Rifle Season

[memphismason]

Well this stinks. Opening day of Gun season and I am at home sick.

So I am dying to hear how everyone did and see yall's pictures.

[Guest billwilly73]

Well I'll go first............I got up at 4 am and left the house. I arrived at my hunting spot at 4:45 The sun arrived about 45 min later.

About 6:30 I saw a spike, he was feeding and stayed around for about half an hour. I didn't shoot him because I know there is a big 8 point in the area and I was hoping he would show up and guess what.......

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

..

.

.

HE DIDN'T so I have no deer pics to share today maybe next time

[TNTitan]

im actually in the deer stand right now! (hows that for modern technology?) no clean shot opps yet.

dad and i saw a big doe hustle through early this morning... and then around 9am a 6 pointer came out into the field chasing a doe. they jumped around for a bit and she wasnt having any of it so he chased her in the woods....

waiting for something to happen before sundown!

[DaveS]

I'm stuck here at the Fire Department.....

[Guest Traumaslave]

0645, a large dark figure appears in my field. I wait until he gets out into the middle and has his head down to feed, he's about 65 yrds away. Cross hairs on target, I "squeeze" the trigger. As I look through the cloud of smoke I watch him pull a big U-turn and stops on the same line just 20 yrds closer to me. I put those hairs on him again and "squeeze" the trigger, again. He runs off. I spent almost 2 hrs looking for blood and didn't see a drop. Probably won't see another the rest of the week. Wondering if I should waste my time and sleep. Don't know what happened. Every time I have taken this rifle out it has shot close enough to where it should that I didn't even think about it.

[Guest clutepc]

im actually in the deer stand right now! (hows that for modern technology?) no clean shot opps yet.

dad and i saw a big doe hustle through early this morning... and then around 9am a 6 pointer came out into the field chasing a doe. they jumped around for a bit and she wasnt having any of it so he chased her in the woods....

waiting for something to happen before sundown!

Need some help on that 15 acres..

I'm glad to hear they are still active and chasing the doe around, I was curious if that had stopped already.

Edited November 21, 2009 by clutepc

[Guest clutepc]

I was out first thing with my bow this morning, honestly it was odd in the woods today, didn't hear many birds and didn't see a thing but a ground hog and few tree rats..

Heard a few shotgun blast around different areas of the lake so someone was seeing some deer.

It was almost like there hadn't been a deer in the area in weeks, of all the times I've been there which is a lot I can only remember maybe 3 times I didn't see anything, trying again tomorrow in the rain, may the weather change will get them out, I want to fill a doe tag or two if possible before Thanksgiving.

One thing I did hear this morning was someone firing a gun on full auto and then going to 3 shot burst and back to full. I don't think they allow full auto at the Hobson Pike gun range but they were dumping some rounds wherever they were.!

[Guest Jcochran88]

Well I hunted this morning , busted 3 does on the way into my stand. And then .....nothing but squirrels and 50 or so turkeys. It has been really weird on my farm this year. Usually there is a ton of buck sign and we see bucks every time we hunt. Not so this year we are struggling to find any sign or just to see does during shooting hours. I don't know but I think the 3 doe a day thing has helped reduce the numbers in our area.

[Guest KarlS]

Well this stinks. Opening day of Gun season and I am at home sick.

The same. Nothing like packing cough medicine in the woods. I gave up! Been a disastrous year so far. Between two BAD winters in row and coyotes our deer herd is desimated! A buddy and his partner found a deer skeleton 7ft up in a pine tree. That's how much snow we've had. Check in stations have only put in 247 deer for the whole county!

[Guest Fenris]

I was home sick today, too.

Hopefully midweek I can get out there.

[tbuford]

I am home sick now...sick that I got up so early only to be surrounded by cows having a block party...called it a morning around 10 and went back at noon until dusk...squirrels, turkeys...thats it...a very odd feel to the farm today....

[Guest Traumaslave]

I just came in this AM. Tree rats and birds are all I saw. Don't know that I really expected much after about 1/2 a dozen shots in the area yesterday, not to mention my 2.

I agree, yesterday was odd. I don't remember hearing any birds, at all.

[Guest JustMyLuck]

Saw absolutely zip on opening day. In my area, the deer haven't been moving much for the last week or more. I'm starting to believe we are going to have a late Rut.

Took Sunday Off.

JML

[ShaunM]

Starting my vacation tomorrow so I will be in the woods all this week.

[Handsome Rob]

Went down twards Tracy City yesterday. Sat in a clear-cut from 12 'til dark & didn't see a thing. Heard someone else having a pop, maybe a mile off & heard a buck chasing on the other side of a bluff, but he went the wrong way to give me a shot. Hardly even seen a deer so far this year ???

[TNTitan]

dad got one this morning.

