11/4 Check In

[JD48]

7 hours ago, BHC said:

1 block from my house, doe was 15 yards away 

 

Nice buck, big boy

[Nomad]

1 hour ago, JFC1 said:

Buck down. Details later. Long haul out and it's hot. I need to deal w the meat

I told you!👍

Edited November 4, 2022 by Nomad

[JD48]

7 hours ago, JFC1 said:

Great light after dog burnt off

What type of dog you be a using there Buford

[gonefishing]

Good luck to all 👍 

[gonefishing]

1 hour ago, JFC1 said:

Buck down. Details later. Long haul out and it's hot. I need to deal w the meat

Congrats nice one 

[Greybeard]

Think I found the trail the big buck is using.  Scrapes and rub tore apart the sapling.  Will be back there in the morning.  Saw my first flock of turkeys in many many years.

[DoubleLungDevil]

4 hours ago, smittty said:

Must be one of them years that the doe”s slowly one at a time go into estrous. Only saying that because half of us are yelling it’s happening and the other half including myself isn’t seeing any signs of the rut. What I’m also noticing a lot of the scraps went dead. I really can’t figure this year out

It’s definitely a weird year by me in zone 12 it’s almost like they decided to skip the scraping phase this year haha…I have 4 cell cams over perennial scrapes and only scrubs bucks hit em early October and they’ve been dead ever since lol

[JFC1]

On 11/4/2022 at 4:02 PM, Nomad said:

I told you!👍

Nomad, yes you did. Thanks. Apologies for late response due to butchering the buck and a doe I took Saturday, and sincere thanks to you, VDep, Deadon and the gang for encouraging me to get back to the area and sit right away.  Weirdly, the deer I took Friday wasn't the same one I saw Thursday, who was boxier-racked and bigger (at least with my google eyes up in the stand).  But this area is high, extremely dense, and yet  close to water and really tasty food sources, seems to be where a number of long scrapelines converge, and there're buck bedding areas all around. In fact, there's a 30' beat down circle I've always called the ampitheatre where they spar and show off. Old hands tell me I'm crazy, that such a thing doesn't exist, but I've seen on the camera there I always set to video 4-5 bulls milling around and showing off and sparring in this immediate area. They almost seem to wait on the sides of the ring for their turn. The problem is access to my clear=ing, which is pretty much impossible except on the buck paths, and a very long drag out.  I haven't even checked yet my video rut card for the ampitheatre this year, but I'm sure there's some cool footage. 

Speaking of dragging out, on Friday at 8:15AM I saw this 8 come by sniffing at the trees, preparing to get to a steep path that leaves the area. I was hoping he'd come in closer and offer a nice quartering away as he went on the expected path. But when he turned early to leave through the spice bushes at about 20 yards, maybe 10 feet downhill of the base of my stand, I decided to take the shot before it'd become a Texas Heart Shot (which I don't do).  I hit him on the ribs as pictured, but the NAP expandable skipped along the sides of the ribcage and entered behind his shoulder, exiting the brisket. Good lesson on expandables and angles, but it took out his windpipe. He kicked up the back legs and trembled, but still ran maybe 30 yards, leaving the most ridiculous, river-like, blood trail as he bled out through his windpipe while pitching steeply downhill. 

He was a weird buck. Relatively thick but not very high antlers, relatively big hooves and a big head, for a not so large body (thank god given drag out). Big willy too.  Roman nose.

Of course, while I was shooting this guy I saw on video that an absolute monster came into my stand down in the valley. Rack dwarfs this guy and it hung out from 7:15 till about 10:30AM defending the area near my stand where I'd left one of those berry crunch blocks (I never, ever put out any bait where I took the one pictured here and I never take a doe there till January). But that's life. I'm pleased.  I got two eights in the space of two weeks and could have gotten some even bigger deer if I'd had the maturity to hold out, while I also passed on a lot of other bucks. I only wish I've been seeing more does. And the sunrises are great. 

Thanks to all members of the community for their advice and wisdom. Good luck to all.

Final note: almost always when I take a buck at this site something weird happens. Once I forgot my quiver in the car and had to run back down and up. Once I heard voices and it was the adult daughter of a senior colleague, lost in the brambles with her husband while wearing a long pink down jacket and needing a guide out. Each time a buck came in and went down. On Friday it was the persimmons I'd eaten in the woods on Thursday, which started to come out just as I reached the base of my stand . All I could do before the typhoon was make it about 60 yards in the opposite direction from which I expected deer to come in. So I have to be honest, I took Friday's deer in a slightly poopy-pantsed, smelly condition I was sure would ruin my hunt.

