Rebel Darling

4L - I’ll go sit in the woods for a while. Choosing the hemlocks on the marsh edge today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4L - Back in doing the family obligations thing. Sounded like my new neighbor took a shot just after 7. A dozen or so shots, a couple during questionable light. Most a ways off. Saw some movement, but couldn’t tell what was what. Definitely heard one walking right at first light, but never set eyes on that one. By the end of the weekend, they’ll be holed up in the marsh, and I’ll have to get lucky catching a buck coming, going, or risking a downwind cruise. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@squirrelwhisperer & @phade - Congrats, fellas. Nice bucks!

Good luck to you out there! Looks more and more like my obligations are overwhelming my ability to hunt. Pretty sure my bow season is over. With a little one joining next week, my deer season is likely over but for a sneak out here and there. Looking forward to pics!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice buck @518BowSlayer!

4L - Up on the Plateau. Bumped a group of deer (couldn't ID them all) on the way in after still hunting my way up to them. I got to about 50 yards, before work started buzzing my phone, and I lost my patience, composure, and attentiveness. I thought they had walked off, but they were feeding on the other side of hemlock saplings I couldn't see through, and jumped off when I started walking. Sat up against some blow-down and saw a different group of does make their way across my backtrack about 50 yards from where I set up. They circled a bit downwind of me, and caught me scent. They didn't like it, pausing to lift their heads to sniff, and head-bobbing to try and see me, but they never blew out, nor ran off. So... Lots of does, no bucks, and nothing in range at any rate.

4L - Getting ready to head out and sit a pinch-point / funnel. Light wind from the NW, flurries. No more doe tags left, so I need to catch a cruiser, and not spook any does coming through. Going to try and pin one #FromTheGround again. Hope to sit until dark, but I'm on call with the wife for labor from now until next Tuesday, which is the backstop, and then the dr's control the course. Good luck to all those still sitting with sticks and strings!

@Cabin Fever - congrats on the double!

On Friday, I was able to sneak out of work some hours early. I hit the woods with my sticks and saddle for some run and gun fun. An either / or tag and a doe tag in hand, and a baby due in a few, if it offered me a good shot with the bow, I planned to accept. After the fog rolled out for the second time, the sun shone, and the Blue Jays lit up over by where I thought the deer bedded. Not long after, I could see movement in the thick of the Hemlocks. Send a grunt. I did. A short while later, this doe and another came in to investigate. She gave me a clean broadside shot, but stepped forward as I loosed the arrow, and at 25 yards (elevated), she tried ducking the string. I hit her way back. She offered me luck, as it turned out. A severed artery led me to her on an easy track, and my gratitude soared as the sun went down.

This is my 3rd or 4th year filling them out (6th year bow hunting). I enjoy sending DEC the info. I wish that it were tied into their licensing software, or at least available in web format on their website. They'd be able to analyze the data so much quicker, and it would also enable the users to add multiple areas a day, as well as more than four hunting areas. They'd need the state funding to put that together, though...

My family is blessed with more meat for the winter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You’re in his bedroom! Piss him off! Get ‘em! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Been set for about 45. Fog rolled out, fog rolled in. Everything is wet. Gonna have to alert all senses. C’mon deer!!! Good luck to all! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: arrow penetration I switched my set up for a Sept Elk hunt. Heavier, stiffer arrow with a 50 gr outsert up front. Also increased my draw weight. Tried to split the difference between flat trajectory and arrow weight/FOC. Things pack a PUNCH! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tough morning in 4L, more for the doe I shot at than for myself. I shot high, real high from a tree, and she was downhill at 11 yards adjusted, I found out post-shot. I used my 20 yard pin, misjudging trajectory by a long shot. I clipped her back, taking a clump of hair and a little bit of hide. I glassed the arrow, which was stuck in a tree, and it looked totally clean. Got down, checked it, saw some hair, and two bits of skin-like meat near the broadhead. Absolutely zero blood at the shot site, and no hair on the ground. Arrow had no smell on it whatsoever. Scoured the shot site, and her escape trail from about 7:00 until 10:30. Found zero blood. Grid searched an area where I last saw her run, and came up empty. No blood. No stumbling tracks. No hair. Definitely pushed everything out of those woods. A short while after the shot, I saw a doe scent checking the back trail. I glassed her from the tree. Pretty sure it was the same doe coming back up her route. The other doe she was with bolted in a different direction. Saw her trot around scenting, and then she trotted off. No evidence of a wound, nor a dark spot on her. Currently back at the house, running through my errors, feeling pretty bad about my action, and hoping to use the experience to be a better, more patient bow hunter.

