2018/2019

Discussions, Stories, Hints & Tips about everything outdoors. Biking, Hiking, Fishing, Shooting, Camping etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
gas56
Outfitter
Posts: 4340
Joined: April 4th, 2014, 12:51 pm
Location: Ohio
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by gas56 »

xOEDragonx wrote: "I had the pleasure of partaking in my first ever black bear hunt this week and after almost 50 hours in a tree stand, I finally connected with a nice boar. I can share the story of my week though! Bear camp started out slow but turned out to be a great success. this is one memory I'm glad to have under the belt."
Image
Nice Story..... and that's a great looking boar Black Bear you got there... You must be very happy with such a wonderful memory making hunt!
Congratulations also with the successful Bear hunt!
Way to go........ :D
User avatar
gas56
Outfitter
Posts: 4340
Joined: April 4th, 2014, 12:51 pm
Location: Ohio
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by gas56 »

The Rut once again is here in Ohio and I was out picture taking yesterday even though the rains had soaked everything the night before the sun started popping out
of the clouds so I wanted to get in the woods to check out the deer sign,.. more or less just a scouting mission cuz I don't even have my license or deer tag yet and
I need to pick up a crossbow cuz I've been thinking of trying to get out there again this year as long as my health holds out......... :D
Here's my little journey starting at my families old property where I don't have to walk miles to find some deer habitat.
This is the back yard as I head towards my deer stand and it didn't take long to see deer tracks and droppings as the deer have been feeding on the acorns
right behind the garage and my sister tells me that she has seen deer early in the morning lately but mostly does and this years fawns.
Image
Image
I make it past the yard and I come to the tractor road that leads to my stand and to the left as I get to the edge of the field
there's a recent cut corn field. For you guys that followed me last year with my outdoor excursion you might already remember this....... :)
Image
Image
Walking through the young oaks & maple tree stands.
Image
Looking back down the tractor path the way I came.
Image
I cut to my right through the young oaks & maple stands and getting close to the bedding area at the edge is my ladder stand to the left you can see it
and I find a not too old buck rub which is a good sign that somebody's marking their territory.....
Image
Close up of the buck rub.
Image
Now the next pictures are taken from up in my stand of the surrounding spot with the sun coming out and it just seems to make everything glare a lot
but I settle in cuz in about another hour the sun will be dropping down below the trees and I hope I can sit there long enough to see if any deer come through the area.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Just sitting there in the stand I'm watching around the spot just enjoying the nice day it has turned out to be,.. which lately has been too much rain,.. kinda like the game......
and it probably hasn't been 30 minutes and I hear a twig snap and this big boy walks into view and I zoom in the camera to get a shot of him and he looks right at me and
I snap the shot and he knows I'm there and wouldn't quit staring at me and then trots off,... Wow,.. what a nice 10 point that was!
I slip down out of the stand and head back toward the house and I think I'm gonna let this area cool down a couple of days. The rut is on,.. I love it,... I should have had a bow in my hand but
I don't know if I can take it being out here for any long period of time which I know that I want to be but sometimes you just got to face the facts.
But we'll see if I can talk my wife into that it's good for my health...... ha ha
Hope you enjoyed my excursion...................... :D
Image
User avatar
Tanngnjostr
Master Hunter
Posts: 8887
Joined: July 14th, 2015, 12:41 pm
Location: Moguntia

Re: 2018/2019

Post by Tanngnjostr »

Nice pictures and story, Gas - and that looks like a really nice buck. :)
Image Image Image
User avatar
InstinctiveArcher
Outfitter
Posts: 4876
Joined: May 2nd, 2015, 10:57 am
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Great pictures Gas! Glad you were able to get out and just see a beautiful buck like that! I hope you get a chance at him!


It's been pretty rough up here, but things are starting to look up. I woke up the other day and I had a message on one of the bow hunting forums that I'm on from a guy down in the Lower Peninsula. He told me that he had a small piece of property about a half hour south of me that he wanted to give me permission to hunt. I drove down there on Friday to look at it, and I have to say I was extremely excited right off the bat. The property is small, but is surrounded by cornfields, swamp, and also has a small orchard on the back corner. I didn't end up hunting it that night because the wind was the wrong direction and I didn't want to ruin the spot. Instead, I drove over to a piece of public that I had seen a decent buck on the weekend before. I walked in and found a spot about 15 yards off of the trail I expected the deer to use. I didn't have a stool, so I sat on an old log. The only problem was this log was tilted and after sitting sideways for a half hour I was beginning to get kind of sore. I had to alternate sitting and crouching the rest of the night. Right around 6:30 I heard the sound that every deer hunter loves to here: the steady crunch of leaves that indicate a walking deer. I slowly slid off the log and got down into a more crouched position with my bow ready to go. The sound was getting closer and closer, but I still couldn't see what was making the noise. A few seconds later, I saw a pair of ears, followed by some more between the crotch of a tree. It turned out to be a huge doe and three yearling fawns. Since does aren't legal to shoot up here, I relaxed a little. However, I was now caught in the awkward position of being bent over with my legs folded under me in a bit of an awkward angle. Being 6'2", this isn't a very comfortable position to be in, and I quickly realized that I might be stuck that way for a while. The doe continued coming until she got about 5 yards away. Suddenly she locked right onto me. Staring at an animal with two eyes is a dead giveaway, so I always so the past few years I've started closing one eye while squinting out of the other. It's worked really well for me, and it worked well enough this time to at least keep her from bounding away immediately. We continued this Mexican standoff for what felt like a half hour, but was probably only 2 or 3 minutes. Occasionally she would stomp her foot and try to get me to flinch. I was doing pretty good, except for one thing. When I get really close to game animals, even when I'm not intending to shoot them, the adrenaline starts pumping and I start to shake a little. I was able to keep this under control pretty well. The only problem was my arrow, which being 31" long magnified the shaking and was bouncing around quite a bit practically right under her nose.
She finally got tired of this and turned away slowly, leading the fawns behind her. My legs had gone to sleep a long time ago, and now I was just wishing that she would run away so I could straighten them back out. However, she had other plans, and after retreating about 20 yards began to make a big circle around me. My eyes were going crossed trying to keep her in sight while she circle to my right without turning my head. Again, it seemed to take an eternity, but she finally made the circle and continued on, leading her fawns out to towards the field. It felt like a thousand needles going into my legs by the time I was finally able to straighten back up. No bucks that night, but lots of fun none the less.
The following night I went back to the property that the guy had offered to let me hunt. I walked in, but it was super thick and loud. I really didn't know where to set up, so I set up on a small ridge covered in small poplar trees with a trail running about 12 yards in front of me. I would prefer to be a bit further back, but it was so thick there wouldn't have been any way to make a clear shot. The small area that I had walked through was crisscrossed with trails, and I saw several old and new rubs, so I know there are bucks in there somewhere. However, I never saw them last night. I did have a large coyote come trotting through right at last light, but even though he was within 20 yards several times, I just couldn't find a hole that I felt comfortable threading an arrow through.
I'm hearing reports that the rut is cranking up. I'll be back out there hopefully Wednesday.
Good luck everyone!
Image

