ApexerER

Thank you for your service and welcome to the forum. A lot of people here have a lot of valuable information. I am not one of them....

Well if I could give you some of mine, I would in a second. I wouldn't want to have no emotion but I think I would be better off if I was less emotional.

Out of Likes ^^^ This is exactly how I feel about it...

Stubby, no need to apologize. You didn't come across negatively or try and change anyones mind. You are correct, emotions are not choices. I never really thought about that before. I am an extremely emotional person. To the point where sometimes it isn't the best. My highs are very high, lows are very low and if you piss me off you better watch out because I will hold a grudge for a lifetime. I don't chose to feel that way. It just happens. Funny, I never thought of it being so simple like that...

I am not quite sure I understand how you could kill something, anything and have no emotion at all over it. Even if the only reason you hunted was for food, wouldn't you at least feel thankful for the harvest? When I get a deer I am so full of emotion I can't really even describe it. I think I go through every emotion there is when I am lucky enough to get a deer on the ground. Everything from guilt, empathy for the animal. To Excitement, happiness, and being thankful. And also a bit of sadness that that particular tag is filled and that part of the chase has ended for me that particular season. All of those emotions are what makes me love deer hunting. Without them, I would see no reason to hunt.

I agree with you, I imagine whatever emotion they feel it is quickly gotten over and they are back on the road to survival.

If you can't talk some sense into her make sure your car skips the polls....lol

Guys, I just want to state that I am not knocking anyone at all if they choose to shoot a doe with a fawn. I don't have a problem with it...It is just a choice I wouldn't knowingly make for reasons I have stated. I am a little surprised to hear some of you don't feel any empathy after the kill. I guess I am more than a little surprised at that. Not sure I would want to feel that way.

I know you were not saying anything bad about me. I didn't take it that way at all. I will admit that I think some animals have some human emotion. I don't know about deer but I know my dog does. He gets happy, sad, scared, elated etc. I also believe my dog and I have a bond. I think its reasonable to think deer have some emotion. Obviously not like a human but I assume when I see a fawn jumping around, running and playing it is happy.

My marriage wouldn't survive my wife supporting Hillary. My wife has as much disdain for her as I do...

I respect everyone's decision as a hunter. As long as it is legal I am ok with it. But, you wouldn't feel guilty if you shot a doe and the fawn was crying its head off and followed you the whole time you were dragging it crying. I don't think that's Disney syndrome...I think its human.

I literally have anxiety about today....I fear the stupidity of the American electorate may win today and I don't think that is something that America as we know it will survive. My daughter is 11 and I can't imagine what this nation (if it exists) is going to look like when my daughter is my age. Make sure you vote!!!!

I will not knowingly shoot a doe with a fawn. My Dad shot a doe along time ago. He thought it was all alone but after the shot saw the fawn. The fawn literally walked over and was hitting the mom with its nose trying to make her get up. Then started bleating her head off and wouldn't leave. When my dad went over to the doe the fawn kept coming in bleating like crazy and crying its head off, literally walking right up to my father. My dad was yelling at it to try to get it to go away. He said he felt so bad that he seriously thought about shooting it to put it out of its misery even though he didn't have another tag. The fawn followed him all the way back to camp crying. While he was dragging momma. I wasn't there, but it is a story I will never forget. I think that is the biggest reason my Dad won't hunt anymore. I always feel some guilt after the kill. If I went through that I think I would feel like a POS. I am a hunter but I also love animals. That is not something I want to experience.

Holy cow,,,thats crazy....Honestly, that would probably freak me out a little....

Wow, nice score...congrats...my buddy has a 50mm scope on his Ruger American. We call it Hubble. To me it looks silly.

