What are your hunting goals for the upcoming season?

[Twanger]

I've been doing some thinking on this, particularly because I've been blessed with some nice bucks in the last couple of years. I feel like it would be kinda 'piggy' of me to expect to score on an even bigger buck this year. I have no plans to shoot any 'trophy buck' that is smaller than those I've already killed.

My trophy buck goal this year is to actually help a buddy get a big buck. He helps a lot of people recover big bucks with his free dog tracking service, but has yet to score on a big buck himself. It would please me no-end to see my friend score on the big one that we've been seeing where we hunt.

As far as myself... my primary goal is simply to take every deer I shoot at with a good clean killing shot. I also would like to kill enough does so that I can fill the freezer at home as well as donate a bunch of meat to charity.

All that said, If a buck bigger than my best to-date walks by my stand I won't be holding back. :D

[dave-t.]

Good post.

Just to hunt some. If I get to my spots, I'll see deer and have my opportunities. Getting there is the goal.

For the hunting year, I hope to enjoy my first elk hunt, to call in a couple vacation days when the early Nov winds get right, and to enjoy my annual north MO gun season trip. I'll consider myself a lucky guy if it all works out that way.

Big bucks- After busting my hump on my first "big" archery deer, I thought I would take the pressure off the next season and just shoot any ol' 8pt buck, which wasn't a big feat of accomplishment for the area. I shot a spindly 8pt the first week of Nov., and although the shot was close and true, recovery short, and everything went as good during the hunt as could be, I was a little dissapointed in myself for not setting the bar higher.

I passed on a pretty decent deer last year, and if he travels that same trail and ends up at 12-13yds from me this year, I don't care what he'll score, he'll make me happy enough. And no he won't be bigger than my best, but he'll be pushing P&Y and I haven't dropped the string on a buck in the last 2 seasons. I have to keep myself entertained somehow.;)


I'm also looking forward to some rabbit hunting in Dec. My place is crawling with them this year, and the whole family can get into that type of hunt, all of us together. :D

[Bill Gunn]

At this point... To live to the next season :)
It would be nice to get a nice buck, or even a big doe.

[Sabre]

Just to punch all of my tags and fill my freezer with venison as usual. My hunting grounds aren't crawling with deer nor do they have good "trophy" potential so any legal buck will do.

[LampLighter]

Same as the last few years. Goal is to take a " true trophy for the area" off of the refuge. I could join a lease and get it, but I want to be able to stare at it on the wall and know it was a public land buck. Bow or gun- I don't care how.

Tags ? Just enough for a year's sausage supply. Have no desire to fill all of my tags.

[Bushman]

Those venison sausages and wieners are taking on more importance than they used to. I've pretty well resigned myself to the fact that I'll never beat the buck on the wall, so since eating has always been one of my favorite things, tube meat works for me lately.

[southtexas]

Spend quality time in the outdoors with family and old friends.
Put a little meat in the freezer.
Put Mr. Right on the ground should he show himself (I'll know him when I see him)
Try out a new 270.
Reduce the hog population as much as possible, and make sure an appropriate # of deer are taken.



Pretty much in that order.

[bugsNbows]

1) To provide some good, healthy food in the freezer
2). Have fun
3). Help my sweetie get her 2nd buck.

[Altjaeger]

Camp a bit, hunt a bit, spend time with friends and family plus hopefully put one or two in the freezer.

[Bob S]

Just one goal, to shoot as many does as I can get permits for.

[Deerslayer]

My son is twelve so this Fall will be his first opportunity to hunt deer. I would like him to be able to put his tag on a deer that he took this year. A buck would be great but a nice doe would be just as great also. Besides that just getting a few more deer to fill the freezer and I will be satisified. If one of those deer is another trophy buck than that would just be the icing on the cake.

[alan]

My goal is to fill as many tags as I get & fill my freezer.

[pepaw]

#1 - Help 10 year old daughter take a good buck. She hunts hard and has been satisfied with does so far, but I am giving her the green light.
#2 - Get the wife and son out as much as possible and help them learn more while killing does and maybe a mature buck each
#3 - Spend time with old hunting buddies in camp and helping with their goals
#4 - try out my "new" .260 while reducing the pig and coyote populations

I killed another big one last year that is almost ready at the taxidermist. I think I have reached that last stage of hunting where I enjoy everything about hunting more and killing is only a small part. I would rather friend or family who has not taken a "trophy" kill a nice deer than me.

pepaw

[DaveHawk]

This year is to find a place to hunt Osceola, help Jake get his 1st bow hill.

[Herne]

To enjoy myself.

Not to get wet while doing so.

Don't mind if I don't shoot one, but I do want to enjoy myself with zero pressure.

And not get wet.

[Twanger]

"Not to get wet while doing so."

