Five Seasons

There's a couple things to consider. Some people only hunt 10-15 acre spots. You may only have 2 stands. If this is the case you need to use your tools and experienece to pick the best stand. But if the bucks are locked down on does there isn't much you can do but use your best judgement on where the does are bedding and hoping that the ones who are bedding near your stand are in heat. Same can even be said if you're hunting large tracks of land. go where the sign is and utilize natural funnels. You can research and calculate all you want, but they still have to go by you. I've always said that hunting is 90% preperation and 10% luck.

hahah agreed. you also still get in trouble if you do kill/injure someone. Might not be first degree, but still involuntary manslaughter.

found a dead possum 10' from my new stand at my new house on my property. i'm either cursed or someone wants me out. putting a trail cam there tomorrow

8F has been tough to figure out. i see a lot of nocturnal movement on my cams. and the daytime movement is wildly inconsistent. I think you just have to get in the woods and hope at this point.

yeah there's pros and cons to living in the country. Pro, there's no noise ordinance so you can do what you want. Con, there's no noise ordinance so your neighbors can do anything they want. i have some neighbors that built a motocross track. try enjoying an afternoon on the deck with dirtbikes going round, and round, and round...

i have the week off too. not a big fan of gun, but after tagging out early with bow i'm excited.

looking at most of my trail cams. it seems most of the big boys are almost entirely nocturnal now.

did he have a valid hunting lisense?

my thought has always been to never mess with natural scrapes. they're clearly there already why risk it? If you had no scrapes or action then i'm all for making mock scrapes. just my .02 since you asked.

yeah this. makes for wonderful last week of bow. One year my neighbors shot every gun in their arsenal and had friends over. i'm sitting in the stand and 300 yards away in the woods is WWIII.

jesus. looks like a chainsaw went through his midsection. congrats!

i believe shotgun is one word

I enjoy a good stalking with the gun, although i occasionally hear that gun shot in the distance and know i just pushed one someones way. This would take some skills and patience to stalk with the bow. very cool idea, not sure i could do it.

who doesn't? i see people put ladder stands in the dumbest places sometimes. 90% of a good hunt is prep. So yeah, you might have to spend half a day clearing lanes and making an approach trail... or you could spend an hour and stick it up in a clearing in the hardwoods. Don't bitch when you dont see any deer. I have a 2.5 month old at home and a new house. I'm going to hunt my best stands that my father and I spent days prepping. I'm going to hunt the best weather and moons. If i had more vacation this year and a wife that wasn't freaking out from lack of sleep then i'd hunt those low probability days too. Being smart about hunting "on a budget" only makes sense to me.

there are bad shots (we've all had them and they're not intentional) and there are bad decisions. the 2 are different. an animal walking away or towards you both represent very poor chances of success and a high probability of injuring an animal. It seems that i see these even more with big deer. Guy sees the rack and cant imagine not at least "trying" to kill him. Then we find him later all messed up on a trail cam. very sad. I would also argue a bow hunter who does not practice enough to make a good shot even at 15 yards broadside is doing the deer an injustice as well. You're more likely to wound or gut shot the deer due to your lack in preperation. This ain't gun hunting. There's a lot more to it, which is why genearlly any bow kill regardless of gender or rack size is a good one.

i used to use just one pin and adjust accordingly. This year i added a 30-35 yard pin and i think the 2 pin approach works. it all depends on your stands. I have a lot and bring the range finder every time and shoot a bunch of 3d targets every year. practice makes perfect.

on one hand, the deer died quickly, on the other I cant condone even taking the shot at the neck/chest headon. Ethics and standards are tough. No matter how the majority feel, there are no laws against this. Part of me thinks I'm glad it wasn't gun. The gun headshots sicken me. The other point to make is that if he didn't want feedback, he shouldn't have posted 4 pictures on a public hunting forum. What'd you expect our response would be?

i agree, but i dont mind those days. fun to be in the woods i have to admit i've never been a believer in "the drop" i think sometimes it's an excuse for those who shoot under deer. However, I'm not sure what bow you had and have. When we overthink things some times it makes it worse. Set your pin behind the shoulder and release in my opinion. 4 misses? somethings going on there man

hearing the same thing

same. i think the big boys are starting to lock up. unless you find a hot doe you might be screwed

this

i've never been able to draw on mothers with fawns either. i think you did the right thing. there are plenty of deer in the woods.

great buck. congrats

if you were high in the back there's a good chance he's still alive and will survive. I know a lot of people use hounds to track, might be worth a shot. In the future, when you're not sure and may have hit liver I'd suggest waiting more 4 hours instead of 2. When in doubt, back out.

avoid the dishwashers as well. heat warps the seals and water makes its way in and it's all over from there.