5.9cummins

You aren't kidding. I have been down range of two deer which were having lead sprayed at them. Both occasions happened on state land and to top it off it was my first time ever hunting deer. I ate dirt on both occasions but better than eating lead. Happened up in Sambuca's neck of the woods Tioughnioga WMA in Madison co. Also had a guy take a sound shot at me. Its not a fun experience.

The deer and Golden rod since it has produced so much interest.

Few to no DMP's in that area. That is why I didnt put in for one in that area and why i have not hunted it. I have four DMP's plus one that was signed over to me, just none for that area. Here she is.

11-11-12 So yesterday i go out to put a couple more rounds through the rifle just to make sure i have it where i want it. I went to a piece of property that i have not been to all year. After i was done i poked around a little and found the big boy is still alive. Hes got a cluster of rubs on this property and he comes back to rub them every year. Some of these are as big as my thigh. He also had a fresh scrape at the base of one of those trees. I saw this deer two years ago at which time i would estimate him to be 4.5 years old with 140" 8 pt rack. He looked like a tank. To my knowledge he has not been taken yet and judging by the sign he left behind hes still alive. Fast forward to tonight. 11-12-12 I go up to the same spot and go up in my climber and hope that maybe i will get lucky. Only problem is i don't have a doe tag for that area and that is why i have not hunted up there yet. I pick out a tree and shimmy up it but after about 10 minutes i decide i don't want a flying lesson tonight so i get back down. I walk over toward the road a little more near a blow down. Pick out a tree with two stems, one of which has been cut and has a nice stump and back rest and take a seat. Sat for about 3 hours not seeing anything. Then with about 10-15 minutes shooting light left i see a car coming down the road and it breaks hard then he lays on his horn. Three deer come bounding into the woods. A big doe with a yearling and another decent sized doe. After the car leaves the first doe walks down by the blow down at about 10 yards and then spots me. She gives me about 30 seconds worth of head bobs and decides I'm OK, thank god for my leafy suit. Then she walks behind the blow down which is getting on the down wind side of me. She winds me and runs off 20-30 yards. The doe in front of me at 12 yards watches her for a little while but goes back to milling around. Then she spots me. She doesn't give my much scrutiny and then turns to walk down hill to the other doe. She then looks back at the road and i took the opportunity to draw, anchor and release. Thwack - double lung. She ran about 30 yards and started doing wobbly legged circles before dropping.

Doe down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally put one on the ground. Had to burn my either sex tag but i figure its the last night of vacation and i don't think i am really going to have a chance to get back out. If i can get my flash to work on the camera i will get a pic up. Story to follow on my journal. Congrats to every one else.

Congrats man.

Upstate we dont differentiate between the range and the field. They are one and the same.

1 go with something you know. 3 you don't really know. Depending on the size of the fields you might not see a thing if there is a lot of room for them to disappear. She may also have a hard time picking out a target. go with the stand

The view from the stand on 11-5 overlooking the swamp

I would if i had one. I already did some research and found the one i will buy for next year but its not going to happen this year. That spot is going to be tricky its where four different properties come together. I am going to have to get some additional permissions so i got my work cut out. But as far as i can tell no one hunts it. 11-10-12 Didn't go out this AM because of kids and Dr. Appointments. Went out this afternoon to another chunk of state land. I decided to break out the climber and hike up the mountain. 400 foot elevation change over 8/10ths of a mile hike and i arrived at my spot. Needless to say it looks a little different with the leaves off. I scouted this spot and it was dense during the summer but not so great now. Sat for about three hours and didn't see a thing. I heard some turkeys work down the hill below me and saw a turkey hunter leaving onto private property which probably didn't help me any. I think i am going to get a different climber next year because the cheap piece of crap i have isn't worth a #%^&. One interesting thing i did see on the way in was a spot where something decided to tangle with a porcupine. There was a 20 foot diameter area that was tore up. Quills and fur everywhere but no blood or carcass. I have never seen a fisher around here and would have expected to find some sign of a carcass had it been a fisher which makes me wonder if a couple coyotes got there but handed to them by the pincushion. If i hunt this spot again i am going to hunt the property boundary where two gully's come together. It looks to be a better funnel than i had originally thought. The view from the stand tonight.

I went out yesterday afternoon. Saw a wide racked 8pt locked on to a doe. Another 8 with a high tight rack and a little fork horn cruising but he wouldn't go in the thicket with the doe and big 8 - just did laps around it. When i left i saw another little spike or fork along the side of the road with a doe.

