Rate your deer season

[hikingthehills]

Looked through my trail cam pics at my cabin property tonight.
Caught me a nice 300+ # black bear on camera and a budding 10 point buck that should be pretty impressive next year....... also some turkeys.

Think I’m gonna try my luck at spring gobbler season.

Careful turkey hunting,once you call in a gobbling tom you'll be hooked! It's more addictive than deer hunting! The good thing is though you'll get a lot exercise! Nothing like hearing one gobble 2 ridges over and trying to make up ground and move in on him and getting that perfect setup. Most of the time you'll be out smarted though!I love deer hunting but for fun nothing beats chasing turkey!

 

[Npowers66]

The 10pt I was after all season long that disappeared at the beginning showed back up this week. Lol.

 

[Comanche]

Careful turkey hunting,once you call in a gobbling tom you'll be hooked! It's more addictive than deer hunting! The good thing is though you'll get a lot exercise! Nothing like hearing one gobble 2 ridges over and trying to make up ground and move in on him and getting that perfect setup. Most of the time you'll be out smarted though!I love deer hunting but for fun nothing beats chasing turkey!

Oh yeah.
My buddy and I used to work near the Pittsburgh airport.
The surrounding woods had monster bucks with batchelor groups that would congregate and spar at the end of the runway behind our building.
A short drive down the road we knew of a hillside next to a cornfield that was full of roosting turkeys.
I’m not kidding there were about 60-80 turkeys there at any given morning.
We would park near the field and go sit in the woods across the street and my buddy would let out some fly down calls with that mouth diaphragm turkey call and the whole hillside would light up with gobblers then you would see them dive bomb across the field and street and land near to us.
It was friggin cool.


I had a couple respond last year a couple ridges over and were getting close to my buddy that was between them and me.
I heard them getting closer then I heard my buddy shoot twice.
Later he told me he missed and checked his shotgun.
It had a wonky front fiber optic sight.
A couple days later his firing pin failed when he called a big gobbler in that came ten feet away.
I told him to get a new shotgun.

 

[drewga11]

Eh, my season was decent. Not too happy I made a bad shot on good sized buck and wasnt able to recover him. I didn't get to hunt as much as I would have liked and only ended up going 3 weekends. I did manage to get two large does the same evening though, so I have enough meat in the freezer.

 

[YOTESHOOTER]

Our favorite Big Bird gun is an oldie but goodie my friend lets me use is a ITHACA, 34" BARREL, 3 1/2" MAG 10 GAUGE, man that joker can kick however it rolls them at 65 yards, what a brute would love to have it but he will not sell it to me. Love the 10 gauge brute, do not find many around any more, however he lets me use very often in the ole TOM TURKEY QUEST...

OLE DICK KIRBY, THE QUAKER BOY HIMSELF, used the same gun, he's gone now but he really knew turkey and turkey hunting...

 

[Comanche]

Our favorite Big Bird gun is an oldie but goodie my friend lets me use is a ITHACA, 34" BARREL, 3 1/2" MAG 10 GAUGE, man that joker can kick however it rolls them at 65 yards, what a brute would love to have it but he will not sell it to me. Love the 10 gauge brute, do not find many around any more, however he lets me use very often in the ole TOM TURKEY QUEST...

OLE DICK KIRBY, THE QUAKER BOY HIMSELF, use the same gun, he's gone now but he really knew turkey and turkey hunting...

Nothing like a mule kickin shotgun that turns your shoulder to ground meat.
I really do Love guns that kick but I am fond of my AR’s that are set up for hunting.

 

[Mirvin 264]

Mine was good early, but got boring late because I wasn't seeing anything. I do know this, the baiting bill that passed didn't increase my odds at all where I hunted. I really think that having corn around drove the deer to the nocturnal feeding pattern much earlier than they usually would turn to. I had feeders at both of my areas, one in pines, the other in hardwoods. Saw a few does and yearlings early season at the pine stand, not a single deer at the feeder in the hardwoods. I did have trail cam pics but no visits while I hunted. It was still a good time though, shot one buck that surprised me in my food plot as I was coming out in my Pioneer, but after tracking over two hours and finding very little blood, I never found it. First time in over 30 years that has happened to me. I'm going Monday for hip replacement surgery so I'm praying that next season will be awesome!

 

[Bama21]

Due to shoulder surgery and a busier schedule than usual, I was able to get into the woods exactly twice. 1st trip out, I took a nice sized doe while hunting with my son. Next trip out was a nice morning sit, but no luck. All in all, it was short lived, but ok season. Would have really liked to have had more opportunities to hunt this year, but am very thankful for the blessing that God provided.

 

[Comanche]

Mine was good early, but got boring late because I wasn't seeing anything. I do know this, the baiting bill that passed didn't increase my odds at all where I hunted. I really think that having corn around drove the deer to the nocturnal feeding pattern much earlier than they usually would turn to. I had feeders at both of my areas, one in pines, the other in hardwoods. Saw a few does and yearlings early season at the pine stand, not a single deer at the feeder in the hardwoods. I did have trail cam pics but no visits while I hunted. It was still a good time though, shot one buck that surprised me in my food plot as I was coming out in my Pioneer, but after tracking over two hours and finding very little blood, I never found it. First time in over 30 years that has happened to me. I'm going Monday for hip replacement surgery so I'm praying that next season will be awesome!

Hope your surgery goes well and you snap back quickly Brutha.
Yeah I think the baiting bill helped some and hurt others.
I dont think they hit the feeders much until all the leaves dried up and fell ......only then did I see them coming for my shrubs and grass nocturnally but I’m thinking a lot of my neighbors were hunting over bait.
That’s okay because my cabin property has a decent herd or two coming through with some pregnant does and a few decent bucks, bear and turkey.
Definitely looking forward to next season already.

Let’s go kill some yotes in the meantime.

 

[Bear44]

Mine was... eventful.
*Got access to about 575 acres of prime land with two cabins that I could use at no cost, then lost the access near the end of the season. Some of the family members did not want the property hunted.
*Saw the biggest deer I've ever seen in the wild while driving into that property one evening. A real Booner contender.
*Got my first deer with a ML and it was a mid size 10 point.
*Killed two does and the second was at 200 yards. It also looked a lot bigger than it was when I was looking at it through the scope.
*Passed up at least 8 bucks (one of which is about a 125 to 130 class buck) to let them grow and I lost count of the number of times I let does walk.
*Finally got a shot with a crossbow at a very good buck I first saw last February and managed to blow the shot. I hit him too high, but not fatally. I saw him running the next day.
*Shot at a Yote with the same crossbow and only nicked him. Something is definitely not right with that crossbow set up and I haven't figured it out yet. This is the first time I've ever hunted with a crossbow.

I'm not quite done yet. I have property I can hunt in North Fulton and the bow season runs to the end of January. This is also the property where I let most of the deer walk, wounded the big buck and nicked the Yote.