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Team 10

Pyronole said:
I have hunted this public for 6 years now, but this year I have made the choice to hunt more in the interior of the property instead of the outside edges. There are more does and small bucks along the perimeter but the bulk of the older deer are in the interior, but there is also more pressure there. The last few years I would see many deer on every hunt, but just not what I really want to be chasing. Of course, there is always that 1 deer there that you think you can get but never seems to work out. So Saturday and Sunday I didn't even see a deer from the stand, and it started to drive me a bit batty. Finally Monday I found some deer and had a couple does and fawns inside 30 plus a legal buck at 60ish. Sometime over the weekend I lost my rangefinder so I was all in on my EZV.

This morning in gray light, I had a deer come in to about 30ish and fed under a white oak that is dropping and I watched the deer for about 5 minutes. One minute the deer looked like a full grown doe and the next a yearling. I haven't seen any trail pics or heard any of my buddies saying that they had seen young deer being pushed off by their moms yet, as our rut here isn't until early January. After a bit I was confident it was a lone doe without a fawn so I prepared to shoot. Just as I shot, the deer seemed to hop forward and then ran off about 10 yards and then just walked flagging its tail from side to side. About an hour later I got down and my arrow was embedded into the sand and had blood and not really much smell to it either. There was very little hair that appeared white on the arrow. There was no blood at the hit site, or down the trail the deer went after the shot. I grid searched the area for about an hour and was near some thicker cover when I heard some commotion another 30 yards inside. I tried to find a better way in and I heard it a second time and then quiet. When I finally got to the area I found the button buck, and the broadhead had clipped the blood vessels that run along the spine near the tenderloin. I never would have found it had I not heard that last gasp, as the blood only collected in the abdominal cavity while the deer was upright. It was a morning I'll not forget that's for sure. I will hunt the morning and then I am headed home. I will be back for at least another 5 days of hunting here during archery and then more during gun season.

Thanks for all the well wishes! I harvested this deer and will gladly use the meat, but I wish in a way that my shot was a bit off so that he was still out there....but what's done is done and I'll learn from it as I continue to grow as a archer.
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In regard to your pursuit of "that 1 deer" that I'm assuming you mean as an older buck in the area, I've always found that when I'm chasing that kind of deer, I usually see far less deer. This is especially true after the early season. Whenever I'm targeting does it's common for me to see a bunch of does and younger bucks. Sometimes an older buck will get mixed in. When I'm putting myself in spots for that one old buck, I seldom see handfuls of deer. Honestly, I prefer it that way. If the caliber of buck I'm targeting comes in then there's less eyes and noses for things to go wrong.
 
35 degree drop in temps from yesterday, mid 70s last several days TO 39 degrees currently. Suppose to be 31 next few nights too. Pouring rain last 24 hours, suppose to stop by 2pm, heading out now hoping to be set up ready with decoys when the rain stops!
 
NO DICE for me! Did a couple sets with the decoys. It is ALL or nothing, I'm gambling on a big buck with my Buck Doe decoy set. Rattling, bit of calling too, but mostly Rattling and visual out in an open spot. I'm thinking of switching to just a Doe in the coming days, we shall see. When bucks come into a set up, it is the ultimate rush in deer hunting by far for me in the last decade. Going to a completely new area I scouted last year. The State has some food plots there, several in a huge public area. They've added 4-5 fields this year too, so there sure to be something with some fresh buck sign.
 
Kevin2 said:
NO DICE for me! Did a couple sets with the decoys. It is ALL or nothing, I'm gambling on a big buck with my Buck Doe decoy set. Rattling, bit of calling too, but mostly Rattling and visual out in an open spot. I'm thinking of switching to just a Doe in the coming days, we shall see. When bucks come into a set up, it is the ultimate rush in deer hunting by far for me in the last decade. Going to a completely new area I scouted last year. The State has some food plots there, several in a huge public area. They've added 4-5 fields this year too, so there sure to be something with some fresh buck sign.
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You're right on the deer coming into a decoy. Got one for the first time last year and the very first time I used it I had a buck come in to it. It was a deer I wasn't interested in but I wanted to shoot him just for the show he put on. Pinned his ears back. Bristled up. Sideways walk. It was freaking awesome!

