2014 rifle season pics, keep the pics from your stand and trail cam pics coming too!

[Luke E.]

 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.

[reed1285]

Any luck reed?

 

Not until it was time to get down. Thats how my luck usually goes. Hadnt seen a thing and it had got to dark to shoot. So I hook my gun to my tether and start lowering it to the ground. It gets about halfway to the ground and I hear some commotion to the right of me. I look up and can just barely make out the back end of a deer running away. It wouldnt have done me any good anyway cause it was too dark to shoot. I just barely could make out that it was a deer. I couldnt tell if it was a buck or a doe either. It was by itself whatever it was. Maybe next time!

[tercel89]

I was out of the woods by 7:15am Saturday. There was a group from East Tennessee that was parked every where and one of the said there was 15 in their group that came to hunt. At daylight orange, was obviously the color of the day! Someone came in on me about 40 yards to my left rear. I tried getting their attention with my flash light, but that failed. At about 6 he shot a doe, climbed down, took her backstraps and left. Needless to say, I was pretty PO'd!

 

So, I stayed at home today. I will wait and hunt during the week when the Yo Yo's are at work or at home playing X-Box or went back to East Tennessee.

 

Dave

So he took out her backstraps/loins and left the rest of the body to rot ? 

[rugerla1]

Not until it was time to get down. Thats how my luck usually goes. Hadnt seen a thing and it had got to dark to shoot. So I hook my gun to my tether and start lowering it to the ground. It gets about halfway to the ground and I hear some commotion to the right of me. I look up and can just barely make out the back end of a deer running away. It wouldnt have done me any good anyway cause it was too dark to shoot. I just barely could make out that it was a deer. I couldnt tell if it was a buck or a doe either. It was by itself whatever it was. Maybe next time!

Been there done that! Good luck on your next hunt!

[Luke E.]

Not until it was time to get down. Thats how my luck usually goes. Hadnt seen a thing and it had got to dark to shoot. So I hook my gun to my tether and start lowering it to the ground. It gets about halfway to the ground and I hear some commotion to the right of me. I look up and can just barely make out the back end of a deer running away. It wouldnt have done me any good anyway cause it was too dark to shoot. I just barely could make out that it was a deer. I couldnt tell if it was a buck or a doe either. It was by itself whatever it was. Maybe next time!

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.

[Luke E.]

 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?

[rugerla1]

I'm headed back out in 5 he morning for 3 hours before I have to go to work. Maybe that 6 pointer will come sniffin around again! Gonna be nice and cool in the morning.

[Luke E.]

nice and cool .

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.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Luke E.

[tercel89]

Yesterday the wind was blowing too much here in Montgomery county . I'm gonna try it again today . I did hear around 6 "booms" around me in a 1 mile diameter . Maybe I dont smell good . 

[jimic]

Maybe ill have some luck this evening

With a view like that..........Looks like you are lucky already !!!!!

[10-Ring]

I hunt Wilson County and have my whole life. I've seen more bucks than does this year. First time I've ever had that happen. I'd say about a 3:1 ratio. Anyone else had this observation?

[KahrMan]

Took my nephew out yesterday afternoon.  Man it felt a lot colder than it actually was for some reason.  All we saw were 21 turkeys that walked right by our blind.  I really want to help get my nephew his first deer but man, he is bad luck.  Every time I take him we see nothing.  lol

[Luke E.]

Took my nephew out yesterday afternoon.  Man it felt a lot colder than it actually was for some reason.  All we saw were 21 turkeys that walked right by our blind.  I really want to help get my nephew his first deer but man, he is bad luck.  Every time I take him we see nothing.  lol

 

 

 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,,,

[Luke E.]

I hunt Wilson County and have my whole life. I've seen more bucks than does this year. First time I've ever had that happen. I'd say about a 3:1 ratio. Anyone else had this observation?

 

 

 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.

[gregintenn]

I hunt Wilson County and have my whole life. I've seen more bucks than does this year. First time I've ever had that happen. I'd say about a 3:1 ratio. Anyone else had this observation?

No, I haven't noticed that, but I have noticed that the bucks seem to be getting better with each passing year. I'm seeing more mature bucks, where I used to only see 1.5 year old bucks. The change in harvest limits and seasons seems to be working well.

[Luke E.]

No, I haven't noticed that, but I have noticed that the bucks seem to be getting better with each passing year. I'm seeing more mature bucks, where I used to only see 1.5 year old bucks. The change in harvest limits and seasons seems to be working well.

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.

[gregintenn]

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.

It takes a while to change public mindset. For years, we were trying to conserve the does in order to increase the population. That idea was kind of hard to turn loose of; at least for me it was.

[Wingshooter]

I'm looking forward to hitting the woods this weekend. Unfortunately, I don't get to hunt much, but the benefit is the deer aren't pressured much on my land. Lol

Wow, did it get cold or what...

[Luke E.]

It takes a while to change public mindset. For years, we were trying to conserve the does in order to increase the population. That idea was kind of hard to turn loose of; at least for me it was.

 

 

 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.

[reed1285]

I'm here to tell you boys it was COLD on the mtn in Marion Co this morning. Still no luck.

[Luke E.]

I'm here to tell you boys it was COLD on the mtn in Marion Co this morning. Still no luck.

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.

[gregintenn]

 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.

I'm not sure of your age, but if you go back a bit further, there were very few deer in Middle Tennessee. Here, it often got mentioned in the local newspaper if someone claimed to have seen one. I'm not sure about juvenile season, but otherwise, I don't believe you were allowed to kill a doe at all at one time.

 

By the time I began deer hunting, well over 20 years ago, they were in the midst of a restocking program, and the population was beginning to grow. I hunted several seasons without ever seeing a single deer.

 

The thought was that one buck could service many does. The more does, the more potential fawns, which in turn grew the population.

 

Aside from a nice buck, I actually prefer to take a doe now, because they are at near maximum capacity.

[TNMTBik3r]

Saw 9 does and 4 bucks - pretty sure the one buck I saw twice so make it 3 bucks. He went into the one ridge point and came back out 30 minutes later.

Didn't have a shot at any of them unfortunately. The one buck seemed to be a monster, he was on the far side of the field (250 yards) and I could see antler without any optics. The other was a good size 7 point and the last buck was a small 6 that I would have let walk anyway.

I was hoping something would have kept walking my way but wasn't happening. I broke my buck/doe call this morning pulling it out of my pack so have to go buy another. I think with a working call I could have pulled one in range.

[Luke E.]

Saw 9 does and 4 bucks - pretty sure the one buck I saw twice so make it 3 bucks. He went into the one ridge point and came back out 30 minutes later.

Didn't have a shot at any of them unfortunately. The one buck seemed to be a monster, he was on the far side of the field (250 yards) and I could see antler without any optics. The other was a good size 7 point and the last buck was a small 6 that I would have let walk anyway.

I was hoping something would have kept walking my way but wasn't happening. I broke my buck/doe call this morning pulling it out of my pack so have to go buy another. I think with a working call I could have pulled one in range.

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.

[reed1285]

going to try again in the morning, good luck to all you other guys goin too