Zem18

I hear ya Fletch on the Saturday games. I took July off from coaching but my daughter still played once a week but I have been at it for 11 months and we have one last outdoor game this Saturday and then 6 months of indoors, right into 2 months of outdoors in the spring. I still get my morning and evening hunts in and Thanksgiving week everyone knows I am MIA.

Sounds like it was an exciting hunt. Be thankful for the clean miss and not having to track a wounded one for miles. Been there, done that.

Nice Buck Fastone. Last year I saw most of the deer on stand during those crappy rainy days so like you said, you can't get them from the livingroom or the couch. Bet you think twice the next time you want it to pour, lol.

Nice pics. Patience will pay off in the long run. Good Luck

Don't show my wife the pic of me and the two does. Honestly I don't know which photo your are referring to.

Hey Fastone - Nice to see your journal entries again this year. Good luck out there and be safe.

Hey Fletch - Great to see the journals are back this year. Good luck as always. You seem to start slow but always finish strong so keep your chin up.

Good Luck Burt. Be safe.

A bunch of us defected here last year from another site. I guess you could say we know each other as we spent 2 to 3 years shootin the bull on that site, but I don't think any of us have met or hunted together. We all post in the journal section because it is fun to relive the hunt and tell the story to everyone.

Day 2 - Sunday the 16th My buddy did not get out Saturday so I told him to hunt one of the other stands by me in the morning. We rode up together and pulled into my inlaws driveway. He says "Holy $hit , did you see that?" I was like see what, a buck? He goes no look. He turns the lights off and I see a "FLASH", then another, and another. My trail camera is going off that is 25 yards from my stand. We wait one minute, and then 3 more flashes. We start laughing that it is 6:05am and the deer are already feeding and we can't get to the stand without spooking them. At this point I said, lets spook them now and maybe they will come back. So we went for it. I made it past the camera and I heard the leaves rustle a little behind my stand but no snorting. I crawled up the tree and waited. About 7:15 I saw movement and sure enough, here comes two doe from the direction the ones this morning went. The first one was a little skipper, this years deer, and a button buck to boot. He came by at 10 yards. His little sister came next and she came by at 8 yards. I took pictures of them feeding out in front of me for almost 20 minutes. My trail camera flash was going off too as it was shady in under the trees. The button walked back into the woods first, directly under my stand about 4 feet from the base of the tree. His sister followed about 1 minute later. What I never saw was Mom or Dad but I knew Mom was around. Sure enough as I was scanning the woods behind me about 20 minutes after I lost sight of them, I caught 3 deer moving away from me back in the thick stuff. Not nearly as windy today thankfully but Mom wouldn't commit. Not sure if she was there earlier in the morning and remembered so she sent the kids to do her dirty work so she wouldn't get arrowed or not. HUnted until 10am and then checked my trail cam. Only 529 pictures in 2 weeks. There are two 6 points, a 4 point, and spike. Lots of does and little ones too. And the raccoon is back again this year. Can't hunt Sunday afternoons so no reports there. Looking forward to Saturday morning but it will be a short hunt. Got a game at 9am.

Hey all - Im back at it again this year just like the rest of you. Last year my heart wasn't into it and it just didn't feel right. I vowed to make it a better year and try to get serious about hunting again. Then came the floods. I'm sure some of you were affected by them personally. My house was high and dry but many others were not. My warehouse was used as a water and dry ice location for many victims and it has only gotten busier and busier since. I am keeping a positive attitude and accepting that my time afield will be limited to weekend warrior status (part time too as I coach soccer for the kids) Well enough of my pitiful story, lets get to the hunting tales shall we Opening morning was a tad breezy with wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph in my area. DId I crawl back to bed, HELL NO. I climbed into my stand about 610ish and held on for the ride. Saw a rabbit just as it got light and a few squirrels and that was it. I got down around 9 am as I had my daughters game to coach at 10. That afternoon I planned to leave the house at 3 or 330. I chose 330 as I was comfy on the couch at 3. As I headed out into the field I was scanning my way to my stand. 40 yards to go and I look up and there is a young doe staring at me. The wind is howling in my face and we are 25 yards apart. I was freezing standing there for almost 10 minutes. She would look at me and then feed. Then the radar ears would work one at a time, and then both in unison. She finally thought nothing of me and fed away and to my left. I was elated that I could finally move to warm up. I squatted down and then caught a glimpse of her through the brush moving away. I moved slowly towards the stand, watching her as she was headed in a circle to get downwind of me. Little did I know that it was a second deer because when I got to the corner she turned, she was still there. Scared the crap out of both of us. I could have tapped her on the tush. The two took off but slowed a bit and just fed away into the deeper woods. I got on stand and braved the afternoon winds. An hour later I looked behind me and I caught a deer sneaking in behind me. It looked to be the same two from earlier, and they were headed back to get to the crabapples on the tree. DId I mention it was windy? The larger doe was spooky and the gusts would blow leaves at here and she would turn and run away, and then feed her way back from where she just ran from. It was fun to watch. She got to within 35 yards but no shot presented itself. I decided to call it a badhair day due to windy conditions at 6:10pm. Seeing deer on a day like that was definately a bonus and getting that close got the heart pumping.

