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Legacy -The 2021 Season-


Legacy

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Given the hiatus between regular and holiday hunts and the fact that I'm one doe away from being done, I figured I'd share my season thus far. 

 

Bow season started slow, as you might expect given the warmer than normal temperatures. That all changed around the third week of October, when it seemed like every buck in the woods wanted to give me a show. It all came to a head on 10/29, when I had a large eight point chasing a doe in the hay field behind me. The buck came past at full trot twice without presenting a shot opportunity, then headed West with the doe - and I figured they were gone for good. However, ten minutes later, they ran back through, repeated the chasing in the field, and the doe came directly under my stand. "Okay,", I thought, "now's when it happens". Unfortunately, the buck was coming at me from straight behind the tree, and so I had to draw and hold without knowing which side he would pass. As it turns out, that didn't matter in the slightest, since he held up at fifteen yards. I held draw for the longest 90 seconds of my life; 85% let-off is unreal, but I was sweating by the time he turned away, walked North, and disappeared after 100 yards. Talk about disappointed.

 

But just as the adrenaline was working its way out of my system and I was ready to hang the bow up, like magic he appeared, this time headed past at a perfect angle. My shot was broadside at 22 yards. Elation!! The shot looked good to me. He never reacted, just turned and walked North again, toward a large swamp. When I got out of my stand to look for blood, one of my buddies hunting with me texted that he'd also just shot a nice nine point, but it - like mine - walked into the swamp from the other side. So now we had two bucks in the swamp, both with okay blood trails but nothing spectacular and after some initial trailing, we determined that neither died within the first 150 yards (in fact, we had a visual confirmation of my buddy's deer that we bumped once).

 

We decided not to push either deer more than we already had, so we let them lay overnight. I came back the next morning in chest waders, and my buddy had a guy and a dog supposed to show up at 10 am. Long story short, I spend four hours wading through the swamp and managed to find his deer, but not mine. The swamp was too deep for a dog. Both shots were pass through with decent blood - his ended up being a little bit back and high, who knows with mine? I haven't lost one to the swamp in years, but I guess everybody loses occasionally. That didn't help the hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach though.

 

The stories of the two bucks that I shot and recovered this year are much less dramatic. The first one was during crossbow: I was texting with Brian about how this particular stand I was hunting had been a complete waste of time this year, when a nice eight showed up and walked through both my lanes before I could even pick up my bow. Luckily, he turned on a grunt and I was able to make a perfect shot at 28 yards; he died within 70. The second was during muzzleloader, when Brian and I doubled up last Friday night, five minutes and 400 yards apart. I won't repeat the story since it's recently in this thread.

 

Between bucks were a couple of doe, all good, clean kills and tasty tasty tasty, as well as Brian's son Brayden shooting his first deer, which is really the icing on the cake this year. The rut IMHO was drawn out, with >two weeks of searching followed by a great chase phase. The last week of bow didn't produce much activity for me, and gun season was slow, too, up until recently. But man, that month in the middle of bow was one of the best I've seen in years. Once it got colder, it was like somebody flipped a switch. The pictures below are my bow buck, with a couple photos the neighbor's wife took of him the week prior, when he destroyed the guy's buck target in the backyard lol, and the bucks Brian and I doubled up on. 

 

 

2021-1.jpg

2021-2.jpg

2021-3.jpg

2021-4.jpg

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13 hours ago, Legacy said:

Thanks everyone. Not sure if my NY season is over or if I will go out after Xmas for the extended late season and hunt does. I know that if I had a buck tag that I would be out there no doubt. What is everyone else's plans?

I'll be out hopefully about everyday. Still have 1 buck tag and my doe tags. Was hoping for a late season hunt for years now we have it!! Kinda a tuff season for me didn't see any shooters till muzzleloader season I shot a 6 six without brows, had some ground shrinkage wished I would've let him go. The highlight was my dad shooting a big 154 incher right here on our farmland. So looking forward to the holiday hunt it will be interesting. Weather sounds a little warm but we'll see what happens!! Go get em!!

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13 hours ago, Legacy said:

Thanks everyone. Not sure if my NY season is over or if I will go out after Xmas for the extended late season and hunt does. I know that if I had a buck tag that I would be out there no doubt. What is everyone else's plans?

I'll be out hopefully about everyday. Still have 1 buck tag and my doe tags. Was hoping for a late season hunt for years now we have it!! Kinda a tuff season for me didn't see any shooters till muzzleloader season I shot a 6 six without brows, had some ground shrinkage wished I would've let him go. The highlight was my dad shooting a big 154 incher right here on our farmland. So looking forward to the holiday hunt it will be interesting. Weather sounds a little warm but we'll see what happens!! Go get em!!

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On 12/24/2021 at 8:23 AM, dvdegeorge said:

Congrats all

I’m done actually been done since Dec 5th 2 buck and 2 doe is plenty 

Next hunt Jan 13 Sonora Mexico mule deer 

 

Tell us more! Sounds like an adventure.

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I probably wont hunt the "holiday season". I did throw an invite out to my father in law to go out with me so we will have to see if he takes me up on it. I have more than enough in the freezer so there isnt really a need for me to shoot a doe. With that being said, I am headed to Ohio for the muzzleloader season January 8-11. I still have a buck tag for Ohio so I am looking forward for an  opportunity to fill it! 

 

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It sucks that people suck and they cant help but steal my trail cameras. Looks like I may have the solution. Honestly if this doesnt work then I dont know what else to do.

 

I bought a Browning trail camera security box and they seem pretty tough. They are $30 online. They have holes in the back of them so I plan to use "ledger lok lag screws and screw them into the tree. And then use master locks to lock them. I honestly cannot imagine what more I can do. Im am also planning to take one apart and see if I can put a gps tracker inside of it.

 

https://browningtrailcameras.com/products/security-boxes?variant=2572406226974

Camera Security Boxes

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1 hour ago, Legacy said:

 

Tell us more! Sounds like an adventure.

Sonora desert for 6 day hunt fly out on the 12th come home on the 20th....Muy Grande size mule deer possibly coues deer as a bonus if I see a good one

Here is a picture of one they took last week 

 

md big.jpg

6.8 packed.jpg

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Put one out before bow season and left it out until after gun just to see. I know it had some monsters on it had it locked to the tree with a cable lock. Walked 2 miles to go get it last weekend and the SD card and batteries were gone smh. I have mini padlocks to lock them shut but didn't think I had to. It's tuff to take the high road when things like this happen !!

Sent from my LM-V450 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

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30 minutes ago, DoubleTrouble1 said:

Put one out before bow season and left it out until after gun just to see. I know it had some monsters on it had it locked to the tree with a cable lock. Walked 2 miles to go get it last weekend and the SD card and batteries were gone smh. I have mini padlocks to lock them shut but didn't think I had to. It's tuff to take the high road when things like this happen !!

Sent from my LM-V450 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

 

Yeah I learned that cable locks dont work the hard way. They literally broke the cameras off the cables to steal the last two. 

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