steadied the crosshairs of the ol' smokepole smack dab on her shoulder and dropped her in her tracks! As I walked up to her she just kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger! I was STOAKED, but I was also running out of daylight, so I wasted no time snapping a few quick pics with the point and shoot and got her gutted. By he time I got her dragged back to the main trail it was already dark and I had at least a mile to go to get home. I was rushing and overheating and needed to slow down and cool down. I took a few layers off and decided to cover her carcass with them so the yotes wouldn't bother her and return to drag her out in the morning. Half way home I saw my other neighbors headlights from his side by side up at his pond. Turns out they were guests of his who graciously agreed to retrieve my deer and give me a lift back to home base with my beast! I didn't have my good camera with me due to the weather so I won't have any quality field photos until the morning. I did grab a few quick clicks with the point and shoot for a teaser though. All in all, it turned out to be a very rewarding hunt for me that I really enjoyed every aspect of considering I really wasn't planning on killing anything that wasn't an exceptional animal while I was alone! I'm very thankfull all hope may not be lost for my future in hunting as I had thought!

I'll have my tripod mounted 24.2 MP Nikon D-3200 w/55-300mm lens and 32GB SD card and two back-up battery packs and remote triggers. I'll bring the 50cal Traditions ML in case I see something that needs some assistance posing in the distance. Hopefully sis can stop them for me with her 20ga. Mossburg 500 first though. I'm just tagging along for moral support this weekend.

One in the muzzleloader, and 2 speed loads. If I need more than that, I'm going home anyhow! I always reload before approaching a downed animal just to be safe. On more than one occasion I've dropped a primer or powder pellet in the process and was glad to have the extra components.

I'll be in the blind with sis Saturday morning. Not exactly sure yet what kind of sign or terrain features we'll be hunting over yet. We'll probably end up wherever I get tired of carrying the blind around Friday evening,lol Usually for opening day I concentrate on deer moving due to pressure coming in from the road behind us. This year may be a little different though since I haven't seen any serious chasing yet. With a little luck we could see a parade of bucks in the first hour no matter where we set up if things finally snap in the next day or two.

Well, I was hoping I'd have some good news by now but I continue to fall short. Activity from my "hot stand" cooled off late last week. As I said, it was going to take a lot for me to give up on this one so I hung in there and suffered through the slow early weekend with only a few distant sightings. Yesterday turned out to be my most action packed sit of the season here. Between my morning and evening stands I saw 14 deer total, with 5 confirmed bucks, and got to see a few short chases. Still not much to get excited about size wise but that's the kind of action that gets me excited. Things were happening so fast I found myself reaching for the x-bow BEFORE the camera with each approaching deer. I almost pulled the trigger a few times but I talked myself out of it,lol One of the few shots I did take here, and one of the highlights of my most recent hunts was this little forky. He came out of the orchard and worked his way around the front of my stand. A few minutes later one of the spikers showed up heading right for the little forker. The little 4pt blew up like a spring strutter! Every hair on his body stood on end as he began side stepping his way towards the spiker. If I hadn't already seen the size of his antlers and relaxed posture, I would have guessed him to weigh 200lbs+ when he went into "full strut". Pretty cool to see that, especially under 10yds. I told myself before this encounter that the next legal buck was gonna get smoked to get this x-bow buck monkey off my back..., but I just couldn't do it. Since I was having such a hard time resisting the temptation to kill one of the dinks, I thought it might be fun to take a hike, scout around, and to go snap some "hunting selfies". This turned out to be more fun than sitting in my stand getting frustrated about the size of deer I'm hung up on this year. I just hope no one was watching duck in and out of the corn like some kind of crazy x-bow guy up to no good,lol

Done. Thanks for making that so simple and professional for us!

I've yet to find a broadhead that'll stand up to those DEC "robo-bucks"! I swear them SOB's are BULLET PROOF,lol

Man that first pic is deceiving. I wasn't expecting THAT in #2 shot! Sweet dreams till Saturday!

