Moho81

I had the most satisfying season that I can remember. My daughter got her first deer during the early antlerless season. Then she got another doe during the special youth season. We have spent a lot of time in the woods together and for her to finally pull it all together and to be able to experience it with her was out of this world. My eyes get watery just thinking back on it.

My friend hunts with the Vortex with the built in range finder. It also has some ability to program ballistics into it and it will give you bullet drop info at the distance you just targeted. Pricy as all heck but he loves it. He does nuisance hunts for a farm and shoots long range often.

Wow seems earlier than normal

I do think that for 1-2 years when you put a blind up the big bucks will avoid it during the day. After that they seem to ignore them. We have a lot of elevated shooting houses on the property and it's something I have seen happen a few times. Guys put them up and are all excited to be comfortable while hunting only to not see anything.

Sometimes a spike will just always be a spike.

This is the second and maybe even third year in a row it seems that deer have just vanished off of our property once the gun season started. Our 500 acres gets hunted hard. Harder than any piece of public land but the surrounding properties no longer seem to get hunted at all and we think the deer get scattered off our property and just stay away because no one is pushing them back. Even with that said I don't hear many shots off in the distance either. I was out yesterday until 12:30 and there was only one shot the entire time and it was the coldest morning with a light dusting of snow. Almost perfect conditions for deer movement and nothing.

All depends on the day, conditions and where you are sitting. Inside the woods with no snow on the ground your lucky to get and extra 10-15 min before/after due to darkness. Open field no snow that might stretch out to 20 min. Now you add snow in the mix and there is a good chance that you can utilize the full 30 min before and after. That's just my experience anyways. I don't mind the change at all and think it makes since and aligns with every other state in the country.

They closed down Stewert State Forrest in Orange County because of the fire's. Perhaps that is what you heard?

Like they say, Vote early and vote often....

Just a note in case anyone is not aware. The second round has to be picked up in person you can not get them online. I knew someone that went to Cabela's on Friday (stupid I know) and waited over an hour in line.

100% Not to many times have I seen a picture of the deer then the actual deer and thought man that picture really does not do the deer justice. It's almost always the opposite.

Honest question but how does one profit from CWD and what is the political play with it?

I'll be out all weekend with my daughter. Not sure I'll be able to log in or not. Hoping for success on Saturday because Sunday/Monday look like a wash out.

What a story! Thanks for writing that up.

Hunt of a life time!