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2019 Hunting Season Bonehead Moves

Went out Friday for my first sit of the year and first saddle hunt ever. Found a great tree at the intersection of several deer trails just off a swamp between two agg fields.

The tree had branches starting at about 12 feet. I have never practiced climbing or hanging in a tree with branches. It didn't go well.

After a struggle to get up, a struggle to set up, and no way to move around the tree or shoot at hunting height I climbed down and went looking for a new tree.

Bonehead move: climbing a type of tree I had never practiced

Non-bonehead move: being in the woods on a perfect fall day!!!!
 
Last night after one sticking up and sitting till dark (only had a doe blow at me) went to rappel down and got just about halfway when I realized my autoblock was instead a prusik knot and it was waaaaaaaaaaay to tight to feed into the atc, so there I hang off this tree. Only have a tether and my rappel rig. Finally have to re-tether and try to claw my way up the tree to relieve tension so i can get the rope to feed into the atc and get me down.

Whew I'm glad I had the tether on me, since all my other crap was on the ground.
 
Have only ground hunted so far this year, had some close opportunities, but no results yet. Broke out the saddle for the year's first hang tonight, walked 1,060 yards into a spot I've never been before. But looked promising on maps.

Bumped 4 deer out of the clearing I hoped to hunt over when I got there - this was really exciting! Slowly, quietly put 3 sticks on the tree, negotiated my linemans belt around 2 branches... got to the top, got out my tether, and... crap.

Somehow forgot that carabiner. Not just in the truck. All the way back in my garage.

Hung out fuming for a bit at the top of my sticks, leaning back on my linemans rope. Debated undoing the lineman's... using the carabiner from it, but not being attached by anything for a few moments to do it... Nah. Sigh. Finally started getting down...

Bumped more deer from the far side of the field that I hadn't seen yet. Probably burned the spot, never even got to nock an arrow.
 
Friday morning was day two of a three day hunt. I was dead tired after a day of scouting, a day of hunting in the rain and two nights of not really sleeping in a tent. So I’m sitting in a white oak about 15 yards off a logging road but a mile from where you had to park. Two days of rain and the sudden insurgence of 1000 muzzleloader toting hunters has left sign looking either old or sparse. I was bumping more deer on the ridges than in the bottoms so decided to sit a ridge for morning two. So I’m sitting just slightly down from the ridge top. I have shooting lanes behind me into a bottom a filtered view of the logging road with several shooting windows there also. I also had a decent window down the other side of the ridge to some scrapes and entry and exit routes to some buck beds that didn’t look active when I scouted but the deer were being pushed around a lot so I had my fingers crossed that a good buck would be relocating here. Well about 8:00 I had given up on natural movement but waiting on the push. I’m also having a difficult time keeping my eyes open. Well a little after 9:00 I hear hood beats and open my eyes to see a button buck and large doe entering the logging road. They were about 60 yards out and I try to limit my shots with my cva optima pistol to about 40 yards. It’s capable of much longer shots and I can shoot decent groups to a hundred yards but things have to be perfect and it doesn’t usually go that way in the woods. Good news is if they continue up this logging road to feed on some white oaks I will have a 15 yard shot. Well it wasn’t going to work that way. I had a filtered view of the deer from about 55 yards to 35 yards. At about 40 yards I see the button buck turn off the road going into the bottom on the other side of the ridge. So I panicked and bleated to stop them. Found an opening I could squeeze a bullet through and into the does shoulder and sent it her way. I rarely get to see a reaction at the shot with black powder. This mornings 13 mph wind moved the smoke enough for me to see the yearling doe pile up at impact. She must have entered the thicker area before I opened my eyes to see the doe and button buck. Oh well I get to try the jet sled. My buddy asked how I liked the sled. He’s a cart guy. Well all I could say was it made dragging 40 lbs of dressed deer almost effortless. Got to use it again last night on about a 130 lb doe and I like the sled.
 
Went in at 1:00 for an afternoon sit during early season with plans on doing some scouting on the way to my destination. Get about 3/4 mile from the car and cut a heavy cross trail so I stop, drop the backpack and take my phone out of the top pocket to mark the trail on onX. Put the phone in the front pocket, put the pack back on and head down the crossing trail looking for fresh sign. Trek through the river bottom for about 1/4 mile before deciding to turn around since there wasn’t much sign. I continue on the trek to my destination (now i’m about 1.25 miles from the car and I’m getting heated up so I stop for a break and to check the time. I take off the backpack and notice I never zipped the top pocket back up after the previous stop so I reach in to take out the phone and it isn’t there. I’m thinking damn it, so much for getting in and getting set up early. I gotta backtrack to find the phone.

