2013 white tail hunting pictures and experiences.

Nothing this morning. Went to a different stand this afternoon. Bumped one out on the way in and rattled one in 15 mins after sunset (in Mass) By the time it got under me I could not see it well enough to see how big it was, horns etc even though I still had 5 mins of legal time left.

Try again next week after the rains go through...
 
Daytona440 said:
Novice hunter here. My first season of deer hunting has not started well. Been scouting locations for weeks now getting ready. My hunting partner goes out today. As he was packing up to leave after a number of hours with no success and he was greeted by some scumbag hunter threatening him with "a F$*%ing beating" for hunting in "his spot." This spot is private property (location verified by GPS) and we have written permission from the land owner. The land owner also told us that we are the only ones who he has granted permission to. We've already counted probably a dozen illegal stands on the property...

I was really hoping to find a community of good, responsible and ethical hunter who would welcome a newb and impart some knowledge...so much for that..
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Careful with people like that. We've had jackarses cut partially through ratchet straps on our tree stands in order to get the message across. People never cease to amaze me.
 
exojam said:
Looks like a hell of a day in Ithaca NY. Congrats!
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It was awsome. Using the 20ga 870. The doe was a 150yd shot!! I gut shotted her unfortunately. Tracked after finding blood. Was dead 300yds into the woods. Destroyed the liver. Sitting the dark on the edge of bean field. Looking for more. .. waiting for daylight. ..

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
 
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I'll be hanging a new stand today and a camera near the scrapes I found. This week will be cooling off so I hope we see more movement.
 
Duck hunting yesterday with two buddies on a tidal river surrounded by marsh and thick woods, a 4-pointer comes out of the woods and walks to the water's edge. We watch it for a minute, it probably heard us talking and it darted back in the woods. A few minutes later we were firing at some ducks passing by, and no more than 2 minutes after that the same 4-pointer trots out of the woods again, looks in our direction and crosses the river (coming to the side of the river we we on, no less) Rut makes these boys do some stupid stuff alright.
 
Finally, after 9 days out I connected with a nice little 3pt. Spiker yesterday morning. 105lbs. Good eating! I think another hunter bumped him right out too me. Tough 65 yd shot through thick brush.
Sore today after a long drag out.

image.jpg
 
Got out to my stand late yesterday morning. Heard a deer approaching fast. Fumbled getting my release on and knocked the nock off the string. By the time I recovered and looked up, he'd passed me. Was well within 20 yards. In hind sight, I should have made a grunting sound to try and stop him. The bright side is that he came right along the path I'd set up on. Was a buck with antlers, but was so rattled I didn't have much of a chance to look at him. Hope I get another shot at him this season!
 
Spent the last 4 days in the woods, plenty of sign but no deer. Not sure where they were hiding because I covered just about every inch of 47 acres
 
Boghog1 said:
Spent the last 4 days in the woods, plenty of sign but no deer. Not sure where they were hiding because I covered just about every inch of 47 acres
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Amen to that. Fresh trails. Fresch scat. No deer. I'm beginning to get a complex.

Tried for a hail mary in Hopkinton this morning. New spot. Not much scouting but have seen plenty of tracks there historically. Got there early. Picked out a comfortable tree, put out a wic and hunkered down. No love.

I may have to rethink some of my locations/times.

Fitz
 
Anybody going out tomorrow morning? Looks like its going to be 60ish and rainy. I took Monday and Tuesday off so I'll definitely be out but was wondering if guys think an all day sit would be a waste of time with the conditions.
 
Yesterday and this morning no luck. Was overlooking a field when I heard doe bleating behind me over the hill. Bout 10AM did a search for sign and finally found the trail they are running from where they bed down out to the swamp. Tuesday should be better.

Needs to cool down, this warm weather and rain sucks
 
New stand is all set. Trees are trimmed and I even made a quick ground blind with the limbs. Just have to add a couple pegs to make it easier getting in and out. Trail cameras have new batteries and cards. Used a stick and buck urine in the 2 scrapes I found, made a 3rd near my old stand. I have until next Monday to do nothing but hunt. Good luck everyone
 
southshore said:
Anybody going out tomorrow morning? Looks like its going to be 60ish and rainy. I took Monday and Tuesday off so I'll definitely be out but was wondering if guys think an all day sit would be a waste of time with the conditions.
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This time of year I'm sitting all day. I'd keep an eye on the rain forcast. Any break in the weather should get them on their feet.

Ive seen them move in light rain, but down pours not likely.
 
turbo38gn said:
It was awsome. Using the 20ga 870. The doe was a 150yd shot!! I gut shotted her unfortunately. Tracked after finding blood. Was dead 300yds into the woods. Destroyed the liver. Sitting the dark on the edge of bean field. Looking for more. .. waiting for daylight. ..

