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Team 7 Thread

I was able to donate last night's deer to a program through the University of Illinois called Hunters Feeding Illinois.

It's a non-profit program where they pay the processing fee and all of the meat goes to food pantries across Illinois to feed those in need.

Pretty neat program.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
I was going to head for camp this afternoon but I can't currently get out of my driveway. They've been doing sewer upgrades since July and picked today to start prepping the road bed for pavement. Guessing the garbage isn't going anywhere either. :tearsofjoy:

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Cross the dirt, through neighbors yard, out ya go!

BT
 
HaunSolo said:
I was able to donate last night's deer to a program through the University of Illinois called Hunters Feeding Illinois.

It's a non-profit program where they pay the processing fee and all of the meat goes to food pantries across Illinois to feed those in need.

Pretty neat program.
Click to expand...
Alright @HaunSolo, that did the trick. +5 points for team 7 for your second buck! Now we need the story!:)
 
boyne bowhunter said:
Alright @HaunSolo, that did the trick. +5 points for team 7 for your second buck! Now we need the story!:)
Click to expand...
Well my wife was going to see the in-laws and we both agreed it would be better if I went hunting instead.

It was raining a bit and my brother was going to setup in the area where I shot the buck a few weeks ago. He canceled because his wife had him tied up so I decided to setup there instead. I was just hoping to see something. A doe came in and busted me around 5:30. Last light was 6:12 and this guy came out around 6 and slowly worked his way to me. At first I thought he was a smaller deer and then as he got closer he just kept looking bigger and bigger. Right around last light I decided to shoot him and he turned out to be bigger than I thought.

He was slightly quartering to me. I hit him right in the vital V. He ran nose down hard with his tail down. When he got out of sight I heard a crash.

I'm shooting Magnus stingers. There was almost no blood except for at the impact site and it was bright pink and bubbly. I found my arrow broken off about 10 yards from impact and I got maybe 10" of penetration. Due to the lack of blood I decided to start searching where I last saw him run and found him within a few minutes. In total he went ~40 yards.

My arrow had went through the vital V area and lodged in his offside leg/shoulder. It appeared his offside leg was broken.

I felt bad for my brother. Had he hunted that night that buck would've walked right past his stand.

He field dressed around 160 and I rough scored him at 134" gross and 129 net. He's one of my biggest bucks. None of his tines are extremely tall but the tall brows, good mass, and 18" spread helped him out.

I am a blessed man.
 
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Yesterday was not a day for the light hearted. We woke up yesterday am with winds gusting @ 50mph. There had been no movement on the cameras so we all go back to bed. I wake back up at 10am, and get the breakfast burritos going. I didn’t even think to look at the camera footage. Our farmer buddy comes by, and says he’s seeing bucks on their feet everywhere. We eat breakfast, pack up for a full days hunt, and head out.

There is a Cedar thicket that I absolutely hate hunting had 3 good bucks on daylighting on camera every day since we had been there. I was very reluctant to go into this spot. I’ve spent more time in this particular tract than anywhere else out here in previous yrs. I knew there was good sign, but it’s THICK. There is only one tree I knew I could hang in, for the north wind we had. It was a Cedar we took a hang on out of the yr before, because I was the only one that hunted in this thick hell hole, and I always hunted out of a saddle. With my head held low, regretting my choice I head for the woods.
I get dropped off at the highway, I walk the edge of the corn field to where I pop into the cedars. As I do, I see a deer flag, and hop 5-6 times. I drop to my knees (so I can see under the cedars) scan the thicket for several minutes. I don’t see any other deer so I stand up to sneak in the remaining 30yds to the tree I need to be in. I happen to look south, and there is a monster buck standing 15 yds away behind a bunch of cedar limbs looking dead away from me. The wind is blowing 20 from the north, he’s dead south…why hasn’t he winded me? I pull my release out slowly, and put it on. I then knock an arrow. The deer still hasn’t flinched. He stands there so long not smelling me I’m starting to questions whether or not my buddies were playing joke on me with a decoy or something. I put my range finder up to examine more, and I see an ear twitch. I have no shot through the cedar limbs. Assuming he is going to turn, to go where the other deer went so I find a gap. Well when he decides to leave he halls tail that direction, and he never presents a shot. I’m so shook up it takes me 10-15 mins to be able to climb up the tree I’m getting in. I finally climb up the cedar limbs like a kid, strap in, and set my platform. The whole time I’m regretting not trying to move to get a shot on the monster I just saw.