[gregintenn]

I saw a lot of deer this weekend. My little boy went with me yesterday. He shot at two small bucks. If' he hit either, I couldn't find any sign of it. This morning, I saw several does, a couple of small bucks, and one decent buck. Of course, a good shot on the larger buck did not materialize. It's been a good weekend nontheless.

[Good_Steward]

Doe, Doe, Doe, Doe. I had 4 of 'em walk right up on top of me around 9am. No buck in sight before I was rained out.

[Guest clutepc]

sounds like everyone else's day went about like mine..just odd how quiet the woods are..just birds and squirrels..

I did see a Cat and hear a Turkey Gobble,, then of all things later today coming back from shopping, I turned down our street and there is a turkey running down the street, we normally don't see any wildlife around here.

the hen followed my truck until it was two doors down from my house, I got out my turkey call and made a few hen clucks in the back yard.. she ended up walking around the neighbors house and came right to me.. If It was right I'd of had my bow ready and I'd be cleaning turkey right now but .. I let her walk.. crazy crazy weekend...

Edited November 22, 2009 by clutepc

[DaveS]

Well, I know it's not the youth hunt, but my little 7 year old Grandson got his first deer today. A big doe taken at 55 yards with his little youth model .308. Dropped her where she stood...don't get no better than that!

[Rightwinger]

Dang guys. I thought it was going to be horrible! I am walking down the logging trail to my stand when I hear blowing and crashing as at least 8 deer run out of the bottom that I'm getting ready to cross to get to the ladder. There is blowing going on the hill to my left and the hill across the low area to my right so I just get off the trail, pick a big tree to lean against and hope something stays till light. One of them walks around 20 yards in front of me stomping and blowing for 20 minutes and I can't see a thing!

Daylight and nothing is in view. About 6:40 a spike goes wandering by after I grunt a few times. Then I hear the running coming down the hill opposite me and a doe hits the low spot and crosses in front of me from right to left. Sure enough, not 10 seconds behind her comes the big boy. At least a wide 8 so I wait for him to hit the first clear lane in the trees and give him a "yarp" to stop him. He does. As I raise the Socom to bear, the doe that I have forgotten about, who also stopped sees me bring the rifle up and blows. Just as I squeeze I see him turn and I miss. (confirmed by a check since I had to go down there as you will note later in the long hunting story). Now I am ticked. I'm stuck sitting on the ground when 100 yards away is a nice ladder stand but everything I have seen so far would be a long shot from it so I stay. The big boy of my season has gotten away from a stupid doe busting me and I can't find the shell casing for my somewhat unique rifle. Well I let things calm down and go to hitting the grunt again about 30 minutes later.

I buck comes down the same hill on the same path as big boy did earlier. I have leaned forward to rest a hand on a tree and get a good steady base and dial up to 8x on the scope. He' s a 6 (more later) and has stopped to look around, probably smelling what came out of big boy when he left in a hurry earlier. He looks great in the scope, not moving, about 80 to 100 out so not a easy shot but I'm zeroed at that range. Set the cross hairs on his front left shoulder as he is quartering me just a bit and POW. He is DRT. Now, he is dear right there but there is down a nice forested grade that my 4 wheeler at the top of the hill can't get all the way down into. I go check on him and to see if I had any markings of a light hit on big boy only to discover that while he is actually a 9 pointer, he looked like a 6 because his rack spread is only 12 or 13 inches. Buck Fever boys....like I told my brother, he looked good through the scope and my brother says what you got on your rifle a Hubble?

Okay, he will eat just fine, he just should have walked another year or two. I was sad that he was below what I had set as a personal limit but I got him with a good long shot.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that. Pics when I skin him out tomorrow if anyone wants to laugh with me.

[Climber]

I had a similar thing happen to me yesterday Rightwinger. I was holding out for something with at least 20" beams. I had just let a decent 6 and 8 pointer walk when I hear something off to my right. I saw a nice buck about 80 yards away and he looked like a keeper without me putting my scope on him. I put the scope on him and thought I had a new state record. I steadied my savage .30-06 and squeezed off a round and dropped him in his tracks. When I walked up to him, his horns had miraculously shrunk but a good buck nonetheless. He had 18.5" beams and weighed 185lbs. Not bad for a 3 year old buck. He would have been a hoss in a few more years.

Good luck everyone! My year is starting off good.

[Rightwinger]

I'm having an engraving on my scope.

"WARNING OBJECTS ARE SMALLER THAN THEY APPEAR"

Could relate to many things in my life it seems!

[KahrMan]

Rightwinger, Cograts on the buck! Looking forward to the pics.

[Guest clsutton21]

I was out fencing and heard some rustling in the woods. I figured it was a deer or something and just continued working. As I began to hammer, I heard crashing in the woods and turned just in time to see a large buck, with a spread twice as wide as his shoulders jump off through the trees. No idea about the points, there were a lot of branches. I wasn't really hunting, but I figured I could say what I saw.