I thought outside sports in the UK and getting wet were synonymous! http://forums.bvipirate.com/images/smiles/jester.gif

[Hi Ball]

Stay Alive and harvest a couple of deer for the freezer! I am passed the horn stages of my hunting life.;)

[Herne]

Twanger, thats what I meant. :)

[Twanger]

Stay Alive and harvest a couple of deer for the freezer! I am passed the horn stages of my hunting life.;)

Hi-Ball - Right on, Bro! I seem to have turned a corner some time between last year and this. Perhaps it is because I've already been blessed with some nice bucks, or perhaps it is because my priorities have changed. I'm more interested now in helping others with their hunting, and turning deer into meat that can feed the family and also the hungry. I burnt myself out pretty hard last year trophy hunting, and in retrospect I'm still not sure why, even though I did score the biggest archery buck of my life. This year I will try to enjoy hunting more, and if a Mr. Big walks by that's fine, and just as fine if he does not.

While watching some hunting shows last week I saw, at least a couple of times, experienced deer hunters drawing down on mediocre sized 8-pointers. All I could think was nooooooo! Leave that immature buck for a new hunter that would be proud and thrilled to take him as a first buck, or just shoot a doe!

I will probably still shoot a yearling buck or two to keep the herd numbers down where we do animal control, but mostly it will be does.

[LampLighter]

For starters, I got the lottery hunt applications ready to go to the post office in the morning. :cool:

[sharpshooter94]

Take my first buck and possibly a doe if I get the tag.

[Twanger]

Sharpshooter - good luck on getting your first buck! It was several years after I took my first doe before I got my first buck. That .257 WBY you're thinking about should certainly do the job!

It's interesting... I remember killing the doe far more clearly than I remember the buck, but I'm certainly prouder of the buck... it was a hunt that I almost gave up on.

[sharpshooter94]

Thanks for the encouragement Twanger. A couple weeks ago my neighbor up at our camp saw two ten pointers in front of our place and deer constantly come up to our many apple trees. If I got a doe tag for that area I could get a doe without even leaving the front porch. And I'll definatly turn around for that squirrel too.;)

[Orion]

I'd like to take a doe with my muzzleloader and then try for a mature buck.

[GF.]

Or maybe I should say lead-free :D

With the investment I've made in the past 6 months or so, getting set up and comfortable with the compound, I'm hoping not to need the rifles at all this year.

So... Goals, eh? Beyond simply putting in more time on stand than I have been able to in the past and not getting hurt?

#1 - Don't....................Screw.................... . Up. After last year, with mis-reading my shot angle on the doe and then that whole neck-shot fiasco, my #1 goal is to score a clean, double-lung hit or better on everything I shoot at, and to have the sense to hold off when things aren't quite right.

#2 - Fill the freezer. No matter how much fun I have during the season, I am in this game for food. I'm all for helping balance the deer herd, but if it comes down to the wire, any legal animal that offers me a good, clean shot is going to be in extreme danger. And that said....

#3 - Help trim the local herd. Simply put, we have more deer than we have hunters with access to them, and it just makes no sense to shoot a buck for meat when you have an option. Likewise, it makes no sense to pass up a doe when you have a good use for the meat, whether in your own home or someone else's.

#4 - I guess by this time, we're down to antlers, aren't we? :rolleyes:

Last year, I did see a number of bucks that were probably bigger than my personal 'best', and I passed on all but one, because I only had one shot that I really liked; now that exception is my personal best, and if he were symmetrical (to his good side), he'd be a tough one to beat around here, so I guess that bar is high enough.

Ideally, I guess I'd salt away a doe or two with the compound in the first month of the season, hunt the big boys for the second month using the recurve, and then go back to the compound for the late show.

[venado]

GF, regarding "smoke free", I assume you are meaning powder but in my case my first year to bowhunt was 1967 and a co-worker told me that a deer could smell me, my clothes, etc. and I'd never get one if I continued to smoke (3 packs a day,,!). I quit that day and that was probably the third best decision I have done in my life behind believing in Jesus christ and marrying my wife. I doubt that it was a fact that smoking was a real problem as I have seen over the years great deer hunting success by smokers but that guys speech was the incentive I needed.:D

[Bushman]

None of you guys would smoke if you saw the same MRI pictures that I did when my wife was alive.

People that smoke don't realize how much they smell like cigarettes. I had a step son that smoked too and he would stink up a room just by walking through it. I don't know how much deer get affected by smelling that, but imo it is a darn poor cover scent.

[dave-t.]

I agree with the smell Bushman. It wasn't until after I quit that I noticed how nobody is hiding the fact that they smoke. What is not noticable to a smokers nose, is very obvious to a non-smoker.

That said, my first bowkill came within 20 minutes of smashing out a butt.