Saturday 11/5 - First day ever carrying the crossbow afield. Cumbersome weapon for sure. In stand and setup at 6:45 waiting on sunrise. Temp about 38 Degrees...Rare SE wind so ozonics is pointed about 9 o'clock. Very slow morning (had such high hopes for the day). At about 10am I had two deer burst out of the ravine to my left at 100mph. One ran the top of the ridge toward me the other directly away. The one that went past me was a doe. She sprinted past me about 75 yds, back down the ravine, partly up the other side and basically back where the first deer went without ever slowing down. I grab the crossbow ready for whatever chased them out of there but nothing ever showed. I sit until 11:30 and go grab some lunch. Back in the stand by 1:30pm and sit until dark with no other deer seen. Disappointing day for sure. Ozonics did nothing of course... Sunday 11/6 - Time change (yuck). In the stand and setup by 5:45. Temp about 40 degrees and wind is back to a normal NW so Ozonics is pointed about 2 O'clock. About 8:30 or so I have a deer follow the script perfectly. About 40 yds out a deer comes out of the ravine and I glass him quickly and see it is a 3pt so I don't touch the crossbow. I get my phone so I can hopefully take some pics (got some good ones) He slowly walks directly toward me and looks up at me at about 10 yds. Thankfully decides I am nothing and keeps feeding past my stand toward my right. He is directly down wind at 20 yds and stops for a second to check the wind and then goes about his business. He slowly feeds past me at about 20 yds and when he is at about 4 o'clock position starts heading directly away from me. He then slowly heads back into being down wind of me at about 40 yds. At this point I am checking the wind with one of those puffer talc powder things and it is going directly toward him. Hmm interesting. He slowly feeds away from me at a 45 degree angle basically all down wind. I leave the stand with no more deer seen at about 11:30 to get some lunch and decide if I am going to go home and watch football or if I am going to hunt the afternoon. The wind was really kickin and it wasn't overly pleasant being in the woods. I decide I am going to hunt the afternoon but in a different spot since I have yet to see a deer in the evening from the spot I normally hunt. I get back in the stand at about 1pm. In a spot I have never sat in even though I have hunted this property for a long time. (Brian's Stand) About as far away from my stand as I could possibly get and still be on our lease. I set up the ozonics and have it pointed a little after 3 O'clock...Maybe 4 O'clock. The wind is swirling worse than I have ever scene. I don't know if it was the terrain but I felt like it was changing direction every two second and blowing pretty good in all directions. I didn't have a lot of hope. At about 4pm I catch movement at my 8 o'clock and see it is a deer. Then I notice two more. I glass them and they all look to be mature doe which was a little surprising. The closest one is going to cross a shooting lane at about 30 yds and she is going to get a bolt through her. With the wind swirling I was worried about being winded so slowly reach up and position the ozonics so it is blowing ozone between us even though the NW wind should be completely in my favor. I have the crossbow ready and I am locked on to her with my 30 yd crosshair just waiting for her to take another step or two into a clear lane. BLOW BLOW...Holy crap, I almost jump out of my stand. I never saw or heard the two deer sneaking in behind me and I spin my head around to see them less than 20 yds from me. All the deer run 10 to 20 steps and all stop and look around like what are we afraid of. So now I have 5 deer all around me but no shots on any of them. It quickly becomes quitting time with no shots presented and I am still stuck in the stand waiting these deer out. Finally they slowly move away and I sneak out of there. I think I found my new evening sit (as long as Brian isn't hunting). I wonder if I had not turned the ozonics the opposite direction if it would have kept those deer from blowing out of there. Ok. So the 3 pt was the third time this season I have had deer directly down wind from me this year with no adverse reaction. He is the first deer I had down wind of me for a long period of time at both 20 yds and again at 40 and beyond. I really have no idea how to prove it was the ozonics and not some other circumstance. Stupid deer, thermals, etc. I don't want to conclude it is the ozonics when I can't prove it. I am sure of two things, that deer was directly down wind of me for significant time and he didn't spook at all. Even after looking right at me in the treestand. I can't say I have ever had such a non reaction in a similar circumstance. Second, the only time I have been blown out this year was this evening. When I foolishly turned the ozonics away from being downwind and basically took it out of the game. Again, I can't prove those deer wouldn't have blown had I not turned the ozonics. I'll never know for sure. After multiple down wind encounters with no adverse reactions now on the season and then getting blown at like normal when I took the ozonics out of the game, I am starting to lean toward the, there is something too this thing side. Again. Now way of proving it, and I am by no means endorsing this thing yet. Just was happy to get some more useful intelligence.

Well...first time all season I switched spots...complete opposite end of the property...haven't seen one deer on an evening sit from my stand so we will see what happens here

I keep telling myself to hang in there...couch and giants game at 1 is getting tempting...this wind sucks...

Just added a layer...this wind is raw

I don't get it...you watch the TV show...they hit antlers together deer come running...hit grunt tube...deer come running...hit bleat ...deer come running.....hmmm. I think I am going to Google inferred drone...maybe then I can find a deer

Sounds like you are.sitting next to me

Just woke up from a great treestand nap....hope I wasn't snoring like my wife tells me I do....glad it isn't any later

Anyone else telling themselves it's really only 10am...stick it out longer...I had a doe and an unknown rip out of the ravine and go two different directions...I was hoping something was chasing but no dice...at least I saw something

Keep checking the thread...sounds like deer are moving everywhere but here