phade

Not at all. I just believe that everyone needs a break or fortunate roll of the dice a few times in their life and sometimes that comes at the hands of someone you least expect. It all comes full circle.

Maybe, maybe not. I met a guy on here who was a new hunter last year. We pretty much hunt together and share properties to hunt now. Got to help him track his first deer. Maybe he has some luck.

Tough situation indeed. Might be time to look for new ground, despite having good bucks there.

See, that's the thing. I think your post is the definition of close minded. I read the words "not tried" "seem" and "not worth the effort." You're making assumptions based on something you don't know much about (beast style hunting) or haven't looked into in-depth. And, I know you want to shoot older class bucks if you can based on your posts here. Close Minded = Intolerant of the beliefs and opinions of others; stubbornly unreceptive to new ideas. I don't discount rut tactics at all. What I discount is waiting on the rut as the only "realistic" way or time to kill a mature buck. That's not close-minded. But, I'll throw this out there. If you ever want to see how - we can go scout post-season.

Bubbles in blood? Don't give up due to the permission thing...ask and go get that buck if it is a yes.

Window licker (saying in joking/jest and I'm being genuine here in this post content Belo) - we've went through this before. I've turned to bed style tactics for three seasons now and killed two bucks in October with it, and the other year I hunted a ghost that was killed the morning after I saw him the first time while on stand. One was 3.5 and last year's buck was 5.5+ and he died within his first 50 steps from the bed. We've been down that road already. I don't proclaim to know everything about bed hunting as it's a newer tactic to me, but what I do know is that it works well and there's a reason behind it. I'm not some random person who invented the tactic...it's a long-standing and well documented way to kill mature bucks. When you start learning to hunt beds, you realize that the "way" most people do things hunting-wise is incorrect and is either detrimental to their success or otherwise limits their abilities if they are seeking wallhangers. If they are not, understanding bed use is still beneficial. Is it the only way? No, most certainly not. Is it the most effective way? Maybe. When people say bucks bed willy nilly, like Doc, it just amazes me that someone that old can't understand mature bucks do what they do and why they do it. He pretty much says its impossible to kill a buck off his bed, and that's simply not true, if one does their homework. Then there's people close minded like you - you say you don't discredit it, but you've never once asked about how/why it works or to learn more about it - despite whining, disagreeing, and trying to deflect from your own ignorance. And, you haven't tried it. Instead, you say what works for you is what you'll stick with. That's great, but at some point, your mind starts closing off because you fail to see the forest for the trees and don't recognize that "what works for you" might not be as good as other tactics. I don't discredit funnels and pinches, etc. and use them in my game plan. Then, there are people like GSJ4, Sam Potter, JRS, Moog, WNYB, and multiple other people on this site who either employ the tactic or are learning about it now. Potter arguably has the best wall on this forum, GJS4s wall is pretty nice to look at (but I know he'll never show it), and what I am building now isn't shabby. Both of them employ bed tactics into their arsenal. Nobody talks about it near as much as me, but that's because I've grasped it pretty quickly and have put the logistic pieces of the puzzle together and I can put pen to paper to capture it. Nothing more, nothing less.

First year in a while I know of nobody personally who connected on a good buck opening day. Wind direction wasn't ideal for the afternoon hunting locations I had really wanted to sit, so me and a few friends headed to another parcel loaded with deer numbers. Each of us seen deer pretty early on in the afternoon. I also baked in the sun...sat in a stand facing s-sw-ish and unobstructed view of the sun. It was hot.

Locally, I'm finding the white oak acorns are getting browse pressure. Also, lots of berry trees/bushes. Watched several deer last night. All ate the berries and acorns. One ate berries and then onto the green field.

Corn doesn't seem to draw as much until mid-October on average in my experience. They'll eat it sure, but this is the time of plenty - hard and soft mast as well as green sources.

I hear banjos. Wayne'r. Welcome! Lots of apples this year in Wayne.

It'll get much better the more you climb with it. Try using it for afternoon sets at first, so you can see what you are doing. Climbing in the dark can be tough if you don't know the very tree you want to be in.

Nice buck Abruno and good job on a tough shot!

Decent cam. Battery life is so-so because the viewer screen sucks juice. Flash is bright.

Passing does

Jeez. Post wasn't about a story. Its about my interaction with the dec.

For the second time in my life, I had to place a call to report a hunting violation. I don't want to get into details, but I want to say I have had a good response thus far with the econ officer responsible for handling the area. He is taking action and I feel like it is not falling on deaf ears. Good stuff.

And with that folks, we bring to you the close of the 2013 off season. Get out and freaking hunt, people.

2 days? Where does it start Oct. 2? I'll be in a tree tomorrow.

I have a pile of 1.5s. Nothing wrong with hunting the way you see fit. I don't particularly like it when people hold out right away for a big deer. You need to get a few under your belt. It is their decision, so that is fine by me, but I just kind of shake my head a bit, thinking, more like knowing, that is a recipe for disaster in most cases when it comes to a long-term, knoweldgeable, hunting "career." From an observation POV, I find most of these people think genetics is more important than anything, food plots will bring in all the big bucks, and to hunt over them is the only way to do it, and that saving stands is a good tactic, rather than hunting the best stand for the situation. They get burned out, get hard headed, and quit. Or, they spend more money on trying to buy their way to a big buck without learning how to kill one first.

Me and Moog actually picked out a stand site the first time around but then better thought of it as a rub was found off to the side of a doe bedding area about 60 yards or so west. We said this doesn't make sense from a predominant wind direction - pretty quickly we found out that rub was pretty far into the route of that buck out to feed. Looking at the predominant downwind side we caught the rubline of this buck and back tracked him to his bed, which had three or four rubs of similar size within 20 yards of it. Made total sense as we figured it out and our initial stand site would have sent our scent stream right to him with a predominant wind - thinking we were actually downwind of the doe bedding. This was a text book mature buck bed. It's OK if he doesn't believe or want to implement these tactics. It doesn't work for him, as he says. I don't understand why he discredits the tactic without ever trying it (I believe he said that earlier this year), but hey, whatever.

If I need a track job, I'm grabbing a kid to help if i can. Many lifelong tracking specialist have come to the belief that they can see and spot blood better. I've seen the same in my time. Eyeballs are lower to the ground.

How many times have you all been in there to check cams?

Wow...wow. wow.

As far as rangers go, I have a fair amount of seat time in their two row model...that thing is very nice. Very sound build, too.

They will move as noted. Just hard to see. Sound carries in it so listen well.