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2023 deer hunt


gimruis
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3 minutes ago, jhoffman said:

Habitat and the game commission wants to hold the population low due to CWD

I see.  We have some zones of that here too and there are carcass movement restrictions when hunting them.

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9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I see.  We have some zones of that here too and there are carcass movement restrictions when hunting them.


I quarter everything where it drops, too hard to pick one up into my tailgate alone. Plus I found it was less physical effort just getting out. Years ago it was a big no no in PA. I actually used my connections in the outdoor space to push it up through the board of directors and have it approved years before CWD was a thing here. Now they actively recommend quartering right where they die, funny how that came full circle.

I spend a lot less time in a stand these days. Cover tons of ground to find good sign from the rut last year and then spot check it to open up again. Once the scrapes get going and theyre rubbing not just from removing velvet I lay into them. My favorite two weeks of the season is the last week of October and the first week of November. If I had to take just one it would be October.

Went to Illinois last year on public, had a good time but its just as busy as home. I probably will drive that far one more time to waste points I have in Iowa but my self imposed limit is now 4 hours. The deer itself isnt that important to me as long as its decently mature. 

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4 minutes ago, jhoffman said:

Now they actively recommend quartering right where they die, funny how that came full circle.

Rules are much more restrictive here with zones of CWD.  No deer, whether whole, or quartered, can be removed from the zone until the tissue is analyzed for CWD and results are negative.  You can get in big trouble if you don't follow those.

 

If you live in that zone, it's no big deal.  But if you don't, it can be problematic since CWD analysis does take some time.

 

Luckily, I do not hunt in any designated CWD zones so this does not affect me.

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This morning was an active morning for us. We had a big spike come which 6poundbass turned down. Over the next couple hours we had four doe come into range one of which went right to his ladder. She was curious and even looked up, but she couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong, and went about her morning. We had a few Tom turkeys come in as well. 
 

 

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Lucky boys I don’t hunt by the house. 
 

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20 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I saw like 20 at the house today, I think you could have jumped on one of their backs and tried some hand to hoof combat hunting 

Only you…😂

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Hunt number two in the books last night. The weather was crap all day yesterday but did start to clear up just before we hit the tree stands. The wind was out of the NW which didn’t set up good for us since the deer like to come from the corn just south of our stands. We had one small buck come in briefly and go back to the corn. I’m almost certain he smelled us. About and hour later we had a doe come in followed by another small buck. The buck began chasing the doe around. Two other doe made an appearance and six turkeys. 
 

My friend (the property owner) was going out this morning so we decided to take the morning off, but we’ll be out again tonight. This big boy showed up Friday morning. This is the first we’ve seen him this year. Going back through the photos from last year we got him twice on camera so it’s nice to see he made it through last year’s hunting season. 
 

 

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I took the day off to check stands, clear brush, and trim branches on the deer hunting property.

 

The ditches are plum full of water. We’ve received well over a foot of rain here the past month and more is coming this week.

 

Crops are still standing which is not good. All the corn is still standing and even some soybeans are still there too. With wet weather in the forecast, I sure hope most of this is gone in 12 days.

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Was more in to waterfowl growing up and in to my 40's. Hunted whitetail a little while living in Missouri in the 1990's and early 2000's, but hated sitting in a stand. No patience. 

 

Decided to get back in to deer hunting in 2010 and headed to the Sandhills region of Nebraska and hunted public land. Tagged a few whitetails, then switched up to concentrate on Muleys. 

 

Lucky to tag this guy in 2017. Spotted him about a mile away...worked my way to 400+ yards, but too long for me...so I carefully got closer. Put the hammer down at 212 yards with the 7MAG. Wonderful public Muley!

 

image.png.be5fcb38cff1919bcf54639a02cf33fe.png

 

Few years later got fed up battling the "orange army" and seeing more hunters than deer. Nebraska has very little public land, and it's easy for out of state hunters to get over the counter tags. So started knocking on doors. Found a rancher who let me and brother hunt for three seasons. 

 

So happy my brother was able to tag his first buck ever! 

 

Two days later I tagged out on this buck

 

image.png.e9c2d9430c0e9e3016c1d81d06690d9d.png

 

Sadly, the next year our rancher said we could no longer hunt...another hunter leased his entire 20k+ acre ranch. So we were done. 

 

About a month ago I texted the rancher, asking how things were going. Last week I texted again asking if we might be able to hunt? To my surprise, he called the next day, and said, YES, we can hunt the last weekend of rifle season. No Muleys, but can shoot whitetails.

 

I'm back in the game!!  Cannot wait to roam the Sandhills on my ATV looking for deer. 

 

image.png.021d84610c53464b4943d85eb507b6b0.png

 

 

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14 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

but hated sitting in a stand. No patience.

It gets old sometimes.  I sit there for days on end without seeing a single deer.  That's just the nature of it, Mr Big could show up at any point during legal shooting time and the season is not very long, so I try to take advantage of the opportunity.

 

Given a choice, I'd much rather pheasant, grouse, or turkey hunt.  Deer hunting is far more popular than hunting birds, but that's fine by me.  I have almost no competition to hunt birds.

 

Both of those are dandy mule deer.  We don't have them here but I know a nice one when I see it.

