Buckstopshere

Ah, but it wasn't. Juar two mom does with a fawn in tow and a lone single young doe. All under an old apple tree, surrounded by scrapes...you would have thought at least a spike would show up...nada. Tomorrow is the day... Must be a doe in heat somewhere attracting all the boys.

Well, pretty much. But I would most happy putting my arrow where it counts and making him mine. Somebody is going to kill him this year, probably with rifle. But I have another week with a bow...patience and persistence are my two best arrows. But what an animal if he makes it through!

That is the question. If he somehow, with so many guys on adjacent properties gunning (no pun intended,) if he walks into my shooting window. I will kill him. But...I have to admit. If he makes it. He will be worth a lot in stories. so part of me is pulling for him..not to mention, what would a 5.5 year old buck in Wellsville, look like? He would look like a Midwestern deer. I am sure we have not seen one in my lifespan...about 65 years.

I think Whether it is the same buck or another, he is a lot smarter than I. That's for sure. I have been trying to kill him...but he always uses the wind. Even this morning when he was trailing four other bucks after a doe, he walked though the edge of the woods. He didn't get that big being stupid.

Thanks, others say "it is the same buck...no question." I keep thinking if an NFL linebacker put on my shirt(if he could get into it), would the mark where the arrow hit, move up? Or is that too much of a stretch...Haaaa.

Checked some cams today after the hunt and the Big 8 I have been seeing is weirdly like the big 9 I thought was killed last year by a kid's arrow. Hit high. I got this last shot of the buck a couple days after the kid, who was heartbroken, let his arrow fly. That was last year, and the last time I saw him. I thought he was dead. Bummer. Well, my Big 8 has a very similar rack, but is much larger an animal. My question: Is it possible that the two wounds that look in slightly different places,(one higher than the other) are actually the same wound on the same animal, the hide just stretched up because the animal got so much bigger? By the way, I watched the Big 8 and four other bucks chase a doe this morning from my stand.

Watched four studs and a small buck chase a doe past me at 75 yards this am. Lots of reports of early breeding. But there are a lot of does still with fawns. Things are ramping up and it will pop a week after the Full Moon, like it always does.

Perfect morning. Wind, thermal non-existant but what there was was in my face. Heard grunting at dawn, three does came coyly running past...and he came to the scrape, 15 yard shot. I was in the tree in the upper left corner of the photo. A half rack fork...just my luck. Passed five bucks in last three days. And 75 yards away in the evening the Big 8 showed. Still got 10 days! He's getting comfortable...and that is stupid.

I keep my camo in garbage bags. Same with my pack so it doesn't pick up ambient scent from my truck (food, gas, beer, etc.) Throw acorns, hemlock, oak leaves, whatever in the bags...even milkweed pods to test the wind. Anything natural. I am not sold on de-scent products, but no sense insulting a deer's intelligence.

Deer are amazingly tough. Just talk to a whitetail taxidermist. I have cut up a couple hundred deer and it is not uncommon to find a broadhead, or other old wounds in a deer. Some break their legs and get hit by cars...and they still heal. They can really take a hit. They are a lot tougher than we are.

Bow season is a marathon, not a sprint. Lol.

It's a lot of work running scrapes day and night, and when the temps rise up toward the 60's, time to get hydrated! What a morning it was...lots of bucks on their feet this am, running the scrapes until the temps got too warm.

They were going crazy this morning! The big guy never came by...but what a show...bucks and does. This guy, under one of my other stands, needs to hydrate! A little later it got too hot.

We've got two more weeks! I passed two more bucks this weekend, both were with does. One of these days, I hope that big 8 will be hooked up and one of those promiscuous, flirtatious does and they bring him past my stand like they have so many others.

Still alive, still have a chance. Hope springs eternal.

This guy was under my stand, hitting the licking branch bouquet, at 6 pm! last night. Where was I? In a different stand.

You are right, but that is hard to do.

I named this buck, Ahab...because of the color...or lack of, on his right front leg. Captain Ahab in the great novel "Moby Dick" had a whalebone leg and it was white. The white whale bit it off. So I thought it was fitting...for this buck. I wasn't in the stand next to the trail cam this morning at 10:20 am, but I still have two more weeks to hunt. I can't let myself be too obsessed. These are all the photos I have of Ahab.

Now that is an old deer. Good luck smoking him! For that whitetail to live that long around here in my neck of the woods, he'd have to have a PHD in Deerescapeology!

Good question. It could be. You remember those deer? I keep all my trail cam photos and vid clips on a hard drive, I will try to dig back in the archives and see. But it is hard to say for sure it is the same buck as their masks (coloration around the eyes and mouth) do change with age. Also, the genes on that hill seem to create a large percentage of classic 8's. So it could be a close cousin.

It is killing me to sit inside today, but it is raining here and I refuse to bow hunt in the rain. I know it would be good...but washed away blood trails can break your heart.

They still sell lighter fluid hand warmers...and the bag is camo with a Buffalo Bills logo if you wish! Check out the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GVEY58W/ref=twister_B0162IMTFC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Well the companies are in it to make money, so of course they are going to hype scent control. Buyer beware. In my opinion, there is a lot more to scent and the olfactory abilities of the whitetail than we know or will ever know. I do know that on some days my bird dogs could not seem to smell a thing. But yet on other days, they could point a live bird while holding another in their mouth on a retrieve. Now how can they smell a live bird, 20 yards away with another hot scented bird in their mouth?

Yes, it is a mock scrape. I set one up there years ago and it is the gift that keeps giving. The only lure I use is licking branches off other scrapes that I stumble on when I am scouting or hunting other properties. I snip them and hang them with zip ties. I call it my "licking branch bouquet." Lots of different buck and doe scent there... all natural. Got quite a bunch there as you can see in the photos. I've got a stand there 20 yards upwind, when the wind is right. Truly the gift that keeps giving.

Nope. Never had those. That old metal two-part lighter fuel hand-warmer went inside a felt bag with a drawstring if I remember right. That bag got saturated and if you carried it in your pocket for long it would make your leg itch, because the bag was saturated, but not wet. But it allowed us to play outside in the snow all day.