2020/2021

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InstinctiveArcher
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2020/2021

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

This thread has been kind of dead this year.

Being a college student unfortunately doesn’t leave me a ton of time to get out in the woods (without really sacrificing grades), so whenever I get the chance to head out for a morning or an evening I really enjoy the time I get to spend out in the woods. Last night was one of those nights, and after finishing up a few assignments I headed out to a property that I’ve done most of my hunting on. It was a really nice afternoon, right around 40, and the sun was shining. There was still snow in spots, but the majority of it had melted. When I got to the property, I realized that the wind was blowing the wrong direction for the spot that I wanted to sit, so I decided to go into an area that I had hunted a few years ago. There was plenty of deer sign, but no really well defined trails, so it took me a while to find a spot that seemed like it would allow me to cover where the majority of the sign was.

I had just decided on what tree I wanted to sit beside when I heard a crash to my north. A second later a doe and fawn ran through with a decent 6 point hot on their heels. This was the first rut activity I had seen this year, so that got me pretty excited. I settled in and watched them run back and forth a few times, never getting any closer than 150 yards. Eventually they worked off to my north and I never saw them again.

Maybe an hour later I heard another deer walking, and soon was able to see a small buck working down through the woods in my direction. As he got closer I could see through the binoculars that he was just barely a 4 pointer. I really didn’t know where he would walk since there were not any well defined trails, but he ended up walking right up to me and passing about 5 yards to my left. I kept waiting at any second for him to turn and look at me, but he walked right through without ever knowing that I was there. Having a buck that close on the ground sure is exciting! He continued on behind me until I couldn’t hear him anymore.

Around 6:30 the wind died down and it was absolutely silent. After a while I could hear deer moving around in front of me. The frosty leaves were really crunchy and it made it easy to tell where the deer were coming from. Soon the crunching got louder and it sounded as if the deer were running right towards me. Soon a big doe followed by a fawn came running down the same trail the small buck had taken earlier. Instead of walking right up to me like the little buck did, they turned and walked broadside to me at 20 yards. After they had moved off a little bit, I could hear another deer walking on the same trail that they had just taken. I had seen a doe with two fawns down in that area earlier in the evening, so assumed it was the second fawn. As I was looking down the trail trying to see what was walking, I heard a grunt that didn’t sound fawn-like at all. I slowly got my bow up and set to draw, but still couldn’t see the deer. Finally when it sounded like the footsteps were right on top of me, I saw the buck coming down the trail. I couldn’t believe it when I realized that was the buck that I had been hunting this property for. He was taking the same trail that the other deer had taken, and I hoped that he would follow the doe and not take the trail that the smaller buck had taken earlier. As he went through some bushes, I drew, but he saw me right as I hit anchor. What followed was a 30 second staredown which felt like about 10 minutes. Finally he turned as if to follow the doe. As soon as he went broadside I released the arrow. He was already a bit on edge from seeing me, and when I released, he ducked and spun hard away from me. By the time my arrow got there, his neck had moved to where his chest was, and it zipped right through it. He took 2 jumps and started looking around. In the fading light I thought that I missed him, and was quietly trying to get another arrow nocked. That’s when he turned slightly and I saw blood pouring from his neck. I knew right away I had hit the jugular, and within 10 seconds he started to sway, stumbled once, then flipped over backwards. Within 20 seconds he was done. I made a few excited phone calls and soon had a buddy on the way to help with the drag. I had had pictures of this buck during late august, and had had a close encounter with him earlier this fall at a different location. It was really cool to finally put it all together. He’s got some great character. Bug holes on both sides and a small droptine on the right.


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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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xOEDragonx
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Re: 2019/2020

Post by xOEDragonx »

(We would be in the 2020/2021 season correct? We should probably start a new thread and hopefully keep it arrive.)