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@DaubsNU1 I used to hunt Dawes county Nebraska (Chadron). We hunted a 30k acre buffalo ranch. My friend’s family had been hunting it for 25 or so years and last year he told me the property owner called him and said another group offered way more money. Pretty sad deal.
 

There weren’t many mule deer on the property but you go a mile or so south and you’d run into them. There were plenty of giant whitetail though. The four years I went was a blast. I always chuckled in the morning seeing the locals drive to their spots in their trucks. You could see their cargo lights glowing in the dark as they stayed warm waiting for the sun to come up. We never heard much shooting from the trucks, yet we tagged out every year. 😁

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3 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

My friend’s family had been hunting it for 25 or so years and last year he told me the property owner called him and said another group offered way more money. Pretty sad deal.

Unfortunately that's the reality nowadays when it comes to deer hunting, or big game hunting in general in many areas.  There just isn't a lot of high quality public hunting land and the areas that exist get pounded.  High quality land to hunt on is either leased for a ridiculous cost or family-owned.

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T-minus 5 days until the gun opener here.  Saturday's forecast looks decent. A low of 32, a high of 45, partly cloudy, and a west wind at 7mph should make for good hunting conditions.  I took the entire week off as usual.  All of next week looks pretty decent to sit like a bump on a log and wait for Mr Big.

 

Oh My Gosh Hello GIF by kate spade new york

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Good Luck.

Local crops have yet to be harvested because of ALL THE RAIN. 3 weeks worth.

As usual, tons and tons of does every morning and again at sunset. 

Zero bucks.  

Despite baiting being illegal,  Every gas station sells pallets of 'compost' daily.

Stay Safe

:smiley:

A-Jay

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16 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Local crops have yet to be harvested because of ALL THE RAIN. 3 weeks worth.

They're definitely behind where I hunt too.  Almost no corn harvest was completed as of a week ago when I was checking on stands.  Some beans were out, but not all of them.  Fields were very muddy and ditches had water in them.

 

The good news is that my Father spoke with the farmer (its his second cousin) and he intended to harvest the 40 acre field of corn on the 120-acre patch of land we hunt this week if the weather cooperated.

 

This area we hunt is about 65 miles north of my house in the Twin Cities suburbs.  While I don't think they've received quite the amount of rain I've gotten here in the past month, they have certainly gotten quite a bit.  I've received over 15 inches of rain in the past 34 days here.

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5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

My BIL poked a healthy specimen yesterday ~ Central Michigan Deer

Ryans2023Buck.jpg.88015c6dd698098566e0de8653276d87.jpg 

 

No description available.

 

:smiley:

A-Jay

 

Very nice.  Good combo of mass and length on that rack.  Good sized deer too.

 

I'm hoping my 8 which is quite similar in shape and proportion (though a little smaller) shows up soon.  He's been around per our dogsitter while we were away this weekend.  This is th prime week and I've got until saturday morning to get it done.  Sunday we're picking up a puppy and my time is going to be absorbed I think.

On 10/30/2023 at 10:34 AM, gimruis said:

T-minus 5 days until the gun opener here.  Saturday's forecast looks decent. A low of 32, a high of 45, partly cloudy, and a west wind at 7mph should make for good hunting conditions.  I took the entire week off as usual.  All of next week looks pretty decent to sit like a bump on a log and wait for Mr Big.

 

Oh My Gosh Hello GIF by kate spade new york

 

Good luck!  Out temps just dropped and dried out which is perfect.  They should be up and moving the next couple days as the rut kicks into high gear here.  

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32 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

Very nice.  Good combo of mass and length on that rack.  Good sized deer too.

 

I'm hoping my 8 which is quite similar in shape and proportion (though a little smaller) shows up soon.  He's been around per our dogsitter while we were away this weekend.  This is th prime week and I've got until saturday morning to get it done.  Sunday we're picking up a puppy and my time is going to be absorbed I think.

 

Good luck!  Out temps just dropped and dried out which is perfect.  They should be up and moving the next couple days as the rut kicks into high gear here.  

He's pretty Stoked as you could expect.

btw- that man is 6'4" and @220

I always feel like a little kid standing next to him.

Really Good Guy though.

Very happy for him.

Good Luck. 

:smiley:

A-Jay

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My friend Derek was able to arrow this buck yesterday during a special archery city hunt in Shorewood.  Its the second year in a row he's tagged a dandy during one of these special city hunts.  He is required to pass an annual archery marksmanship certification every year to participate.

 

 

Derek city buck.jpg

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On 10/30/2023 at 10:34 AM, gimruis said:

T-minus 5 days until the gun opener here.  Saturday's forecast looks decent. A low of 32, a high of 45, partly cloudy, and a west wind at 7mph should make for good hunting conditions.  I took the entire week off as usual.  All of next week looks pretty decent to sit like a bump on a log and wait for Mr Big.

 

Oh My Gosh Hello GIF by kate spade new york

Good luck bud…. 

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6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

My BIL poked a healthy specimen yesterday ~ Central Michigan Deer

Ryans2023Buck.jpg.88015c6dd698098566e0de8653276d87.jpg 

 

No description available.

 

:smiley:

A-Jay


I spy a Stormy Kromer eh!

 

Nice central Michigan buck!

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