not a bad hunt this evening

[DaveHawk]

I got on stand about 4:15 and about 4:45 I see a buck 150 yards out on a hillin a back yard. He takes off and I here him grunt a few times and the chase was on. I grunted and the doe headed my way. The buck was 30 seconds behind her and stopped by the pee trail I put down forgot about the doe for a few minutes and worked the trail which lead back to my stand. He stood dirrectly under me for a minute or 2 and milled around in serch of the invisible doe. He was not bad a good 6 point about 14-15 " so I guess I will wait for him next year. That makes two bucks who may or may not be shooters next year. Still waiting on a big one. Come on cold weather.

[Bowhunter57]

DaveHawk,
Good luck, brother! :) I did that last year and ended up eating "tag soup". :p
Hope you get the one you're after!

I was less "picky" this year and I was tagged out by the end of October. Some seasons it all comes together and some seasons you get to see a lot of critters. :D

Good hunting, Bowhunter57

[postoak]

I wish I had the kind of skill at deerhunting that you have, Dave. :)

[DaveHawk]

Post you are lucky, you have all the guys on here to learn from. I an NC and others only learned by experience.

[GF.]

I'm so well prepared to be un-picky that I'm considering dispensing with the bow altogether at this point! :rolleyes:

Plans to get up there this morning fell through, so maybe Friday & Saturday.

But take heart PostOak - Dave and Twanger do operate in an extremely target-rich environment... I was pretty confident about going strictly archery this year 'til I had to get a different place to hunt at the 11th hour, and I'm now looking at a much lower deer density on a smaller property and without the Superfunnels. So now I just want to learn the area a bit and hopefully see something that offers me an honest shot - even if it's a shot that wold work for a rifle and I'm carrying a bow. You can't eat a moral victory, but at least when you've had a chance that most people would take, it becomes more tolerable to have escaped all the gutting, dragging & butchering.

It's when you hunt hard and never see squat that makes you feel like giving up on it...

[DaveHawk]

GF it took me a few years to learn the farm in Va. You need to spend time and scout. Fresh tracks see where they are going and coming from. Find food areas. Deer are not going to travel far 100 acres maybe. Find the bedding areas, creek crossing, ceders groups, oak flats, I know that there are not many deer from what you said but there are deer none the less. God a pic of the land , look it up on Google earth.

[Twanger]

GF - yes, it's very helpful to operate in a target-rich environment! :D

It could make a rank amateur look like a genius hunter... if you didn't know the back-story.

[dave-t.]

It could make a rank amateur look like a genius hunter... if you didn't know the back-story.

I will say the best trophy hunting I ever had was in a very deer rich suburban area. It simply cuts out a large portion of land deer can use in day light, and there are a ton of deer there compared to a 'normal' hunting property. Same thing for farmland really, big areas of unused realestate in daylight packs deer into the safe cover, that is pretty obvious.

Heck I've only got one so far this year. I can't bring myself to shoot a small buck, and it's been a parade of them for 2 weeks.:(

[GF.]

Main thing is to be Out There, though, right?

At this point, I'm really looking at this year as a scouting & learning mission, you know? Really torn between screwing the bowhunting and giving the new bow the old college try - at least 'til ML season rolls around. :D

Just seems kinda silly to forego the scope when I'm looking for meat, though.