Live From The Woods 2023-2024 Edition

[New York Hillbilly]

Happy Thanksgiving to you all from 7M.

With the company here, I was kept up until midnight. Although I was running 1/2 hour behind, and tired this morning, I still made it to the ladder stand I had planned to use. I heard several far off shots but nothing close, and I saw zero deer. Came back to the house at 10 to visit with the family and enjoy the day. 
 

I may grab the last hour tonight in the stand I saw the bucks yesterday. 

To those who scored deer today, congratulations! 
 

NYH 
 

[Tughill Tamer]

The boy seen a doe and no sightings for me. Lots of shots around the area.

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[Hock3y24]

All we saw this morning was on the walk in lol

[New York Hillbilly]

Anybody else out today? 

[chrisw]

I'm here til dark. Not expecting much but I'm in the ground blind out of the wind so, it's pretty nice in here at least. Watching the back corner of cut corn and clover hoping a buck decides to do something dumb, more than likely I'm the dumb one.

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[chrisw]

Pretty sunset today at least.

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[50calpeephole]

Oh the winds making it a bit nippley out here.

[GreeneHunter]

Heading out in the AM , first chance to hunt during Gun Season !

[airedale]

 

 

Still have not seen a Buck, Doe sightings have been picking up, had four in front of me yesterday, went out this morning for a short stand and saw four again. Not going to hold out for a buck much longer and will just take a Doe I think.

Al

[New York Hillbilly]

Froze my arse last night and thought my building was going to collapse in the wind.  I got some audio of it for memory sake. Lol

Picture perfect morning here today except no deer seen yet.  Couple way off shots but otherwise dead quiet. 

[New York Hillbilly]

10 minutes ago, airedale said:

 

 

Still have not seen a Buck, Doe sightings have been picking up, had four in front of me yesterday, went out this morning for a short stand and saw four again. Not going to hold out for a buck much longer and will just take a Doe I think.

Al

Go for it!
I’m with you in this one. As slow as this year is this season for me, any mature doe without a fawn with her is fair game. And, I’m not at all picky about a buck either.  Other than the little spike running around, no other buck I can get a clean shot on will make it by me.  

[50calpeephole]

Nothing seen this morning.

Haven't seen a deer in almost a week now

[greg54]

Just now, 50calpeephole said:

Nothing seen this morning.

Haven't seen a deer in almost a week now

My cell cams have shown nothing in a week now.

[Hock3y24]

We’ve seen a combined 25 deer this am. 9 bucks nothing over 2.5

[chrisw]

Saw 6 deer this AM, 5 does and fawns and one unknown right at first light. Then leave at 11:30 and there's a good buck out cruising a bean field 1/2 mile down the road...

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[GreeneHunter]

I thought I was filling a DMP with a Doe , guess not !

 

[50calpeephole]

Had a nice encounter with 3 fawns for a few minutes.  

 

Tiny little guys but it was nice to see something in the woods. I did not spring for any deer veal.

[New York Hillbilly]

About 9:30 I had a young doe all be herself about 10 yards away from the base of my stand.  She seemed small to me and acted young and inexperienced. I actually had my four wheeler parked next to base of the ladder, and she was wicked curious of it.  Not frightened at all.  She kept staring at it and walking right to it.  When she figured it was no threat to her she spent the next 10-15 minutes just browsing on the goldenrod and she was so close could see easily hear her chewing. It sounded like  she was grinding her teeth. She was basically point blank range but I opted to pass, thinking her to be too young and small. 
 

For tomorrow morning; I took a four section climbing stick that I had kicking around from the old days, and a hang on stand, and  put them up in an area of deep ravine creek bottoms. This area is covered in brush and scrub apple trees. There are several muddy deer trails crisscrossing this spot.  By the time I finished I was drenched in sweat and tired. I can safely say it is the last time in my life I will fool with climbing sticks and hang ons.  I think about half way into the project I remembered why I stopped using them Way too much effort and risk involved! 
 

Back in the 1/2 built for the rest of the day.  I may just fall asleep as I listen to my neighbors cut corn. 
 

 

[50calpeephole]

Had a fork cross my path just at legal light.  

  

Pulled the trigger, felt good, but not sure it connected. Deer bounded off without the tell tale kick and I'm not seeing blood.  

  

Bit discouraged, will look again in a bit.

[New York Hillbilly]

46 minutes ago, 50calpeephole said:

Had a fork cross my path just at legal light.  

  

Pulled the trigger, felt good, but not sure it connected. Deer bounded off without the tell tale kick and I'm not seeing blood.  

  

Bit discouraged, will look again in a bit.

Fingers crossed for you! Good luck. At the risk of sounding obvious. Keep eyes open for hair because you may not see blood right off the bat. 

[50calpeephole]

5 hours ago, New York Hillbilly said:

Fingers crossed for you! Good luck. At the risk of sounding obvious. Keep eyes open for hair because you may not see blood right off the bat. 

I looked for about an hour, thrn called in the hunting crew (6 of us)  and pulled out the thermal, we all searched for another good hour. Found a bunch of hair right where the deer was standing, but not a drop of blood.  

 

There were some tracks leading directly away from the stand witch matched where I saw him go, but those disappeared after a short bit with no blood around them as well.

We called it for breakfast, I took another look for 45 mins or so before getting into my stand this afternoon, but I think I gave him a really clean haircut.

 

I'm hoping he'll pop across one of the trail cameras this week, I won't have a chance to be out again till Friday. 

 

I'm in some pretty open timber, there just aren't many places he could have run off to and we didn't bump anything bedded down.

Edited November 26, 2023 by 50calpeephole

[50calpeephole]

Absolute bruiser walked past one of the hunting crew's trail cams tonight- Noone was there to shoot it.  

  

I saw nothing.

[Cory]

What a great weekend to be in the woods. Beautiful weather. Zero deer seen Friday, Saturday or Sunday. All three days sunup to sunset sits. If been saying if for years East Otto doesn’t have the deer it used to.

[suburbanfarmer]

i saw 34 turkeys in a flock, i guess something is better than nothing

[New York Hillbilly]

55 minutes ago, suburbanfarmer said:

i saw 34 turkeys in a flock, i guess something is better than nothing

When we first moved to our property over 30 years ago, there were multiple resident flocks. We used to joke it was almost like a turkey plague. Was common to see 40-50 at a time.  Not that way anymore. I have not seen a turkey or heard one in the woods all deer season. My guess is it has to do with all the coyotes over the years, and now fishers are something I see frequently.

Something freaky is also going on here with the deer this year. Some of it may have to do with the land reverting back to brush, but I also think my neighbors on every side have given up hunting and as a result the deer are just sitting tight. I can count on both hands the number of deer I have seen since opening day, and have only heard one shot fired that sounded close since opening morning.