Highs and Lows From Your Archery Season

[landtracdeerhunter]

From September 27th to December 31th 2010 in the whole state.  What has been some of your best experiences and some of your worst. My best is seeing some of the best bucks of all ages throughout the season. Got some nice camera footage. My worst was when I shot at a nice buck on November 2nd, with no recovery.  My son seen the same one, ( we hope) days later with a severe limp.  I failed to get a deer again, but thats ok by me.  All in all, what a great season to be out!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

My high light was getting a gun hunting buddy of mine into bowhunting....helping him set up....practice...and being there when he took his first deer with a bow...nice spike.

My low...sitting in my stand  and thinking of past years and not being able to share it with my father because he can't bow hunt anymore....thank God he is still here to gun hunt.

[First-light]

High, putting the kid I mentor on his first decent buck. Low was missing a nice 8 pt-twice.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

High, putting the kid I mentor on his first decent buck. Low was missing a nice 8 pt-twice.

How many times have I told you to use a shorter neck rope? 

[Geno C]

My low point would probably be the property i was hunting was very un eventful and just totally working against me.... the season started out slow and windy but i would have to say my high point was probably meeting another hunter from my club in the woods who became my hunting partner. we teamed up, shared trail cam photos, scouting info, hung tree stands together. It was great.  Another high point for me this season was:

1 - Just being fortunate enough to get out in the woods as often as i did this year and having a nice season experience. i saw a good amount of deer and passed on all the small ones i saw...

and 2 - harvesting my 7 point, its not always about harvesting a deer but when you do it makes your season that much better knowing the time you put in really paid off.

[G-Man]

Well i had two high points, having my good friend get his best buck ever(bow or gun) a nice 8pt out of my stand, and getting a droptine buck i was after for 2 years.  My low point...getting the buck i was after for two years.. might sound wierd to some of you but when you put in two years of scouting, hanging and moving stands, planting food plots, trying to figure out how the deer will react to pressure from the other neighbors hunting the same deer... i'm not sure what to do with myself..

[Fletch]

My high points would have to be how much time I got to spend in the woods, having quite a few bucks walk within feet of my setup unawares, my brother getting his biggest to date off my land and outa one of my stands, finding my buck, the grey fox, the eagle...

Low points; shortage of good hunting grounds, and bow season ending. That is about it I had a great bow season.

[landtracdeerhunter]

I know how you feel. We had three years like that. 1000+ hours. The best part was when  my son harvested the deer in firearms season this year, not the neighbor.  All that work  paid off.  Now we have to start  over with a new animal. And start we will. We were already discussing names today as we were taking down some cameras. What to call the next one.

[Fantail]

High - scoring on the last day of Sept. & using a prior year tag.

Low(s) - running out of doe tags, fried the power inverter, fried an 18v charger, destroyed the new tent for the most part.

[sweet old bill]

The High

I was still around to hunt at 69 each year I still love the hunt but now a lot of human physical problems reduce the walking and staying out for long period.

the Low

never got a shot with the bow or gun on a buck. Had hunters riding on 4 x 4, thru out the hunting days and also a guy riding thru with his truck to check his traps. Sure killed off my days afield.

interest:

was concerned my man made blinds of brush and burlap material could hold man scent was proved to not be a problem when a adult doe in bow season feed and then came and lay down with her butt next to me in the blind. I could have just pushed a arrow into her with my hand.

[WNYBuckHunter]

My high was seeing the biggest buck Ive ever seen in bow season and having him come in to 20 yards on a string to my grunt call.

My low was watching him wave the old white flag at me after dinging my riser on my treestand.

[HHC1]

Low Point....I had some vacation time planned for the last week of bow season and the first few days of gun season, and after getting out of my tree stand the first day of my vacation, I recieved a txt from my sister that she was taking my father to the hospital. He ended up having surgery and staying in the hospital for about 10 days. I didn't get back in the woods much after that txt.

High Point....The scheduled vacation time was a blessing because I could be there for my father. He was the guy that worked two jobs for over 30 years and still found a way to take his boys hunting, fishing, and never missing their sporting events. I can't think of many things I would rather do than being in the woods hunting, but being there for my family is certainly one of them.

FYI - After my father was back on his feet and feeling better, we busted his balls pretty hard about not planning his ailment better...really Dad, surgery during hunting season?? You couldn't have toughed it out for a couple more weeks!!!

[Doewhacker]

Low was us only getting two with the bows, we have grown accustomed to filling the freezers with 4 or 5 before gun starts. This year was one of them years that we (I) just couldn't make it work. Weather deffinetly screwed us up too, with lots of rain comes flooding and our prime doe killing spot lays across a creek that rises way up leaving us unable to cross. That forced us into state land and that was not a bad thing as we found several new hot spots as a result.

High was opening day, while many of you were tied to your trees in the winds my wife and I were a foot still hunting the hard woods. I managed to almost fall over as she was about to shoot a doe and spook it. That was all it took and my wife lost her calm and proceded to miss the doe twice, oh and I missed a real big doe at the same time. I wiffed big time because I was watching her out of the corner of my eye instead of aiming..ha We went on to see 12 deer that day including different groups of bedded down ones which we stalked in to 20-30 yards of but never could get a shot at. It was one of those days that I will remember and I am glad my wife was at my side.