LOL Burt you crack me up. I'm with phade on this one. Gotta get it done early. Now the kids are a whole different set of problems. Still trying to figure out why I volunteered to be a soccer coach. Good thing the games will be cancelled due to rain tomorrow. OK gotta get to bed to be able to get up early. Good luck fellas.

Hey guys - Live in 7S and bowhunt mostly here. Have a cabin in 4W so thats the main gun location. I'm soo lokking forward to this season. Last year was ok but wasn't into it with life happening around me.

Hope you are feeling better to get out there tomorrow and finish the season off with a bang. If I didn't have a 40' container coming to unload tomorrow, I would have called in to go out but I just can't do it. Good Luck and Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Sounds like a great weekend, plenty of action from the deer and from you!!! Makes the long trip that much more worth your while. We'll give em hell next year Burt, I can feel it already. Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Nice job on the trifecta!! You definately put your time in and it was well rewarded. My offer is still open if you need an assistant to work with you so I can have more time off during the seasons, LOL. Happy Holidays to you and your family as well.

I got out of bed this morning and was about to brush my teeth and my cell rang. I knew what was coming next. It was 11 degrees out and a heavy heavy frost covered what snow we had left here. We discussed it over and over and decided sitting on the couch watching hunting shows was how we would end our season. I froze enough on Saturday to last me until rabbit season so I wasn't too disappointed. Now the fun part begins. I have to unload the muzzle and clean it then I still have to clean my rifle from last weekend. It was such a busy week I forgot about it. It is soaking with some foaming cleaner now and I will swab it before bed and give it a thorough cleaning tomorrow after work.

My brother in law and I made the drive down to camp this morning. Left around 7:20am and was there by 8:30. Good gracious it was cold and crunchy. I was shocked when I got to within 50 yards of a doe this morning on the way to my stand. She started bounding away at the sound of my feet in the snow. I had her in the scope when she stopped but it was over 100 and she was in some thick beech trees so I just watched. To my surprise there were 3 more with her as I saw the flags fly and they were off to the races. I bumped a group of 2 does at 12:45pm and then another group of 3 at 2:30pm today. Every deer I saw was doing Mach 3 today. Not a bad day seeing 9 deer but no shots. Did I mention it was freezing out there? We headed back home around 3pm. My buddy called and we are heading out at 8 to his place tomorrow morning. Going to just walk but I have a feeling it will be like today was, C-C-C-Ccccold and C C C cccrunchy. Going to give it one last try. I want to take a nice doe tomorrow as I usually donate at least one deer a year to the Hunters for the Hungry program or the Venison Coalition. I did what I could to try and take one today and had fun trying but it didn't work out. On a sidenote - Saw a beautiful Bald Eagle on the way down this morning. He was perched on top of a tree overlooking the East branch of the Delaware River. What a majestic sight.

Yes the so called second rut is still going. The spike I shot was dogging two does. I had never seen activity this late before so I am now a believer. Who let the dogs out? BURT- BURT -Burt Burt!!!!

I'm singing the same tune but I only get Saturday and half of Sunday. Good Luck this weekend. The weather looks to be warming a touch but they will be moving getting their feed on after this cold snap we've had. I butchered my spike and I am having a bunch made into hotdogs. The kids love them and I even told them it was venison.

You can't shoot em from the couch so go get em!!! And I like your thinking on bringing the trailer. Good Luck

Hey all - I bought a CVA Kodiak magnum a few years ago. I have yet to take a deer with it but man it shoots great at the range. I bought a Pine Ridge scope for it from Cabelas last year. I've been shooting 2 pellets (100grs) of Pyrodex powder and a 240 gr xtp sabot. I find the Pyrodex pellets are very hard to clean out of the barrel though. Does anyone reccomend a "cleaner" powder they've used in pellet form? I'm still fairly new to muzzleloading so I need to read up more and learn what others are using with good success. I'm open to suggestions. Thanks all.

