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2026 Saddlehunter Deer Contest Hype Thread

boyne bowhunter

boyne bowhunter

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Okay all you saddle hunters, we're less than a month away from the signup start for the 2026 Contest. I'm frankly a bit surprised that no one has started a "Trash Talk" or similar hype thread yet so I'm going to do it. :tearsofjoy: I'm excited for the season to start and can't wait to see who I'll be sharing "Virtual Deer Camp" with this year. Who else is getting excited for this year's contest? Any friendly trash talk from or for last year's winners, Team 4?
 
I'm starting to get hyped up. It's hard to do though, when it's a heat index of 110 and 90% humidity, lol. I've been out knocking the rust off my tree climbing with a few 2TC climbs so far this summer. I've also been shooting the compounds and my longbow. I've seen a big improvement in my trad bow shooting since I took the bow mounted quiver off. I did very little summer scouting this year. I feel like I know the areas I hunt well enough now to do a couple of speed scouts about 3 days prior to the opener to get started and from there it will be scout, scout, hunt.
 
I'm itchin to get out there bigtime! I just retired, I have 4 deer tags in my pocket, 2 bucks and 2 doe, I have a moose hunt in just over a month, and I'm gonna try to take my first trad deer. Yes I would say I'm pretty pumped. Bring on the contest!
Oh, I also have about 6 different shooters on camera too :)
 
As a member of the winning team from last years contest I’ve got some serious smack talk to lay down…

To myself! Last year was one of my best seasons to date, with more encounters and action than any prior year. And it was also full of the most heart break! I had multiple misses and wounded several deer that I wasn’t able to recover. And so it was a season full of hard knocks. My team completely carried me across the victory line! Fortunately some snow at the end of the season led me to a doe who graciously filled my freezer. Here’s to hoping that my 2026 season is met with great success!!
 
I think I missed team selection on another forum so I'd be happy to be in a contest over here. I can only get 1 buck though. I am excited to press into other locations with my first saddle hunt though. Stafe safe out there everyone and hope you get good clean kills.
 
I killed a mildly decent buck last year on an absolutely whim, it has me pumped for this year but I’m starting to accept how much luck there is to hunting after 8+ years after whitetails. I’ll be good for 5 points like most seasons at least. I have no house projects and no babies in the oven currently so it may be a strong year. I have an opportunity to hunt in Kentucky this year and I really want to make that happen during the rut.
 
As a member of the winning team with not one but two buck submissions you boys should consider yourself lucky that my hunting time this year will be limited since my wife is pregnant with our 3rd and due Dec. 24th! But I should be able to get some good sits in before Thanksgiving so I hope y'all are ready to lose again!
 
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DroptineKrazy said:
I'm itchin to get out there bigtime! I just retired, I have 4 deer tags in my pocket, 2 bucks and 2 doe, I have a moose hunt in just over a month, and I'm gonna try to take my first trad deer. Yes I would say I'm pretty pumped. Bring on the contest!
Oh, I also have about 6 different shooters on camera too :)
Click to expand...
I wanna see a saddle moose!
 
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