Guppy35

Awesome story, Matt! Looking forward to that some day with my son (he is 11 months old today). Also, congratulations on the baby coming soon!

Well, it's a little late, but this is the first chance i've had to post about my hunt on Thanksgiving morning. As a few of you said, the "Thanksgiving curse" was true for me as well, until this year! Sat on the edge of a gully Thursday morning as my brother and step-dad walked through some hemlocks on the opposite side of the gully. We know when the deer are pushed in that area, they like to scoot right out the bottom of the hemlocks and into the thicket on the other side of the gully. Although i had to make sure i could cover as much of the gully as possible (since i was the only one sitting), i made sure i had a good opening to shoot to the bottom of the gully. Well it's a good thing there was some fresh snow on the ground, because this buck came trotting across the gully right at the bottom (100 yards away) and i never would have seen him if there wasn't any snow. I knew that i only had a few seconds to take a shot before he would be in the thicket, so i pulled up and took a shot and i see him drop right to the ground! As i load another shell, i see him struggle to get back on his feet and he made it into some brush before i could get a second shot off. So after a few minutes my step dad came through the hemlocks and i met him down at the bottom of the gully to see if we could find a blood trail. We didn't have to look very hard for him, he only made it 30 yards before he piled up in the brush! My second best buck to date

Very nice buck, congratulations!

Dylan - were you able to get the picture from your friend this past weekend? Interested in seeing it when you get a chance to post it!

My first deer was a 110" buck with my bow when i was 14, but unfortunately we lost the blood trail and didn't find it until later that year during gun season. The next deer i shot was 2 years later with shotgun, and it turned out to be my biggest buck to date, 130" 8 point (pictured below)

Awesome buck, congrats to your friend! Great mass, and the symmetry is amazing!

It must take forever to clear a path with a snow blower. They are designed to rid an area of snow maybe 2' high, but when the snow is 3 foot over top of the auger, that's just not right!!

Just curious, does anyone know what the average life span of a mountain lion is?

I for one am very interested in hearing your take on the subject when you complete the topic in your class. At least i will know that you won't be feeding us a bunch of BS. As far as black lions, last year during gun season i was sitting for a morning hunt, and saw something up above me that was smal (low to the ground) and pure black. My first instinct when i caught a glimpse of it at 50 yards away was "okay where the heck is this cubs mother at??" But as it got through the brush and i was able to get a closer look at it, i realized it was a fisher. First one i had ever seen in the woods so i wasn't expecting it to be a fisher. I am no expert on any of these topics either, but as a lot of others have said on this thread, my opinion is that there is not a sustainable population of mountain lions in this area, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone saw one as it was "passing through" at some point.

Nice buck, i'm also thinking 3.5 years old

Total Chaos - Cool pictures of the fishers, thanks for sharing!

Here is another picture of a fisher, we had 2 different pictures on our trail cameras this year of a fisher. (The date and time is obviously wrong on the camera)

Nice buck Steelie!

Congrats, that's a nice buck!

It's possible that a lot of doe are being bred right now, which would make very little movement unless you're out pushing them around. The last 2 weeks have been crazy with a lot of bucks chasing does all over the place, which means a lot of them might be in the breeding stage of the rut right now.

Opening day i heard well over a hundred shots, with the first one being at 6:19 a.m. That person must have been using a shotgun with open sights and the deer must have been standing right under his stand to be able to see it at that time. Out of our group, 3 bucks were harvested opening day. Two 8 points, and a 10 point.

I agree that an individual that has not done their research on cougars or has not seen pictures of them, could definitely mistaken a bobcat for one. Attached is a picture of a bobcat that i had on camera back in August of this year. As Big Water said, if the tail was not in the picture, someone could think it was a cougar based on the color of it's fur (it turns to a more gray color when it's winter coat comes in).

Great job! Great experience to share together.

Silver Fox, You are definitely right, it is much easier to pattern a buck early in October when they are still in somewhat of a routine (and i would feel even more accomplished if i patterned a big buck and everything came together early in the season. But there isn't another time that i'd rather be in the woods than during the full blown rut because of all the crazy chasing, even if i didn't shoot anything it's still a blast to watch the action. The thing that makes the rut a good time to hunt is the "stupid gene" that shows up, and the fact that the bucks are covering so much more territory during that time.

Nice buck PeltHunter! I would have liked to see what that bigger 10 point looked like!

I think BSMaster hit it dead on, it's the combination of several aspects. A good doe to buck ratio, good food source, and good cover. And of course you still have to be in the right spot at the right time.

But you also have to remember that after a buck breeds a doe, they do not immediately run away and look for another hot doe. They will bed down with the doe for anywhere up to 24 hours after, and sometimes breed the same doe multiple times in that timeframe. So in my opinion, if there are too many does in the area, there will be a point where many of them come into estrus at the same time and your buck sightings will decrease drastically because there will be a lot of bucks bedded with their doe (essentially protecting the doe from being bred by another buck while she is in estrus). I like a 2:1 doe to buck ratio.

I think it honestly has to do with being in the right spot at the right time. I've seen multiple bucks while driving to my hunting land before light chasing doe like crazy in the last week especially. From the stand, i've been out hunting probably a half a dozen times in the last 10 days and have seen maybe 10 bucks. More than half of them were hot on a doe. My mom was out hunting yesterday morning, and had a doe come running through with 5 different bucks chasing her. Two of which were 120" or better. A half hour later she had 2 more small bucks trotting through with their nose to the ground.