Core

If I didn't f this up I am done for the year. Won't even go out for gun. If i did f it up I am done for the year. About to climb down. A large doe walked by 80 yards out again same spot.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And it was a buck. Called it in with two grunts. It came right too me. While it was behind a tree I stood and drew. 20 yard shot at vitals quartering away. It did not flinch. Height was perfect. I may have been a few inches back but the quartering should have helped. It booted straight for the woods and stopped 50 yards in. I really think it was a good shot this time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And it was a buck. Called it in with two grunts. It came right too me. While it was behind a tree I stood and drew. 20 yard shot at vitals quartering away. It did not flinch. Height was perfect. I may have been a few inches back but the quartering should have helped. It booted straight for the woods and stopped 50 yards in. I really think it was a good shot this time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just saw the first deer of the morning 80 yards away. Either a large doe or a buck. 8f Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got settled at 6:47. I can see about 100 yards in 180 degrees in front of me but no deer at all. Only a couple of squirrels so far but even they are laying low. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are two sections of state I have tried. One I did three times and only heard a guy on a call first weekend of bow. Thing is it is 55 min away. Lately I am going somewhere just under 40. It averages 0-3 cars most of the time although the spot I have been going to now all the cars are too far away to encroach. In the forest today I see some fresh markers but for some reason people are skipping this section and I don't know why. Lots of tracks and have seen deer 2/3 of my trips.Anyway I checked a cam this morning and a buck went under where I was yesterday at 4:45 pm then another last night at 11:30 pm. But I changed spots anyway a tiny bit deeper. I am off the corner of a food source with a gulley to one side and thick cover to another. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The thing is for me I'm a 40 min drive from the land, then a 15 min walk, then a 10 minute setup with the stand! I am going to knock on doors next year, I need something closer. If I could get a 10 min drive even without changing the rest that would make a huge difference. Anyway, back out today. Will be in the stand some sunrise. I am getting there, too. Been out so much kinda hoping for end of season. But, with yesterday's rain going through the night i'm hoping the deer chilled out and will be out better today. Good luck!

Holy crap I wish I didn't have to hunt public land.

Well, when my bow dropped the level fell out of the sight, which I was unable to find, so I spent the afternoon buying a new sight and sighting it in, so this morning's hunting trip cost me $40. On the plus, the new sight is better than the one that came with the bow, and my last shot at 40 yards was off by an inch, so I can't complain about that.

ha! Was just checking this thread again before coming down to do that. Leaves should be quieter nowSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

wth. Two hours ago weather.com said 30% rain at 8:00 only. Started at 7:56. Now it says 30-40% through the next several hours. Also is quite windy. I don't think deer like this weather (?). I don't.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now it is raining 8f. And no deer seen at all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

seems to me it is a nice day to drop my how 15' so that is exactly what I proceeded to do. Ugh, then down and up again. Only movement are squirrels and a fox running around while I got setup.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hindsight is 20/20, but when I hit the rear on a deer this week I have to wonder if immediately going after it would have in fact been the proper thing to do (I waited several hours and the deer never laid up anywhere, it kept moving without pressure), thus pushing it (large piece of state land, so had the room to do it) and preventing it from clotting. The trail got lost when the wound sealed over after many hundreds of yards. I read about that approach here, after the fact: http://www.bowhunter.com/feature_articles/feature_articles_a_bowhunters_guide_to_blood-trailing_deer_113010/ This actually mirrors what wolc123 just said. But then it all presumes one knows where the arrow hit, and these things are moving quickly and sometimes hard to tell. I will never know, though, and will do my best to not ever have to try it again.

I had this camera up on a small bit of property in Marion for 12 days. Good bit of night activity but virtually nothing during the day. However, I thought this was an interesting video. A couple of doe running as a large buck chases them down, then later in the vid one doe comes back in frame and leaves again, then at the end is galloping through. I guess they weren't interested in a date. Sorry it's a 50 meg file for such a short vid. This was with a $40 Wild game camera I picked up at Dicks recently. deerchase.AVI

Oops, can't edit anymore. Area: 8F, Marion area.

I know this thread is a couple years old, but it still has some value. Somebody on archerytalk was building their own scent wicks out of twist ties and cut up bits of towel. On some of these he would attach a fishing lure, the purpose of that being to throw the wick from his stand. Same idea as the slingshot

I checked some cam video this morning and on the 29th of October two doe run past my camera and in hot pursuit is a really good sized buck. This was at late afternoon. A moment later I see more tail as one of the doe goes the other way. I guess he was ready before they were.

What about smell? What about peeing on the trail or heck putting a banana on the trail, just something mildly strange to get them to stop for a moment?

Oh hell yes. As an adult I finally settled on orange as my favorite color. Sometimes I have four things with it: shoes, hat, watch, sunglasses.

Truth. Please stop using a stand if you're not using a harness. If it's too much hassle to use the harness, buy a nice stool and stay on the ground. Super safe, easier to carry, no setup time There are hundreds if not thousands of people a year who fall from a stand and probably wish afterward they had used a harness. Why be another statistic?

I haven't tried a lone wolf, but compared to a couple of hang ons I've tried, the summit viper sd, with its thick padded seat and back rest, is absurdly comfortable for what it is--a seat stuck on a tree. Also, I got this summit viper SD new for $215 out the door at gander mountain two weeks back. I really want to try a lighter 15 lb climber just to see how they are, though.

How does one deal with this? Draw while it is in range and then make a sound so that it will stop? Or put something on the ground that it will stop and sniff for a bit? I saw a buck do this a week ago right downwind of me at only 20 yards. It was walking quite quickly and sniffing the ground oblivious/uninterested in looking over to me.

Resting horizontally on the rail of the summit climber. Also I have a self-tapping very small screw with a dremeled slit in it so that it can be screwed in with the back of my knife blade and the wire loop on my quiver attached to the bow can be used if I need to fiddle around in the stand. I am a an awful hunter, though, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems to me that the bow consistently resting above invites quite a substantial amount of movement to get it into position. Skillet's idea to get off your duff for the hour on either end of the day is probably the best advice in the thread

This is good advice because had I known it on the weekend I wouldn't have had two screwy shots. I still don't know where I would have hit my deer on Monday, but as I may have mentioned earlier I have literally never missed a single arrow by such a wide margin at any range, even on my first day. When I drew I realized my strap was constraining my angle and although I felt I had accounted for that, it was definitely weird. It will be the first thing I do in the future, a full sweep around the entire stand. Just put mine back on.