** OFFICIAL 2014 DAILY DEER HUNT CHAT**

[HICKMAN]

All is quiet here, other than someone's black dog passing about 30 yards in front of me, following a creek bed.

 

[338sniper]

Hickman. Did you get a new bow? You are more than welcome to borrow my Mathews Switchback if you need one.

 

[HICKMAN]

I have a cheapie xbow that may do the trick, we will see.

 

[BigMatt]

Got to the new elevated blind this morning. By 9:00 I had seen 5 does. The 5th one is at the processor. Now that I have meat for the freezer, I will wait for a nice buck.

 

[bwframe]

Got to the new elevated blind this morning. By 9:00 I had seen 5 does. The 5th one is at the processor. Now that I have meat for the freezer, I will wait for a nice buck.

 

[JNG]

Saw three does, but they caught my scent and split. And a red fox, which was very cool. Not a bad first day.

 

[dusty88]

Sigh. Have a "one that got away" story



I went out at 6 pm into a stand my husband made from a scaffolding and painted plywood; sits in the edge of our woods. We don't have a lot of deer so anytime we see one it's a "go". I'm looking for venison, not a trophy.

I was pretty pleased to see a decent-sized doe meandering along before sunset, browsing, etc. She stared at me, but I was wearing good camo. I had to freeze in a partial draw for what seemed like forever. Then I finally get a chance to draw and notice a problem: my husband has put a board up on that corner that wasn't there before. He is about a foot taller than me, so he wouldn't have realized the problem. Of course, I should have noticed it during the prior hour I was in the stand

I managed to raise the arrow above the top of the board, but then at the last second was focusing only on the sight placement on the thorax of course. Thwack!

Um... deer still staring at me. Not hit, but not running either. I look down and the darn arrow is in the plywood, just 1/4" below the top edge, went through all the way to the feathers.

So there I am: doe staring at me, me staring at doe, an arrow in the plywood pointing at the doe.

ArGGGG!!!!

To increase the agony, she kept staring at me. I really think it was 10 min total, counting the times she briefly looked away and I tried to get another bow from the quiver. She kept trying to smell the air as well (I was originally downwind of her but the wind was dead by this time). Finally, when I had another arrow nocked, she sniffed again, then snorted, flagged, and ran.

Dagnabit! I have almost never had a deer close enough for a bow shot, and definitely not one that stopped for more than a second. I'm gonna see her in my nightmares.

 

[phylodog]

Had a great sit this evening, awesome weather for this early in the season. Didn't see anything but squirrels but listened to three owls having a hoot off. After shooting light we climbed down and pulled the camera card and found the first hard horned pic of our #1 buck and a new 4.5yr old 10 pointer. I cannot wait for the end of the month!!!

 

[jblomenberg16]

Had a great sit this evening, awesome weather for this early in the season. Didn't see anything but squirrels but listened to three owls having a hoot off. After shooting light we climbed down and pulled the camera card and found the first hard horned pic of our #1 buck and a new 4.5yr old 10 pointer. I cannot wait for the end of the month!!!

Here is hoping you get a shot at him!

 

[selinoid44]

Went out tonight to my east corner stand around 5:30. The sun was beating me and there was a storm on the edge to the north. After sitting a while I decided to make a move to my west stand to get out of the sun hitting me in the face. No sooner then I got up I saw deer on the north side of the fence and west 200 yds. It wasn't long and they were right to the north of me. First a doe and a young fawn.

I watched as they grazed in the beans. the doe meander down beside my stand. I wasn't about to shoot her with the fawn being so little. Three minutes went by and a basket 6 and another doe came within bow range but the doe beside me got antsy. They went back the way they came nonchalantly. I saw three more deer to the west grazing out of range. A little time went by and a purty red coyote comes walking right into my shooting lane but before I could draw he caught wind. Quite an enjoyable evening!

 

[yote hunter]

Been slow here too, think Im gonna wait till the 3rd week of oct. to go back out... Don't want to scent up my areas .. Lots of time to go not in a big hurry and end up getting burnt out just when it will be get'n good....

 

[phylodog]

Hunting partner is out at the farm today and sent me a pic, they're cutting the corn. That ought to concentrate them a bit more.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Hunted a couple hours Saturday morning, Saturday evening & Sunday morning. Saw 35-40 deer, killed 3 at 16-28-31 yards. Hope to kill a couple more Saturday before heading West to hunt coyotes for a while, coyote season will be in here by the time I return so deer will take a back seat.

 

[BigMatt]

Hunting partner is out at the farm today and sent me a pic, they're cutting the corn. That ought to concentrate them a bit more.

Yeah, the early harvest and cool/cold temps should help us see more deer.

 

[baldguy637]

My daughter's boyfriend went out with his brother tonight, and his brother shot this pig after 5 minutes in the stand.

 

[HICKMAN]

that's awesome. I have a 4 day weekend, plan on hunting as much as I can.

 

[FishnHunt]

Now that's a nice buck! I'm looking forward to spending some time in a tree in Virginia next week. Got to get my camo around and check my bow on Saturday, then I'll be ready to rock.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Hunted a couple hours Saturday morning, Saturday evening & Sunday morning. Saw 35-40 deer, killed 3 at 16-28-31 yards. Hope to kill a couple more Saturday before heading West to hunt coyotes for a while, coyote season will be in here by the time I return so deer will take a back seat.

Unexpected change of plans yesterday afternoon, had a couple hours of downtime and the moon phase was agreeable. First doe & twins showed up and came in behind me, 18 yard chip-shot, but now I know what that sense of befuddlement feels like when a shot goes astray! Hunting a thicket, I was very careful in picking my openings, but against all odds there was a thin cedar twig between me and her. Arrow turned sideways mid-flight and slammed into her rear hip- she jumped up and came down on my arrow and broke it into 3 pieces. I couldn't believe it, at least nobody got hurt.

14 minutes later, another doe came by with yearlings so I shot one of them at 16 yards. Less than 10 minutes later, a yearling I orphaned Saturday came down the hill and saw the glowing nocturnal and stopped beside it. Thumped her, resulting in #4 & #5 on the ground this week. Four other does walked past before I got down, my 3-arrow quiver was empty.

I saw 9 deer yesterday, so that's pushing 50 on 4 short hunts. If I can scrounge up 3 new broad heads this evening, I'll try to break 8 tomorrow. Haven't seen an antlered deer yet. Won't push that envelope until the first of November. I have identified two very unique button bucks, one with a silver throat patch and another with white flags on the back of his ears like a bobcat. Hopefully I'll get trailcam pictures of them... it'd be cool to watch them develop.

This little gal should go down tomorrow, she's caught the luck of the draw a few times this week.

Edit to add: My wife timed me last night. With a warm deer hanging in the gambrel, I picked up my knife and put bowls of meat in the fridge 22 minutes apart. That's skinning, boning and discarding scraps. I have a system of braking the legs, hide & head down into the ribcage and cutting between the 1st and 2nd rib for a handle. Once the meat is off, it's like a 5 gallon bucket to carry off.

 

[HICKMAN]

you should have her video that, those of us wanting to get better or start processing our own could probably learn a thing or two.

 

[HICKMAN]

Traded for Bowtech Carbon Knight, HHA Sports Optimizer Ultra, QAD rest, Octane stabilizer and quiver, Bloodline arrows and a Scott Mongoose release.

Back in the woods soon!