Steve D

I sadly don't believe we have much of a choice at this point. Besides...Kamala is going to be our president and that scares me a whole lot more.

Good luck trapping....with a tag filled I am looking to get some out if it ever stop raining. The ground here is saturated and they are calling for a all day soaker for Monday

My daughter looks for the same kind of "Charlie Brown" tree every year and is as happy as hell with them. Believe me she has had some ugly ones. Yours looks good and is the proper environment but the most important thing is you guys like it and enjoy it.

I got up this morning and really didn't want to hunt with forecasted winds in the 20-30 mph range, rain, and temps in the 50's. It is always been the tradition to hunt Thanksgiving day so I dragged myself to some state land I have been hunting pretty regular. Got there before 6: 00a.m. and there were already guys in the woods with sunrise being 7:14. I'm not a big fan of gun season and after spending 58 hrs. in stands during bow; not seeing much, and only having shot opportunities on small ones I was not very optimistic. I have scouted this area a lot and hunted it enough to know there are deer here. I was also pretty sure I had their travel routes figured out despite all the pressure they have been getting and from hunters, hikers etc. I decided to leave the climber in the truck and hunt from the ground. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit in a tree in 30 mph winds. I got in by 6:45 and am thinking to myself what the hell am I doing hunting on a day like this. The wind blew for about an hour and then it started to rain, Shots started ringing out between 6:50 and 7:00 with sunrise @ 7:14. Finally at 7:20 things quiet down. I started thinking about Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays and how dismal it will be without the loved ones I have lost in the past year or so and miss dearly, not being able to celebrate with family members because of all the covid business, how messed up the world has become, and how much worse it can get in the future. After being there a short time the wind died down and now I am wishing I had my climber. Oh well I'll just stick it out for a couple of hours, go home and chalk it up as another day of deer hunting. At 7:40 this guy comes down one of the travel routes. He stops turns his head, and I can see how his rack is not symmetrical. Thinking to myself that he needed to be removed from the gene pool I took the shot. After eating my tags last year I didn't want a repeat performance this year, While I was hoping for a trophy I really did not want to take my chances like last year and end up empty handed. After the shot he takes off and shows no indication of being hit whatsoever and I think to myself WTF. I wait for ½ hr. and knew I had to at least go check to be certain. I get to where he stood and it starts pouring rain. My day is only getting better. After looking pretty hard and not seeing any hair or blood I am thinking a miss for sure. Just when I am about to kick myself even harder for missing; I spot some blood but there isn't much so worse yet I only wounded him. The rain gets worse and there is only blood here and there. I followed it the best I could and finally had to start leaving markers so I could back track to try to pick it up again. After about 40 yards the blood is getting harder and harder to find. I look down through the woods and I see the white belly in a section of brush about 60 yards from the shot. Come to find out it was a decent shot and all the blood was confined in the chest. Both lungs were destroyed but the heart was not damaged at all. The drag was long but luckily mostly downhill. By the GPS it was just a little over 3 tenths of a mile. Dressed weight is 129 lbs. He has a broken tine from fighting on the right side and one sticker that wasn't an inch so on the tag he is recorded as a 5 point. Not as nice as most of the bucks taken here, not my biggest or best; but gave me something to be thankful for in these trying times; and happy I won't be eating all my tags this year. A state land buck on Thanksgiving day. Mossberg 9200 semi-auto 12 gauge/federal sabot slug.

I have used just about all of them in the area and so far the best price we have got was from Hometowne Energy. We just changed over this year so I can't give long time recommendation but so far so good. If interested I can send the information.

That's not a trespasser that is tree guy giving you the high five.

Not trying to tell him or her anything. Just verifying the steepness in google earth. Maybe he or she is not familiar with "contour" lines.

I always keep some of these handy for situations like yours. You can also use them to mark a way in and can re-use them over & over. Pretty cheap and you can sometimes find them in Walmart. https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/x-stand-reflective-trail-markers-10-pk.-711094.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-6nfz_eU7QIVBK_ICh2dzQD2EAQYByABEgJ7kPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I repeat.....We need a BS button on this forum

I would even come & help if need be. Bucks like him usually get killed on the road

You would probably hate dragging him out anyway.

Been there and done that

Actually just 25 yards to the left of those pictures is a section of cedars, blowdowns, and thick ground cover where they bed down quite often.

Same here. Probably one of my worse seasons as far a sightings and cam action. Covered a lot of ground and spent about 58 hrs./33 sits and at best only had a couple of small spikes for an opportunity. Strange season as far as sign goes also. Scrapes aren't getting worked for three four says at a time and all camera action is at night. Most deer I have been seeing show up right after dark and one night after hunting on the way home had one run right into the side of my truck. It fell down got up and kept on going. The only good thing is I got to spend some quality time in the woods and saw some great sunrises and sunsets. I love the fall and bow season and am thankful for all the opportunities I am able to take advantage of. I hunted pretty hard ; covered four different regions and I wouldn't trade the time spent for anything. It isn't a given there will be more opportunities so I try to take what I can and enjoy it as much as possible. It gets frustrating for sure especially when my daughter sends me a pic like the one below of a buck in her yard today @1:15. It is what it is and just wish I didn't have to wait a whole year for another bow season. Now on to a little bit of gun for some more frustration. I don't plan on spending a lot of time gun hunting...I have some coyotes I need to try and thin out. Good luck and I hope if nothing else you have fun.

Been switching cams out about once a week. This cam is near my ladder stand and there has only one deer by it during the day in a week. At least here they seem to moving only at night. Tonight @ 4:55 a nice 6 point is standing 20 yards from my stand. Sunset is 4:44:

Short Video of what you would see:

There are many styles of thermal but with the one I have yes you could do what you are describing. In fact I occasionally use it to check the neighboring property that I have permission to hunt to see if they are in their treestands. If they are not there I can hunt it and have agreed to stay out if they are there. They never let me know when they are hunting it so if I scan the area with the thermal I can tell plain as day if they are in a stand. Saves me a lot of steps and doesn't ruin their day of hunting because I walked in on them. It is also great for checking your approach route for anything so you can alter your approach if a deer is a field you are using to walk in.

Against my better judgement I did some tree surfing for a couple of hours this morning. Got in before light only to discover they had been in there pounding the acorns sometime before I got there. Way to windy to stay any longer. I would like to live for another day.

Mine is a pulsar quantum which was purchased primarily for fox & coyote hunting. I have also found it very useful for finding deer right after dark and early mornings on the way in. I can easily pick up life forms from 300-400 yards and can usually identify what they are. I looked into the leupold but from what I have read they have a limited field of view and only really good out to a 100-150 yards which may be good enough for finding a deer. Mine is only a "white" hot or a "black" hot ; no color. Thermal is fun and nice to have but like everything else you get what you pay for.

AGREE !!!!

We need a BS button on this forum

The wind died down so I sat in my ladder stand from 2:30 to dark. Only saw three doe just before dark on the other side of the cut corn. With only two days left I may try to brave the forecasted high winds since I really don't enjoy gun hunting.