Luke E.

Sounds like you had a good hint like I did this morning. I saw 3 bucks and 12 doe and there were never more than 2 together. They came from every direction. 2 of the doe were a set of this years twins that I've been watching travel with mama but I guess someone orphaned them because she never came in with them this morning. I stay til almost 11 and I reckon I'm going to head back out as soon as my phone charges.

I believe it! I used to love sitting all bundled up in my climber on cold mornings. My knees are in such bad shape that I can't hardly get my climber out of the tree after I sit in the 25 degree or less temp for a few hours.

     I never did understand the reasoning behind the hyper sensitive doe conservation. I mean, I understood the surface reasoning but if one was to have put about 2 more seconds worth of thought into it they would have realized that it doesn't work that way. I remember always hearing them say that it was okay to shoot doe during archery and muzzle loader seasons but that it was bad to shoot the during gun because they were potentially bred. My question was, if John Smith kills 3 doe this year does it make any difference whether he kills them during archery before being bred or during rifle after being bred? Either way those 3 doe will not be birthing lil' ones so my answer is that the end result is the same therefore it makes no difference. One could argue that since, as I pointed out earlier, the number of rifle hunters is far greater than any other but I don't know of anyone that shoots 3 doe per day just because it is permissible. Not to mention, the hunting had gotten sorry as could be because the ratio was so lop sided in the doe's favor that the bucks never really had to expose themselves in order to satisfy that primal need. Either way I'm glad they changed the rules, at least in the region I'm in, to allow doe to be taken.

More people hunt with rifles that anything else by far and used to you weren't allowed to shoot for with a rifle. If you wanted meat then you killed whatever antlered deer you saw. I'd say a lot of folks pull the trigger as soon as the first does shoulders clear brush so a lot of these bucks aren't being sought after.

     I've had that happen before with a lot of young bucks. I ended up killing some of them instead of doe just to try getting the ratio back right. It was on family land in Florida and there is a couple thousand acres or so owned by relatives that is all connected. The heavy buck to doe ratio was a common theme for everyone that hunted anywhere on the land so I knew it wasn't just be happening to be in a spot that I was missing the doe but seeing the bucks. It's hard to feel confident in doing that unless there is a whole lot of acres and it is that way everywhere. I've hunted some property where the bucks were really thick but almost never saw a doe and then the next tract over would always have fields full of doe. I suppose seeing mostly bucks isn't a bad problem to have unless you're trying to grow the bucks and hunt doe for meat. Good luck with it.

     Get him a wig and one of those fake glasses/nose/mustache combos. Maybe then the deer won't recognize him ;) When he finally gets the chance I'd say that will make you forget about the time it took to beat his bad luck,,,

I don't know what weather canal you watch but mine said cold not cool. IMO there's no such thing as nice and cool. There's nothing nice about being cold!!       EDIT: Meant channel, not canal. Spell check was having fun at my expense again.

 Anyone have any luck this evening? I was going to go out but Tim came out to process his deer from last night so I stuck around to give him a hand with it. I heard 3 or 4 shots between 3:30 and 5:00 and for a Wed evening that was more than usual. Thought maybe they were moving heavy?

I did almost the same thing Monday evening. I got out of the blind and was walking down the road I had the 4wheeler parked on and there it was about 5-10' from the 4wheeler. Of course it ripped through the bushes blowing as loud as possible to endure everyone else knew something was wrong. If it had been daylight I could have shot if it was a big enough buck but it was dark enough that I was using a flashlight.

 I Got excited about Tim's buck and didn't even mention my hunt. I ended up with 12 doe and lil' ones in the plot I was in. I also heard antlers clashing and trees and limbs getting broken up not to far from me but even though all the doe were watching that direction with extreme caution causing me to hold onto hope, nothing with antlers ever came out. I did enjoy getting to watch the lil' ones push, shove and play so I was content. Hopefully I'll be able to get back out tomorrow evening.

Yea it's one of the deer that I told you I wasn't sure about shooting because him having such a nice rack for a 2.5 year old deer. The rack is a decent size but he didn't have much mass. I would've have shot him if I'd been in the same situation with him running across the plot. I was glad he got him though! Nice deer.

Timthetoolman came out to hunt today because I figured the deer would move ahead of this front. I've had one of the bucks that I posted earlier in the thread coming through a food plot at about 4:30 each evening so I dropped him off there. A shot rang out at almost 4:30 on the dot followed by a text that he got him.

Dang, buddy. I hate that happened. Better a clean miss than a poor hit though.

Well hopefully you can find something around there. Is you were closer to me I could get you hooked up with one of the farmers around here.

     Much better than losing one I reckon.

   I would imagine that this would be a common issue when hunting public land and the closer to the parking areas the worse it would be. I have been very fortunate to not have to hunt public land but would rather do so than do without. How does that work in the morning? seems like you'd have people walking all around and underneath you as they head out. Seems like they would have designated areas or something

I hope that your going to help turns into finding that he didn't miss and has a nice deer.

