Nomad

Mrs Nomad hands me a Yeti of coffee and an egg sandwich, as I walk out the door at 5:15 .

Thanks John, we won’t be sitting together in a blind this afternoon,but near each other in stands . So my options to shoot will, expand some . When we’re together and it’s close it’s her shot . My goal is for her to score , then I can hunt . Good thing is we were well in back of the property today, in fields , nobody has been in the woods or really close by to stir things up .

More accurate recap of this mornings mess up . Daughter stands to stretch ,I look to the left ,nice buck walking into the field L-R maybe 50 yards , I say “ grab your gun ! “ I have mine up and the crosshairs on him , I say a, “ I’ll stop him ,” Baa, he stops , she doesn’t shoot, after a couple seconds he runs off, I get on him ,shoot, miss . Now I thought she had her gun on him ,and I was waiting for her to shoot, reality is, she couldn’t find the safety and didn’t even have the gun on him . Ugh I would have then dropped him , had I known . Few years ago she got scoped with this rifle and went back to the shotgun , which has safety in a different spot , this year she went back to the rifle , and only shot it once this summer . Would have been one of the biggest bucks I’ve taken

Ugh... 8:45 a nice buck enters field where I knew they were. Maybe 50 yards tell daughter grab your gun, I’ll stop him. Im on him she’s got gun out the window , Baaa he stops , she doesn’t shoot , he finally sees us and runs . I get on him and miss. She couldn’t find the safety , I had him in my crosshairs waiting ! I didn’t want to shoot a close one that she could have .

Flathead grazing at 150 yards , slowly getting closer .

Ready , set ,go !

Fear hoarding lol. I’ll guess you weren’t a Boy Scout ? The only ones fearing ammo prices are those who weren’t “ hoarding “ or as us Scouts say , “ be prepared ! “

Field that is an escape route . The Half a Bean field , During the first hour or so , bucks have been entering it in a hedgerow gap to the left of the blind , does have been lazily crossing it to the right . . The West edge of a maybe 20 acre thicket is along the far side of the field and they’ll also run across this field if pushed from across the road , to get to it . Still don’t know if Kathy is interested in a doe tomorrow, Im just hoping she remembered to buy her hunting license today .

Yep , today Gun hunters hunt like bow hunters . Back in the day everyone drove their wood lots and creek beds after a morning sit, and the deer were running all day everywhere . Heck tomorrow I’ll go home mid day .

I may have felt 15 slugs on me might not be enough ....... Sat till 9 , drove till 3 , sat again never left the woods ,

I agree with LET EM GROW . The exception being a friend and former co worker, who just got his first gun , a Glock 9mm , the store let him buy one box of hardball . I’ll give him one more and enough HP for a couple mags . Oh I happen to, have six boxes of .32 ball , a few Silver tips and one box of .32 Buffalo Bore , that are of no use to me as the frame cracked on my Tomcat. Rochester area sell or trade .

Ya know perhaps I’ve found a winter hobby . I know a guy who used to compete in some sort of pistol competition, he reloaded but not any more he says he has 20,000 small pistol primers . Maybe he could get me started .

I have 8 boxes for my 7m08. 6 for my daughters 7m08 5 for my 270 that I don’t use anymore about 1,000 rounds for my 300 blackout ,and 10 more boxes in route after about a six month back order . I mostly shoot handguns so that supply is considerably larger . A gun without ammo is just an expensive club . How many runs on guns and ammo do folks have to live through ,before they catch on ?

Nice going Brad and squirrelwhisperer ! Turned down an offer to hunt with a friend on his land this morning . Good luck to those out .

Used fixed blade cut on contact since ‘89 , went through a lot of bone never ever had this happen . The one blade on this thing is clipped to hell dull as can be ,not impressed ,think I’ll toss these things and use cut on contact fixed in the Xbow too .

Ya last year it blew right through the buck , this one was broadside , about half way up and what looked like 5-6 inches back from the crease, perhaps it seems to have been more . When he stopped I could see blood at the entry , and the bolt mostly out the other side just flopping around as he ran . It fell out a bit later . It was a pass through in the sense that I had two holes in him , it was hanging by the fletching . IDK why it didn’t sail right through and out . He stopped with a tree trunk blocking the base of his neck ,but the vitals were all visible , I’m thinking perhaps that tree running right down by his front leg , caused me to hold away from the trunk to much. Arrow was all blood no slime, no stink .

