The New Holiday Season

[Robhuntandfish]

7 hours ago, crappyice said:

I know my sarcasm wasn’t lost on you and your jab was welcome and appreciated!!! However, this year I couldn’t even take advantage of 12/30 or 12/31…damn China flu got me exhausted and I just didn’t have the energy or strength to hunt those two days. I have written to Fauci, requesting those days to be made into “floating hunting days days” to be used when ever I want if I promise to double mask and get all the boosters!


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That sucks. Glad your doing ok.  Hope the rest of the family didn't get it too....

And Fauci will prob just send you back a China knock off mask with his autograph on it. 

 

 

[Five Seasons]

11 hours ago, wolc123 said:

How did you all like the Holiday ML season ?   
 

I think the warmer than average conditions slowed daylight deer activity, but I still saw more deer thru that new season than I did thru all of gun season (after opening day) and normal ML season combined.  
 

I hope we see it continued, for a least a few more years. I like the extra time, when the odds are better for cold, because it makes it easier to handle the meat.  It is also great to be able to hunt on some weekday paid Holidays, and not needing to use vacation days.  

hunted 3 evenings. Couldn't get the motivation to get up early for the action I was seeing on cams. Could have had an opportunity at doe if I was in the right spot and I would have taken that opportunity.

All in all, I was annoyed because the weather was perfect for some off season stuff I wanted to get to and now it's snowy and bone chilling cold. That said, this year and next will be unique in that regard so it's not a huge deal.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it. I need to be saved from myself as I can't resist the urge to hunt if the season is open and the season is too long as it is. 

[Robhuntandfish]

8 minutes ago, Belo said:

hunted 3 evenings. Couldn't get the motivation to get up early for the action I was seeing on cams. Could have had an opportunity at doe if I was in the right spot and I would have taken that opportunity.

All in all, I was annoyed because the weather was perfect for some off season stuff I wanted to get to and now it's snowy and bone chilling cold. That said, this year and next will be unique in that regard so it's not a huge deal.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it. I need to be saved from myself as I can't resist the urge to hunt if the season is open and the season is too long as it is. 

I am self shortening my deer season as I do the same thing. I just keep hunting and seeing nothing for days and days. 

This year I didn't hunt as much early season and stayed on the fringes of my hunting spot. But next year I'm also going to shorten on the back end and take up duck hunting on Dec 4.  

I will concentrate for deer late Oct - first full week of gun. Take a lot of time off then and more all day sits when I do go.  

I don't want the season shortened by the state and reduce opportunity for others to hunt, but I def plan to shorten my season and be out there and hunt more efficiently.  

First vac day I will take will start Oct 21, and take a bunch thru 3rd week of Nov.  Over the years we have only ever gotten one or two bucks all preseason. But once the rut gets near we will have pics of 7-8 in the area til after the first 10 days of gun, then it's a ghost town. Our food sources are dead and gone and we can't compete with the nearby AG with our little food plots . 

Looking forward to a new adventure in duck hunting that sounds like a "blast". And just hoping the ponds stay open like they did this year and not freeze over.  And will fish more into early October when the perch bite gets great. Planning to make the best of the most productive seasons instead of sitting in dead time for deer. 

[Steve D]

1 hour ago, Robhuntandfish said:

will concentrate for deer late Oct - first full week of gun. Take a lot of time off then and more all day sits when I do go.  

I say the same thing every year and end up hunting til the end. The only way to really accomplish it is to tag as early as possible

[Five Seasons]

45 minutes ago, Steve D said:

I say the same thing every year and end up hunting til the end. The only way to really accomplish it is to tag as early as possible

same thing man... same thing. Even if I get a buck early I still motivate myself with doe tags and I'm just out there regardless lol.

[wolc123]

I usually start to loose interest in deer hunting after Thanksgiving, but didn’t this year, for 3 somewhat trivial reasons:

First, I missed out on more than half of my normal hunting hours, during times of heightened daylight deer activity, in the southern zone (the peak two weeks of the rut also known as crossbow season) last fall.  
 

Daylight deer activity, at my two southern zone spots,  always drops to almost nothing, after Thanksgiving.  It picks up sharply, in and around standing corn, around mid-December.  I had, and still have, plenty of that at home this year.  

Second, after a long slump, I finally restored some confidence in my in-line ML last year, killing an old doe with it up in the northern zone, that I had been after for the last 3 seasons.  She was much smarter and tougher to kill than any buck that I have pursued.  Without confidence in my weapon, I could have cared less about the Holiday season.  
 

Third, and most likely a direct result of reason #1, I still had an available buck tag.  While I also had (3) available dmp tags, antlerless deer are rarer than hen’s teeth in my two southern zone hunting spots, after October 1.  
 

That is mostly because local farmers hit them real hard on their nuisance permits, prior to that date.  They do a great job of avoiding the bucks though,  as the law requires.  

I say these are all “trivial” reasons, because none had to do with needing the meat, which is always my biggest hunting motivator.  I struggled a bit to find room in our freezers for one of those New Year’s Day “hens teeth”.  

[GreeneHunter]

All in All I scored some more time in the woods hunting with my son during the extra Holiday Week on my property . I'll probably be giving him my property in the next few years and he knows where the Deer are ! Hopefully my grandson (his son) will come to appreciate hunting some day like I do and he'll hunt the property too !

[Lawdwaz]

I enjoyed my time out during the Holiday Hunt and look forward to next years hunt.  I did kill a doe and worked hard for her.  Like mentioned (almost as many times as wolc's posted his buck pics lol) the weather didn't help us at all during any season this fall.  Such is life.....

[ApexerER]

16 hours ago, Lawdwaz said:

I enjoyed my time out during the Holiday Hunt and look forward to next years hunt.  I did kill a doe and worked hard for her.  Like mentioned (almost as many times as wolc's posted his buck pics lol) the weather didn't help us at all during any season this fall.  Such is life.....

@wolc123got a buck this year? Post it up!!

[wolc123]

10 minutes ago, ApexerER said:

@wolc123got a buck this year? Post it up!!

[Four Seasons]

31 minutes ago, ApexerER said:

@wolc123got a buck this year? Post it up!!

Lol. It would be hard to find a thread that’s it’s not “Posted Up” in. 

[Steuben Jerry]

1 hour ago, wolc123 said:

Thats a girthy mofo!

[wolc123]

2 hours ago, Steuben Jerry said:

Thats a girthy mofo!

Big liver too, made (2) meals and had to weigh about two pounds.  I only got one liver meal out of its brother that I killed in September 21. I guess it pays to fatten them up for a few more months.  

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by wolc123

[Chromeslayer]

The kids approved of the holiday hunt

[Chef]

Any chance to hunt is good by me


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[Will_C]

Hunted 5 times without seeing a deer! Still enjoyed myself during what normally is slow week for me.

[Kmartinson]

Early season for does when they are healthy and bucks haven't dropped antlers yet would be better in my opinion. Now you just have to be careful not to shoot your early shed bucks. Also the herd could potentially be stressed more later in season.