Gill-T

Tank, if you are not seeing deer assume something is wrong. Usually there is a good explanation like local changes in food source. Take a walk and cover the whole area you are hunting. Many times deer will key on acorns deeper in the woods. A good tip off is if you are not seeing squirrels in your area. Deer, turkeys and squirrels will change their temporary core area based on food. Maybe your neighbor has put up food plots? Go bump some does and see what they were feeding on. Week two, start adapting stealth tactics. I will use drainages to come and go to my stand as to remain unseen and unheard Go in at dark and come out at dark which means bringing blankets, food and water to stay all day. Later in the season clearcuts with those nasty brambles (browse) keep hunters away and bucks secure. Don't take offence to my rant, just some suggestions that have helped me.

Nice Pics Mike. You running worm harnesses now???

That first photo says it all. The coyote is chasing a deer. When Bios say they don't really hunt adult deer, I say bullshat! Spend some time tracking them in snow during the offseason and you will see they are not mousing in the fields, they are in the hardwoods chasing deer.

Hey.....you shot my missing dog!!!

Great read Chad! The way you tell a story.....pure magic.

Nice buck! My guess 122 gross?

In the wonderful world of the internet age, one of the bad side effects of Facebook and internet dating is infedelity is easier. We have all heard stories of so and so reconnecting with an old highschool sweetheart with the family left holding the bag. Weekminded indiviguals. My cousin suffered this fate when her a-hole husband met some german girl on the internet and decided to leave a family of three young boys to persue this woman. Along the way, a-hole is not paying child support or alimony . Thank god for parents and grandparents as the rest of the family is left to help pick up the pieces of a fractured family. As often the case with a working mom, kids often get away with too much internet, too much video games, and too much junk food. Mom does not have it in her after working all day to put up the good fight. Hoping to add a father figure back into the lives of these boys, I have taken them fishing and dock jumping when my scheldule permits. This season I decided to take the oldest boy (eleven) to deer camp and sit in the woods with me and see a different world with animals, life and death, deer camp stories, food, farting contests, poker, and all the wonderful sights, sounds ......and smells of deer camp. My plan included building a ground blind to hide a figitity eleven year old. Built of natural materials such as logs and evergreen boughs complete with two rock seats and a couple of blankets I thought we could make good. The blind sits on top of the first rise overlooking a bedroom area of thick hawthornes. I had to figure out how to get the little porker up the hill into buck central without spooking the hill. So the plan was to send up my little noisy friend up the hill, huffing and puffing with feet dragging in the leaves and me on my grunt tube following behind to reenact a chase scene. Unfortunately, it worked too well. Within five minutes of setting up in the dark, a deer ( had to be a buck) came in to within twenty yards downwind, smelled us and then slinked off. Deer 1, us 0. Oh well. My grand plan included my buddy carrying his BB gun so we could work on gun safety, a pair of binoculars, and a video camera so he could video the hunt. Anyone trying to repeat this feat.......don't do it. Simple is better than complex. The figit factor was taken to a level I could not comprehend. Dropping the video camera in the mud, clanking it against rocks, fixing a weggie, picking a nose etc. etc. Well, thirty minutes into the hunt here comes a 2.5 year old eight pointer behind my buddies tree and closing fast! Buddy, there is a deer coming......turn around, turn the camera on.......huh?.....closing fast! Where is he? At ten yards he caught our wind and gone. Deer 2, us 0. Oh well, I kept telling myself it is not about you it is about him.......learning. At about 10:00 we had a doe with yearlings come in but suffered with the same fumbling of the camera.....where is the deer? Mom smells us and bye bye. Deer 3, us 0. Stop figiting......"but my feet are cold".........Ok, I have some warmer boots in the car, at least he got to see me still-hunt using the technique of waiting until a car goes by the road below to mask my footsteps. Later....."my hands are cold"......where are your gloves....."I think they are in the car". The kid got another lesson on still-hunting. Back in blind....day getting later...pressure mounting to have the kid see a kill. I say to him, " why don't you close your eyes if you are tired" thinking if he is sleeping he won't be figiting. Well it worked. Within five minutes I hear snoring.....loud snoring . Luck would have it a small doe worked her way in, and I call to my buddy "wake up a deer is coming"...........nothing, still sawing logs. Hey, wake up! Nothing. At this point the deer is close enough I am sure the deer is going to hear the snoring so I slink around the tree I am up against and grap his leg and shake him...buddy wake up......nothing.....I shake him harder....wake up!.....nothing.....I shake him violently at this point and he wakes up . I reposition and shoot the doe front facing at thirty yards and she goes down. He says "you got him.....cool". Hopefully, I left an impression with images in his head not soon forgotten. When I dropped him off at home his younger brother asked if he could go next time. Going to have to get a big ladder stand with walls next year

Happy B-Day Musky.

