Legacy

T minus 24 hours until I hit the road for the bow opener in Ohio. To say Im looking forward to spending time in the woods is a serious understatement. Ill be there to hunt 5 days total and all the sits are afternoon. For the most part it is the crew from 2023 returning to camp and we had a great time last year. Looks like the weather will be a bit better as they are forecasting a weather pattern similar to what we have had this week. Cooler temps with a chance of rain every day. Last year we saw temps in the damn 80s!!! Lots of bucks on cam there, so we should see a bunch of bucks get arrowed. If my cell signal allows I am hoping to do a play by play on the trip.

LOTS of bucks on their feet this morning... Im sure the heavy rain quitting at day break would be why.

Well the fishing season is officially over and it's time to change gears to hunting season. I'll be heading to Ohio on Friday to start the season and once again hunting with Southern Ohio Outfitters. I'll be in the woods Saturday through Wednesday. Looking like some cooler weather is in the forecast. Fingers crossed the season starts with a bang!

Haha... Ill take an October kill any day!

Well, I missed my window of opportunity getting my cameras out in mid August and I finally got them out a couple weeks ago. Up until a couple days ago buck sightings have been very limited. Most of what seeing was young and still in velvet. Well that all changed. Bucks everywhere! Every buck is hard horned! Lots of sparring. Handful of big guys day walking. 4 different camera visits by my #1 in the past 48 hours also.

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Interesting read I saw on FB... "Longspur Tracking and Outfitting" Our good friend Joe Tenney of Creek Side Deer Recovery in Ohio put this shot chart together with help of several Ohio Trackers a couple years ago. Now please read my words carefully, these pins were from deer that were tracked by a dog. These pins represent the outcome of the track. When you see a green pin that means there was proof of life, a trail cam pic, sighting or jump on track. The moral of the story? If you make a good bad shot in center mass the dog is going to find that deer! Stay low and stay off the shoulder! Most of these pins are archery tracks!

52 degrees at day break on Sunday morning and cameras were on fire all day long with deer movement!

Spent this morning in the woods on another property. We got a camera up, checked on stands, and hung a new set. It's almost that time!

Well I got some field work done today. Cameras are hung, trimmed shooting lanes, checked on stands, etc.