My uncles theory on it, "There going to smell me if they're down wind anyway, and I can hunt longer if I smoke."

If you want to see just how risky you can be with scent, go ahead an pee off of your stand. Myth busted.:D

[GF.]

Yeah, that was definitely a gunpowder reference, though I might just fire up a half-decent cigar after making a shot on a good buck... :D

Gotta give 'em a few minutes anyway, right?

JMO, smoking makes you as detectable to humans as regular human-stink makes you to deer, but there are those who say that smoke smells like smoke, not like people, so the deer have to be trained to associate that smell with any danger.

Tell ya, though- my hat is off to you guys who have quit. Some days, I'm glad I don't smoke just because that means I don't have to quit.

So Dave, are you saying that you can pee off your stand risk-free? That wold be consistent with the finding that human pee is as good as anything you can buy for tuning up a scrape.

Another guy who used to hunt the place that I've been lucky enough to hunt out here actually placed a stand almost directly over a scrape. Well, maybe not quite, but he's left his stand out there for several years now, and last fall there was a big scrape right underneath it.... :eek:

Anyway, you could freshen the scrape and maintain your personal comfort at the same time, doing that!

[Smokey]

My objective each year is to help the people and my two sons who I hunt with get an elk and coues deer and maybe teach my boys something they might not have realized during the hunt. Both my boys are adults and quite accomplished outdoorsmen.

The last eight years or so I've been more interested in guiding the people I hunt with then shooting game myself. I have been fortunate in many years having the companies I worked for foot the bill for me to take customers hunting for deer and elk in prime hunting areas. This has enabled me to get some nice animals and I now feel I really don't need to shoot much at this time. When it gets close to the end of the season and we haven't connected on much I do shoot game if I'm not able to get someone in the correct position. With all this, on the last day of the season I am still looking forward to the first day of the next season just as I did as a young kid.

And I do have a new 270 to try out on coues deer this year.

[dave-t.]

So Dave, are you saying that you can pee off your stand risk-free? That wold be consistent with the finding that human pee is as good as anything you can buy for tuning up a scrape.



I'm saying you're more likely to see a deer come in and stick it's nose in the puddle than see one throw it's nose in the air and flat runnoft.

Some even think of the noise when it hits the ground as a type of attracting call. From what I have seen, I can't argue against it.

[Twanger]

I've had deer come to the sound of me peeing enough times that I know it's not an accident! Usually after 3 hours in a tree-stand in the morning the coffee has got to go someplace, and it's usually 20 feet straight down. :D Then I hang out another 5-10 minutes to see what comes in to investigate. Then it's off to work.

[drvsarchryhnt]

I really appreciate your post!
Being in the forest every season, is not just to hunt for something that we could bring back to our home. It is the experience that would come to our minds,being the reason on going in the woods to hunt for some good specie of bucks. It is really the feeling of excitement and the challenging location plus the good bucks,such a great season to hunt.

[GF.]

Had a last-minute discussion with the Missus and am headed to CO to hit the archery Elk season....:cool: Visit with my dad, and hunt a few days with my little bro, since I haven't seen him in almost 4 years, now....:eek:

So, new goals - Rocky Mountain Edition:


1) Don't die. Literally or figuratively. Going from a desk job sitting where I can look straight down outta my window and watch the tides go in and out to the base camp at 9700 feet up is gonna be one X-Large can o' whoop-ass. Heading up the hill from there will be a second heapin' helpin' :eek: Add to that the last-minute planning and the lack of any pre-season conditioning, and I'm gonna have no trouble keeping my speed down to an effective still-hunting rate. I'm planning to meet Little Bro up at the camp, so he can hunt all day and I can stagger up there at my own pace.


2) Figure some stuff out. The kind of stuff you can only think through properly when you're free of the man-made grind and out in the hills doing what comes naturally to a predatory species.

3) Help Little Bro get an Elk. Two reasons - A, that'll mean that my lack of conditioning didn't keep him from succeeding; B, he hit & lost a cow last year and a turkey the year before that, and he's feeling snakebit about the whole bowhunting deal.

4) See an Elk or two myself, inside of roundball-&-iron-sights ML range. A bull is always a plus. I used to be able to head up that hill and find them almost every time up, and it'd be nice to discover that I haven't gotten to be so citified that I can't still find a herd of screaming, snorting, mewing 500-pound animals and get close enough to get a good look at one with my own two eyes.

5) And last, should I be so fortunate as to get a shot....

Dont.................... Screw..................Up.

[southtexas]

Good luck! We want pics and stories when you get back!!

[GF.]

Thanks, man!

Worst thing, though, is that now I'm almost pathologically fixated on the trip and still have 2 weeks worth o' work to do before I can blow outta here.... :eek: