Whatcha think of the Season so far???

[halfnelson]

So the regular bow season is full swing, Xbow season on now...what's your take on the season so far?

It seems to me looking at all the posts that deer take has been not good so far.  Weather probably being the biggest factor.  

Personally, I have never had such a slow season.  Kicked a few deer around, but have not seen a deer from any stand yet.  I hunt lowground hardwood areas.  I haven't seen a rub or a scrape 

yet.  The area is usually a good producer.  And I know things can turn around in a second, but so far no sign of rut yet.  I may be completely wrong, what's your guess.

Dutchess/Area

[NFA-ADK]

Having a great year in Suffolk so far, seen about 10 plus bucks in 4 days hunting, one was a shooter but I did not have any shot opportunity.  2 Buttons, 5 spikes, 4 pt and a brute and one other something with antlers.  Had a few encounters with doe also.  Heading up North this week for a few days of futility.  lol  I try to tell the guys 3-4 days in the ADK simply is not enough time to usually get onto a buck.  Usually takes me a few days to find the patterns and key off them, I will have to rely on old routes and see if they produce.  Hope they snow stays for a shot at tracking one down!

[Robhuntandfish]

This has been the toughest bow season for me in many years.  Have seen a 1/3 of the deer and the weather has been the worst I remember.  No deer with the bow hasn't happened in a long time.

[tarheel95]

Interesting season so far in 3g. More sightings during bow than past years. Great spot and stalk on bedded doe and fawns last weekend. On the other hand, shot opportunities are way down.

We had a tornado blow through in the spring that uprooted a bunch of trees. Looks like it has significantly changed travel routes and created new bedding areas. I am not in the right place at the right time.

Lots to learn about the property now that it has changed up. Resigning myself that this may be a tag soup learning season to setup for next year.

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[moog5050]

Started really good with decent buck sighting early through mid Oct.  Kinda dead since then.  That said, my personal time in the prime stands has not been as much as it normally would be over the past few weeks.

[Nomad]

Didn’t hunt much in bow, 17 hours according to my DEC log . Saw a few . Crossbow last couple days were good .hope to be out a lot right up to gun .

Waiting for those few days when a doe comes through followed by 3 or 4 bucks, then another gets chased past the stand by 2 more and on and on all day .

[JRod 8G8H]

Still have all my tags so I'm disappointed.. I honestly hunt bucks until mid Oct and try to pattern them and see where they're bedding, where the does are bedding, and try to be somewhere in between this time of year as the bucks move between bedding areas.. Seen a lot of 1.5 year old deer this year, more than ever before..

passed on a 3.5 year old 9 pointer Saturday who was basically right under my stand.. had the safety off my xbow any everything however couldn't get him to present me with a kill shot.. hoping he takes the same route next sit!

[ApexerER]

So far I feel like I have had a pretty good season. I have seen a lot of deer. I have had multiply small bucks and doe that had fawns with them in chip shot bow range. A week ago Sunday 10/28 I saw more deer then I have ever seen in one day. More than I usually see in a season. Not sure where they all went cause I sat the same stand this past Sunday and saw 2 doe and a fawn in the morning and a lone fawn around 4. All in all I would say it has been pretty good, especially since I am a weekend warrior and have missed multiply sits due to all the rain/wind. Still have not seen a shooter but they are on camera. 

[silent death]

Hunting season has been very wet 

[G-Man]

warm and wet... 

[chrisw]

Crap.

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[BigVal]

Weather sucks I've only been out for four sits. I've seen some deer probably normal numbers. This weekend is looking good and I'll be out all day both days unless I can punch a tag sooner. 

[UpStateRedNeck]

Not a good season so far.  Pretty garbage weather, usually have a fat old doe in the freezer by now.  On my out of my deep stand yesterday I checked the logging roads on the side of the hill.  Nothing.  No scrapes or rubs.  Weird.  Its usually a huge travel route.  Have seen some scrapes and seen a couple medium sized bucks.  Haven't gotten one mess-my-pants buck on camera yet.

[Eric J]

Deer running all over the place in My Yard.... When I head out to the woods... not so much!  :(

[Hock3y24]

Best season as far as deee sightings and shot opportunities.ive drawn on 20-30 deer just to see if I could. Passed tons of small bucks and just starting to see good ones now. I still don’t think all hell  has broken loose rut wise.

[Reb]

Beginning of October it was looking to be a awesome season here but after a few weeks it pretty much died,cam pics and sightings have plummeted and I haven't seen any chasing in the last couple weeks.   The weather has been so miserable I have only gotten out 50% as much as I normally would,some weekends i just go out in the rain to scout and check cams.  Hoping it picks up real soon and the rain stops.

[wolc123]

Slightly below average, in terms of deer sightings.  On first trip to the northern zone (when an antlerless deer would have been legal for me to harvest with my crossbow or ML), I did not see any.   On the last trip up there with my rifle, I saw 4 deer but no horns on the two that offered me a shot.  

In the southern zone, I only deer hunted this past Saturday and Sunday.  The wind and rain made Saturday a bust at our place in the morning and my folks in the afternoon.   I did see a nice shooter (2.5 year old) buck at home on Sunday afternoon.   He was too far for me to take the shot with my crossbow, but would have been a chip-shot with my slug gun.   I now know what stand I will be in on opening day of gun season in a couple of weeks.   This was an old ladder stand that I recently lowered, making it a lot more comfortable to hunt from. 

Also, it is now well-hidden by the underbrush in a hedgerow between corn plots.  It kind of stuck out like a sore thumb when it was up higher.   The buck Sunday afternoon had no clue that I was there.  I got my crosshairs on him twice as he crossed shooting lanes well within shotgun range.   Unfortunately, he was on a mission and did not show any reaction to a couple of grunt calls I made from 60 yards away.   The only thing he would have heard if I had my shotgun would have been it going off, and hopefully he would have felt the slug before hearing that.  

So the tally for me at this point is 6.5 days hunted (5 northern zone, 1.5 southern), no shots offered, (2) antlerless, (2) unknown, and (1) antlered buck sighted.   I am excited about the rest of the season, based on seeing evidence of a good buck in the area up north (I have three more days to hunt up there over Thanksgiving), at least one at home, and a couple over at my folks place.  I have all day Friday thru Sunday to hunt this weekend and the rut should definitely still be in full swing then.   "So far" does not mean a thing, for the best is yet to come.    

Edited November 7, 2018 by wolc123

[grampy]

Never, have I seen a wetter bow season. I've lost about six days, that I would have spent hunting. The high water has effected some of our best bedding areas.  Forcing a change in normal deer movement patterns on most of our property. 

Deer sightings were very scarce through much of October. But buck sightings have been picking up a bunch, during the last two weeks. Mostly young bucks. But a couple of the big guys have been seen too. I've been close, but not close enough for a good shot.

I feel some recent changes in set ups, will pay off for us soon. But it's been a tough season so far. A lot of adjusting to what the deer are, and aren't doing.

[ATbuckhunter]

Its been tough for me, but now knowing all the crap that has been happening around my property and even in my property unfortunately. I think i can manage to harvest a few more deer though 

[Arcade Hunter]

I've been out 6 times so far... between being unusuaully busy and the rain my season has been stunted.  I will say that I have seen deer every sit, a spike and a 6 just this past Sunday morning.  I have the entire weekend coming up and remain hopeful to put some meat in the freezer.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Ive only been out 3 times so far this season, so its hard for me to really say much about deer movement, but I will say that the weather has not been all that conducive to bow hunting in my area. Im not a big fan of bow hunting in the rain, so I have stayed in plenty of days that I could have gotten into the woods.

[OtiscoPaul]

Weird year for sure...low on doe group sightings and just sightings in general.  Wet weather has not helped.

Really low on hard and soft mast around me this season so I am sure that isn't helping.

That said a tiny county parcel I hunt with about 5-7 guys (mostly me and 1 other dude) has produced 3 bucks and 2 does this season, 1/week last 5 weeks including a doe harvest today.

Edited November 8, 2018 by OtiscoPaul

[Jdubs]

This time last year I was seeing multiple deer nearly every sit during xbow.  So far after 4 sits, nada.  Something is off and I need to solve that puzzle soon if I'm going to harvest my first archery deer. 

[Pygmy]

On ‎11‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 12:27 PM, G-Man said:

warm and wet... 

Is that your deer season or your love life....<<SMILE>>...

[Tughill Tamer]

So far even though I haven't seen alot of deer I can't complain because my freezer is full. I took the velvet spike with my bow and added a nice doe with a 6g tag. I now can focus on helping some friends fill there freezer as the next deer I get ( if I get another) I'm giving to my buddy who hunts very little but his family of 4 loves venison. I also plan to hold out for a hopefully nice buck with my gun tag.

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