Got your opening day spot picked out ?

[Robhuntandfish]

  So where ya going for opening day of southern gun season?  Got a stand picked out?  Sit in a traditional spot? Do you go to that spot cause of scouting or another reason? Going to hunting camp? 

I will more than likely be in the stand we named the " Opener".  It's was kind of a a happy accident to have this stand.  

A few years ago when we first started hunting this spot , I already had gotten a deer during bow season. So this being our first year hunting here i tried to setup my two buddies with the best spots as they had never tagged a deer before.  

We only had two stands and two groundblinds on the property setup and didn't have a lot of luck during bow at all. And I had tagged in other hunting spots but all three of us were going to gun hunt here opening day. 

So after getting them setup on what looked like the best trails I thru up a 9 ft stand in a spot kinda out of the way the day before season and just was going to hunt there. 

Opening day about 7:30 I hear my buddy shooting twice.   He texts me he just shot at a huge buck and was gonna check for blood and there was snow on the ground. A couple of minutes later two more shots. So now I wait a few minutes and he said he jumped the deer and shot again. So i go over there and he said he went to look to see if he hit the buck and it jumped up and he shot at it and missed. 

So he is frustrated, we look, but no blood or sign. There was a blind there we were going to take down after hunting that day and he decides he just gonna go to truck and takes the blind. So we are walking out towards the vehicles, and by my stand and 40 yards from my stand is a huge buck.  I pull up and it jumps in the brush.  I say ..." Did you see that huge buck.!?".  My buddy says ..." I've been shooting at that friggin buck all morn". Lol

So I decided to sit back in the stand and he walks by me with the blind. He comes back thru with more ammo after a couple of minutes and calmer and says he is gonna go sit back in his stand. 

Wasn't 15 minutes later I look to my right and there is a buck. I drop the buck and my buddy comes over to help me get it out.  Just a 4 poiner but I was happy with it and it was a great opener we will sure remember.

We still laugh about that day. And I named the buck "the par 5 buck". Cause he shot at it 4 times and still didn't get it.  He was using a shotgun and the empties are still there by that stand and last time I hunted there told him it looked like someone was duck hunting there with all the empty 12 shells. Lol Glad he has a sense of humor. 

Anyway the stand that I put up the night before the gun opener the first year at this spot, is still there and we both have taken deer from it now. So the "opener" stand that was an afterthought is now our best gun stand.

I will be there opening day since my buddy now tagged one in xbow or would be sure he is there.  It hasn't been used all bow season cause it's too thick for bow shots close but can reach out to 170 yards across a swamp with a gun.  I am hoping it's good again this year.

Am guessing a lot of guys here are in traditional or sentimental spots for opening day as well.  Good luck all. 

 

[First-light]

Down in the honey hold with my daughter. Transition zone that deer just love to travel. Many bucks have sealed their fate traveling this route!

[Robhuntandfish]

Just now, First-light said:

Down in the honey hold with my daughter. Transition zone that deer just love to travel. Many bucks have sealed their fate traveling this route!

A bunch of empty casings around that stand by the sounds of it!  Hope she downs one to.add to it. 

[Pygmy]

I'll be sitting in my enclosed, heated tower stand watching over my 3 acre wheat field, which the deer have been eating right down to the ground.. I may take my sleeping bag ( and ANGEL of course) and just sleep up there for the first week if I can fit in enough beer and sandwiches to tide me over...I have invited Squirrelwhisperer up to hunt with me a few days, but I don't know if he has the cojones to come up and spend a few days here in the wilderness, where men are men and sheep are very cautious...

[Robhuntandfish]

4 minutes ago, Pygmy said:

I'll be sitting in my enclosed, heated tower stand watching over my 3 acre wheat field, which the deer have been eating right down to the ground.. I may take my sleeping bag ( and ANGEL of course) and just sleep up there for the first week if I can fit in enough beer and sandwiches to tide me over...I have invited Squirrelwhisperer up to hunt with me a few days, but I don't know if he has the cojones to come up and spend a few days here in the wilderness, where men are men and sheep are very cautious...

You sound like quite the host. Even went so far as to get covid tested before he comes out.  Lol

Good luck Dan. Sounds cozy and a great spot to hunt from.  Last year opening day was 12 degrees if I remember right in the morn. That heated blind would be perfect. 