Another good day was when I read that steve863 had got a buck with his bow, I kinda talked him into going for the first time in years..good job buddy 

[camper4lyfe]

Since I've yet to take a deer with a bow (missed a 5pt a couple years ago, then hit a squirrel a couple hours later), seeing and having the possibility of a shot is the closest to a high at this point.

Going another year without harvesting, and only seeing 1 deer during archery is the low for me.

[MuzzyLoader]

What a year!

Highs:  Hunting almost daily during archery season, up 'til the last week and only seeing 2 deer during that entire time.

Lows:  Getting real ill real fast and needing emergency surgery during archery season.  I only got out rifle hunting on the last 2 days of that season (and didn't see any deer).  Then I aggrivated my surgery incision so bad I couldn't get out for late season.

Oh well - next year.

[steve863]

Low was us only getting two with the bows, we have grown accustomed to filling the freezers with 4 or 5 before gun starts. This year was one of them years that we (I) just couldn't make it work. Weather deffinetly screwed us up too, with lots of rain comes flooding and our prime doe killing spot lays across a creek that rises way up leaving us unable to cross. That forced us into state land and that was not a bad thing as we found several new hot spots as a result.

High was opening day, while many of you were tied to your trees in the winds my wife and I were a foot still hunting the hard woods. I managed to almost fall over as she was about to shoot a doe and spook it. That was all it took and my wife lost her calm and proceded to miss the doe twice, oh and I missed a real big doe at the same time. I wiffed big time because I was watching her out of the corner of my eye instead of aiming..ha We went on to see 12 deer that day including different groups of bedded down ones which we stalked in to 20-30 yards of but never could get a shot at. It was one of those days that I will remember and I am glad my wife was at my side.

Another good day was when I read that steve863 had got a buck with his bow, I kinda talked him into going for the first time in years..good job buddy 

Yes, you surely deserve a lot of credit for giving the bow another try this year!    It's also great to hear that my success made someone's day a better one!    If I didn't bag that buck with a bow, I would have probably gone deerless for the first time in a good many years since I didn't even see a deer never mind shoot one during the regular gun season.  Thank YOU, Doe!

[Doc]

It's hard to have any "lows" at all when I'm bowhunting ..... BUT .... I did have some stands that turned out to be pure frustration. On three different occasions, I had a pair of small-game hunters that zeroed in on one of my prime stands and decided to set up for squirrel hunting during some prime hours, just banging away while I was trying to work on a very nice buck in the area. They seemed to get a shot about every 15 minutes or so which I'm sure was very effective at turning back any deer that was thinking about coming into that area. Needless to say, when all that banging started up, daylight buck movement was about the last thing that was about to happen. The amazing thing is that I was over a mile from the nearest road, so I thought I was far away from that kind of interference. It was just one of those things that occasionally happen when you're hunting state land. They have a right to hunt wherever they want, and most likely didn't even know I was trying to hunt there. I'm not sure what I could have done different and I'm not sure how I'm going to avoid the same thing happening next year. That was where the buck was hanging out and apparently it must have been a place that was particularly good for squirrels too ..... lol.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

And probably eating the exact same things, Doc. Sounds like a productive area....maybe you should hit it in September and reduce the draw for the squirrel hunters yourself

[Doc]

And probably eating the exact same things, Doc. Sounds like a productive area....maybe you should hit it in September and reduce the draw for the squirrel hunters yourself

That's the weird part ..... there are squirrels all over the hill. I never understood why those guys climbed all the way up that hill (and it is a cardiac tester) and then walked all the way back just to hunt the same amount of squirrels that are down at the bottom.

I do put in some hours squirrel hunting before bow season, but once I have a good buck located, I try to stay clear of any stand areas in that area until I'm ready to hunt. If I have to go in there for further scouting, it is done extremely careful and quiet.

I'm hoping that it all was just one really ugly coincidence that won't be repeated next year.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Just think how much bigger that buck will be this year.

[Doc]

Just think how much bigger that buck will be this year.

That's what I was thinking. As far as I know nobody got him. It was kind of weird but those small game hunters were the only hunters I know of back there even all the way through gun season. So I think he'll be back in there next year.

[G-Man]

Maybe they figured if they went that far in they wouldn't be bothering bow hunters who like to stay close.....

[RangerClay]

The highlight of this season was when I harvested a small doe  in early October.  I got the deer behind my house.  I called home and had my kids come track the deer, help me gut it and drag the deer out.  They loved every moment of it and its a memory I will treasure forever.

Low was the only buck that came near my stand made me when I was bored and playing with my cell phone.  I could have thrown that phone a mile.

[bart1]

High- Got a bit more serious this year and spent the most time I have ever in the woods.  Saw many deer close..most does and a couple of buttons. Even hunted the ground in a think area and had deer within 6 yards of me several times...exciting. I would have to say just learning more and gaining much more excitment for the sport was my high.

Low- Not taking a shot at a few fat does about 10 yards out on several different days. Wish I would have haverested a deer. Also a low was my stand placement... heard a lot more deer then I actually saw was about 20 yards in the wrong direction...thick area.... a few yards would have made a big difference.