Once I get settled in I realize this place is thicker than I remember, and I only have 3 shooting holes out to about 15 yds. The wind is swirling. I’m really disgusted now. I lay the Nose Jammer on thick. I used about a whole can. I figured that’s the only chance I have at killing a deer in this spot tonight. Five minutes later a 1.5 yr old 8 pt walks directly under me from South to North. I can tell he’s smelling the nose jammer, but not me. He walks by continues on his way, and I’m saying to myself I may be ok. Three does come through without catching my wind, and I feel pretty confident now. About 5 pm, a really nice 8 walks under the tree, looks up and sees me. He bolts. He was a shooter, but I wasn’t going to shoot him after seeing the monster I saw walking in. I see nothing else for an hour and 1/2. The wind had died down, and I can hear a deer coming from the North. The place is so thick, I have my bow in my hand, ready to draw. I see his body, and it’s huge. It’s got to be a buck. Then his antlers come into sight. I see 5 on his left side. I draw back, he steps into the lane at 12 yards. I stop him, and cut loose. The buck hauls ass with his tail tucked, and I can see 1/2 my arrow sticking out. From the time I put my release in my D loop to the time I shot may have been 5 secs. It happened so fast, I didn’t know what I shot, I just know he was a big deer with tall tines.

Since I saw at least 1/2 the arrow sticking out of him I was extremely worried about the shot being to far forward. I climb down, and head back to the cabin. We give him 2 hrs, then sneak back in. We see the lighted nock about 50 yds up the trail he ran down. I couldn’t see it in the daylight. We get to the arrow, and there are 2 specs of blood on the ground. We look around for about 30 mins, and find no blood so we back out again, and go back to the cabin.

After a sleepless night, my farmer buddy and I go back in there. We followed some trails the direction he went, and never found a speck of blood. I’m heart broke. I call a dog tracker, and we talk for a while. He was of the opinion, I hit him high in the shoulder, and he was still alive. He offered to come the following day because he had two more tracks to do today. I decided to just get everybody to go back in one more time, and grid search. We make it all the way to the property line with no blood what so ever. All of a sudden my buddy hollers for me to come over to the fence line. The buck is laying 15 yards across the property line dead in the tall grass.

He made it 185 yds from the stand without leaving a drop of blood. I get over to him, and I realize it’s the monster I had 15 yds away on my way in to the tree. Man what a heck of a ride I’ve been on the last 24 hours. It’s been an awesome trip, and I sure am happy to get my hands on this one!

I did not get saddle pics, but I have 1000 posts so I should be good to go. I apologize, but with all I had going on today I completely forgot about it.
 

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Way to go @shmelton . That's a freaking tank! Thanks for sharing the story, camp night entertainment. You're good automatically with the 1000 posts so no issues.

I had some excitement myself today. I had 6 deer go by this morning at close range (4 does, a fawn and a small buck chasing one of the does). Then tonight in a different spot I had a guy walk in and setup 70 yds away despite my whistles. Didn't matter, I had two small bucks milling around for about an hour. Then, with about 10 minutes left in legal shooting hours the guy got down and started walking out. That's when the deer parade started. I had at least 3 bucks chasing I'm guessing 5 does around me. With 5 minutes of legal time I had a big bodied buck come grunting up stop in my shooting lane. I was at full draw but couldn't tell what he was. There's antler restrictions here so I had to let him walk. Rut is on boys!!!
 
Fellas I think I may have figured out the uploading problem. All the pics I tried to upload today were “live” pics. I had to take screen shots because the “live” pics were to big. Try taking a standard pic and see if it will upload next time.
 
shmelton said:
Yesterday was not a day for the light hearted. We woke up yesterday am with winds gusting @ 50mph. There had been no movement on the cameras so we all go back to bed. I wake back up at 10am, and get the breakfast burritos going. I didn’t even think to look at the camera footage. Our farmer buddy comes by, and says he’s seeing bucks on their feet everywhere. We eat breakfast, pack up for a full days hunt, and head out.