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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Turbo,

Were using slugs in the 870 (just assuming since the distance you stated).

I have tried a few slugs in my fathers Winchester 1200 but cannot find any that pattern well, depending on the size and weight they are either all high left or low left. I am not sure if I will be able to find any that work since it is a full choke barrel, smooth of coarse.
 
Boghog1 said:
Spent the last 4 days in the woods, plenty of sign but no deer. Not sure where they were hiding because I covered just about every inch of 47 acres
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Boghog1,

Were you in that area that you showed me?

I had went back over there a little over a week after you showed it to me and there were trails everywhere but I only saw turkeys. As you saw by my way of travel I could not get back down into those trails as I wanted to and had to sit on the field - woods line and hoped they came out.
 
went out from 4:30-11:30 this morning with adam and nicole. we heard something near us before sunrise, no dice on that. we took a break and nicole got out of the tree stand for a minute, we had "lunch" and wouldn't you know no sooner had we put the food away did a buck sneak up on me.

situational awareness failure, i got ambushed by a deer! he came up at my back behind the tree i was propped up on about 50' away, came to within 25' and that was when i heard him and saw nicole motioning DON'T TURN AROUND! she had a bead on him and followed him as he walked perfectly around us, no idea we were there, and she ended up not being able to get a shot. i couldn't turn around the tree and get up in time to get a shot myself, woulda just scared him off.

first time out hunting and i didn't **** up their hunt, and i at least saw a buck. made it to 11:30 and it had started to rain a bit so we packed it in. %30 because of the rain, %70 because i'm a pussy and that was all the cold i could handle for the day, even with two layers of socks and foot warmers the cold managed to make its way in and was wiping me out. german flecktarn works good in the woods, i just need better clothing underneath and better boots.
 
atilla said:
went out from 4:30-11:30 this morning with adam and nicole. we heard something near us before sunrise, no dice on that. we took a break and nicole got out of the tree stand for a minute, we had "lunch" and wouldn't you know no sooner had we put the food away did a buck sneak up on me.

situational awareness failure, i got ambushed by a deer! he came up at my back behind the tree i was propped up on about 50' away, came to within 25' and that was when i heard him and saw nicole motioning DON'T TURN AROUND! she had a bead on him and followed him as he walked perfectly around us, no idea we were there, and she ended up not being able to get a shot. i couldn't turn around the tree and get up in time to get a shot myself, woulda just scared him off.

first time out hunting and i didn't **** up their hunt, and i at least saw a buck. made it to 11:30 and it had started to rain a bit so we packed it in. %30 because of the rain, %70 because i'm a pussy and that was all the cold i could handle for the day, even with two layers of socks and foot warmers the cold managed to make its way in and was wiping me out. german flecktarn works good in the woods, i just need better clothing underneath and better boots.
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You saw more than most of us have recently.

So it sounds buy the clothing comment you may be heading out again at some time which is good.
 
my apprentice license is good until 12/31, and IIRC firearm season is done here before then--so i have the rest of the season. definitely need to do something about footwear and just increase clothing overall. i threw on underarmour and layers and then the flecktarn, which both adam and nicole said was very effective in the woods.

can't have it all be for nothing freezing my balls off today--i'm gonna be back, deer. i'm going to turn one of you into dinner.
 
Thursday morning while still hunting out to my spot where I had seen a buck Wednesday evening, a four pointer come crashing over a ridge behind me. Slowed up about 20 yards from me, right behind a small cluster of trees that I couldn't shoot through. Aimed just beyond the trees, hoping he'd walk right into my shot. Ended up turning 90 degrees and walking directly away from me while behind the trees. Only thing I saw the rest of the day was another hunter (Google later helped me determine that he's a cop in town) who walked over to me at 3pm and told me the property owner didn't want anyone else but him (the cop) hunting the property. Property is just under ~100 acres. Something about the owner being concerned about liability and safety with more than one hunter on the property. He's (property owner) has obviously never been out in the woods on public land in So. NH during firearms season. Needless to say I'll be stopping by the owner's house in the near future to ask for permission, though I'm not particularly hopeful. The property is 6 lots away from me, we've been neighbors for 28 years, and I even went to school with his kids. Hopefully we can work something out.

Took my girlfriend out on Saturday. She has an apprentice license this year and can't go out on her own, so she has first dibs on a shot when we're out there. Fifteen minutes in a doe walks right in front of me, heading towards my gf who is about 20 yards away, so I let her walk right on by. Waited for the shot... silence! Gf said she couldn't get a clean enough shot that she was comfortable with. We'll be out again later this week.