[grampy]

I'm going back to where we cut a path last year between bedding areas. We put the blind up three weeks ago. And when we were finished popping out the blind, hammering steaks, and were standing there talking, a shooter buck just walked across the cut!  I shot a nice buck there last year. And a few days later, sitting in there with my grandson, we saw a buck that made mine look small! 

[Pygmy]

5 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

You sound like quite the host. Even went so far as to get covid tested before he comes out.  Lol

Good luck Dan. Sounds cozy and a great spot to hunt from.  Last year opening day was 12 degrees if I remember right in the morn. That heated blind would be perfect. 

Thanks, Rob..Last year opening day my two Canadian friends and I shot 3 bucks  out of that tower..Nothing big, but we weren't trophy hunting....

[Don_C]

I had my stand picked out, but my oldest told me yesterday he was going to join me so I’m giving him that stand. He’s been working 50-60 hours/ week all through this Covid crap, since March, and hasn’t had much time for relaxing or fun this year. I’m hoping he gets a shot at one of the big boys in the lease.


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[Nomad]

Right her with our oldest adult daughter , a Buddy Heater and two office chairs . Does have been crossing the cut bean field a bit to the right and some young bucks cross through the tractor gap to the left and passing close by .

Oh and that’s not me on the ATV .

Edited November 18, 2020 by Nomad

[doebuck1234]

Thinking of hunting "the creek stand".hunted it 2-3 times during bow and saw deer on 2 sits.tough getting in as it isnt very quiet.creek runs along property lines and neighboring property directly across from stand is THICK.plenty of trails coming across creek with rubs right by stand.great uncle hunted along creek alot and took plenty of deer,i need to give it a shot!

cousin will be in ground blind as has been during bow and dad hopefully up in my 2020 bow buck stand as is another heavy travel route

[Pygmy]

2 minutes ago, Nomad said:

Right her with our oldest adult daughter , a Buddy Heater and two office chairs . Does have been crossing the cut bean field a bit to the right and some young bucks cross through the tractor gap to the left and passing close by .

Oh and that’s not me on the ATV .

Your blind is a little cockeyed..Remember to level your crosshairs   <<grin>>....

[Swamp_bucks]

Stateland

Same spot I shot my 8 last year on opening day and my 8 this year during bow.  I'll be in the stand by 545 since it's a mile in I like to get in earlier then the deer.  Hoping for another good sit.   My nephew and buddy will be  .5mile away in the same piece of stateland trying to get him his first deer.  

Friday we are starting a new tradition and having a chilli dinner with my crew.  We've all been around each other all of covid so not to worried.  3 types of chilli,corn bread,appetizers, mom is making my grandmas molasses  cookies,donuts and apple pie all from scratch.  

Going to be fun

[Pygmy]

1 minute ago, Swamp_bucks said:

Stateland

Same spot I shot my 8 last year on opening day and my 8 this year during bow.  I'll be in the stand by 545 since it's a mile in I like to get in earlier then the deer.  Hoping for another good sit.   My nephew and buddy will be  .5mile away in the same piece of stateland trying to get him his first deer.  

Friday we are starting a new tradition and having a chilli dinner with my crew.  We've all been around each other all of covid so not to worried.  3 types of chilli,corn bread,appetizers, mom is making my grandmas molasses  cookies,donuts and apple pie all from scratch.  

Going to be fun

......YUM  !!....

[Nomad]

2 minutes ago, Pygmy said:

Your blind is a little cockeyed..Remember to level your crosshairs   <<grin>>....

That’s to line up with my crooked eye .

[Swamp_bucks]

1 minute ago, Pygmy said:

......YUM  !!....

Yep. Wife took the day off to cook.  We all have lost our traditions,hunting camps and family farms over the years so we decided for our kids sake they have something to remembed.

[wolc123]

I have my spot picked out.  The same, 8 ft high, hang-on stand, over at my folks place, where I spent the last two southern zone gun openers.  I am hoping for a buck with three or more points on a side, or any antlerless deer.