Congrats IA! I love a deer with character to it's antlers, that's the only thing I really miss in this game. The Truracs aren't bad at all, especially compared to other game options out there but I miss those holes, broken tines, drop tines, spilt tines and all that. It's awesome that you were able to take a deer that you've been watching and targeting for a while. Nothing better than having before and after pictures of the same animal. I'd love to see trail cam pics of him if you have any.

I took a bear last week, maybe I'll try to post a story later. But my deer season is only just beginning here. I got a picture of a buck back in August that I'd love to cross paths with this coming weekend. I've only gotten one fuzzy picture of him since in September, but I know he's still alive and around since another guy hunting the same property has still been getting pictures of him very close by. Here he is:

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Re: 2019/2020

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Looks like a good buck. Hopefully he walks in front of you. Congrats on the bear. Had a couple of buddies shoot bears up here this year. Next year I'll be able to draw a tag.

Here are some pictures of him from earlier this year. Some of them are kind of grainy. I think that I had pictures of him last year as well but I'm not certain. If not, they were definitely related.

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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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Re: 2019/2020

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Guess I forgot to update this again, but I was fortunate enough to finish the year with two bucks. It doesn't happen like that very often! I don't feel like typing the whole story up again, so here's the entry from my hunting journal of that day. :lol:


Well, here it’s here once again. Opening day of Michigan’s firearm deer season. The biggest holiday of the year. Across the state, thousands of eager hunters are putting on their blaze orange and heading to the woods with an anticipation rivalled only by a kid on Christmas morning. It’s a special day, and as I drove out to the woods, I smiled at the thought of people all across the state doing the same exact thing that I was doing.

This year the weather for opening day was less than ideal. Across the state gale force winds and rain was predicted, and further north by us, rain snow mix. In general, miserable conditions to hunt in. If one had a heated blind, then it would have been bearable, but for someone who hunts old school such as myself, sitting next to a tree on a stool with no blind, it wasn’t going to be a pleasant day. I arrived at my spot well before daylight, 2 hours early to be exact. I wasn’t sure how busy the public land would be, and I wanted to make sure that I got to my spot before anyone else did. As the wind rocked the car and rain pelted the side, I realized that I was probably going to be the only one crazy enough to be out hunting this morning anyways. Opening day has traditionally been an all day sit, and I had plenty of snacks packed for the day. I was just hoping that my clothes would stay dry.

Around 6:30 I began the walk in. Shooting light didn’t start until 7:11am, but I wanted to be there a bit early. I couldn’t help but think how different this opening day was from last year. Last year it was cold and sunny, with 8 inches of snow on the ground. It felt like good deer hunting weather. This, windy and rainy weather didn’t feel right at all. Fighting my way through the wet briars, I finally arrived at the tree that I sat by last year. I got settled in and waited for daylight. When legal shooting light finally arrived, it was still so dark that I couldn’t even see. It was another 10-15 minutes before I could see well enough to shoot. It was only about 20 minutes after that when I saw 2 fawns go trotting through the bottom of the valley. There was no doe with them, which got me hopeful that she was off with her boyfriend and they might make a later appearance. A few minutes after the fawns went through, a small 4 point buck walked down the opposite hill from me and passed by about 60 yards out. I noticed he had a slight limp on his front right leg. Not sure what caused that. As I watched him walk away, I thought to myself maybe today won’t be so bad after all. Right after that it started pouring.

The next hour was uneventful aside from another fawn that trotted through on the same trail as the 4 point. Around 10:30 though I looked to my right just in time to see a decent buck walking up a valley away from me about 150 yards away. I had no chance for a shot, and by the time I got the gun up he had already walked out of sight. I was a bit frustrated but optimistic that he might come back. That is, I was optimistic right up to the point where I heard a rifle shot come from the direction he had walked about 10 minutes later. Maybe it was a different deer, but I have a feeling that some lucky hunter wrapped his tag around that bucks antler.

About the same time that I heard the shot, I noticed a doe and 2 fawns walking across the ridge directly across from me. They didn’t seem too bothered by the shot, and were feeding along normally, despite the rain and snow that was falling more horizontally than vertically. After they left, I just huddled deeper into my clothes and tried to stay warm and dry. I will say I was extremely happy with the new camo suit that I had bought that fall. Even after sitting out all day in the rain, it never leaked once. I was still cold, but that’s to be expected when you’re sitting unmoving for hours in the cold weather. My hand-muff which was keeping my hands fairly warm eventually got so wet that I had to wring it out every 10 minutes. It wasn’t very warm from that point on, and my hands were cold and wet after that. I only ended up eating one of my sandwiches since every time I tried to open my pack everything would just get soaked. I had draped part of my orange vest over my rifle to try and keep it somewhat dry, but even that was wringing wet by this point. There were several times where I asked myself why the heck I was still out there. As miserable as it was, I couldn’t bring myself to even consider going in to dry off. Around 2:30, the rain turned mostly to snow, and within an hour the ground had been transformed from brown to white.

At 3:45 I peeked out from under my hood and saw a large bodied deer running down the valley from my left. It had its nose to the ground so right away I figured that it was a buck. I couldn’t yet tell how big though. I quickly put the gun up but couldn’t find the deer in the scope. That’s when I realized that the end of the scope had completely filled with snow. I quickly wiped it out and put the gun back up. By this point the buck was directly across the valley from me and I could tell that he had a decent set of antlers. At this point, he turned and ran straight at me across the valley, then turned to go back up the direction that he’d come but on the opposite side of the valley. I knew that he wouldn’t hear me over the roaring wind if I tried to stop him with a grunt, so when he got broadside I yelled “HEY!”. He slammed on the brakes and looked up at me. The scope was fogged up, but I thought that I had a clear shot. The crosshairs settled behind his shoulder and I squeezed the trigger. The rifle boomed and as the deer took off, I saw a beech sapling tip over right where the deer had been standing. Through the fogged up scope, I had failed to see the small trees that were in front of the buck. My bullet had hit one of those saplings and deflected, hitting the buck lower and farther back than I wanted. The buck ran about 60 yards and just stood there not moving. I knew that my shot had not been good, and quickly tried to jack another shell into the gun. As I pumped the gun, I couldn’t believe it when the gun jammed. That gun has never jammed on me before. The buck was just standing there not moving. I was frantically trying to get the gun unjammed to finish him as quickly as possible, but it wasn’t going well. Between my hands shaking from adrenaline, my fingers being numb from the cold, and the metal on the gun being wet and slippery, I was having a tough time getting the shell unjammed. I was clattering things all over the place and still the buck just stood there unmoving, never turning his head to look at me or make any attempt to leave. After about a minute of this comedy of errors, I realized I could pry the shell out with my knife. I dug through my bag to find it, and it was with relief that I finally felt it in one of the pockets. I opened the knife and pried the shell out easily. I racked another shell in, and of course this is when the buck decided to walk over the ridge and out of sight. I took off running along the top of the ridge trying to get to where I could see the deer and get another round into him. Briar brush ripped at my clothing and tore bloody scratches in my hands but it didn’t matter. After I’d gone about 60 yards I saw the buck trotting over the next ridge about 80 yards away. I stopped and right as he crested the hill the crosshairs settled on him and I shot again. He fell instantly and it was all over.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I was shaking from cold and excitement all at the same time. I slowly made my way down to where the buck lay. His antlers had what I am calling 10 points if he hadn’t broken off his right brow tine. After paying my respects, I called my buddy Matt to get some help with the drag, then headed back to my tree and packed up my stuff. Rain and snow was still falling sideways, but I barely even noticed at this point. I had a beautiful buck on the ground and some more great meat for the freezer.

It felt good to get in the car and turn the heat on. The field dressing and dragging work had gone by fairly quickly, and as I headed back to Houghton I couldn’t help but think how fortunate and blessed I was to have the opportunity to harvest 2 beautiful U.P. bucks this fall. Especially in conditions as adverse as what I had sat through this evening. Thomas sat out all day as well, and despite putting in the time and toughing it out, all he ended up seeing was 3 squirrels. Dad and my brother didn’t end up seeing anything back home either. I heard of very few opening day success stories due to the nasty weather. Hopefully next year will be a bit better. Either way, I know where I’ll be sitting come sunup next year on November 15.