Saturday morning at 11:15 my persistence finally paid off. This guy walked in from behind me, stopped at 10 yards and gave me the stare down. He finally started to walk away, and I dropped him at 30 yards. Good thing I had cell service in the woods because in the moment I forgot everything I had read/watched on youtube about field dressing a deer! He's already sitting in my fridge, only thing left is boning out the rear quarters and trimming the scraps for grinding. Pretty psyched about getting my first deer, and looking forward to introducing some extended family to venison this Thanksgiving!

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atilla said:
my apprentice license is good until 12/31, and IIRC firearm season is done here before then--so i have the rest of the season. definitely need to do something about footwear and just increase clothing overall. i threw on underarmour and layers and then the flecktarn, which both adam and nicole said was very effective in the woods.

can't have it all be for nothing freezing my balls off today--i'm gonna be back, deer. i'm going to turn one of you into dinner.
Click to expand...

To be honest I am not a fan of UA stuff. The only thing that I have not had to re-sew is my base layer shirt. The gloves and jacket have had so much stitching come out it is not even funny. I have finally got pretty much all merino wool base layers (Minus33) now with some pants and a jacket from Bass Pro (both water and wind resistant). For the socks I have some Wigwam and just received some Carhartt artic wool socks that I have yet to try.

My problem is since I cannot feel my legs or feet I have to wait until I come home to see how they handled the cold. I believe with the new socks and some foot warmers I should be all right in most temps.

- - - Updated - - -

Congrats Metalcowboy.
 
Took Thursday off from work, have a permanent stand built about 100 ft into the woods behind my house. (on 11 acres). About 8 am I had a small deer come up from downwind(my stand is 16' off the ground) and he obviously winded me. Did the 5 minute staredown, then he relaxed and actually walked right under my stand. Decided to pass on him, had spikes, but looked to be only about a 90 pounder. Had kind of a small head, have made that mistake before (ground shrinkage, ie: get down of the stand and realize the deer is WAY smaller than it looked from the stand). He's about 30' from the base of the tree, and I can swear he's whispering "shoot me". Couldn't resist the easy shot, need some venison for the freezer, and I have 2 more zone M tags. Took the shot, I can see blood spewing from the entry wound. He runs about 100' and collapses. Gutting him, the whole top of his heart is gone, don't know how he ran that far. Ended up weighing in at 115 lbs, F&G guy at Massabesic aged him at 1 1/2 years old.
 
exojam said:
Turbo,

Were using slugs in the 870 (just assuming since the distance you stated).

I have tried a few slugs in my fathers Winchester 1200 but cannot find any that pattern well, depending on the size and weight they are either all high left or low left. I am not sure if I will be able to find any that work since it is a full choke barrel, smooth of coarse.
Click to expand...

I'm using Hornady 20 Gauge 2-3/4" 250 Grain SST Sabot Slug in a rifled 18" deer barrel.... it's a sweet little gun I bought for my wife a few years ago when we went out for the 1st time... she's staying in the hotel smoking cigs, reading a book by the pool... it's our anniversary today, so she compromised with me.. [grin] As for the distance I put my range finder on the shot, I was shocked to see the distance at 150yds.. but heck, at 100 yds at the range last week I was on target... That bullet went right through the deer, took out the liver and more..

here's a link to it...... http://www.remington.com/en/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-express-slug.aspx

Just did a little research and got some good reads and reviews... many guys report 100 plus kill shots with the slug... some not so good.
 
Checked around a couple of my stands for sign today and ended up pulling 4 ticks off me when I got home and pulled 1 off the top of my ear yesterday. All 4 were definitely deer ticks. Not sure if the ticks are more active due to the warm weather or if its because the deer are moving around but make sure you check yourself well.
 
atilla said:
went out from 4:30-11:30 this morning with adam and nicole. we heard something near us before sunrise, no dice on that. we took a break and nicole got out of the tree stand for a minute, we had "lunch" and wouldn't you know no sooner had we put the food away did a buck sneak up on me.

situational awareness failure, i got ambushed by a deer! he came up at my back behind the tree i was propped up on about 50' away, came to within 25' and that was when i heard him and saw nicole motioning DON'T TURN AROUND! she had a bead on him and followed him as he walked perfectly around us, no idea we were there, and she ended up not being able to get a shot. i couldn't turn around the tree and get up in time to get a shot myself, woulda just scared him off.

first time out hunting and i didn't **** up their hunt, and i at least saw a buck. made it to 11:30 and it had started to rain a bit so we packed it in. %30 because of the rain, %70 because i'm a pussy and that was all the cold i could handle for the day, even with two layers of socks and foot warmers the cold managed to make its way in and was wiping me out. german flecktarn works good in the woods, i just need better clothing underneath and better boots.
Click to expand...
Pretty cool that you got to see a buck your first time out. Some guys hunt for years before they see one.
 

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