Legacy -The 2025 Deer Season-

[whaler1]

Let’s go boys!

[Born to Fish]

Got lucky and had one walk by this morning. He went about 75 yards and tipped over

[whaler1]

Beautiful!

[Gator]

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.

[idn713]

2 minutes ago, Gator said:

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.

I’m hearing more and more things about crossbows of all brands not being able to stand up to the limb pressure they generate. I was actually eyeing up going to Ravin next year but in going down that rabbit hole apparently those bows are really notorious for string snapping after very little use. Might be staying in the Tenpoint brand but keeping the FPS closer to 400. Anyway, that’s a huge bummer, especially RIGHT NOW. 

[Gill-T]

Sorry for your losses. 

[whaler1]

That’s brutal

[Legacy]

Pa buck down! 2.5 year old 8pt. 

 

Since my kid and I were tagged out here in NY we headed to Pennsylvania to hunt with a small outfitter in Millville, Pa. I didn't have any major expectations but my hopes were for a possibility of a 3.5 or older buck. I didn't see anything more than a handful of young bucks but my kid saw at least one shooter everyday. 2.5 year old 8pt on Thursday, a tall thick racked 8pt on Friday, a solid 8pt on Saturday, and a hammer 10 on Saturday. The biggest deer he said he's ever seen in the woods. Each of the first 3 days he saw some chasing. He just never had a shot at them. The hammer he saw on Sunday chased a doe past him at 25 yards!

We hunted all Thursday Friday and Saturday. I never saw anything worth shooting in those first 3 days. Sunday we planned on just hunting until 10 and then heading home. My kid hunted the same place he had been hunting the past 2 days but with a slight adjustment to his set to the drainage ditch the deer had been using. I hunted about 200 hundred yards in between him and where we thought the deer were coming from. I was just on the ground  tucked into a downed tree on the hillside just above the logging road. At 730 this 8pt made his way along the Ridgeline adjacent to the logging road. 23 yards and he didn't go 6 feet. Something odd about the shot. It was 23 yards and I would say I was at least 10 ft higher in elevation than the deer. I would say the arrow entered about 1/3 down on the chest but somehow the  arrow ended embedded in his spine. So one lung and spine on that angle? Strange...

I gave the meat to the outfitter who was happy about filling his freezer with burger and jerky. A win win for everyone. 

Great ground down there. We will be back Im sure. 

 

 

 

[Gator]

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

[Gill-T]

Congrats!  I have seen expandables plane off at weird angles after hitting a rib upon entry 

[whaler1]

Weather today was pretty lousy, cameras are quiet. Both boys hunting tomorrow , hoping for snow not rain. 
 

[Legacy]

23.5 degree shot angle (according to my math- 120" rise vs 276" run)

1/3 of the way down on the body

Ends up in spine... Still puzzles me

 

[Legacy]

3 hours ago, whaler1 said:

Weather today was pretty lousy, cameras are quiet. Both boys hunting tomorrow , hoping for snow not rain. 
 

Today was very quiet on cameras vs the past few days

[Legacy]

The big boys are on their feet this morning!!!

 

[Legacy]

1 hour ago, Legacy said:

The big boys are on their feet this morning!!!

 

 

I repeat... THE BIG BOYS ARE WALKING THIS MORNING!!!

[Smat64]

Sounds like a doctors note I can send to HR. Stupid work!

[GAMBLER]

14 hours ago, Legacy said:

23.5 degree shot angle (according to my math- 120" rise vs 276" run)

1/3 of the way down on the body

Ends up in spine... Still puzzles me

 

Did the buck jump the string?  I have seen some pretty wild drops and weird entry angles on videos.  

[whaler1]

Great afternoon to be in the woods. Good luck all. 

[Legacy]

So I thought I would share these statistics from my Reveal app. These are based off of my photo file for 2025 bucks. That file is compiled of what I guess is bucks 3.5 or better and every picture that is taken. I'm running 13 cameras on multiple properties. These cams are programed to take 3 pictures at a time and no delay. As you can see there are 1000+ pictures starting from early September until today.

 

Wind direction

Barometric Pressure

Time of day

Moon phase

 

What things stand out for you? Or what might be a surprise to you?

 

 

[Legacy]

Crazy how active deer were yesterday morning vs today = crickets

[GAMBLER]

Fun morning in the snow with Gator.  This buck came to me on a string and paid the price.  

[Gator]

3 hours ago, Legacy said:

Crazy how active deer were yesterday morning vs today = crickets

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.

[Legacy]

Congratulations 

[idn713]

4 hours ago, Gator said:

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.

Good to hear I wasn’t the only one. Nothing on cams and almost no tracks on the property. Assuming the afternoon should get them up? 

Edited November 11, 2025 by idn713

[whaler1]

6 hours ago, GAMBLER said:

Fun morning in the snow with Gator.  This buck came to me on a string and paid the price.  

Congratulations Brian!