In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
User avatar
stancomputerhunter
Trophy Hunter
Posts: 5514
Joined: December 25th, 2013, 11:07 am
Location: 1 mile South of the Cheddar Curtain

Re: 2018/2019

Post by stancomputerhunter »

Gee, Gas..that camera must be as old as you.. :lol: :lol: What was he..30 yards? Focus man, focus. :D Nice find, however.


Image Rares: 86 NTs: 29
User avatar
gas56
Outfitter
Posts: 4340
Joined: April 4th, 2014, 12:51 pm
Location: Ohio
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by gas56 »

stancomputerhunter wrote:Gee, Gas..that camera must be as old as you.. :lol: :lol: What was he..30 yards? Focus man, focus. :D Nice find, however.
No Stan it's not quite that old. :D it' a Nikon digital all automatic pocket camera with manual zoom that I carry around cuz I don't have a good digital camera with a good zoom lens. I've been waiting for them to come down
in price but it seems I'm still waiting.
I did use a Nikon 35mm with a good zoom lens but I gave it to my son a long time ago and then I started using a digital camera cause they are a lot cheaper to use
and I just put the photos on a hard drive.
I'm just glad I'm still out there trying to take photo's.................. :lol:
Last edited by gas56 on November 4th, 2018, 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
InstinctiveArcher
Outfitter
Posts: 4876
Joined: May 2nd, 2015, 10:57 am
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

I just looked at that picture again and he's got some killer brow tines! Nice tine length all the way around really. You should be able to see that bright white rack easily!
Image

In hunting, impossible doesn't exist any more than a sure thing does. - Tom Miranda
User avatar
gas56
Outfitter
Posts: 4340
Joined: April 4th, 2014, 12:51 pm
Location: Ohio
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by gas56 »

InstinctiveArcher wrote:I just looked at that picture again and he's got some killer brow tines! Nice tine length all the way around really. You should be able to see that bright white rack easily!
Yeah it's a nice buck and that rack isn't hard to miss moving through the thicket,... but I've seen bigger,.. but I wouldn't pass it up, that's for sure!
I'm field judging it around between 140-150 as if you see the tip of the ears the rack only goes past them about 4 inches,.. though it may not be a really wide rack, the tines
have good length. I'm still looking for that monster buck I seen with the really wide rack and massive body from before that my sister got a photo of that I posted here last year......
But as far as I know it could be dead already...
well lets hope not.............. ;)

Edit: for grammar
Last edited by gas56 on November 5th, 2018, 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Jaegerschnitzel1990
Spotter
Posts: 75
Joined: April 12th, 2018, 3:35 am
Location: Southern germany
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by Jaegerschnitzel1990 »

Good luck to all whitetail hunters out there. That buck sure is a dandy.
User avatar
officialwafflez
Hunter
Posts: 504
Joined: December 28th, 2012, 11:59 pm
Contact:

Re: 2018/2019

Post by officialwafflez »

I've been hunting my whole life, since I was infant I've been in the woods and ever since I've been in a tree or on the ground chasing whitetails. When I found this game I was 12, and just like real life whitetail have been my obsession. My uncle about 7 years ago bought land in Ohio, not much and it doesn't hold many deer. But during the rut bucks come from miles and chase does through the labyrinths of corn and soybean with a few blocks of timber. I killed my first and second deer here in 2012, missed a big buck in 2013, killed my first buck in 2014. In 2013 my dad killed a deer that scored in the high 150s, weighed over 300 field dressed and we thought we'd never see another deer that big. Three years later in 2016 he killed this beast, we never scored him but we estimated high 160s gross (only lames care bout net score lol)
Spoiler:
Image
Last year we never connected with a big one. This year I turned 18 and drove up alone and got my tag the night of November 6th, 5 Minutes after shooting light I was face to face with the buck of a lifetime at 5 yards. This is where many stories end, but this time it was his story that was over. It was still before sunrise when my dad got there to take a picture. I'm completely content with the fact that I'll never see a deer this big again in the wild, let alone while hunting. To put this in perspective, iIve hunted thousands of hours in game and never seen one over 190". I can't say the score yet because we're waiting on the hype to die down from facebook etc. But he's bigger than anything we've ever seen or had scored.
Image
ingame name is BryanTheHunter
Post Reply

Return to “The Great Outdoors”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest