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Team 2 Thread
- Thread starter redsquirrel
- Start date
Have you been out in this heat any more this week bigburner?? 1 more week til I'm in a tree and the 10 day forcast shows a high of 70 low of 50 for saturday so its looking good 
I debated hard on Friday but much cooler temps and rain next week. I have a few fail safe doe spots so no worries on thar end but winds are going to be favorable to sneak in on that monster and give it a shot early next week. I kill him and I may hang it up for the season :lol:
Bigburner said:
Yea you are right, this week was brutal. I set up 3 more new trees in secondary spots so at least I was productive. Next week is looking good, and the following week is looking even better.
You kill that buck and beers are on me!
Hunted w/ Murphy tonight the guy with bs law. I decided I was going to put a move on a bed tonight. I left work at 1pm had 1.7 mi. Bike ride and a nasty hike to the tree. My bike broke after I just fixed it on Sunday so i ditched it and walked 1.5 mi to my entrance point. I mired through green briar and thick cover in the rain. I was doing alright and spotted a doe feeding around about 50 yards out and had to lay low. I gave it sometime but got blown out not 30 yards from my intended set. I pretty much new I was screwed b/c the buck bed was about 100 yards away. I set up anyhow b/c I had about 2.5 hours until dark. Pretty much burned that spot. My gps batteries died on the way to the main access road from the tree in the dark. You get turned around in my area quick. Hiked around 2 miles back to the truck in the pissin rain. Earning it every year.
Not familiar, who is that?Bigburner said:
That sounds like a tough hunt. Too bad it didn't come together. I've had hunts like that where it just everything goes wrong. No pain, no gain right? It will make it that much better when you bag a big one!
I have learned the hard way too... but always carry extra batteries! I don't like wandering around the woods in the dark! Everything looks the same lol
BTW congrats on 100 posts!
Doe down guys! Story later. Gotta take care of business and Dvd22783 is coming to hunt with me tonight. I'm after bucks now!
Bigburner said:
Thanks! I'm working on it! Pic officially posted on entry thread!
Could have been a 17 point night. I could have killed a doe at 17 yards on the ground sneeking into my set but the fawn who popped out of nowhere to nurse gave her a pass. I had about a 30 min. Encounter with a three yro that i could have smoked @about 5 yards but he wasn't the droid was looking for. Sorry for the star wars reference. Awesome night a great confidence booster! Incantation hunt 2 morennights this week. I'm stoked......
Bigburner said:
Awesome! Definitely a confidence booster! I put my second night in a row in on a bed hunt but got skunked again. I am finding the toughest part is getting in quiet. There has been a light wind the past 2 nights and the leaves are very crunchy. I've been taking it super slow, like 45 minutes to travel 200 yards, but it is tough because I don't know if he hears me coming. Then again I don't know if he is actually in the bed or if he just went another way. Just gonna keep at it and keep learning, but for my next bed hunts I am going to wait for a stronger wind to help cover that up.
First nice buck encounter of the year tonight. I was hunting the North side of a ridge near a point with a south wind. I didn't have a specific bed I was hunting in this spot but I knew there was bedding close by. I had 2 huge does and a fawn come by at 6:30, and then just at the end of shooting time I had a big deer come out and walk 15 yards by the tree. With the canopy it was way too dark to shoot at that point, I've been calling it quits about 10 minutes before legal quitting time most nights this week. As he was walking by I could see a decent rack on his head but it was too dark to get any details. I got stuck in the tree waiting for him to leave, he hung around eating acorns for a 1/2 hour, I could hear crunch crunch crunch. I think he was gone by the time I left and I didn't bust him on the way out that I know of. The wind is supposed to be the same except lighter through the night and into the morning so the plan is to get back in that tree well before light and hope he comes by on the way back to the same bed. It is worth a shot at least.
I went out last night to help a friend recover a nice 3.5 yro 8 pointer that he arrowed at last light. He wasn't sure of the shot b/c he couldn't get him stoppedn@ 25 yards so he led it and took a chance. We found 2 drops of blood in the tall grass next to the standing corn field he started freaking but we walked in the woods not 30 yards from his arrow and perfect heart punch blood everywhere. Probably about 120". I was stoked for him. We cleaned it and drug it out and got it back to the house at about 10:30. Hoping for a karmic boost
Awesome! Congrats to him!
I bet that really got your blood flowing!
I hit that same spot this morning but only had 1 doe come by. Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for. WNW wind at 13 mph. Perfect wind for most of the beds that I have found and at 13 mph it should help me sneak in there undetected. The spot I'm choosing is one of the best I found in the winter on the SE side of this ridge. I backtracked a huge track in the snow into this bed and it was freshly used and covered with turds. When I went back in the spring to set it up it was still covered with turds and definitely being used. I'm 150 yards from the bed with a little knob of rocks in between us so I can get in without being spotted. Temps are gonna be in the low 60s as a high. I am super pumped for this sit tomorrow!
I bet that really got your blood flowing!
