Fletch

We hit it Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving. I do not think they allow Sunday hunting.

12/2 30 Well not the morning I was hoping for. More snow never came so just the inch we had and that froze so it was super crunchy. Sat for 1.5 hours and had no confidence in seeing anything so packed it in.

We never saw a person, law or hunter when we were there. You check in and out at a check in box.

Not that I mind, but just an fyi it is illegal to leave stands overnight on state land. I did run across a ladder stand this weekend on Howland Island and the dude cut down all kinds of trees up to 4 or 5 inches across. I think the state is against that as well. Then he has two trails to it marked every 5 feet with glow tacks. I am like dude if you need tacks to follow this trail you cut..... There was the remnants of a gut pile 60 yards from it so I guess he had luck. I see lots of stands on state and like I said it does not bother me. I would not sit in one for two reasons. The first is I have no idea if the stand is safe. Second is does the guy piss off the stand every time he sits it? Third is some nut going to shoot me out of it. Doh that was more than 2, but the 3rd may be an important one.!!

Well I have not been out since Sunday. I was real worn from seeing no deer and needed a recharge. I am looking at the snow right now and thinking I will get out in the am. I am also thinking of loading up the ML for the rest of the season. C'mon does!!!

Sorry I can not help. But I will be watching this post because I would love some info on here as well. My brother and I actually checked it out last Saturday afternoon since we also have a shortage of places and had doe permits here and heard there are a lot of deer in there. He drove around the areas and picked a likely looking spot. We ended up walking a trail for 2 miles before we could find a spot to get past a canal to the woods. My brother did see a nice buck but no shot and we saw tons of tracks. It is just gonna take a while to scout it out properly which you can only do in season. Any tips would be appreciated here as well. You do have to sign in and out and can not be in the woods to early or late. You can get all info off there web site along with maps.

Thanks Burt. Well I did go out last night for an hour and watched the meadow. Zip! Hunted out back this morning with my brother. It was 30 out, calm and just beautiful. Guess the deer thought otherwise. We sat for 3.5 hours and not a thing. Then hit Tully in the afternoon with my brother and Dad and again 3 of us saw zip. Man I hate gun season! I have seen one deer all week. With an average of 5 or 6 hours a day hunting. Ugh

11/27 Hit Howland Island this am. It is new area for us pretty much so it was exploratory mixed with some sits, still hunts ... I think I put on 6 miles or so. Had a few shots close to me but none of us saw a thing. Man it is windy! Sitting here now deciding to go brave it for an hour or turn up the fire, crack a beer and watch football. Hmmm.

Here is the 5 point.

11/26 Slept in this morning and that felt good! Got out in the afternoon behind the house with my brother for 2 hours. Neither of us saw a thing. Did pull the game cam. Had some does and 4 bucks on it. A spike a 4 a 6 and a pig of a 5 point not a big rack but body on roids. His pick was at 10:30 am Sunday. Love to have my Dad get a crack at one of them. We might try an expedition to Howland Island tomorrow. I gotta find a doe somewhere.

10/25 am Back in the hole with my brother and brother in law. We sat for two hours and saw nothing. We then did three drives there after that and did not kick up one deer. We then headed over behind my inlaws place to do a drive there. We had my brother get set up in a stand and my brother and I worked along a beaver pond to get down to where we start the drive. Easing along I saw a deer lying down in the bottom and at first I thought it was dead. I puleed up and saw it was a buck, heck it was only 30 yards away if that. I saw him blink and thought he was either wounded or did not hear us until it was to late and hunkered down hoping we would pass by but I figured wounded so I let him have it. Ended up he had been shot most likely opening weekend through the front legs. The one was not too bad a bit more than a graze but the other was bad. Broken right in half above the knee. Not the big buck I was holding that last buck tag for but I am very happy I took him and saved him the bad time he would have had. He was a 2.5 year old 5 point with no brows. A bit thinned out from rut and probably the injury he weighed 138 dressed. Dragged him out and then ate a lot!! I will get up a pic in a bit.

11/24 30 My brother and I hunted the hole this morning. Nice cold morning, the wind had died and had a dusting of snow. This is rifle area and I would love to get one with that. Neither of us saw a thing.... We then decided to take a drive and hit Montezuma. First for us both. We hit the check station and signed in and got car pass and permits. Cruised around for a bit and found a spot to try. Well that was somethin! The trail we took bordered the woods but had a 12 foot wide ditch 3 feet deep with water between us and the woods. About 2 miles later we finally found a couple spots to get into the woods. I went one way and my bro the other. He finds a good looking area and is looking for a tree to use his climber in and hears a snap and turns to see a big 8 or 10 point, he pulled up but could not get a shot as it walked away. ugh Lots of tracks but we saw nothing else. We need to do more footwork here. That drag would of killed me! Back at it in the morn. Have a great Turkey Day everyone!

11/23 Got up before dawn and it was dry out. Put the dog out and got dressed. By the time I got out of the bathroom it was pouring. Hung around the house until 9:30 or so and it stoped raining. My Dad came over and sat behind the house. I want over to 3 rivers state land and did a little sneakin. I put up one doe but passed the one shot I could of taken because I was not sure of her size. She did not look too big and I did not want to pop a button. Went over to the hole for last watch and sat 2 hours and got blown to heck. Zero deer sighted. This weather is killin me!