So I stash my gear in some deep CRP grass and start to backtrack the way I came. No phone. Got to the river bottom trail crossing. No phone. Walked the river bottom trail twice. No phone. Now things are getting serious because after all, you can’t hunt without a phone in your pocket so I start talking myself into thinking I must have dropped it by the car.

I start the 3/4 mile trek back the car with nothing but me and my deepest thoughts and get about half way back when I start getting my senses back and realize there is no way it could be at the car unless it teleported itself after I had checked it at the crossing trail. So I turn around and head the mile back to where I stashed my gear rationalizing the whole way that it was time for a new phone anyway. I get back to the stashed gear, now dripping with sweat and an hour later than I should have been, check the top pocket again, still no phone. Check the front pocket, there it is right at the top where I put it but where it wasn’t supposed to be.

I finally get to my tree and at about 4:30 after creeping in slow and quiet for the last 200 yards to a transition area along a marsh. I get 2 sticks up the tree when I hear steps splashing towards me in the marsh just 10 yards away, then silence, then all hell breaks loose as my target buck busts me hugging the tree 10 feet in the air and he takes off down the marsh edge.

Not surprising but I didn’t see anything the rest of the sit. What a cluster.
 
Yes that is correct and I am a right handed shot.......
Made it all the way up the tree before I realized I had forgot my release in the truck.
 

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Not a 2019 dud, but I’m just finished third glass of whiskey picking hitchhikers from Berber fleece for the second year in a row. Pro tip - don’t walk through crp with clothes on outside of pack that pick up burrs. It took me 2ish hours on one pair of bibs. This happened last year on my Missouri hunt(and the year before). It’s becoming a ritual the night before I leave...

This year I’ve only managed to sit in my truck with a really muddy rear I forgot i had fallen in the slop. Pretty stupid though.

I’m sure I’ll have more good entries next week
 
I was answering work emails in the tree, I had silenced the ringer on my phone. I hear something coming so I put the phone away and get ready. Three does come in not running but moving at a brisk pace. They catch my ground scent and stop almost under me. I hear grunting and can hear a buck coming. He gets really close and my phone chimes as a result of a calendar reminder. Apparently calendar alarms have a separate alarm volume setting. Deer explode out of there. I'm an idiot.
 
I was walking to my planned tree one dark morning and found myself bumping several deer. I decided to cut my walk in short and climbed a nearby tree. As I was climbing I noticed the tree had an unusual number of insect holes, but didn't realize the tree was dead until I got almost to hunting height and it started wobbling when I moved. I had deer around me, so I was hesitant to come down until sunrise. Fortunately I made it down safely, but now I am a lot more careful about which trees I climb in the dark.
 
I might take the cake, I was the public land idiot for a day. Almost all hunts so far I go in blind around 12-1 scout around to about 3 and setup for a few hours. I have driven past this location before and have never seen any cars or trucks in it when I go during the week. Went in, ended up walking more than I wanted cuz I wasnt finding good sign and ended up getting into thicker stuff than I expected. Also started to walk out on the marsh towards an island but water was still semi frozen and bailed on that. Anyways by 330 or so I went back to the little sign I found, picked a nearby tree quick and got up. Once up I realized I wasnt happy with the sign and didnt have great shooting lanes so went against my better judgement, got down and decided to push in deeper and consider it a botched hunt scouting trip. Ended up going in deeper finding an oak flat between marshes, couldnt find a great tree here either and just decided to sit and observe. Figured I would go check out a spot i had pegged which was only 50 yds from me. Make my way down there and its flooded grass. Like over my knees and all I had was ankle high shoes on. This was going to be my perfect exit route right into an open field where i would bump anymore deer(leave a different way than you come in). So I turned around had about an hour or so walk the long way back out with only 45 mins or so of hunting light left. Hard to explain but when I went deeper I made a Y with original entry from top right to the left second trip from top left to bottom. Once I got to the Y I turned right to head out and theres someone in the only tree stand I pegged in that area. Apologized to the guy and kept moving on. so I'm that guy. Stuff was so thick there was no way I wouldve been able to see him from a distance but honestly I had put 4 or 5 miles in and wasnt really looking. And like I said I thought it was a near abandoned piece of public, at least during the week.