Come on Jay ! I had the worst deer sightings year in 32 years of bow hunting this spot, and after getting slammers on my summer cameras . Then It all turned on a dime , a very nice buck right to me , and my shot was off and never recovered ugh ... I hung up the bow 11/13 but I’ll be out there 11/21 . Pick a day come hunt with me , The Other Half and Mortalis are just down the road , so you’re sure to go home with something !

Here for your viewing pleasure . Blue 1,2,3 are very thick areas , 1&2 require both hands at times to move through , and you’ll get stuck a few times . Red line is bucks path when shot from stand 2 . Anything from stands 2&3 back is wide open hardwoods . I have to wonder if the hot doe over there kept him moving to points unknown.

Thanks Steve . Thermal was used that night . No on deer search, I was certain I’d /we find him , then I reached that point I knew meat would be no good . I have used my Beagle years ago for one of mine and some others , he’s was very good, to lame now . It took me three plus days just to come to grips with it , I told very few . I posted mostly to get others thoughts and ideas ,

Zag, thanks I’ll file that away, I didn’t call them at first as I was certain ,I’d find him . Biggamefish. After consulting my copy of “ Dead On “ and it said a rutting buck that runs onto your land , when shot will often try to get back to his home turf. That last straight line was in that direction,which is one reason I went back a third time , to search straight away . Moog , that is troubling, but I had a hot doe and two, other chasing bucks right where he ran , did that keep him on his feet and in the chase instead of bedding ? Idk . Plotted it on my Hunt Stand App, total track 280 . Not certified measurement lol Between Gun and shed hunting , I’ll find his remains .

There’s a hidden pond close by in the big thicket, it’s dried up this year, I did however circle it . Also measuring the blood on saplings it brushed against on the entry side , the entry hole was about 23 inches off the ground, which is in the sweet spot. I know because the top of my knee cap, when I’m wearing muck boots is 22 inches .

I normally don’t talk much about losing one , fortunately it’s been awhile , but for some reason I feel like sharing this tale . Friday the 13th ,bored nothing moving , then a buck heading straight to my tree , I get the xbow up , I will have no shot as he heads straight on , then he turns and is going to pass broadside , I get on an opening ,but he passes to fast, I swing ahead a bit ,he enters the opening and stops ! Whack ! Nice hit he runs 40 yards or so and stops , I see entry hole ,half way up, ( I try for 1/3 ) but a few inches back, but I’m confident he’s going down , bolt is hanging out off side just flopping around ready to fall out . I’m sure he’s going to drop right there , but he jogs off . I got a hot doe and two other bucks running the other side of the woods , why he branched off idk . 30 minutes later I get down and slowly move to check out the closest blood , I send some pics to a couple guys , could be liver . Moog asks what I’m going to do, I say I’ve already backed out and will come back in the morning, he says I’ve got to many coyotes, and he’ll come back with me tonight . He graciously picks me up and we blood trail for two hours ,he’s heading right to a thicket I call the double buck field ,trail is waning it’s getting thick ,we call it for the night . I come back at 7 takes some time to find next blood but it’s a straight line East towards double buck . I circle around and decide to just search the double buck ,working into the wind as I’ve smelled them before seeing them in thickets before ,nothing found . Get back on blood which is now spotty , takes time but he turned 90 degrees and is going South , but only for a bit then he turns 90 degrees and goes West, right towards the wide open hard woods, he’s paralleling the East ribbons I’ve marked just ten yards over . I find the bolt, covered in red blood and a puddle of blood next to it , I figure the trail will be better now ,but no I lose blood for good 20 yards away . Well maybe he went South towards the big thicket, there happens to be a wide over grown trail he’d have to pass through, its impossible to pass through all the tall weeds with out leaving blood one some . I spend and hour looking on weeds, nothing . I hop into a stand that overlooks that part of the woods and glass it ;nothing , I go into thicket ,nothing . It’s now been 7 hours and the trail has dried up . I returned Monday to check the woods more and the open fields around them , nothing . Three blade mechanical, 1 3/4 inch , pass through , tracked about 250 yards , never bedded ,blood dried up . I can’t believe I didn’t find him . Here some pics the long dark streak is at the beginning ,then some night time , the bolt , and puddle , and I forget I snapped a pic. after the shot as he stood there .

Hegedeons , best around I recommend the apple fritters .

Thanks everyone , our advice last night was go with the one you gave a verbal commitment to , if after sometime they’re not for you , then you can go back to the other . You can’t do the reverse. Brian she’s in line with you , work environment , culture, hours, number and type of clients etc. mean more to, her then a few more bucks .

That’s to line up with my crooked eye .