Anyone hunting Sunday morning can attest with the warm temps, the deer were not chasing. However, if it is too warm to chase, bucks will use the opportunity to get out of bed late, run their rub lines to check scrapes. The set up I was on had two fresh scrapes with licking branches within bow range. The spot is one of those "spot within a spot" areas deep in the woods that produces every year. Due to the nature of the terrain, air foils creates difficulty in hunting the area unless conditions were perfect. Saving this spot until Sunday seemed perfect with the light south wind blowing. At 9:30 my buddy 1/2 mile down valley, texts me that all hell is breaking loose and the bucks are starting to move. In a span of 30 min. he saw five bucks with one eight pointer heading my way. Between me and my friend's location was a doe bedding area, and if there was nothing interesting there, the buck would continue up the hill and probably end up at one of the scrapes in range. At 11:00 I spotted him. I turned my body and aimed my bow at the far scrape....and that is where he went. Broadside 25 yards, he began pawing the scrape. I held and let it fly. The shot looked good. I saw the nock hit behind the shoulder in the crease, but low. The buck mule kicked both legs up and ran 50 yards. He slowed and I thought he is going to go down......but he didn't. He began snorting....he was pissed. Trying to figure out what just hit him. I snort weezed and grunted at him. Now I am not sure about the hit. A double lung hit the deer should not be able to snort. Below the ridge and down wind he caught wind of two button bucks bedded and sauntered over with a visiable limp. Now that sickening feeling started creeping in. Nobody wants to talk in a public forum about bow huntings dirty little secret. It is not a question of IF you will wound and lose a deer, but WHEN. Well this was my "WHEN". I climbed down out of the tree and found the arrow. Zero blood on the arrow and white hair clumps told me my shot was 2" too low and went through the back tricep area. Two specks of blood in 100 yards of tracking. So now I got a 120 class eight pointer gimping around the woods on my account. Hopefully he makes it. I have seen some amazing recoveries by deer.

Nice shootin' boys.

Biggest buck I have ever seen was near the railroad tracks around Buffalo while driving down the 90 near the william street exit. A HUGE non-typical that swayed his head side to side as he walked because of the weight of the hardware on his head. As he walked down the side of the road in the middle of the day, on the day before opening gun.....as all the hunters heading south were witness....he single-handly caused a traffic jam as people stopped to gawk. There is no agriculture around these areas, so it goes to show the biggest determiner of rack size is AGE.

Wow ......great guy. If people don't know the story behind "heaven bound" will make this news even tougher to take. Duane's buddy retired some years back and decided to plunk down some cash and buy a dream boat Penn Yan. Duane's buddy unfortunately was soon diagnosed with cancer (I think), and decided his buddy Duane would get his boat......free. Duane named the boat Heaven Bound for obvious reasons. Rest in peace Duane. Hopefully you are up there talking fishing stories with your fishing partner.

Yes, but Quinte is 1.5 months of softwater fishing. Erie is May-August.

http://www.southtownswalleye.org/tourna ... ament.html . What exactly do you consider big?

When are you going to learn the Erie game so you don't have to freeze your butt off in November? Nice eyes. Congrats on the show.

Nice Wilson Buck! Stupid, but nice!

Cool palmation on that buck Canuck. By the nose I would say 3.5yrs old? Would have loved to see that buck in two years.....freak.

Ok, I heard these are going to be discontinued so I picked up six of them. Never used them....they seem a little heavy, so how should I use these? Good spring planer spoon? Staging salmon spoon? or for casting? Give me some ideas, speed etc.

Are you sure it wasn't one of those dark italians from the show "Jersey Shore"?

I usually bury the skull up to the bases and let it sit all winter. Pull it out in spring, hose it off, spend a little time with bleach and call it good. Least amount of time commitment and mess when done this way. Make sure you secure the rack with a log or rock to keep coyotes from dragging it away.

Since he comes in left to right on the camera both nights......maybe you could walk his trail back(maybe the right side of the trail?) and bump him out of his bed. Since he appears to be a creature of habit.....you could pattern him with a stand between his bedding area and the camera. I don't think he will come to rattling because of his injury. This dude is secretive....but HEALTHY so he has to be feeding somewhere. Get some cameras on food sources if they aren't already. If you don't want to jump the deer.....keep moving the camera position back along his trail to plot his route.

To pattern this buck you have to think like him.....get into his hide and walk around awhile. I suggest wearing an eye patch. The Mrs. may find the look intriguing as well

Get up late, eat breakfast, still-hunt to stand location-be in stand by 9:30, hunt the 10-12:00 "bucks running/feeding all night....get up late to check rubs and scrapes" pattern that is prevalent in October.