There is a Cedar thicket that I absolutely hate hunting had 3 good bucks on daylighting on camera every day since we had been there. I was very reluctant to go into this spot. I’ve spent more time in this particular tract than anywhere else out here in previous yrs. I knew there was good sign, but it’s THICK. There is only one tree I knew I could hang in, for the north wind we had. It was a Cedar we took a hang on out of the yr before, because I was the only one that hunted in this thick hell hole, and I always hunted out of a saddle. With my head held low, regretting my choice I head for the woods.
I get dropped off at the highway, I walk the edge of the corn field to where I pop into the cedars. As I do, I see a deer flag, and hop 5-6 times. I drop to my knees (so I can see under the cedars) scan the thicket for several minutes. I don’t see any other deer so I stand up to sneak in the remaining 30yds to the tree I need to be in. I happen to look south, and there is a monster buck standing 15 yds away behind a bunch of cedar limbs looking dead away from me. The wind is blowing 20 from the north, he’s dead south…why hasn’t he winded me? I pull my release out slowly, and put it on. I then knock an arrow. The deer still hasn’t flinched. He stands there so long not smelling me I’m starting to questions whether or not my buddies were playing joke on me with a decoy or something. I put my range finder up to examine more, and I see an ear twitch. I have no shot through the cedar limbs. Assuming he is going to turn, to go where the other deer went so I find a gap. Well when he decides to leave he halls tail that direction, and he never presents a shot. I’m so shook up it takes me 10-15 mins to be able to climb up the tree I’m getting in. I finally climb up the cedar limbs like a kid, strap in, and set my platform. The whole time I’m regretting not trying to move to get a shot on the monster I just saw.

Once I get settled in I realize this place is thicker than I remember, and I only have 3 shooting holes out to about 15 yds. The wind is swirling. I’m really disgusted now. I lay the Nose Jammer on thick. I used about a whole can. I figured that’s the only chance I have at killing a deer in this spot tonight. Five minutes later a 1.5 yr old 8 pt walks directly under me from South to North. I can tell he’s smelling the nose jammer, but not me. He walks by continues on his way, and I’m saying to myself I may be ok. Three does come through without catching my wind, and I feel pretty confident now. About 5 pm, a really nice 8 walks under the tree, looks up and sees me. He bolts. He was a shooter, but I wasn’t going to shoot him after seeing the monster I saw walking in. I see nothing else for an hour and 1/2. The wind had died down, and I can hear a deer coming from the North. The place is so thick, I have my bow in my hand, ready to draw. I see his body, and it’s huge. It’s got to be a buck. Then his antlers come into sight. I see 5 on his left side. I draw back, he steps into the lane at 12 yards. I stop him, and cut loose. The buck hauls ass with his tail tucked, and I can see 1/2 my arrow sticking out. From the time I put my release in my D loop to the time I shot may have been 5 secs. It happened so fast, I didn’t know what I shot, I just know he was a big deer with tall tines.

Since I saw at least 1/2 the arrow sticking out of him I was extremely worried about the shot being to far forward. I climb down, and head back to the cabin. We give him 2 hrs, then sneak back in. We see the lighted nock about 50 yds up the trail he ran down. I couldn’t see it in the daylight. We get to the arrow, and there are 2 specs of blood on the ground. We look around for about 30 mins, and find no blood so we back out again, and go back to the cabin.

After a sleepless night, my farmer buddy and I go back in there. We followed some trails the direction he went, and never found a speck of blood. I’m heart broke. I call a dog tracker, and we talk for a while. He was of the opinion, I hit him high in the shoulder, and he was still alive. He offered to come the following day because he had two more tracks to do today. I decided to just get everybody to go back in one more time, and grid search. We make it all the way to the property line with no blood what so ever. All of a sudden my buddy hollers for me to come over to the fence line. The buck is laying 15 yards across the property line dead in the tall grass.

He made it 185 yds from the stand without leaving a drop of blood. I get over to him, and I realize it’s the monster I had 15 yds away on my way in to the tree. Man what a heck of a ride I’ve been on the last 24 hours. It’s been an awesome trip, and I sure am happy to get my hands on this one!

I did not get saddle pics, but I have 1000 posts so I should be good to go. I apologize, but with all I had going on today I completely forgot about it.
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Great deer and a great reminder that high winds don't keep deer from moving!

Where did you end up hitting him? What broadhead were you shooting? I've had terrible blood trails on my last four deer but I've found every one of them.
 
HaunSolo said:
Great deer and a great reminder that high winds don't keep deer from moving!

Where did you end up hitting him? What broadhead were you shooting? I've had terrible blood trails on my last four deer but I've found every one of them.
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I was shooting a 100gr Shwacker mechanical. The angle was extremely steep. I shot him high just behind the shoulder, and we dug the broadhead out of the bottom of the off side shoulder. He never bled due to the high entry.
 
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