blackradio

passed a 140" 8 only 10 yards from my stand last season because it was 15 minutes before legal light. Ate me up inside.

he is a stud and out just after dark (or right after light)

awesome, thanks!

those bears with the dead moose is a ridiculous mount.

Can't wait to get out on sunday. Hope I won't feel like crap after Oktoberfest tomorrow

oh and, sending a letter out of the blue can work!

So excited right now. There's been vacant property across the street from my house for years. 20 years ago it was a fish and game club's land and after they sold it, it's been vacant to this day. All the neighbors and everyone help themselves but I've always wanted to hunt it. It's beautiful land, about 240 acres that buts up against a gun club and also federal land. The land switched hands 2 years ago and the numbers on the posted signs are dead so I thought to call tax assessor. She gave me the name of the guy and I wrote him a letter 13 days ago stating my case. He called me today and it took him a minute to even remember the property I was referring to. He asked my age and what house I live in and then said "you know what? you wanna hunt? go ahead buddy" I told him I'd be most comfortable if I get written permission and he said if I write something and mail it to him then he'll sign it and send it back. So, what exactly should I write? I am soooo pumped. I can walk down my driveway, across the street and I am hunting. Gotta spend some of sunday scouting and hanging a stand.

what a stud, drop tine and look at how fat he is.

yeah, you have no idea if it's down or not. Hope you find it. good luck

I wrote a letter to the property owner across the street from my house. It recently changed hands and none of the neighbors knew who owned this 240 acre piece of land. I emailed the tax assessor and she gave me the name and address and I wrote him a letter 2 weeks ago and really hoping to hear back from him. The day earlier, I went to the local watering hole to have a few beers with my friend and his dad, who lived next door to me. The father used to have rights to hunt the 240 acre lot I just mentioned, so i asked him what I have to do to hunt there. He wasn't sure either but he said "hell, you can hunt my land. I'll bring you up back this weekend to check it out." He has a 29.5 acre lot that extends into a big swamp. I had never asked because he is also a hunter but just doesn't have the time to do it anymore and just kind of lost the spark. It can be that easy, I wasn't even looking to hunt his land and now I have a small chunk of property to hunt that I can walk to.

I say you're doing fine. I'm only in my 4th year and I learn something new every time I go out. The more you go out, the more you'll learn if you want to. I had a coworker who is 38 and has been hunting since he was 14. He shot his first deer when he was 15 and didn't shoot another until he was 34, and not for lack of being out there, he just didn't see much for those nearly 20 years. Now, he shot 2 more in the last few years. That's 4 deer in 24 years. He hunts the same way every time and never changes a damn thing. He has two stands to hunt and he might hunt one stand day after day, week after week and wonders why he doesn't see anything. My point is if you want to learn, be out there like you are and learn from your experiences. If you find your approach not working, switch it up and try something new and see how that works. I'm still doing the same.

I've seen a bobcat on 4 occasions, 2 from a car. One passed by me last season walking a deer trail and I thought how lucky I was. Then out of a different stand 2 days later I saw (not heard, it was jumping from down tree to downed tree) another one and was amazed. They are so silent it's scary.

jesus, there's a thread like this every day it seems.

got my HSS coming in the mail tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about it.

The trail to get up to my stand is weedwacked as low as possible and is trimmed about 4 feet wide. It's nice not to touch anything when going to the stand and nice to drag the deer down too. The buck in my avatar walked right up the trail (2 hours after I walked up it) and that's the last thing he did.

I have one. Used it many times when fishing and didn't notice getting bit any less. I was going to try it again for bow season but I think I must have thrown it out.

Sat for 3 hours this evening and saw nothing. Wind kept changing directions which sucked. The temp did cool down quite a bit which was nice. Back at it next weekend.

The only stuff I've ever seen work is Tinks Power Scrape. I made a scrape last year, put a dripped filled with it over the scrape and put my trail cam facing it. After 2 days I had a few dozen does and 2 small bucks coming from every direction coming to check it out.

I usually make stew meat or ground meat out of the front legs. I clean the silverskin off the stew meat but if it's too much and I don't feel like doing it I just bag it, freeze it and put it all through the grinder as is. I will never again waste my time taking all the sinew off meat I plan to grind. It all grinds up and you can't tell.

You couldn't penetrate a foot? I wouldn't like that kind of penetration either!

damn, guess you really do have to be invisible if you wanna get the big ones.

I like this thread. keeps me occupied when I'm bored at work

I missed having a good chance to shoot an awesome 8 pt last year because I was texting my girlfriend. I was hunting in some thick cedar and pricker woods and I looked up to see this 8 walk past my only shooting lane. Didn't even have time to reach for my bow. I was so mad. I really need to hear the deer coming from this spot to have a chance.

I guess just under 130. Real nice buck.

I think if you kept walking towards them they would have backed off, but who knows. I had a coyote stalk me when I was a kid as I was in my driveway playing with rocks. It was about 10 yards from me, walking slowly up the driveway and I turned around and saw it and at that same time my Dad saw it from the porch and screamed at it, and when I turned back around it was gone. I guess I was an easy meal.