4L - neighbor saw a big buck on a doe at 9:30 am yesterday. Given the wind and where they were, unsure of how to approach a set up / pick a tree for that spot, especially in the dark. Since it’s close to the road, I can’t really “work my way in” either. Might bring all the gear roadside, and wait for light. Then head in on foot. The wet leaves and ground should help. Betting he’s got her locked down in some thicket. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Short sit in 4L. Rain poured too heavy for an ethical bow kill and recovery. Got down walked in and am drying off. Guess I'll head into the office to take care of some business, which means I'll likely daydream about tomorrow morning's hunt...

4L - heading in to hunt the weather change. Going to set up run and gun style in a stand of Hemlocks, and hope for a cruiser. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seconded. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@grampy - Respect to you, in which ever path you decide, and support for you, always.

11/03/2020 - Election Day It was a quick hunt, and just about everything went according to plan. I saw a young buck nose down, and a doe group walk the trail the day prior, and figured I should set up on it first thing in the morning. Given the expected snow on the ground, I figured the pine boughs would hang low, and decided on a ground hunt from a patch of Hemlocks downwind on the trail. I was also feeling pretty lazy about setting up sticks and such to climb a tree. I walked in an hour before sunrise, the snow crunched under my feet. It was crisp, calm and clear, the forest lit up in a high contrast black and white. No fresh tracks, so the deer hadn't moved off their feeding, I thought. My bow in my right hand, my stool in my left, and my pack on my back, I situated myself under hanging cover of the point Hemlock, and sat still. My wandering thoughts whipped back to attention at first light when a turkey blew out of the branches above me. Snow drifted in my face like stinging down feathers, and I worked on lowering my heart rate. Some time passed, and the sun crested behind me, bringing sharp focus to my surroundings. It was like a late December morning, a holiday morning, and all was still, but for a tree bending on its way to break some yards up the hill to my left. My head on a slow swivel, my bow resting up against the outside of my right leg, hands in my pass-thru pocket. The turkey wasn't alone. All at once, a flock busted out from the remaining Hemlocks, sending more snow down like a smoke-screen in all directions. I looked to my right, through the settling drift, and caught deer legs moving along the trail. I held still until I knew which direction they'd take. The lead doe took the main trail upwind of me. Perfect. Turkeys clucking their way off, I pulled my hands out, and leaned a bit to get my bow, and the lead doe pauses, her front half behind a tree. The train of does stopped and stared at her, waiting for some direction. I knew it, she saw me move. 25 yards away, a snow screen, in the dark of the Hemlock cover, and she saw me move. I couldn't see her head, but I felt her staring at me. I raised the bow, and came to full-draw unsure of what would happen next. Crash... The tree up the way fell. The train of does shifted their attention, ears swiveling like radar dishes. I didn't see a muscle move on the lead doe. She was locked on. Startled, but still sharp, I held at full draw. I saw her head peak around the tree trunk. She left the trail, and started walking towards me, trying to get downwind. She was alert, but not yet scared. She kept coming closer, head-on, each cautious step ratcheting up the shoulder burn from holding at full-draw. She closed the distance to what I thought was 15 yards, and held still, just in front of a small Hemlock bough. My mind raced around the idea of a frontal shot, and just as I was about to press the trigger, she stepped to her left, and in a flash, I knew this was the moment she was deciding to bound off, and I was going to stay ahead of her. She was staring right at me, quartered-to, pin in the V of her shoulder, I pressed the trigger, the arrow flew, I heard a pop. Suddenly, the woods erupted with hooves pounding away, everything lost in swaying branches and snow floating down into deer tracks. 30 minutes later, I left the security of the cover, and walked over to find my arrow stuck in a sapling trunk, blood and bubbles on the fletching, brown hair on the snow, a spray of blood behind where she had stood. I took up the track. I found her just over a stone wall, 115 yards from the shot site. She stumbled a few times on her track, disoriented by the lack of oxygen. She expired in a Hemlock grove, melting the thin layer of snow around where she lay. I took the time to thank her and the woods for their offering, and was grateful for the harvest, and that just about everything went according to plan.

Skunked in 4H on Monday (did some quality scouting for future years, though), as well as in 4L yesterday. Sitting the morning out, and might hunt the early rain around mid-day. Good luck to all out, and a debt of gratitude to those who have and those who still do serve... Thank you.

4L - I’m in for some punishment. Set up on a bedding exit route. Looks like the does are coming through here and feeding in the acorns I came through. Wind is pretty good, and will only help the sundown thermals. Hoping for an early rising cruiser, but might arrow anything that gets the heart pumping. Good luck and sunscreen to all sitting in the heat. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4L - already back in. Felt off, like I was doing more damage being in the woods. I think the temps are getting to me. I’ll take care of some home-life stuff, and then set up a plan for this afternoon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4L Saw two doe and a fawn this morning. They hung around my stand for 30 mins. They came in calm, and no bucks came in after them. Haven't seen bucks in a few (young or older), so I'm guessing there's a hot doe nearby, but not on property I can hunt.