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Yep, awesome. I like the action, but the fact that you fooled them VS you just where in the right place as they came by, is the best part. I called in a buck from several hundred yards away with a doe bleat, he was harassing a group of does on the neighbors, he finally turned and came staight to me in the dense thicket I was in the middle of. Once he saw the decoys it was the 2nd act that ICED him. Wasn't the biggest buck, but my favorite bow hunting memory by far. I will say this, it taught me about how hard you can blow on a call! He wasn't responding at first, so I continued to call LOUDER! WAAAAYYYY Louder! When he finally turned, I was blowing as hard as I could on that thing! NO WAY anyone would have ever thought to blow that hard to bring in a buck! L O L

The set up was so dense, I got skirted by several deer over a couple year period I decided to put the decoys out.

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hokiehunter373 said:
You're right on the deer coming into a decoy. Got one for the first time last year and the very first time I used it I had a buck come in to it. It was a deer I wasn't interested in but I wanted to shoot him just for the show he put on. Pinned his ears back. Bristled up. Sideways walk. It was freaking awesome!

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Was in the stand by 3pm AND never saw OR heard a thing. Dead silent, perfect wind for this new spot. BLANKED! Decoys never had a chance!
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I went out yesterday and tried it again. I had some work to do first thing but when that was done, I headed out to scout for some fresh sign. I found 3 spots that were good. Two were very good sign wise and so I decided to sit the best of those two. This spot consisted of a narrow draw with white oaks growing on the hillsides. It is sort of a tough spot to hunt because the deer bed up top and drop down in the evenings to feed. I very slowly eased in there and climbed up the back side of a pretty large diameter tree situated in the draw that was surrounded but white oaks. I had to climb high last night to get to the cover, and also get reasonably high up in relation to where I expected the deer to be. I climbed until I was where I wanted to be and thankfully, I got there just as my 30 foot pull up rope said, "no more!". I got settled in and waited.

The white oak acorns were dropping as the evening cooled off and a couple of squirrels skittered around gathering acorns. No deer were seen. I guess I picked the wrong spot after all. I'll be giving those other spots a try soon.

Our white oaks have just started dropping here and the red oaks have been very hit or miss. It has been tough to find fresh feeding sign. Hopefully things are about to get better.
 

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Apparently the night before my hunt turned into a mandatory date night and daughter had gymnastics Halloween party.

So up til 2am with a 2:30am alarm set.

Didn’t think I could stay awake and drive safely for the 1hr 20min drive so just went to sleep and missed morning hunt.

Gonna head out to the woods about lunchtime.


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I am sitting on a white oak ridge that is covered in acorns and rubs. The sign was decent and the weather is perfect. I got setup and settled in about a half hour before daylight. About 30 minutes after daylight, I had squirrel hunters blasting away on the ridges on either side of me. Here’s the view from my saddle this morning.
 

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Hossmiller said:
I am sitting on a white oak ridge that is covered in acorns and rubs. The sign was decent and the weather is perfect. I got setup and settled in about a half hour before daylight. About 30 minutes after daylight, I had squirrel hunters blasting away on the ridges on either side of me. Here’s the view from my saddle this morning.
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Sounds like you are on good sign. Sucks about the squirrel hunters coming through. I had that happen to me the first day, first sit on public land. I got in before daylight, set up on a good spot and about 30 minutes past daylight these two guys came through blasting away. A little disgusted, I just shrugged and sat back. They never saw me. About 45 minutes after the tree rat hunters left 2 does came out and started munching acorns. One took a ride in the truck.
 
Another single bevel through the offside shoulder

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I can’t figure out how to rotate it and all my icons disappeared.

I set up in the pouring down rain at a spot that I scouted in September. It worked nicely because I could slip in quietly. I was on the east side of a thicket with an off wind blowing just passed the thicket. Around 9 o’clock a doe came running through. I would have taken a shot but she didn’t slow down enough. Less than a minute later a buck shows up at the transition line and I believe caught a little swirling wind of me. It was too wet to check. He was stomping and looking around so I knew I didn’t have much time. I judged it for just under 40, put the 30 just above centerline to compensate for the angle and alertness. It looked like a solid pass through while quartering to. I got down a while later and looked where I shot him there was good blood but I couldn’t find the arrow. I knew right where he crossed the creek and when I climbed the bank on the other side , I could see white belly 40 yards out. It turns out the arrow went in right at the front right shoulder and was hanging out of the back left leg, lung shot. I’m using 2 blade fixed heads because of penetration issues with mechanicals in the past. Everything happened so fast and I didn’t get the best look at him to determine whether he was a shooter or not. I could only see the good side and I could tell that it was out passed his ears. I wonder if he had his ears at a different angle when I was judging him. I’m happy with it either way.
 
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