Post by barogers2 on Nov 17, 2015 0:23:54 GMT -5
Well I haven't posted on here as much I have in the past but man have I had a great year this year. I got a brand new Hoyt Nitrum in the spring and shot it quiet a bit leading up to this season. I also did a lot more scouting than I have in the past during the winter. I went out and hacked down a lot of saplings so I would actually have some places that aren't super thick in our woods. I placed minerals all summer and ran cams as well. One bad thing I had happen was one camera stopped working and then the other I had needed a firmware update that I didn't know about until about a month ago which explains my lack of pictures... So opening day rolls around and for the first time in years I have to work. While sitting there all day and seeing people's pictures being posted all over the place I just couldn't take it anymore. I took a half day on Friday October 2nd and hit the woods. It was VERY windy as I walked out to one of the new spots that I had scouted out in the winter. First time ever sitting the set and I was really enjoying it. Its on the side of a ridge which can be a little tricky. I have to climb about thirty feet up to make get about eye level to the right and then to the left its a strait down drop. As I'm sitting in the stand a huge tree goes crashing down in our woods about 80 yards away from me. I'm starting to regret taking work off and wondering if I am just wasting my time with how windy it is. I decide I've already taken off work and drove an hour to come out so I'm going to sit it out. An hour goes by and I have a two does come in about 40 yds to my east and bed down. I keep an eye on them and they lay there for about an hour. Finally the bigger of the two decides she wants to munch on some acorns and gets up. She walks right out into the area that I had cleared that winter and gave me a chip shot at 15 yds. She didnt go but 30 yards, however I was alone and had a climber, bow, and pack with me which made the drag out pretty difficult. Here are the pics from that night. My dad decided to show up AFTER I had already dragged her out but we still managed to get some pretty great pictures so I can't complain. First sit of the year and I get a big doe so I'm off to a great start.
The following weekend I was lucky enough to get drawn for a military hunt. First time I have ever been to Big Oaks and I am super excited. I take my roommate with me who had just got into hunting. I actually sold him my old bow and got him hooked on archery. He has never really hunted before so I am really wanting to try to get him on some good deer. We got zone 28 which was from the aerial pictures looked awesome. We head out at 2 am to get down there in time to watch the safety video and give us time to make the drive up there. We finally head out to the woods and come across a nice spot on the side of a hill. I ask if he wants to hunt there or me and he says he will. I let him use my Summit Viper and give him a harness as well and continue on my way. I walk what seems like an eternity to a nice clearing and decide its where I want to hunt. As I'm climbing I see a doe so I am feeling very confident about the spot. I finally get settled in when all the sudden I hear a commotion coming from behind me. I turn around and see a hunter climbing up a tree about 150 yards away. I get a little discouraged but decide I'm already settled in and there's not point in trying to move. As I'm watching this guy climb the tree he kinda disappears for a second. A few moments go by and all the sudden I see a body go flying from the tree and hit the ground. I will never forget the sound he made. Now I'm mad because I'm sitting here watching this guy who just fell like 20 ft to the ground lay there and I'm thinking I just drove 3 hours to end up having to carry a stranger out of the woods with a broken leg. I watch him lay there for a minute and see him get up and start walking around. I start thinking and realize my friend never texted me to tell me he was settled in. As I watch this guy walk around for a moment I see him get his phone out and make a call...Sure enough I look down at my phone and it's my friend. I answer it and he tells me he just fell out of the tree stand. I couldn't believe it. He got so lucky that he was ok. I asked if he was using the harness I gave him and he said it was too dark he didn't want to mess with it. Turns out what happened was he climbed up about 18 ft and tried to adjust the bottom and it just fell so he was hanging by the top. He said he swung back and forth from the sit bar like a gymnast to avoid the stand below him when he jumped. I still don't know how he didn't get hurt. Needless to say he didn't climb a tree the rest of the trip and went out and bought a blind when we got home. Neither of us got any deer however I did find this monster shed while we were there. Here are some pics from the trip.