In the picture you can see the rain/snow blowing sideways against the trees. It was pretty miserable weather :lol:

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In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
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XxStrong1xX
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2020/2021

Post by XxStrong1xX »

Here is a little story about my recent success. As some of you know I grew up hunting but quit for most of my adult life, 2020 was my first year hunting in about 23 years. I didn't have any luck in turkey or deer season. So since my freezer was empty I decided to do some squirrel hunting for a couple of months after deer season. Here in Georgia you can shoot feral hogs on public land year round as long as there is some season open and you use the weapons that are legal for that season. So since I was mainly after squirrel I had my dad's old Marlin model 60 semi auto .22lr. with a little old cheap 4x15 scope on it. I got to the woods right as it was breaking daylight and walked in to an area I had hunted a lot during deer season and sat by a big old oak tree for about an hour. Saw one hawk fly thru but nothing to shoot at, so I walked over to a few other areas, walking slowly and stopping to sit by trees in good spots for a few minutes. The woods were pretty dead as it was a cold cloudy morning. I stopped to eat a snack just before 9am and heard one squirrel barking at me in the trees but I couldn't spot him. After leaving that spot and walking back towards the first spot I hunted I jumped 3 deer. By this time I am pretty discouraged that I can't even find a squirrel to shoot and laughing at how I have seen more deer squirrel hunting than I did the entire long archery and rifle seasons we have here. I checked a couple more spots and was thinking about heading home. I decided to go a little further up the road to a spot near a power line that I had hunted some during deer season and was mostly curious to see if a blind a hunter had placed there was still there or if he had removed it after deer season. I got there and the blind was gone. I sat down by a tree at about 10am. Hadn't been sitting there even 10 minutes when I see the back of something moving in the under brush about 50 yds away.I could see a tail wagging and thought at first it might be a coyote, but it wasn't moving like a dog. I stood up slowly to get a better view and saw that it looked like a pig. I saw he was alone but I was still a little wary of shooting him with the .22. If he had been a 300 lb boar I probably wouldn't have but since he was kind of small and I had a good tree I could climb right in front of me I decided to chance it. He way a little more than 40yds away and i raised the .22 to take aim. He stopped broadside but before I could fire he turned towards me and kind of cocked his head. I placed the crosshairs on the center of his left ear and fired. I was using really old .40gr hollow points and when it hit him he just fell over and squealed once and started kicking. I waited a few minutes then walked over to him. He was still kicking and shaking so I fired a couple more into his head to finish him off. This was the first pig I ever shot and the first animal I had field dressed in 23 years so I was a little rusty but I got it done. Dragging him out wasn't very much fun but I got lucky when I got to my truck and an older gentleman stopped and helped me load him up. It's funny how hunting is much like life and success sometimes comes when you least expect it.
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Last edited by XxStrong1xX on February 1st, 2021, 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 2020/2021

Post by xOEDragonx »

XxStrong1xX wrote:It's funny how hunting is much like life and success sometimes comes when you least expect it.
Truer words have never been spoken. While I'd like to say my success comes from years of experience or excessive preseason scouting and planning, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of my success stories are simply that an animal I'd never seen before found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can sit for for hours or days on end and never see a thing then in a matter of a minute or less the right opportunity could show up and it could all be over. Nothing quite gets the heart going like seeing a shooter of any species come into range.

Well done on the big squirrel, er... hog XD A squirrel hunting success story indeed. It's hard to tell from the picture itself, so how big was he?
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Re: 2020/2021

Post by XxStrong1xX »

xOEDragonx wrote:Well done on the big squirrel, er... hog XD A squirrel hunting success story indeed. It's hard to tell from the picture itself, so how big was he?
He field dressed about 60 lbs. Perfect eating size.

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