Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management One last one for the road!!

Well Saturday when everyone else said the deer are not moving any more and no one went hunting except me and my dad guess what stepped out on me!!! I always said you cant shoot em if your on the couch!! One last nice 7 point for the road.... It's been a good year for me that's for sure!!

RC

Outstanding RC. We have 1 last week of muzzleloader here in IN and a bonus doe week after Christmas. I have 5 does down so far and hoping to punch the tag on my buck this week. I got trigger happy last week and rushed the shot on a nice 8. Still get a little buck fever after all these years I guess. LOL

Gonna be cold in the tree stand for the next couple days! I think the second rut is on, but I am just hunting for one more doe.

Good luck guys!! AB if you don't get a little shaky and uptight at the site of a nice buck then it's time to hang it up!! That rush and seeing that big one is what it's all about!! After I shot this 7 I couldn't stop shaking..... lol It all happened so fast I didn't have time to shake during thank goodness... but after I could hardly stop.... that's what it's all about!!! Be safe out their guys!!

RC

Adrenalin, best drug there is and only expense is some good ol fashion effort.
I get the shakes after a 6 min battle with a HSB!!

You know RC, that is exactly what my Dad says. If he ever stops getting excited, it's time to quit. I don't ever see that happening though. He is 62 and still keeps pace right beside me every year. I treasure these days because I know to soon they will end.

Hey AB yeah my Dad is 73 and I know I don't have to many hunting years left with him... So far so good he is in pretty good health which sure helps. I hope he can get one last nice one down before he has to give it up....

RC

I'm 74 and no longer enjoy killing as much as I do hunting. I think I've killed one deer in the last 4 or 5 seasons. But, I REALLY love to hunt. RC, your Dad will be fine.

I am still harvesting a lot of deer, but a good hunt is seeing lots of animals and not getting busted by any deer. It may be different another 20 years if I make it that long.

RAH,
I'm not a hunter but am curious about the phrase "... not getting busted by any dear" What does that mean?

Busted means getting detected by the deer. They will often "blow" a distress call warning other deer that danger is afoot. Most often, one gets winded because deer have a fantastic sense of smell. They can often even detect where you walked. That is why deer hunters must control scent, "play the wind", and be careful how they get into and out of their hunting spots. There were very few apples on our trees this year, so I could not stomp the fallen one's on the way out to hunt this year. I find that the apple juice works great to cover tracked shoe odors from around the house (probably from our dogs).

RAH, I set here reading this and thinking of some of the times I have been busted by a 3yr old or older bucks. One comes to mind when I was in a tree stand about 15 ft off the ground, when this buck is trailing a doe and comes to this small clearing. He is directly under me. I did not take the 10 yd shot, he was a 6 pt that showed up at the property during the rut. Most would have shot him, he had a 19 or 20" spred. But being late evening, I did not want to clean him so I let him walk. But before I did, I made sure he saw me as I set/stood there in my Gilly suit. The way he acted he may have thought I was a BIG FOOT He ran all over the area behind me Blowing as loud as he could blow, and blowing at least 6 times for hundreds of yards in different directions. I thought it was funny at the time. I scared him I think lol. I have been busted by many does, many times, but the bucks are the loudest and make the most of their alarm. I could tell several stories like this because I have made several bucks aware of me several times in the field, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not on purpose.

In my experience, deer often blow when they know something is up, but not precisely what it is. I rarely disclose my presence on purpose because I only hunt my own place and do not want to train deer to avoid me (or chase them where less picky hunters might shoot them).

I'm already there at 47. Sometimes I wonder why I go as much as I do, knowing I probably won't shoot anything.

I skipped at 12F with a 16mph wind. Guess I am getting soft in my old age, or maybe it was the 6 deer in the freezer:)

Once you shoot it, the work begins.

Not exactly like being able to catch a fish then release it.

Not if you married the right woman! Some women have tea parties, my wife has butchering parties. If I disappear, check the freezer:)

I am there with you two guys. I bow hunt only for deer and that keeps my interest up, I have no desire to use a riffle anymore. I enjoy the comradery of hunting with family and friends. I really enjoy the hunt through tracking and scouting and then deciding where or how to set up for that one buck. I hunt for that old one. So I have not pulled that bow string this year. And that's ok by me. And I love wildlife food plotting. I can see a lot of deer throughout the year in these food plots and I enjoy watching them. Doing year round food plots, I get to watch the deer go through their life cycle. I see Bachelor groups of bucks, I have seen as many as five 8pt bucks running together and feeding in the plots. I see the rutting or chasing during mating season and I see the fawns that show up in early June. I sat on the hill above a one acre food plot of winter wheat the other evening and watched a 3.5 yr old buck eating the wheat and at the same time ducks were landing on the pond next to that food plot. The only thing that will improve that picture is to be on the shoreline with a double digit lmb on my line.

RAH... thanks for the info!

I was working at a clients place last week (where I have permission to hunt) and I saw a buck that I passed earlier in the year limping thru the woods with his right front leg flopping.

Had to get the muzzleloader out and chase after him. It wasn't easy in 10" of crusty snow.



That was at 1:30 pm. I heard a shot at 7 AM and I thought someone was shooting a coyote because it sounded like a small caliber centerfire rifle.

The buck had what looked like a very fresh .22 cal hole thru and thru the right front knee.

22" wide.

Is that an Omega all-weather?

Nice! Especially sweet that you ended his suffering, and stalked him to boot.

Nice! Our muzzleloader season opens today. I may not go until after Christmas, if I want to have a Christmas. Ha! Good job esshup. Nice buck.

esshup, Nice one ! Is that your Savage BP? BP bolt action ? Not seen the savage up close before, just heard they were the best by far.

Strong work Scott. Good deed done.