Gator

Oh, we did. Brian followed them yesterday morning back into the swamp to our West...which makes perfect sense, even though it's fairly dry this year. What I don't know is where they were going. There's virtually no food around us this year - it's been a tough season - and they were beelining somewhere, just not somewhere obvious or close.

I had one of the most unique experiences of my hunting life last night. Just after 5 pm, I started filming an eight point that came out of the swamp, only to fumble my phone into my pocket as I realized that he wasn't alone. I ended up scoping nine bucks, a group of six traveling close, followed by a group of three. There were three shooters among them as well as a unique older buck with a mainframe ten on one side and an antler that wrapped down under his jaw on the other. I could have shot any of them, including the big nine that was undoubtedly the brute of the group, but having already taken one buck this year I decided to pass. It was super exciting though having them filter through within 50 yards of the stand for almost ten minutes. Heck of a finale.

Yeah, I learned that the hard way lol. My Warrior Elite UV Steelhead Candy that crushed last year is no longer orange lol. You'd think I'd have got it after the first one, but no I went and did the same thing to two more of them before it cracked my thick skull that they were bleaching. Live and learn. I literally just hit the place order button on the Dreamweaver site for more... Anyway, I'm in for one of the "regular" 24" size. I'll text you here at some point soon

Hey Matt, it's great to see somebody's picked this up from Big Al. I spent a couple years demoing various types of plastic covers for him until he hit the perfect combination of tough enough for the hooks not to penetrate but supple enough that it wouldn't crack over the winter, and in fact I just retired one after over five years hard use. Have you been able to retain the same source for the plastic cover? Whatever he settled on in the final iteration, it was heads and tails better than previous generations. You have a purchase link on your website or just want a pm? Thx!

Snow is brutal on my knees. At 58, I'm not ready (and probably never will be) to get cut. I've seen both successes and scary failures with knee replacements. A steady diet of workouts and yoga (kudos to my wife for getting me involved) keeps me moving, albeit lumbering sometimes more or less gracefully, mostly less, but snow over a foot is my Kryptonite.

Unreal. There's some wackos out there.

Awesome job! She's living the life of Riley.

See you on the ice!! Hopefully sooner rather than later this year.

Gill, I love your enthusiasm!! Over the past twelve years since buying the property, we've reclaimed 57 (as of the most recent count) wild apple trees and planted dozens more. We've also engaged in lots of chainsaw management and put over 3000 stems in the ground, including hard and soft mast like persimmons and shrubs to create desirable thickets and to diversify the property. I couldn't have done all of this without the help of a half dozen buddies, all of whom hunt and fish together throughout the year. One of the best parts of owning land IMHO is the ability to share it with others, and these guys know that they have my honest gratitude for both their help and their companionship during hunting season. Brian's son shot his first buck last weekend on one of our places - it was great to share in the thrill of a kid achieving this milestone. As for dragging a urine soaked rag through the woods...maybe next year lol.

I'm sure it's been tried. It's a big park though, with a couple miles of frontage, and with my luck I'd "bump" a buck right into traffic. IMHO, the juice ain't worth the squeeze. Also, we walk our dog - in a blaze orange vest - at Oatka and Mendon Pond Park all through gun hunting season. The deer just step out of our way, then continue on as if we weren't there. Suburban deer gots smarts.

Yep, you and I are in the same boat. Access becomes a real issue for me. You can't get away with crap like you could earlier in the year once the bang sticks start sounding. And the deer simply hunker down during daylight hours. Natural movement seems to not exist. Having a park across the street from the one property is a boon in terms of potential monsters, but they don't venture far from it during gun.

Having seen so much of this in the ADK, I didn't realize that it happened down here too. Personally, I'm not a fan, but I guess if you know that it's possible then the onus is on you to figure it out before the hunt. And at the end of the day, it's first come, first served on public land, even minus the camping aspect. We call it a circus for a reason...tents and all. Sorry, couldn't resist. Aim small, miss small.