"out behind the house" is a 700 acre or so block of woods. I only own 12 but have permission to hunt a neighbors as well of around 30 something. Always pretty good in bow. Hit or miss in gun but nice for a close spot. It is basically hardwoods with a lot of thick stuff. A few pines. No real swamp to close to me.

wtg nice does!

11/22 50 Out again behind the house in the pm. Sat for 2.5 hours and saw zip and got wet.

Super!!!

Wtg!!

11/22 48 Out behind the house this morn for 3.5 hours. Saw zip. Got out before the thunder and lightning! The weather this week just looks like crap. Wind, rain, thunderstorms, rain, wind.... Might just go back to work!

Well I know it is gun season!! My hunting has gone to heck! Went down to Caz for the opener there were 5 of us hunting the am. 4 saw 0 and my uncle saw two and shot a BB. Not what I would call a good opening morning! In the afternoon we put a couple of guys poking around to get the deer up and everyone saw deer. I saw 3 flats but no shots, my uncle got a 7. Sunday am there were 4 of us out and again no one saw anything. Deer were moving all night in the full moon. Came home and hunted out back with my brothere and brother in law for evening watch. I saw one flat too far out and jumped a couple coming out. My brother in law did get a nice doe down in Tully Saturday morning.

Way to go! Meat for the freezer. lol "Why did you shoot it in the gully?" thats funny!

Well I am finished for the bow season so I will put up some stats on my season. I just used my bow hunts. Just a bit over 74 hours in the stand, a total of 49 deer sightings. 19 bucks, 12 does, 13 fawns and 5 unknown gender. One deer sighting every 1.51 hours One buck sighting every 3.89 hours 16 of the 19 buck sightings were of 1.5 year olds I had a very enjoyable bow season some highlights were the grey fox and the eagle and of course the nice 8 point I was lucky enough to get. I will be hunting with the gun now and as we all know after day 1 it gets tough especially when you hunt public land a lot like we do. I have been invited to hunt a private camp on the opener and they do real well there so I am looking forward to it. Good luck and be safe out there.

Well after a bit over 74 hours in the stand and passing up numerous small bucks, a few as close as 10 feet, I finally had a chance at a nice buck on Tuesday morning. It was buck sighting 19 of bow season a few were multiple of the same deer, especially a nice 1.5 year old 9 point I saw like 5 times. Hope he makes it he is gonna be a nice one. Anyway, I am in my favorite spot in the woods out back in a ladder stand settled in well before light. At 7:50 am I have a little 3 or 4 pointer go by about 60 yards out I can him to see if he will respond but he just pauses and continues on. It was raining last night so it is pretty quiet out but at about 8:50 am I hear some crashing off to my right and I grab my bow and stand up because it sounds like running deer coming. I see the doe first trotting in and the buck about 20 yards behind her. She stops and so does he about 50 yards off and he begins to make a scrape. After a few minutes she starts walking but instead of continuing on in front of me as I hoped she angles out a bit. I have a couple places I may get a shot and as he has a step before one I grunt to stop him but he stops too late and passes the lane one step to far and his boiler is covered by a big tree. Ugh. After he can not see anything he starts again and when he hits another opening I put my 30 yard pin on him and let it fly. It looked like I hit him but it may have been low. He jumps off and I grab my can call and hit it a few times and he stops and comes out broadside at maybe 50 or so and I let loose another arrow, 4 holes are better than 2 I am thinking! Except this one goes just beneith him. At the time I was not sure though I lost track of the arrow. He then runs down about 25 yards into some pines and I see him standing in there for a few moments and then walk off. Not good. I sit for 45 minutes and get down and the leaves have started to dry up and it is quite loud so I sneak up to where my first shot is and can not see the arrow I do not want to mill around and bust him out so I decide to back out and come in later. At 2:30 pm I get the kids off the bus and head back out and I am at the spot at around 3:00 pm. I find the first arrow and it hit and passed through the second a clean miss. There is a very good blood trail and I follow it about 90 yards when I jump him, dang! I stay still for 15 minutes trying to decide what to do. It has been over 6 hours since the shot and rain is a half hour off. I check the bed and it confirms a low shot and I get on his trail and he is bleeding a lot. I follow another 100 yards and it is raining now and dark is coming. I lose the trail cold. I am on a neighbors property now that I have permision to trail a wounded deer but not hunt so I have not been in here and not familiar with the area. I back out and go home for a fitfull night with an inch of rain. I had a doctors appointment in the am and am back at last blood at noon. All blood has been washed away and my plan is to just do a grid out 400 yards in all directions. I start out to the right and head over one ridge and see a second with pines and decide to hit that and follow it out and work back and forth back to center. About 50 yards along the ridge with pines I walk up on him laid out dead. Man am I happy, after the rain I new my chances dropped a lot. He is a dandy 8 point. I get him dressed out and spend the next 2 plus hours dragging him out. The butcher and I put him at 3.5 years old and he dressed out 158 pounds. I hit him with a 2 blade rage and my shot was about 4 inches low and I got liver and I swear I clipped a lung by the looks of him dressing him out, I went back where the shot was and he was more like 38 yards. I was shooting a Diamond Marquis.

Good luck Zem!

I use Bohning Instant Gel and have zero issues. I also shoot with a bisquit. Very easy to use and dries fast.