I was in such a rush to get him cleaned up that I never even snapped a pic of him. The wife was ridng me about being gone so long - She gets that way towards the end of the season as most of you guys are probably aware yourselves. Sorry!! Three of us are headed back down there this Saturday for ML so I will take my camera just in case. And you are right Burt, he was happy.

Thanks Fastone!! I'm happy and looking forward to Frontstuffer season next Saturday. Three of us are heading down to the cabin again for the day so it should be a fun time.

My Dad was itching to get back out one last time so I made plans to take him and his neighbor down to my camp Saturday morning. We left at 730am and were down to the camp at 8:40am. As we unlocked the gate and started the drive in, there were 3 does in the road less than 100 yards away. I told my Dad to get out and shoot but he didn't want to. Not sure why but we watched them run up the hill. I had a feeling I would see them again today. Got to the cabin and started a fire as it was in the low 20's. Wasn't sure if anyone wanted to come back to warm up so I started it anyways. I was up to my usual spot by 9:10 or so. The snow made the walk a little longer as it was quite slippery on the hilside. I wasn't there 10 minutes and I heard rustling so I got ready. Momma and 2 little skippers came right in from below. I had Momma dead to rights at 35 yards broadside with a legal doe tag signed over to me by my Dad's neighbor but I didn't shoot. Instead I shot in front of her to scare her in the direction of my Dad. He is 73 and doesn't have much time left in the woods due to his mobility. Unfortunately the plan didnt work as they ran straight up the steepest part of the mountain to my left instead of away from me towards my Dad. I saw the tracks later in the day that they were the deer that went up the other side of the valley on the way in. I knew I'd see them again. I stood on stand til 11 and had to walk. My Dad was appox 600 yds away so I decided to drop low to the valley and get more land between us for my push to him. I hit the run in the creek bottom and followed it another 800 yds to a nice stand of Hemlocks I have stood in before. I snuck up in there and got to a good vantage point. After 10 minutes I spotted movement 100 yards away and part way up the next steep hill. It was a large deer so I got the scope on it. It was a doe and she turned right at me and started running. She stopped 20 yds away and was looking behind her. I look over there and here comes another deer. A skipper. The mature doe turns around and goes to my left, followed by the skipper and then I see another deer following. Its a buck and he is dogging these 2 does. I only caught a glimpse of an antler and then he disappeared. He did a complete 180 and headed back the way he came to get back after the does but was in a little draw so I only saw his rump bobbing up and down as he was in pursuit. I scanned in front of him and found an opening and held my scope on it. As he hit it 80 yds away, I squeezed and put one through the front left shoulder. I saw him kick and then start running, dragging the front left leg. He turned downhill and stopped. I fired again offhand and missed but he didn't move. I looked in front of me and there was a log with a branch still on it low so I knelt down, cradled the rifle in the crotch of the log and branch and held the crosshairs on the middle of the body. I squeezed slowly and the deer disappeared from my scope. I looked downhill and there was no deer running so I knew my third shot was true. I headed over to find his tracks in the draw and I followed slowly. I found where my first shot hit, his tracks turned to bounds and there was a slight splatter of red in the snow. I still could not see him below me so I proceeded with caution, following his tracks. I could see the drags in the snow from the front leg and I look up and there he is laying in a little depression between a rock and a log. Looking at the body of this deer, he was bigger than the doe from this morning and the mature one he was chasing. Unfortunately I made a mistake in my own book. I had shot a young spike. I was happy and disappointed at the same time. I had the doe tag in my pocket but got greedy seeing a flash of antler and hornography took over. My Dad radioed me and asked what it was as he heard the shooting. I said I got a buck but it was a small one. He radioed back and said "That's great". At that moment, my disappointment went away because I knew my Dad was proud of me no matter what size the deer was. He has taught me well over the years and sometimes personal goals get overruled for selfish reasons and everything turns out good in the end. I smiled at got to the dirty work and actually looked forward to the drag back to camp. My Dad's neighbor saw me dragging by the creek bottom and came to help. He offered congrats as I was still pondering it's size there by the creek but he said to me, sometimes you have to take the shot when its there and you have meat for you and your family. Again, my disappointment turned to happiness and we laughed and smiled the whole drag back to camp. We stopped in a little town on the way back for dinner. We were still partially dressed for hunting and it is a hunting town so most of the people were asking, "you get anything?" I kept shut but my Dad and his neighbor did the bragging for me. I learned alot on this hunt and to me it was a hunt of a lifetime.