There's lots of chasing and breeding going on this morning. Mostly by me, target my wife lol. But seriously, the cameras and some guys I know who are set up are seeing chasing and actually shenanigans going on. The rut is on and the deer have nowhere they'd rather be.

Good luck all! Aim small, miss small!

Very nice, Manny!

The rut came hard and fast, with almost no pre-rut activity through much of October breaking out into fanatical scraping and small bucks harassing every doe they could find, with buttons running amok through the woods wondering why their ding dong itches. Then it was on. I have personally viewed several bucks taking it to the house over the past week, and we have others on video. So, if by lockdown we're talking about the breeding phase of the rut, then yep, it's happening. Seems about right in terms of timing to me though. We did note that this recent series of snowstorms resulted in peaked activity, with some periods such as Monday afternoon into Tuesday afternoon having almost no movement at all. Lots of reports of the same online.

Brian and I both dedicated our deer yesterday to the vets who served and came home, as well as those who didn't. Meliora.

Indeed. Our cameras are dead, dead, dead. The only tracks I saw were the buck Brian killed. I'm hoping the afternoon gets them moving. All of the snow has bent stuff over, making our shooting lanes - and even mowed trails - nigh impassible. I may need to find a more open area to hunt the pm.

Way to keep at it and finish strong! And from the ground, too!

A brief update on my rutcation. Slower than expected considering we're in the thick of it. But two huge downers. First, my target buck got shot by the neighbor yesterday morning. I'd been following him for three years. At least he was recovered. The picture is one of three I had of him between 5:30 and 6 am, an hour prior to his being tagged. He'd been MIA for weeks. I was in a stand a couple hundred yards away. It's always tough when it happens, but congratulations to the neighbor. The second downer sucked just as much if not more. The Tenpoint Stealth 450R that I purchased this summer experienced catastrophic failure last Thursday night. While cocked and hanging from a bow hanger in the stand, the pin holding the cable loops that keep the left-hand limb under pressure even when the bow is decocked suddenly sheared. First one side of the pin went, which put all of the pressure on the remaining cable and other side of the pin. That went around three minutes later, which resulted in the limb itself losing all pressure and ripped the cocking string through the trigger box. Amazingly, the bow stayed cocked - I included a couple images from just after when this occurred - and I was able to get it decocked without issue. I've heard nothing but good things about Tenpoint customer service, but it is unfortunate that this occurred in the midst of the rut. I'm also very concerned that the limb which lost pressure may have become compromised. I was number 47 on the callback list after reaching out on Friday and never received a call from them. Hopefully they return my call on Monday.

Two showers. We got a clip last night of a nice buck, and I didn't think much of it with the sound turned off. Then I start getting texts from my buddies that I need to listen to it. I about fell over when the buck suddenly grunted so loud it sounded like a donkey braying! Deer make some strange sounds. A couple years ago, one of my neighbors got himself all worked up because he thought guys on my property were harassing his son in the stand, making catcalls and whatnot. Obviously ridiculous, particularly if you know the guys I hunt with, and they weren't hunting anywhere near the kid regardless. As it turned out, there was a breeding nucleus on the property that day, with bucks and doe running wild. The first time I saw one, I thought that a bunch of spring breakers had invaded the woods. My guys had a heck of a morning just watching the madness unfold. The kid likely had no idea what was going on and got down from him stand, missing out on a prime opportunity to see one of the more rare and spectacular events you're likely to encounter in the woods. Yep, deer make some strange sounds.

I got to watch some deer p0rn live this morning. I had an eight point, at the ears with a chocolate rack, do hot laps around the tree before taking it to the house THREE TIMES. The doe would lead him around in circles in the brush behind me, then she'd squat to pee and lift her leg like a male dog apparently peeing on herself as well (I guess this is a thing during the rut?). A couple minutes later, she'd let him catch her. A small button was obviously a voyeur and chilled eating acorns 40 yards away. I've seen them mount up before, but never this kind of show. Almost felt like I was in Canada...