The last two gun openers there produced those, so I hope to extend the streak. I spent about an hour at midday in that stand, on opening day of crossbow this year.  I didn't go near it last weekend, because I want the deer to feel comfortable.

This is a shotgun only zone, and I will have my Marlin M512 this year. That took out a nice buck two years ago,  but a messier kill than I would have prefered, due to a busted scope.  

I put a new scope on it last year, but opted for my Ithaca 16 ga. smooth-bore instead.  It was very cold that day and the Marlin has froze up and failed to fire in those conditions a few times.  The ithaca got the job done on a big doe, but again not as cleanly as the Marlin would have, with it's new scope.

It looks like it will be well above freezing this year, so the Marlin should be good to go. The long range forecast is showing 20 percent chance of rain, so I will pack the tree umbrella.  I will try for my first deer with the new scope and first from under the umbrella while it is raining on that day.

[Robhuntandfish]

6 minutes ago, Swamp_bucks said:

Stateland

Same spot I shot my 8 last year on opening day and my 8 this year during bow.  I'll be in the stand by 545 since it's a mile in I like to get in earlier then the deer.  Hoping for another good sit.   My nephew and buddy will be  .5mile away in the same piece of stateland trying to get him his first deer.  

Friday we are starting a new tradition and having a chilli dinner with my crew.  We've all been around each other all of covid so not to worried.  3 types of chilli,corn bread,appetizers, mom is making my grandmas molasses  cookies,donuts and apple pie all from scratch.  

Going to be fun

That sounds great!. Dunno if I want to be down wind of you guys the next morn and all that chili though. Lol

Me and guy i always hunt with do breakfast at the house before hunting on the opener. Im making apple pancakes, venison apple breakfast sausage and some eggs. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Robhuntandfish

[Pygmy]

1 minute ago, Swamp_bucks said:

Yep. Wife took the day off to cook.  We all have lost our traditions,hunting camps and family farms over the years so we decided for our kids sake they have something to remembed.

Bless her heart..I grew up on 187 acres in rural Steuben County and we always had  several friends come to hunt opening day...

My Mom always made a big kettle of homemade vegetable beef soup for opening day..... A couple of the guys who are still alive tell me that they looked more forward to Mom's soup than the hunting...

[Splitear]

I went out last Friday and picked out 3 different potential trees. I think I know which one I’m going to go with, it overlooks a trail along a ridge on one side, an old logging road in front of me, and I have a shot to the hay field behind. 
 

One of my others is on a bedding area with a ton of sign, and one is in a fence row between pastures with a reed swamp on one end and hardwoods on the other. 

[mlammerhirt]

Hunting a spot of our lease that transitions from bedding to pines and funnels to a ravine seperating that area from the secluded 9 acre cut corn field. Sitting in a group blind again this year since you get a better view at ground level vs. up in a tree.
Took a two deer from this spot opening morning and hoping for similar luck this year.
Back when we opened the southern zone in Belmont 9p we had a great hunting camp style tradition. Showed up the night before....went out downtown Belmont for a few beers. We were up early and hunted the same spots each year. Always regrouped around 11 for a hot lunch. The camp owner always made pheasant soup which was unreal. I usually took up watch in a stand called Fort Energy(no clue why) which was built in between three pines. As the years went on and I got to know the property better I rebuilt and old stand on the property and named the new one Stairway to Heaven overlooking a hillside. Build that stand for my wife since she was afraid of heights and we always had good deer movement opening mornings.
1st pic Ft. Energy
2nd pic the view from Stairway to Heaven
3rd. The monster doe and small buck taken from that stand opening day Nov. 2015. Buck was shot at around 121 yards with the trusty .30-.06!

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[GreeneHunter]

Same Ladder stand I've been using the past 7-8 years which is against the same tree .... Results Matter !

[Just Lucky]

I will be hunting on the ground in a spot I have sat opening morning for the last 2 years. Deer seem to move through early so we will see. I brushed it in a few weeks ago to cover my movement 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Ill be up in the new tower. Sat there last evening and had good movement, we shall see. 

[Fletch]

No idea lol
Last two seasons have not seen a deer opening day. Our opening weekend hunting has notoriously been poor.


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[Lomax]

I will be in my heated blind I call the Buckform with my son Eric.