Buckstopshere

Ditto. My cameras are exploding with buck action...just about all of them now. I am almost overwhelmed.

As the action heats up towards the peak of the rut, bucks pay their respects to the overhanging zip-tied bouquet of licking branches as a doe group moves through. But most of the action is still nocturnal.

Three of the four areas I hunt are torn up with scrapes and lots of trail cam footage of bucks and does running by, bucks panting, etc. But on one...still quiet. This year, it is going to be a nice long rut.

Nope, I don't think so. The way I look at is the mass on both sides is about equal...but the G3 and tip length and girth on the right side...actually equals the mass on the other side...even with the extra point. Nine pointers in my neck of the woods are more common that 10 pointers. I don't know why...just a DNA thing I guess. Here, it seems as common to have an unbalanced rack as one having the same points on one side as the other. And thanks...there are a lot of guys after that one. I should be so lucky! (But he is between five of my stands.)

Saw this guy this morning moving through the oak flat...got on him slowly...he bedded down right in front of me! I got to about 20 yards. Wind was blowing and covered my scent and noise. Love to still hunt in a wind. He let me put my bow on the ground, take off my pack and get my camera out and snap as many photos as I wanted...didn't move til I started to walk out.

In the top photo, you can see my tree stand in the top righthand quadrant...near the top of the photo.

Afraid he is going to get his butt kicked.

Two scrapes on two different properties...about five miles apart. Both made last night (Sunday.) And a good rub with fresh shavings...Nothing like this time of year to get the juices flowing!

Beautiful in the bracken ferns.

Scrapes opening up on each of my four hunting spots. One has a scrape cluster of 13 in a 20 yard area (old apple orchard.) But the big boys seem to be hanging back til dark according to my trail cams. Young bucks dogging does. Does hitting the overhanging branches of the scrapes with regularity...we are close. Can't wait for the temps to drop this weekend...maybe the big boys will be on their feet in the daytime! Rut right on time...even with the crazy hot temps. Should explode right after the full moon in November.

Like DB says...not a lot to go on with just a frontal photo...but I would tend to lean more older...like a 4.5 year old for my neck of the woods. Good bases...thick diameter. Heavy brisket, and wide frontal stance all point to an older deer. From the camera perspective...he gives an "all shoulders" look of an older animal. And he looks like he has short legs. All those keys tell me it is an older deer. JMO

This young buck was "feeling it" this am, doggin' does and panting like a dog.

Came in last night about an hour after shooting light. Right under my stand. Hopefully with the weather change he'll show himself during shooting light.

Glad to see this guy show up. Nice tine length for a big woods buck around here. Date and time is accurate.

Went up to shoot a few arrows this afternoon and this is what I found. My target was munched by a bear. He/she must have spent quite a while doing it because he took some of it around the back of the brush pile I use as a backstop...made a nest in the grass and munched some more. Has this happened to anyone else? I figure it is because I was practicing with my old arrows from kills...and the shafts cleaned off in the target. Gave it an appealing smell...especially when it got wet to Mr. or Mrs. Bruin. Right near my bee hives. My girls were not happy and I got stung just standing there.! Very unusual. I've noticed the girls get ornery when a bear is around. I have my hives protected with DC electric on a 12 volt. Now I have to get a new target. I try to shoot every day.

For the record, I got him on a third camera.

He's still hanging around. Got him on another camera...just moving nocturnal...so far.

First time I have seen him. Rght side of his rack...with the split/palmated G2 is too cool. I am trying to stay out of the stand that is 20 feet away. Waiting for the rut...unless he shows a pattern on feeding on the apples. He's a slob for my neck of the woods...made it through a lot of seasons.

well...in the early going. I have been known to lower my expectations as the season goes on...

Just another fake story on Facebook. But it didn't do our image any good! Think of all the hundreds of people who saw it and never will bother or care to find out if it was fake or not...another brick in the wall of building a bad image of deer hunters...archers in particular. The news media did not pick it up because it did not pass the smell test...even for them.

Always a crap shoot. I usually kill my deer in NY in the last two weeks of the season. Number of reasons for that. Some of it is me, and some of it is the whitetail's behavior. I really bear down as the season comes to an end...do a lot of passing in the early going. Worst thing is to kill one early...then what would I do? The other part of the equation is the stage of the activity of the deer...this year, I expect most bucks to be on their feet in the daytime second week of November this year. If there is any metric that is important, it is how many bucks are on their feet in the daytime. That is in line with when the most does come into estrus. That "hormonal hurricane" (to coin a term) in the deer woods is when I like to be there. It is crazy and my success has often come from taking advantage of the moment. Down though the years I have found the most bucks on their feet in the daytime is after the first week following the full moon. And this year...it is the second week of November.

Even a field point would have left some impact on the muscle tissue. There is no evidence of that. And just because it was on FB does not mean it is true...like...look at the way things were skewed during the recent presidential elections. Just because someone said that a vet looked at the dog, does not mean that the vet validated that the wound was caused by a projectile. I would have to hear it from the vet. Not because somebody posted what somebody else allegedly said on Fb. Everything on Fb needs to be taken with a very large chunk of salt.

All you need to do, instead of fussing with a lighted pin to augment the fiber optics is carry a little AA battery pen light. Hold it on the fiber optic nexus on the riser for a minute to give you that extra couple of minutes.

I'm no vet, but I have had lots of dogs, hunting dogs. Looking at the photo, it appears the wound looks more like a "hot spot" or moist dermatitis. Especially the lower discoloration, where they lick. A dog can worry a spot like that in a couple hours. Law enforcement or anyone trying to get to the bottom of the story should first show the photo to a veterinarian and get his/her professional opinion before knee-jerk second hand information...as the poster was "a friend" of the person who actually owns the dog. It certainly appears more like a hot spot than an arrow wound.

I've been using the fiber optic sight pins for quite a few years. They gather light, solar. The problem with the battery powered sights...they are too bright and obscure the target area in my experience. I tried a few models when they first hit the market...way before the laws...thinking it would give me an edge and able to shoot later. Nope. The darker it gets...the more lighted sights obscure the target.