 

 

[electric10162]

34 minutes ago, JFC1 said:

Nomad, yes you did. Thanks. Apologies for late response due to butchering the buck and a doe I took Saturday, and sincere thanks to you, VDep, Deadon and the gang for encouraging me to get back to the area and sit right away.  Weirdly, the deer I took Friday wasn't the same one I saw Thursday, who was boxier-racked and bigger (at least with my google eyes up in the stand).  But this area is high, extremely dense, and yet  close to water and really tasty food sources, seems to be where a number of long scrapelines converge, and there're buck bedding areas all around. In fact, there's a 30' beat down circle I've always called the ampitheatre where they spar and show off. Old hands tell me I'm crazy, that such a thing doesn't exist, but I've seen on the camera there I always set to video 4-5 bulls milling around and showing off and sparring in this immediate area. They almost seem to wait on the sides of the ring for their turn. The problem is access to my clear=ing, which is pretty much impossible except on the buck paths, and a very long drag out.  I haven't even checked yet my video rut card for the ampitheatre this year, but I'm sure there's some cool footage. 

Speaking of dragging out, on Friday at 8:15AM I saw this 8 come by sniffing at the trees, preparing to get to a steep path that leaves the area. I was hoping he'd come in closer and offer a nice quartering away as he went on the expected path. But when he turned early to leave through the spice bushes at about 20 yards, maybe 10 feet downhill of the base of my stand, I decided to take the shot before it'd become a Texas Heart Shot (which I don't do).  I hit him on the ribs as pictured, but the NAP expandable skipped along the sides of the ribcage and entered behind his shoulder, exiting the brisket. Good lesson on expandables and angles, but it took out his windpipe. He kicked up the back legs and trembled, but still ran maybe 30 yards, leaving the most ridiculous, river-like, blood trail as he bled out through his windpipe while pitching steeply downhill. 

He was a weird buck. Relatively thick but not very high antlers, relatively big hooves and a big head, for a not so large body (thank god given drag out). Big willy too.  Roman nose.

Of course, while I was shooting this guy I saw on video that an absolute monster came into my stand down in the valley. Rack dwarfs this guy and it hung out from 7:15 till about 10:30AM defending the area near my stand where I'd left one of those berry crunch blocks (I never, ever put out any bait where I took the one pictured here and I never take a doe there till January). But that's life. I'm pleased.  I got two eights in the space of two weeks and could have gotten some even bigger deer if I'd had the maturity to hold out, while I also passed on a lot of other bucks. I only wish I've been seeing more does. And the sunrises are great. 

Thanks to all members of the community for their advice and wisdom. Good luck to all.

Final note: almost always when I take a buck at this site something weird happens. Once I forgot my quiver in the car and had to run back down and up. Once I heard voices and it was the adult daughter of a senior colleague, lost in the brambles with her husband while wearing a long pink down jacket and needing a guide out. Each time a buck came in and went down. On Friday it was the persimmons I'd eaten in the woods on Thursday, which started to come out just as I reached the base of my stand . All I could do before the typhoon was make it about 60 yards in the opposite direction from which I expected deer to come in. So I have to be honest, I took Friday's deer in a slightly poopy-pantsed, smelly condition I was sure would ruin my hunt.

 

 

Great buck! Congrats!!

[Black Bear Bowhunter]

Shot a big doe. Looked smaller. Needed my wife to get it out of the woods. Rage is still very impressive.

had to use my backup Barnett crossbow due to a cracked limb on my KI crossbow.

[Nomad]

Very nice , congratulations!

[Michael Britt]

11 hours ago, Black Bear Bowhunter said:

Shot a big doe. Looked smaller. Needed my wife to get it out of the woods. Rage is still very impressive.

had to use my backup Barnett crossbow due to a cracked limb on my KI crossbow.

That a shower liner to keep sled clean? I may steal that idea!

[Black Bear Bowhunter]

11 hours ago, Michael Britt said:

That a shower liner to keep sled clean? I may steal that idea!

Yeah it’s awesome. $5 and I keep the hide etc in it and under it while I butcher it. Once done wrap it all up and in a garbage bag. Easy cleaning job 😉