2023 was a year for the ages for me. What made it really special is that my kid had some awesome success also. Heres a recap.... October 17 pm WSW wind 5-10 mph Cloudy skies With the weather conditions close to perfect I made time in my schedule to make sure I was sitting in a tree for the afternoon. With the wind I elected to hunt a set that a buck had been daylighting the day before and 2 days before right at sunset (as per cell cam). Well he showed up for a third day in a row and it proved to be his last. The woods is still so thick and green I never saw him until he was standing 20 yards in front of me. He busted me reaching for my bow and was on high alert. He busted me again as I remove the bow from the bow hook and now he was concerned. He did a 180 degree turn around a bush and as he turned away from me I drew my bow. He step back into the shooting wind at about 22 yards, stopped, and I let an arrow fly. The shot looked perfect and I watched my arrow leave with him and nockturnal nock light up the woods. The shot looked good and felt good. It was about 610 when I arrowed him. I elected to sit until almost 7 because he headed back the same direction I came in and I didn't want to bump him as I was walking out. As by my post I was originally going to go back in a few hours but I elected to wait until morning. I actually slept pretty good believe it or not. I think because I felt the **** was on the money. This morning we got in the, got on the shot site, and found nothing. Zero. I jumped on the trail and headed down it just based on direction of travel when I saw him run off. Nothing. No blood. About 20 yards in my kid found a puddle of blood. I switched to a different parallel deer trail and about 10 yards further I found half of my arrow. There was a bit of blood on the tree that broke the arrow off and after that zero blood again. WTF. I literally walked blindly down the deer trail another 20 yards and saw a white belly just off the deer trail. You cant imagine how happy I was to see that! All in all deer went about 75 yards. When I walked out last night I was within 30 yards of him. Yotes got to him a bit and chewed off his damn tail and opened the arrow wound up a bit. Here's some pics. Halloween am L31 H45 SW wind 5-10 mph Cloudy skies Well the kid got it done this morning and punched his buck tag. Long story short. My kid has been back in the game this year and seems to have the itch to be in the deer woods again. Last week he punched a doe tag and just a few days ago he passed a small buck. We have been talking back and forth where/when he should be hunting. With this cold front coming through I told him starting Tuesday (today) he needed to switch to and hunt the mornings. Afternoons are still ok but mornings are a priority. Yesterday he asked where he should be and I'm glad he listened. He text me this morning and said "big buck" and then immediately followed up with a phone call from the tree stand. He said he could hear a buck grunting but couldnt see it. He grabbed his grunt call and grunted back a few times. 20 minutes later this stud buck shows up 10 yards to his right. The buck was spooky and he thinks it spotted him in the tree. Rather then continuing to walk by him the deer turned 90 degrees and walked broadside in front of him. He was about 20-25 yards in the thick stuff on a good pace. My kid tried to stop him with a mouth grunt. Braappp. But the deer kept walking so my kid took a moving shot and shot under him. He said he was shaking when he took the shot and he was pissed that he missed. Luckily for him the buck didn't know what even occurred. He jumped about 10 feet and stopped. My kid quickly knocked an arrow, drew, and shot again. About 10 minutes went by and that's when he text me and then called. He had no idea where or even if he hit the deer. He quickly found his first arrow (lighted nock) but couldn't find his other arrow. I told him to back out quietly and call me. We decided without a lot of info to go off of that we would wait until noon and go back in. He shot at 9am so I figured 3 plus hours would be good. We met at noon and walked back to the scene. We walked through the scenario. Shot windows, direction of travel, etc. We looked for about an hour without any blood and the arrow. We were now in grid search mode. My kid said the deer crossed the mowed trail but he never saw him in the woods after that. I thought that was strange. So I started to think the deer turned 90 degrees when he entered the other woods and went directly away from him and thats why he never saw him. We started grid searching in that direction and boom there he was. 60 yards from the tree stand laying in the thick stuff. After a series of high fives and some quick pictures it was time for an autopsy. Single lung and center punch on the liver. Dead deer... Didn't go 60 yards! His best buck and hes happy as hell to do it with the bow! Proud Dad moment!!! Opening day gun season Well the highlight of my day was my kid taking down one of our target bucks. It was a unique deer with a double beam and he was very visible on cameras for us all season. I'm pretty damn impressed with the season he has had! November 20 am 22 degrees Frosty Partly sunny Calm wind Picture perfect morning to be in the deer woods. Cold. Hard frost. Calm wind. Perfect. My morning had a decent amount of action with lots of bucks cruising. 14 does/fawns and 8 bucks seen. Of the 8 bucks 3 of them were matures including a giant 8 pt. At about 8ish I spotted a big stud 8pt about 200 yards away. He quickly sent checked the does in front of him and moved on. Right behind him was a younger, decent buck but that seemed to be just following him around. I grunted a couple times but I'm guessing they just cruised past me in the thick stuff. About 10 minutes went by and a doe fawn popped out of the woods and then a mature doe. It was obvious they were bumped. My guess was by the two bucks I just saw. The doe and fawn were acting nervous and I was begging for another showing from the big 8. Unfortunately two young bucks from opposite directions show up and the doe and fawn quickly escape from their harassment. I watch as all the deer seem to go their separate ways and the woods goes quiet again. I'm still focused on the woods out in front of me when I hear the scuffle of leaves next to me. I turn my head expecting to see a squirrel and to my surprise this 11 point is 5 yards from me. He somehow snuck in on my blind spot and I quickly made the decision to shoot. Thankfully my gun was already in my lap (from all the previous action). I raised the gun only to realize I could find the deer in the scope. I quickly turned the power all the way down and found him in the scope. I gave him a quick mouth grunt to stop him in an opening in the thick stuff and squeezed the trigger. He quickly exited and I honestly thought for a second that I missed. His reaction to the shot didn't seem like much. I gave it about 30 minutes and got down to see if I could find blood and it was every where. I could see a blood trail going down the deer trail like someone threw red paint in the woods. I walked out and gave it two hours and returned with my kid. The blood trailing was easy and the deer was piled within 65 yards from my tree. One lung and heart shot. December 17 am Big Texas buck down!!!! Mainframe 10 or with 3 kickers. 142 6/8" green score and only 127# live weight

Lets see those trail cam pictures everyone!!!

Well I think its time to get this thread started!!! The 2024 season is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to returning back into the deer woods.

Announcement... Please see all the paperwork for the 2024 Sandy Creek Sandy Creek Shootout! PRINT THEM!!! -Sandy Creek Shootout entry/calcutta -Big Fish Friday Entry -2 Fish Entry -SCS Rules Cash only and entries accepted by Rob Westcott 585-703-0969 Brian Gambell 585-727-9279 Tim Skrip 585-208-4748

I have #2, #1, and 1/0 for spoon hook replace on the boat