Monday, October 28, 2013

2013 Season Update

I've been meaning to post an update on here of how our season is going.  Julie and I have been hunting a handful of times at both places, I don't like to overdue it in October so I like to keep a good gap in between sits and always hunt safe as far as wind.  Julie has been super busy and has only made it out a couple times and hasn't seen anything yet.  I told her last night she is reminding me of myself last year, when I didn't see deer at all but it all worked out pretty good.

Myself I am having quite a good season.  I've been hunting at my moms more than my brother in law's due.  They are still open down there so its been tough to hunt there.  I've been hunting on Friday mornings mainly and I have put in 3 friday morning sits.  All three I've seen bucks.  In fact I've seen 7-8 different bucks.  Nothing huge all mostly year old bucks, 3 different 8pts(all of which I've passed) and some smaller ones.  They have even been chasing and bumping does around so its been a lot of fun just watching that.

Then came last night (Sunday Oct. 27) I got a chance to try an evening sit there so I took it.  The weather was a little warm (mid 50's) and it was quite windy but it was forcast to calm down by the evening and cool down plus it was a S,SW wind and my spot there works perfect for that wind.  I killed my 10pt in 2010 same wind same stand.

One of the best things I feel about hunting and especially bow hunting is all the extra things you get to see.  You never know what you will see when you go into the woods and this time was no different.  I had a huge flock of turkeys come by me.  I guessed around 30 birds, mostly young ones from this past spring.

Here is the video of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYuN_BsUCI

I watched them as they worked their way behind me and about 100 yards to my right.  Then I hear another noise and see a red fox right behind me.  He ran off behind me but you could tell he was hunting those turkeys.  Sure enough 5 minutes later the woods explodes with turkeys flying into the trees, cackling and running around.  It was pretty neat to see a fox doing this, so chalk that up to another experience I won't forget.

So at this point I am thinking no way will I see a deer not with all this noise and commotion going on.  I had turkeys in the trees above me flying around trying to get settled in for the night and sure enough here come two does.  I was able to get a shot off at 25 yds double lunged her and she only went about 100 yds.  She is a nice mature deer.  This was the same doe that had picked me out of the tree 2 weeks ago and let the entire woods know I was there and she was about to do the same thing so that made shooting her a little easier as well.  Does have actually been my Achilles heal lately, either I have blown the shots, they have busted me or I talked myself out of shooting them, so it actually felt really good to get it done and make a great shot on her also.  I feel very strongly that a big mature doe is just as hard if not harder to kill than a big buck.

Here are some pictures:
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So that does it for me as far as does go.  I don't think I will shoot any more this year.  I am hoping to find a bigger buck at my mom's her property has been getting a ton of attention from the younger bucks so I hope there is a bigger buck in there.  I did find some promising sign and set up a camera so we will see.  I am giving both properties about a week break so next time we hunt it will be November and who knows what will happen.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Got my mount back from my 9pt I shot last year.

Like the title says I was able to get my mount back yesterday.  It seems like such a long time, almost a year.  I was really happy though.  I had her do a semi aggressive pose (notice the ears are back) because he was just a bad mean looking buck.  When he came in he had a walk like he owned the place and I could just tell he was the dominent buck in the area.  In fact the big 9pt I have been dreaming and obsessing about had a busted g3 last winter and it just makes me wonder if this buck was the culprit.  Also, when this buck was gone that big 9pt started showing up much more often and has stuck around thus all the summertime photos and videos.  So I am thinking he took this bucks place.  I hope!! 
The other feature I wanted to show off was his body size and his neck and I really think she did a great job doing that.  I should put a picture up with this deer next to the 10pt I shot in 2010 at my mom's.  The size difference between a 2 year old and this 3 year old deer is unreal.  Its hard to imagine but the big 9pt we are after right now is one year older and has about 20-25 more inches of antler, maybe more, thus the obsession with getting a crack at that deer.