So I ask the public land gods for their forgiveness. Was going to leave the guy some cash in the parking lot and say go grab some beer on me but of course didnt have any on me. So if you get walked in on by someone on public, consider he may have just had his ass kicked for 5 hours and isnt thinking straight. Doesnt excuse it but still.


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Found myself at hunting height this morning and went to clip tether to bridge and yep. Bridge was behind me; never stepped through it when i put my harness on in the dark. Couldnt sneak my size 13s up and tgrough, so had to climb back down and redo my harness setup. Doh!
 
Friday morning I hunted till about 11,saw several deer but not any bucks of size. I decided to get down and walk a mile more into the public place I was on. I found a good funnel when I scouted this place in the summer. It is a creek and a pond dam that make the funnel, I get on the trail that the deer are using and get indecisive, trying to pick a tree to climb. I pick one but look around for a while to "find a better one". After walking up and down this trail for half an hour I go back to the first tree I thought of climbing. Set bow down, hook up pull rope, put on first stick and climb to the top, grab second stick and notice an absolute giant 8 point walking down the trail coming towards me. Nothing I could do, except try to hold the one stick while trying to pull the bow up with the other hand. Of course he walks to about 8 yds then notices the odd shaped tree. His eyes got big, mine already were, and we had a brief stare down. He demonstrated how he got that big by turning and getting out of there fast.

If I would have just climbed that tree the first time I thought of it instead of being indecisive I would have been up the tree and ready with that giant walking by at about 10yds. Lesson learned, noted, wrote it down, wont do that again. I felt like a complete idiot.
 
I got permission to hunt a new farm that no one has been bow hunting on and was excited. I hunted the morning At my house and left early to scout my way in.. at my house I didn’t take my pack just the essentials. Got to the new farm 40 minutes away and dressed and don’t have my release... Search my truck, search my bag nothing. Drive home thinking it’s on my hunting table. Get home not there double check my bag and there it is in a wrong pocket.. made it back and had a good hunt tho.


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Friday morning I hunted till about 11,saw several deer but not any bucks of size. I decided to get down and walk a mile more into the public place I was on. I found a good funnel when I scouted this place in the summer. It is a creek and a pond dam that make the funnel, I get on the trail that the deer are using and get indecisive, trying to pick a tree to climb. I pick one but look around for a while to "find a better one". After walking up and down this trail for half an hour I go back to the first tree I thought of climbing. Set bow down, hook up pull rope, put on first stick and climb to the top, grab second stick and notice an absolute giant 8 point walking down the trail coming towards me. Nothing I could do, except try to hold the one stick while trying to pull the bow up with the other hand. Of course he walks to about 8 yds then notices the odd shaped tree. His eyes got big, mine already were, and we had a brief stare down. He demonstrated how he got that big by turning and getting out of there fast.

If I would have just climbed that tree the first time I thought of it instead of being indecisive I would have been up the tree and ready with that giant walking by at about 10yds. Lesson learned, noted, wrote it down, wont do that again. I felt like a complete idiot.

Sucks man. Last year was 3 sticks up had buck I’ve been chasing for two years never seen in person, walk by 7 yards slow. Bow on ground. Demoralizing. My buddy just whiffed an 18 yard shot at that spot this morning.... cursed!
 
This year has been stupid for Murphys law. First deer I shot at shot 5 feet in front of her, discovered rest had a crack, fixed that. Second doe I shot at vane came off mid flight, off it flew. Third deer I shot at all went well. Was hunting last night next to a creek about 250 yards from a road and hear a car honking on the road behind me. Didn't think anything of it till I hear the footsteps, look at my 7 o'clock and here comes a spike that must have crossed the road that the car was honking at. I let him close to 20 yards and he gets to a good spot, I let fly and it sails over his back. I've been trying out a new sight this season and been fighting it the whole time. That was the last straw. Said eff it and start climbing down, I'm not shooting again with this piece of crap on my bow. Get down on the ground and all my crap situated and I hear movement. Turn around and there's a good sized 8 standing not more than 40 yards from my tree. How and when he got there I have no idea. He just casually trots off about 100 yards then slowly walks off into the sunset. Sigh.
 
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