Week one is coming to an end and..,

[luberhill]

I have seen one deer .. I’ve spent hours in the woods. I hear others saying the same but I also see lots of big bucks taken.

 I killed one doe and would like one more either buck or doe I don’t care .

Just seems like something happened ,

getting lots of trail cam pics of bucks and does , many at night but a good share daytime ..

Season starts …all activity ends 

Now I know there is lots of time left but …

I think I’ll give my spots a few cool off days … and myself

[wolc123]

21 minutes ago, luberhill said:

I have seen one deer .. I’ve spent hours in the woods. I hear others saying the same but I also see lots of big bucks taken.

 I killed one doe and would like one more either buck or doe I don’t care .

Just seems like something happened ,

getting lots of trail cam pics of bucks and does , many at night but a good share daytime ..

Season starts …all activity ends 

Now I know there is lots of time left but …

I think I’ll give my spots a few cool off days … and myself

I know some folks say hunt a stand when it’s hot until you score,  but I have way more luck,  when I wait a week or so between hunts from a particular stand.  
 

The longer and more often you hunt a stand, the more of your scent you leave in the area.  Deer might not see you there by day but, being mostly nocturnal, they will always smell where you were later that night and then avoid that spot for a while.

[luberhill]

7 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

I know some folks say hunt a stand when it’s hot until you score,  but I have way more luck,  when I wait a week or so between hunts from a particular stand.  
 

The longer and more often you hunt a stand, the more of your scent you leave in the area.  Deer might not see you there by day but, being mostly nocturnal, they will always smell where you were later that night and then avoid that spot for a while.

I have a hard time believing that anyone can go to a stand or blind deep in the woods and be so silent that deer never hear them ..

I try and be quiet and walk into the wind but I’m sure I make noise 

[DirtTime]

8 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

I know some folks say hunt a stand when it’s hot until you score,  but I have way more luck,  when I wait a week or so between hunts from a particular stand.  
 

The longer and more often you hunt a stand, the more of your scent you leave in the area.  Deer might not see you there by day but, being mostly nocturnal, they will always smell where you were later that night and then avoid that spot for a while.

That's why I drink a thermos of coffee and pee all over the area I sit. It covers up the smell of me.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I think that is more or less the pattern of regular firearm season. Deer go to a swamp and hunker down until the bullets stop flying. I recommend going out with a muzzleloader and hunt over some food in the late season. Years ago all the big land owners would have giant organized drives through all the farm land. It would be nothing to see 20 guys on the side of the road. Now the farmers lease their land. People watch too many youtube hunting shows and just sit in the same stands waiting for some deer they got one picture of in September. 

[wolc123]

53 minutes ago, SpacemanSpiff said:

I think that is more or less the pattern of regular firearm season. Deer go to a swamp and hunker down until the bullets stop flying. I recommend going out with a muzzleloader and hunt over some food in the late season. Years ago all the big land owners would have giant organized drives through all the farm land. It would be nothing to see 20 guys on the side of the road. Now the farmers lease their land. People watch too many youtube hunting shows and just sit in the same stands waiting for some deer they got one picture of in September. 

I agree with that entirely.  This was the first year, in the last 4, when I did not kill a deer on opening day morning of gun from a swamp-edge stand.  I saw 5 there that morning, but none this Friday. I think they are mostly holed up deep for the daylight hours, now that a few shots have been fired.

My saving grace this Friday evening was that bonus half hour of post-sunset hunting time they granted us this year, and some Evercalm on my boots to cover my tracks.  
 

That sun going down was like flipping a switch.  A big old buck came out of the swamp, right when it dropped below the horizon.   5 minutes later, I saw him in the thick cover at the edge of a field where I have another stand.  He was not going to get out of that thick cover.

He paused between two big trees, at the trail I walked in on, 40 yards away (to sniff that Evercalm I would guess).  That gave me time to clear my fogged scope and ventilate his rib cage. 

I am very thankful that the Good Lord put that buck where   He did right then, with just enough of his body exposed to get a 16 ga slug to the right spot.  I am also thankful for the light dusting of snow and the remaining 15 minutes of twilight.  Without that, I am not sure I could have located his carcass, about 125 yards from my stand, in some real thick stuff.

I am also thankful that the Good Lord is providing perfect hanging weather right now, making our insulated garage into a big walk in cooler.  That old buck ought to be good and tender, a week from Monday, when I process him.

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by wolc123

[First-light]

I was at my Processor Friday he had taken in a little over 200. He said it was a bit slow. 

[biggamefish]

I am hopeful that opening weekend/week was just in that time period that the bucks aren't leaving the does side. That usually tends to slow down the sightings I think. Once they get the deeds done they will hopefully be cruising the woods for more love. 

[wolc123]

On 11/26/2021 at 9:04 PM, DirtTime said:

That's why I drink a thermos of coffee and pee all over the area I sit. It covers up the smell of me.

You gotta be stacken them like cordwood this year with such brilliance.  

[Swamp_bucks]

Statelands should be cooling off by now.  Put on some orange and go still hunt some bedding areas.   More pressure means closer to bedding you need to be if not in it.  You can get away with alot of noise going through the woods as for spooking deer 3 of us walked in last Sunday with headlamps on and walked past 2 deer under 30 yards and they never spooked.

[REDNECK4LIFE32]

16 minutes ago, Swamp_bucks said:

Statelands should be cooling off by now.  Put on some orange and go still hunt some bedding areas.   More pressure means closer to bedding you need to be if not in it.  You can get away with alot of noise going through the woods as for spooking deer 3 of us walked in last Sunday with headlamps on and walked past 2 deer under 30 yards and they never spooked.

Couldn't believe the deer just sat there as we made our way thru to our spots.