Just wondering who else this happens to from time to time. You know what they say..... you need to work hard and "go the extra mile" if you want a good whitetail honey hole to yourself. So here's the deal. I could hang a stand anywhere within a 5 minute walk out my front door and have some good deer hunting any time I wanted. Instead, I hike in 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes a mile or more in the dark, to hunt one of my stands 5 minutes out someone elses back door on the other side of the block. Meanwhile they do the same to hunt my side of the block,lol Sometimes we see each others headlamps passing each other in the dark like on-coming traffic on the freeway. Why in the world do we do this to ourselves? Is it that the grass is always greener on the other side, or what? It's always nice comparing notes on the way out. When one of us reports back with "a good one" spotted back on the others home turf, we usually don't cross paths the following day,lol

Good deal Fletch! A week to prepare and recharge for the regular season will be nice! Congrats!

I have one of these run from my recliner to the beer fridge. Saved me from a nasty spill a few times already,lol

Wow- great job on these Elmo! Very professional quality and compositions! Looks like an awesome trip with lots to see.

I think just the opposite way. Get it out of your system.., no holds barred.., lay it all on the line! Your first few seasons of successes and screw ups will be your best teachers. Sometimes analyzing from one hunt to the next with no time between them isn't the best way to look at things. Continue to experiment and after season you can look back on your journal to find out what works for you and what doesn't. There's still a lot of deer hunting left to be done this year, so I don't think you can start second guessing your tactics just yet until it's all said and done. Trying something new once or twice without it having the results you hoped for doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work.... it just didn't work those days. You'll have a better handle on things when you look back at the season as a whole and not just comparing one hunt to the next. JMO- but I think you're on the right track either way from what I've read so far here. Good luck the rest of the way!

My Horton takes 2 fingers (thumb and pointer finger) to switch from safe to fire. It's quite a noticeable metallic click when done quickly without caution. If I'm paying attention and take care to switch over silently, it can be done but takes some practice even for such a basic task. I believe it's part of the "anti-dry fire" feature for this design. Gloves help muffle the sound to some extent, but that can be awkward to accomplish with cold paws.

Well, it was back in the same stand for an evening hunt and I'm happy to say I got to see another buck. I'm gonna have a hard time walking away from this stand unless it really goes cold. Trying to stay patient and wait for something I like to show up. This little sixer strolled through around 5pm along the edge to my left according to plan. He freshened up a scrape and continued on to browse around between 15-20yds for a while. Eventually he made his way off towards the fields above me which I need to check on one of these evenings soon. Once they start harassing the doe hard, that's where I'll find every buck on the block. Almost forgot to mention.... my little spiker made his way through again just like clock-work,lol ZERO variety in his routine! I don't think he'll survive opening day of regular season here if he keeps that up!

Six deer spotted from the orchard stand this morning, with only one confirmed spiker! Just a dink that looked like someone turned his left ear inside out to the white side. It was just sort of hanging there flappin' in the breeze. I'm sure he'll be back and I'll try for some better pics than what I have right now of him. Had a couple fawns show up to keep me entertained for a while. Then "Big Momma" stepped out and fed along with them right around the 20yd mark. My x-bow was hanging there looking at me like...."what the hell are you waiting for.., let's eat". By the time she joined them they were a little too close to be snapping pics. I'm sure she would have heard the shutter slap and picked me off at that point so I didn't dare try for all 3 of them in a shot. She may get a tag in her ear shortly. I picked up an extra dmp from my father with his request to find something to hang it on. It's now in with the rest of the tags on my back so forget about all that stuff I was yammering about back on page two,lol. I'm really gonna have to be in the right mood for that though. The trail cam has been working overtime in the orchard about 150yds away, but still not a crankers in site. Lots of early morning action though which is matching up with what I'm seeing on the other side. If anything worth mentioning shows up I'll post the here as well. Only one fawn spotted yesterday evening. Twins from this morning minus momma.

I used to make fun out of guys that hunted from these things. Now I make fun out in my own! Read that 2x's so it sinks in.... At first I felt confined and trapped hunting from one. Now I feel more like I have the option of portable comfort and concealment anywhere in the forest whenever the need arises on short notice. Also nice to be able to spread out my gear and keep it out of the elements on days it would likely never come out of my backpack hunting from a stand. One thing that keeps me out of the treetops once we start dipping later into winter is ice and snow. My blinds are my go-to set ups for those days without sacrificing much in the department of effectiveness when placed with a little thought in advance. They definitely keep me in the woods longer whether the bugs or snowflakes are flying outside.