I hit that same spot this morning but only had 1 doe come by. Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for. WNW wind at 13 mph. Perfect wind for most of the beds that I have found and at 13 mph it should help me sneak in there undetected. The spot I'm choosing is one of the best I found in the winter on the SE side of this ridge. I backtracked a huge track in the snow into this bed and it was freshly used and covered with turds. When I went back in the spring to set it up it was still covered with turds and definitely being used. I'm 150 yards from the bed with a little knob of rocks in between us so I can get in without being spotted. Temps are gonna be in the low 60s as a high. I am super pumped for this sit tomorrow!
Team 2 is back on top! 9 pointer down tonight. Long drag out. Hopefully I can walk tomorrow, I feel my back tightening up already... lol (it was worth it )
Story and pics tomorrow, I gotta be at work in a few hours already...
)Story and pics tomorrow, I gotta be at work in a few hours already...
Bigburner said:
Have you been getting out? Seeing anything good?
Ok, so Tuesday I had a spot in mind based off of the predicted wind but I'm checking the wind before I leave work and its completely different so I need a new plan. I look at the map and the way its blowing is perfect for blowing my scent away from the bedding area in one of the trees I picked out over the winter in a county park I have a permit to hunt. I was pretty stoked to try out my overcenter buckle on my first on the fly hunt of the year so I said lets do it. I get to the tree and start going up with my sticks, and whoops, its leaning a bit, I should have gone up the other side, oh well. I'm almost up and I hear crunch crunch. A small Y comes by me at 20 yard and I just stay still. He looks at me and although not too spooked decides to walk the other way. So I continue up and get my platform on, and yes this overcenter buckle is the way to go. I get everything setup and I see a tail flick at about 50 yards to my right. A doe and a fawn are coming in to my hard right so I spin around and get in position (I need to shoot does in this park to maintain hunting privileges). They end up going up the hill but the only shot presented on the doe at 20 yards is when she is facing straight away so I let her go. I watched them feed on acorns for a while and then move on. About 6:30 I see a buck coming and he goes and feeds under the same tree as the doe and fawn. I make a mental note that maybe I should setup closer to that tree tomorrow. He is only a Y or a small 6 so I'm watching him and he starts to make his way behind me I just hung still as he went behind me and as I'm looking forward I see a shooter come out of the bedding area I'm setup by. Now at this point the wind has either switched and is blowing from me to him very slightly or the thermals are just pulling the air down, but its very light. This buck is walking straight towards me and the other buck that went behind me walks right over to him and I end up with these 2 guys standing in front of me at 12 yards with the big one facing right at me. He looks at me but I'm in the middle of 2 trunks so I'm blending in pretty well. He looks around a little bit and then I see him start sniffing the wind and I figure since I did sweat a bit setting up the thermals must be pulling some scent to him. He turns and they are both facing away so I draw back. He bounces off another 10 yards and stops, quartering away and looks around. I lined my 20 yard pin up with the off shoulder and let it flight. I see the arrow hit and my first thoughts are that is lined up perfect in the vitals but it looks a little high. Ok but he didn't drop so I didn't get the spine so it must be in the vitals. I can see the arrow sticking out of him as he runs off and the lighted nock is a huge help for seeing him and noting landmarks as he passes. When he got about 70 yards away he made a turn and I can see that more than half the arrow is in him for sure, so my next thought is I bet the arrow hit the off shoulder and stopped. He goes over a little point and down into some thick catbriars and I think I hear him go down but I'm not sure. I said ok I'll give him a 1/2 hour before I get down, go pack my stuff out and get some better tracking boots on and by then it'll be an hour and that should be good. Got out to the truck, got permission from the park police to go back in to recover him after dark. I'm not expecting a great blood trail because I don't have an exit hole but when I get to the spot where he was standing I find some blood and I'm able to follow it pretty easy for about 70 yards to where I saw him turn. At that point I found a spot where it looked like he was turning down hill so I figure that is where I saw him turn and I start looking around and for 20 minutes I can't find anything. Ok, back up to the last blood. Hmm, what's going on? I don't think he went this way but lets look over here... oh ok here is a small spot. Ok he should have gone to the right of the tree right?? Nothing nothing nothing. Lets look on the left. Ahh there is some more. More, more more, ok now he's starting to bleed. I hit the edge of the catbriars and as he enters the thick stuff there is blood all over the leaves at his chest height. He goes over 2 huge logs and there is blood all over. He goes through some catbriars that I have no idea how he did it, I still have thorns in my hands now lol. And there he is about 20 yards into the catbriars AWESOME!!! I'm so pumped!! Now the work begins and after field dressing I had a couple hundred yards uphill to go and then almost a mile out a trail to the truck. After dragging less than halfway I said heck with this and hiked back to the truck to get my game cart. He is probably somewhere around 140# dressed. By the time I get him loaded up on the truck it is almost midnight. Got him home and into my coolbot deer cooler in the garage (this is why I built this!!) and finally into bed by 2. It was a long day at work on Wednesday and then off to the taxidermist after but it was all worth it!!
I'm on doe patrol now until our permit bow season starts in November!
I'm on doe patrol now until our permit bow season starts in November!
