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Post by M4Madness on Nov 25, 2022 15:55:47 GMT -5
Another prayer for you...
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 25, 2022 11:50:21 GMT -5
I’ve got an old flip phone laying somewhere in southern Illinois. It was on mute so Woodmaster calling it didn’t help. I’ve also got a rangefinder somewhere in a bog Alberta.. I’m good at losing things… 😉 I lost a pager many years ago in a section of HNF in another county. The following year, my wife's stepfather was bloodtrailing a deer he'd shot and the bloodtrail went right over the pager! We're talking way back in the woods! Obviously the pager was ruined, but I'm still amazed that it was found at all.
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 25, 2022 9:31:20 GMT -5
BTW Good luck to all you Black Friday shoppers glad I’m in a stand instead of a line with 500 hundred people My wife and I are in Bloomington to get her blood work done, and the town is virtually dead. Very little traffic. It looks like Black Friday may be a bust. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 24, 2022 17:03:03 GMT -5
It was sprinkling rain for the last half hour and just quit. I was moving my rifle from under my parka back to across the stand's rails when I caught movement to my left and spied a bobcat slinking along the logging road at 15 yards. Now the squirrels are having fits the direction it walked. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 24, 2022 15:41:46 GMT -5
Got in my stand about 10 minutes ago. As soon as I started to turn around and sit down, a couple of deer stood up behind me about 30 yards away in a stand of small beech trees. They didn't really spook, and just trotted down into the hollow and stopped (never heard anything more in the super dry leaves.) I think they were does, or at least hoping. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 19:28:20 GMT -5
I’d buy ten days off unfortunately I’m self employed so unless I work I don’t get paid And here I always thought that the self-employed were the ones busting butt for 9 months and taking the entire season off each year. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 19:06:57 GMT -5
My company will be buying back 10 days of vacation time from me next month. I'd rather have the money than the time off. Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 18:57:03 GMT -5
"What have i become?" -----OLD---LOL Yep. I'll be 55 in January. 😀
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 18:54:18 GMT -5
Same exact thing for me. My laziness has saved a TON of deer in the last 10-15 years. I'm so lazy that I quit shaving two years ago and went from a 1/4" goatee to a foot long beard that probably has more gray than anything else. Lol! I averaged 4 deer a year for 20 years, and have only killed 3 deer in the last 5 years. Lol! I guess that's the benefit of a lifetime license -- no pressure. I can hunt a half dozen days a year guilt free. I'm thinking perhaps a new bow and some new ground next year might snap me out of it and reignite my hunting passion. Zero deer seen tonight...
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 17:04:37 GMT -5
I currently have a suppressed Handi-rifle in .300 AAC Blackout topped with a Vortex Viper sitting across the rails of my ladder stand. 😀 That will leave a mark…. Assuming I get a chance. Lol! Five years since I killed a buck. Last year was the first year in 25 years that I didn't even shoot a doe. I could have, but didn't want to bother with it. I certainly may do the same this year. The lead doe that walked under me last night was one of the biggest does I've ever seen. I was tempted, then decided that I didn't want all the work that followed. Lol! Chances are it's big buck or no meat in the freezer for me. Heck, I've had years that I killed six deer with a compound bow before gun season even opened, and now I don't even care if I kill one. What have I become? Lol!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 16:33:44 GMT -5
I just climbed into the same stand that I hunted from last night. Same conditions. Fingers crossed. Good luck, everyone! Using a shotgun this year? 😊 I currently have a suppressed Handi-rifle in .300 AAC Blackout topped with a Vortex Viper sitting across the rails of my ladder stand. 😀
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 21, 2022 16:06:27 GMT -5
I just climbed into the same stand that I hunted from last night. Same conditions. Fingers crossed. Good luck, everyone!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 18:31:16 GMT -5
No more deer seen after the antlerless quartet. Nothing jumped on the walk out, so that's good. This 250-acre farm used to be awesome. Then the tornado came through on November 6, 2017 -- right through this farm. The damage was extensive, and the landowner hired a logging company to salvage what they could. The majority of the oaks are gone, and the property is a combination of briars and treetops now, which may be good for deer cover, but not for hunting. There are no crops there, so it's very difficult to set-up for big buck success in muzzleloader season.
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 17:26:02 GMT -5
Heard steady footsteps in the leaves in the hollow below me heading up the ridge towards me. A huge doe casually walked past my stand at 11 yards. I could hear more footsteps behind her, so I got a little excited. Another huge doe passed. Steps again, this time what I swear was a button buck (I was shielding my eyes from the sun with a gloved hand.) About two minutes later, a smaller doe heading the same way. All passed on same trail upwind of my ladder stand on this ridge saddle. No sound of a buck yet...
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 16:31:21 GMT -5
Well, I'm in a stand. Lol! Very calm and sunny here. It's extremely rare for me to kill a big buck this late in the season, but I guess anything can happen! Is it rare because they aren’t there , or because you’ve already shot em? 😂 Oh, I've definitely had seasons where I went buckless, so it wasn't always me killing one early. Lol! Reflecting on it, I did kill a 7-pointer on Thanksgiving Day (2004, I think) and the only buck I ever killed in actual muzzleloader season was a spike before that. Neither are anything I would shoot today. I'll be breaking my own record if I ever shoot a wallhanger after the first Friday of firearms season. EDIT: Oh, the last buck I ever killed was on the last day of the 2017 firearms season. Again, it wasn't a wallhanger (which is all I will shoot now.) The only reason I shot it was that there was only 15 minutes of season left and I was losing that farm after 23 years of hunting it. I'd have let it walk otherwise. The only bucks I ever see after the first week of firearms are small bucks.
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 15:54:17 GMT -5
Beautiful buck!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 15:53:13 GMT -5
That is an awesome buck! Congratulations on fulfilling your quest!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 15:48:46 GMT -5
Well, I'm in a stand. Lol! Very calm and sunny here. It's extremely rare for me to kill a big buck this late in the season, but I guess anything can happen!
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 20, 2022 14:50:32 GMT -5
I've had some sort of bug since last weekend, so haven't done any hunting. Covid test was negative. Lows this weekend were 17 degrees both mornings, and I wasn't feeling near 100%, so I didn't hunt. I'm sitting here debating going out this afternoon.
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Post by M4Madness on Nov 14, 2022 19:00:07 GMT -5
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