phade

Nobody is perfect and you do what you want. It’s recreation. If I commit to going though, I go. Different story if I have a reason to not go.

Ran down to Ohio for a PM/AM hunt. Partner still has his buck tag. Well, had. He shot a buck this AM we have a lot of pics of. Nice 5x4 9 with a broken G2. Saw quite a few deer. I have almost no interest hunting here in NY but will get out next weekend for sure. That’s makes four bucks for us this season. One each in Ohio and Missouri.

That’s a white deer with staining. Also that is Erie. West Seneca and the Seneca white deer are not even close to same location.

Taxes are killer here. I’m nearly done looking in my area short of premarket efforts. If ground has gone to market, it’s a crap show. I’m still zeroing in on Ohio, KY, and Missouri.

Weekend warrior at this point with new job. Good news is I’ll likely be able to get out to Missouri for bow opener next year and not miss a day of work. Can work it remote for a few weeks no prob. But hard to find a way to get out a few hours early now for a quick hunt lol. Got out Saturday with the FIL who is now turning 74 and losing mobility fast. Climbing stands are out so it’s a ground game from here on out for him. Had a plan for the PM after a deerless morning where I set him up. Was really confident in the PM. Problem on the home front with my wife going to urgent care pushed us getting out late and we had to watch from afar a spike and a yearling exactly where he would have been set up. I’m going to have to get him out again before season close for another shot at it.

It takes 10 seconds to ID a worked panel. Use the insurance.

Passed on the AM hunt to get work related items done. Back at it this evening. Likely weekend warrior for most of season remainder. GL all.

Kid we took out for youth got the 3.5 we’d been letting age up. Rather than be salty he didn’t make it to 4.5 I’ll post a pic for others to enjoy. Seriously, if someone is happy with a buck don’t be a douche bag. You win some you lose some but act with dignity. Wouldn’t want that loser mindset as a neighbor.

Starting to hit the large fb groups and multiple people saying they know the guy. We will see. If fake the guy who started it should be put in a medieval torture device. btw need to drop off our Missouri bucks.

In seat 1 hr before ideally.

Anyone see the 30 pt shot? Word is it’s legit. Prob new state bow.

OTC. Lots of people do public here. Competitive but doable. And good bucks too. Offhand in camp I think I’ve seen a half dozen bucks from local public and they’re all solid. Love it out here. Just go. It can be done on the cheap or big $ and the people are great here.

Been a long 24 hours. Thanks to Grampy for the help and guidance via phone and text. Ultimately yesterday I put a long 200 yard shot on the largest target buck we had knowledge of. A real hammer. Sparing the detail I did not do my job and put a bad hit on him by a small margin. Rethinking it a ton but ultimately it is what it is. Found blood later in the day and tracked to no avail and exhausted efforts. Each person suggested I move on and keep an eye out for yotes/birds in days ahead. I do believe the buck will die but it’s not going to be dead immediately. It’s been a deflating experience. I will also say I have been a champion of the 243 here and that narrative is changing after the past 24 hours. These are the first real poor experiences I’ve had but they’re bad enough to make me start looking already. This morning it was frigid and I went to a hilltop stand that was absolutely freezing with a small amount of wind. As the sun rose I spotted a buck bumping a doe 180 yards away. Here we go again. He stopped along a hillside (rolling crp grass). I shot and watched him run down into a bottom and didn’t see him exit. A few minutes later a yote came by and he got dumped as well. I started getting nervous about the shot on today’s buck. I lost sight of him and didn’t see signs of a hit. He went 40-50 yards before I lost sight. Partner came over and we made a long loop and got down into the bottom. Saw nothing at hit site area (hard to tell with crp). Ultimately I dang near walked on top of him before I saw him. Grass was 3-4 feet high. Stone dead. No evidence of a hit after flipping him 4 times. Could hear air escaping so he was hit solid. Took photos. And 10 minutes after finding him, one line trickle of blood poured out of a spot that didn’t even show as a hole. Money shot. And no blood at all. 100 grain Federal deer round. 180 yards. Yote shot at 25 yards. Barely any blood and a bang flop. Anyhow I’m eyeing bigger calibers again.

Chose the wrong stand again this PM. Passed by the stand I sat yesterday and this morning to go in further. Target buck ended up going by the empty one. Go figure. That said we got a gander at a giant. We are close to the county checkpoint for opening weekend here in Missouri. Slammer. Pics making rounds on social media now. She got it with a dirty thirty.

Cold and windy here. Might be a top 3 day for being cold in all my days in the stand. Steady 15 mph with gusts higher. 24 supposedly but the wind is tough here. Spike came in and did a teardrop 360 around my tree feeding. Watched several does bed 150 yards away and eventually a buck came by and got them on their feet. Buck was a border shooter but I didn’t want to take the shot with the weather conditions and not being all in on him. One of the four seemed to be in cycle. She led him into a patch of timber (maybe 1/2 acre) and wouldn’t run from him. They got out of sight due to elevation changes. The other does spread out and bedded. Intended to sit all day but warming up in truck with a cup or coffee and lunch and heading back in soon. Dropped my hunting partner off at camp to cape his buck and on the way back we saw two B&C bucks on trailers already. The county check in station is close by so we get to see them often. The amount of height racks have in the area is impressive. They’re never the widest bucks but wow are they ever heavy and tall. We only heard five shots all morning with the first at 8:20. Might get snow Monday night. We will see.

Buddy said I can post his buck. Didn’t want to do it before he did.

Missouri is on fire as expected after the cold front. Saw 2 shooters today, both of which were caught on cam. Muddy buck came to 62 yards but crossed creek bottom. Partner saw 5 shooters and punched his bow tag on a 6x5. Rifle season tomorrow.

Because it’s now an endemic situation I’m seeing a lot less desire to quarantine. My former says come in short of actual contraction and even then it’s mask up if you want.

Chasing the cold front now. Hope to be in Missouri by 530ish. Set up camp and get settled in. Bad Thunderstorms are going to keep us from trying to get in the woods in AM but we will be glassing in the AM to confirm what the cams are showing in a spot we can see from a protected position. Cams showing bucks moving through a spot between 8-9 AM. Midday we will jump in to hang stands and maybe hunt the PM if the weather allows. Friday though it is on!

I cannot agree on that. In situations where you need to keep a wound from clotting and forcing more blood loss or hopefully damage from the BH inside as I previously noted. I am no expert but almost every expert on blood trailing will speak to those instances where that is the proper course. This isn’t talking about a liver or lung hit etc. it’s very specific but calls for an opposite decision from conventional wisdom. I’ve been on enough recoveries in my life to know better than to say you never push an arrow wounded deer in any situation. That’s just not an “always” scenario.

Shoulder hits where arrow is in or broken off in deer. Low hits on chest cavity. Those two primarily stick out. Moog has one on the wall that is very vivid in my mind that pushing was the right call. Super low shot where I think he got one blade into the bottom of the heart and that deer was still alive several hours later and we covered quite a distance until we could put two stalks on him and get shots. He ran out of gas after being jumped from the first bed and allowed the second stall to be much more close. Shoulders are the ones most people will push on IMO.

I hear it takes several years for trees to recover. I learned how long of a process it actually is when mature trees are hit with something big like that due to Hurricane Irma and Maria in St John. That was like 2017 or so and the island still isn’t yet fully green. I can take many cycles/years for trees to be back to new normal. Trees are very tough though.

I’m surprised you think that you shouldn’t push a deer in any scenario. Might be good to look into it.

I’ve killed a buck similarly. No blood but does go down fairly quick unless you didn’t get into chest cavity which I think you did based on that image.

There are most definitely times to push a hit deer.