11-9-12 Stayed home yesterday because of sick kids. Late start this morning and i got beat to my spot by some one else. Did some still hunting at the farm in a new area and ended up jumping a deer out of its bed. Found one spot that looked fairly promising but i had 8 four-wheelers show up and raise holy hell so i called it quits. A friend of a friend has been complaining about some deer that get into her garden and wanted to know if i could get rid of them. So i decided that i would give it a shot this afternoon since i had nothing else going. I wasn't too optimistic. I was told that i should sit down between the small pond and 4 small spruce trees. Supposedly three doe come out and walk the edge of the field every night within shooting distance of these 4 trees. When i got there i wasn't to impressed with the amount of cover and really didn't expect much. I was sitting watching over a 25-30 acre field with two small ponds on the opposite side. Beyond that there was a 65-75 acre field full of golden rod and scrub. I spotted a doe 200 yards off in the golden rod. I watched her for a while and then I caught some movement closer to where the two fields meet. The deer was behind some bushes and i could not make it out so i went back to looking at the doe. A little while later i saw the other deer moving out from behind the bushes and my jaw dropped. A nice wide 3.5 year old 8pt who was following the doe around. They milled around in the golden rod for a while moving toward a large patch of scrub about 100 yards across the field before disappearing into it. I kept watching the other end to see if they would come back out but they didn't. Then i spotted two more doe back out in the golden rod. While i was watching them and the patch of scrub i caught movement off to my left where the golden rod field meets the hay field and there was another smaller 8 with a high tight rack, 2.5 year old or possibly 3.5 years. The small 8 disappeared as fast as he showed up. I grabbed my grunt tube and gave it a couple grunts and did a snort wheeze to try and see if i could peek one of the bucks curiosity. Shortly after that i caught movement in the patch of scrub. I saw the wide racked 8 moving along the edge of the scrub and i could just see his rack. Then I caught movement up further in the golden rod and saw another doe running. The doe in the scrub then stuck her head out of the scrub for a little while and stare across the field before she turned back and went back into the scrub. About 20 minutes later i caught more movement. There was a small fork horn running along the edge of the scrub next to one of the ponds. It looked like he made a lap or two around the scrub but i think the big 8 was keeping him at bay. Unfortunately nothing came into the field i was watching. At least i got to see a couple nice racked bucks.

I cant wait until i get into my new place. I can only keep hunting stuff inside for the time being and it is impossible to keep anything scent free with a wife and three daughters. I am waiting on the wife to get back from taking the kids to school and she left while i was in the shower. I get out of the shower and open the bathroom door only to walk into a cloud of hairspray that was used before they left. I wonder if deer like cucumber melon.

Yes And Yes

Damn beat me to it.

Guy i knew had a leg shot like that once. Trailed the deer about 90 yards after finishing the morning sit. Blood trail like someone was painting the lines on the road. Get to the end of the trail right next to his neighbors driveway and there is a big pool of blood and no deer. He looks and looks and cant find squat. Finally walks over to his neighbors house and asks him if he has seen anything and is told go look in the bucket of the tractor. Neighbor drove by and saw it laying there came back with the tractor and picked it up. Congrats

I forgot my bow at the house the two days ago. After going back to the house to get it i dropped my glove out of the stand. Later went to pull up the bow only to see my pull up rope which i attach to myself when i climb piled up on my bow on the ground.

110 on the left 97 on the right - Gross not net. Nice bucks

11-7-12 Went out this morning and made a stupid mistake. WAY to crunchy to think i could sneak anywhere. Tried making my way through the swamp like i did last time which turned into me sounding like an elephant because of everything being frozen. Busted a bunch of deer out of a bedding area crossing through the cattails. Still hunted for about 4 hours down a ridge and into some hardwoods along the swamp. Passed 200+ rubs some of which were very impressive. Just as i was getting to where i wanted to set up i caught movement and saw a flag running away but couldn't tell what it was. Got up the tree about noon and sat until dark. Lots of squirrels which was annoying to say the least. One squirrel came running through the woods with a full ear of corn. He must have had help from a deer or coon or something because the nearest corn field is a half mile away. Had a doe come out of the swamp to the north and work by at about 45 yards. Shortly after that heard a bunch of branches breaking in the swamp but nothing ever materialized. I wish i had set up another 50-75 yards to the south because it sounded like multiple deer came through but i couldn't see anything due to the hemlocks.

I should be in a good mood this morning its the rut after all but i have this dark cloud hanging over my head.

Good job

Little guys cruising but nothing big on its feet yet in day light. Saw a monster just after sundown on the way home and was told by another guy that he saw a 8 point (no idea how big) in the middle of the road a little after noon. Saw a spike and half racked six out and about yesterday along with two buttons.

11-6-12 Tonight was not my night. Got done voting and taking care of some other stuff and i headed for the woods. Once there i got dressed and all ready to start walking and i go to grab my bow...............................and its still at home. Back in the truck haul ass home grab it and back to the woods. I go in get up the tree and start to settle in and drop a glove. Figured i could do without that so i went to grab my pull up rope only to see it laying in a heap on top of my bow. Back down the tree grab the glove and rope and back up. Sat for a while but didn't see a thing except a fox and one deer way off in the distance. Saw a dozen deer in one of the lower fields when i was leaving the farm. Only one small 4 pointer that i could tell but he was glued to a doe. Back to the public land tomorrow to see what i can find. Hopefully i pull myself away from the election results tonight otherwise its going to be a long day tomorrow.

done and done out the door to hunt.

Sweet i just got my vacation extended by two days. My meeting on Thursday and Friday got bumped to next week. Off to vote and back in the saddle for the afternoon.