A month goes by of me hunting our farm and I have one encounter with a buck. He was a little guy and I saw him from the same stand I shot my doe out of. He followed the script perfect but just wasn't what I was looking for.
I took Halloween weekend off for a 4 day weekend. After I walked back to the truck on October 30 after only seeing does I decide to look down a big hill we have by where I park my truck. It's about 12:30 p.m. I still have my climber on my back and all my gear with me as I am looking down into the thicket. I'm scanning from right to left and not seeing much. I get all the way to the left when all of the sudden I see a nice buck snap his head and look straight at me. We have a stand off that seems like it lasted forever. It was probably only 2 minutes or so but I could not take my eyes off of him. I know I can't shoot because it's too thick but I decide to try to get a picture. I slowly reach for my phone and right as I get it out of my pocket he takes off like a bat out of hell. Just hauling through the thickest nastiest stuff like it's nothing. I contemplate hanging a set that night to try to hunt him the next morning but I know that if I try to move into his bed he will be long gone. I decide to just let him be and hope I can find the trail he's using to get there. I move my trail cam and leave it for a week before my vacation starts.
The next week at work was the longest week of my life. All I wanted was to be in the stand. Friday finally comes and I rush home to grab the camera and see if the big buck has made an appearance. Nothing. I start thinking that he is long gone and my chances at him have diminished. I also know that the rut is about to fire up so I am not too upset about the situation. Saturday morning comes around and me and my buddy head to the woods. I finally get all settled into my stand and check my phone and let my buddy know I am settled in. This was at 6:40 a.m. It's still pretty dark when all the sudden I hear leaves crunching and it sounds like it is underneath of me. I look down and don't see anything and figure it was a raccoon or something. A few minutes go by and I hear it again. That's when I see the white rack casually walking through the woods. It is still pretty dark so I can't tell how big it is but it looks pretty nice. He moseys around for another couple of minutes and then hes strait towards the trail I'm off of. Still not sure if I want to shoot him or not I decide I better draw back just in case. I draw back and he steps behind a tree and walks into my lane. I hit him with a "meh" and his head snaps at me. I can tell he's tall and looks definitely a shooter buck and I let the arrow fly. He jumps down into the creek and runs about thirty yards away. I start kicking myself thinking that I miss him. I keep watching and he stops and looks back at me. He stands there for a moment and starts to wobble. Then I hear the crash and he disappears into the thicket. At 7:01 a.m. I text my buddy BBD. I think he was more excited than I was. In the stand for less than a half hour and I got it done. That was the start of my week long vacation that I didn't even need. I'm not 100% sure if it was the same buck I saw at the bottom of the hill, but if I had to guess I would say it is. All in all I have had an awesome 2015 hunting season. Now if I can just get my friend a deer life will be good.