That really sucks, Dave! I can't imagine getting together a group of 15 to hunt deer.... especially for a morning hunt where it's like cockroaches scattering and waiting for first light to figure out if more than one of you are in the same damned tree! You just can't fix stupid... How close to the parking area were you?

The pictures don't really do it justice. It's tall enough, with room to spare, for me to stand up all the way against the back wall. It's pretty wide too. I'll take you down to it one day.

Here's the pics,

   I sat in the blind for 30-45 minutes before I started walking. I feel very confident that I didn't jump him because I would have seen him anywhere in the first 300 yards or so before I would have jumped him.   I lost sight of him about 5yds from where he was hit at which time he jumped the fence on the property line. I looked for 45 minutes before I found the first blood and it was a bright neon pink with fat and tissue all in a few clumps but all of it was within 3' of the first drop. The next blood was found (another 45 minutes to an hour) about 100 yards away and no where near in line with the directions that the first blood was headed. After this point the deer was walking (judging by the tracks I was seeing) and eventually the sign looked as if he was just casually browsing along. There is no reason that I should ever found anymore blood after this because there was so much distance between blood and again, it was found no where even close to where the last blood would suggest to look. He would travel along and then make a 120 degree turn and then eventually turn again. The first blood was found on top of a hill heading down the hill towards my right and then the 2nd blood was also found down that way. I looked and looked for more blood in the area and had no luck but I hiked back to the top and about 200 yards down the other side just to look. I stopped to catch my breath and was leaning against a tree when I looked down and saw another chunk of tissue and blood. How did he get 3-400yards on the other side of the hill with no sign showing that he'd done it? Anyways, the blood went on for about 15 yards (only 5-6 drops and chunks of tissue) and then completely vanished again. I walked all over that hill side until I felt like I was going to collapse and finally I told the man upstairs that I sure hated to lose this animal and needed some help and that's when I looked down and about an inch from my right boot was blood and tissue which yet again was no where near the last blood and and no where near the trail that it was on. This was the longest string of blood yet and I thought that just maybe he'd be at the end on this trail but nope... and that was the last blood I found. I shot the deer about 20 minutes after daylight and aside from the few minutes taken to eat lunch I searched until 2:30-3:00 at which time I had looked every where that I knew to look. Not having blood or any kind or sign to follow coupled with hundreds and hundreds of acres to search left me with a decision and considering there were 20-30' rock bluffs the really weren't anymore places to look that made any sense. I may not be great at a lot of things but I am excellent at tracking deer but I met my match this go around. On a brighter note I did find some cool places down in a couple of those hollows including an old spring fed waterfall that I mention above. I will post pics from my phone as soon as I post this.

I just gave up about 30 minutes ago. I rode the 4 wheeler down the road and came through the neighbor's side. I rode the spring bed and looked over both sides really well and then went back to hiking. I found a really cool waterfall/cave type thing that I never knew was there before so I'll post a few pics of that as well. It's spring fed and has some of the best ice cold water running over. I'm waiting on Ruger to get here to head back out. Hopefully there will be something there to put on a show like this morning. Good luck fellas!

Well this morning started off really well, just after daylight I had 3 doe come in to browse. About 10-15 minutes later a little button buck cruised in with a new found attitude and next came a spike and next came a really nice 2 1/2 yr 8 point. They were pushing, shoving and butting heads, boy was it funny to see that lil guy with bumps on his head try to get in on the action but they kept pushing him aside. I wasn't going to shoot anything until in walked in a buck with twisted up antlers. I've seen him on my cameras a few times and decided that I'd cull him if I got the chance so I stuck the smoke out the window and let him have it. It smacked just behind the shoulder in the lungs and he cringed and I thought for sure he was going to drop right there. I thought wrong! This all happened right after daylight and I've been tracking every since. Blood may be 75-100 yards between drops. I'll hit a spot where I'll find 4-5 drops in a 10 yard string but then it disappears. He's running in anything but a straight line so when the blood runs out I might take 30 minutes to find more. I finally got to a spot that the blood seemed to be starting to flow but then it dried up again and I have found no more since. I'm not sure what to do but it eats me up to not find one.

 I asked the license guy about this the other day and he gave me the same answer TWRA gave to you. 

Look out at the moon and let it make the decision. According to a 20+ year on going study this years rut should be hard hitting with the best mature buck hunting falling between the 9th and the 19th. Rutting activity has seemed to start earlier than they would suggest though so I'm thinking Saturday morning should be great especially with the moon so large tonight. I talked to an aquantence this afternoon and he said he saw 4 doe and 8 bucks this morning between daylight and 10:30 so I'd say your chances will be peak this weekend.