The following weekend I was lucky enough to get drawn for a military hunt. First time I have ever been to Big Oaks and I am super excited. I take my roommate with me who had just got into hunting. I actually sold him my old bow and got him hooked on archery. He has never really hunted before so I am really wanting to try to get him on some good deer. We got zone 28 which was from the aerial pictures looked awesome. We head out at 2 am to get down there in time to watch the safety video and give us time to make the drive up there. We finally head out to the woods and come across a nice spot on the side of a hill. I ask if he wants to hunt there or me and he says he will. I let him use my Summit Viper and give him a harness as well and continue on my way. I walk what seems like an eternity to a nice clearing and decide its where I want to hunt. As I'm climbing I see a doe so I am feeling very confident about the spot. I finally get settled in when all the sudden I hear a commotion coming from behind me. I turn around and see a hunter climbing up a tree about 150 yards away. I get a little discouraged but decide I'm already settled in and there's not point in trying to move. As I'm watching this guy climb the tree he kinda disappears for a second. A few moments go by and all the sudden I see a body go flying from the tree and hit the ground. I will never forget the sound he made. Now I'm mad because I'm sitting here watching this guy who just fell like 20 ft to the ground lay there and I'm thinking I just drove 3 hours to end up having to carry a stranger out of the woods with a broken leg. I watch him lay there for a minute and see him get up and start walking around. I start thinking and realize my friend never texted me to tell me he was settled in. As I watch this guy walk around for a moment I see him get his phone out and make a call...Sure enough I look down at my phone and it's my friend. I answer it and he tells me he just fell out of the tree stand. I couldn't believe it. He got so lucky that he was ok. I asked if he was using the harness I gave him and he said it was too dark he didn't want to mess with it. Turns out what happened was he climbed up about 18 ft and tried to adjust the bottom and it just fell so he was hanging by the top. He said he swung back and forth from the sit bar like a gymnast to avoid the stand below him when he jumped. I still don't know how he didn't get hurt. Needless to say he didn't climb a tree the rest of the trip and went out and bought a blind when we got home. Neither of us got any deer however I did find this monster shed while we were there. Here are some pics from the trip.
A month goes by of me hunting our farm and I have one encounter with a buck. He was a little guy and I saw him from the same stand I shot my doe out of. He followed the script perfect but just wasn't what I was looking for.
I took Halloween weekend off for a 4 day weekend. After I walked back to the truck on October 30 after only seeing does I decide to look down a big hill we have by where I park my truck. It's about 12:30 p.m. I still have my climber on my back and all my gear with me as I am looking down into the thicket. I'm scanning from right to left and not seeing much. I get all the way to the left when all of the sudden I see a nice buck snap his head and look straight at me. We have a stand off that seems like it lasted forever. It was probably only 2 minutes or so but I could not take my eyes off of him. I know I can't shoot because it's too thick but I decide to try to get a picture. I slowly reach for my phone and right as I get it out of my pocket he takes off like a bat out of hell. Just hauling through the thickest nastiest stuff like it's nothing. I contemplate hanging a set that night to try to hunt him the next morning but I know that if I try to move into his bed he will be long gone. I decide to just let him be and hope I can find the trail he's using to get there. I move my trail cam and leave it for a week before my vacation starts.
The next week at work was the longest week of my life. All I wanted was to be in the stand. Friday finally comes and I rush home to grab the camera and see if the big buck has made an appearance. Nothing. I start thinking that he is long gone and my chances at him have diminished. I also know that the rut is about to fire up so I am not too upset about the situation. Saturday morning comes around and me and my buddy head to the woods. I finally get all settled into my stand and check my phone and let my buddy know I am settled in. This was at 6:40 a.m. It's still pretty dark when all the sudden I hear leaves crunching and it sounds like it is underneath of me. I look down and don't see anything and figure it was a raccoon or something. A few minutes go by and I hear it again. That's when I see the white rack casually walking through the woods. It is still pretty dark so I can't tell how big it is but it looks pretty nice. He moseys around for another couple of minutes and then hes strait towards the trail I'm off of. Still not sure if I want to shoot him or not I decide I better draw back just in case. I draw back and he steps behind a tree and walks into my lane. I hit him with a "meh" and his head snaps at me. I can tell he's tall and looks definitely a shooter buck and I let the arrow fly. He jumps down into the creek and runs about thirty yards away. I start kicking myself thinking that I miss him. I keep watching and he stops and looks back at me. He stands there for a moment and starts to wobble. Then I hear the crash and he disappears into the thicket. At 7:01 a.m. I text my buddy BBD. I think he was more excited than I was. In the stand for less than a half hour and I got it done. That was the start of my week long vacation that I didn't even need. I'm not 100% sure if it was the same buck I saw at the bottom of the hill, but if I had to guess I would say it is. All in all I have had an awesome 2015 hunting season. Now if I can just get my friend a deer life will be good.
