hi gents,

 

Hunting season approaches here and is open for something in a lot of areas of the country.  Early bow season kicks off in 11 days here for us in my zone.  And I haven't picked the bow up more than twice since Feb.  I haven't bought my permit for later season (the fall season license comes with the sportsman's license I buy).  I haven't dug out any equipment or clothes.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not even going to hunt this fall as I have no interest or excitement for it this year. I might go hang in a tree for an evening sometime in October when it is chilly and I don't feel like pulling the boat out, but for the first time in maybe my hunting lifetime I have no enthusiasm to do it.

 

Anyone else had the excitement wane and taken some time off?

That’s a little surprising. You always seem to enjoy partaking in hunting season @casts_by_fly. I would encourage you to reconsider.

 

I used to start hunting in September. Then it was October. Nowadays it’s November. That’s mostly because it’s just too warm in Sept/Oct. I really have no interest in sitting in a marsh or a tree when it’s 70 degrees out.

 

I plan to hunt starting in November.

I don’t hunt, but I could see why it’s discouraging. Expensive habit. I just hope all my friends keep hunting so I can eat game 

1 hour ago, gim said:

That’s a little surprising. You always seem to enjoy partaking in hunting season @casts_by_fly. I would encourage you to reconsider.

 

I used to start hunting in September. Then it was October. Nowadays it’s November. That’s mostly because it’s just too warm in Sept/Oct. I really have no interest in sitting in a marsh or a tree when it’s 70 degrees out.

 

I plan to hunt starting in November.

 

I think I’m just bored of the opportunities I have access to right now and unenthused about my other options.  I have a few acres here at the house, but I know how that plays out.  There is a bit of state land around but I already see the guys parked up to set stands, cameras, corn, etc.  It is going to be a busy season in the woods here in those areas and I don’t feel like fighting the people.  The township land I hunt is similar, plus I can’t hunt it until Halloween.  I haven’t had the time or inclination to go door knocking either.  

 

Since I have my fall bow license, I might go hang in a tree the first cold snap and see how things go.  Maybe that will fire things up a bit.  No commitments or promises though.  

I have some excitement for deer season, but I've never been a big deer hunter. Mostly because I am the only person in my family that likes hunting, and my wife won't eat venison.

 

That's changing though, as the boy who is 6 now, loves venison, and he went hunting with me last year and loves it too. He's been talking about it all year.

 

We'll go out some for sure. I do have a gun I want to blood.

It doesn't fire me up like it used to. I have 5 nice bucks on the wall, and we don't have any other big game to hunt in OH. Plus my aunt sold my happy hunting ground after my uncle passed. Anymore I'd rather be musky fishing in the fall. I didn't hunt last year so I'm out of venison. I'll get out long enough to put a couple does in the freezer this year and call it good.

I haven't been out grouse-hunting in about 20 years. Closest decent spot to me is half-way to Duluth...a wildlife management area.

 

Sometimes I miss living up north...hunting spots all over the place up there.

Deer hunting is my least favorite.  Mostly because it's god awful boring just sitting there rotting away in a tree for days on end.

 

I'd much rather hunt pheasants with my loyal 4-legged friend.  It has very little to do with harvesting birds or game to east them either.

 

I’m totally onboard with bird hunting being more fun.  If we had birds here to hunt, I would have trained up my gundogs.  As it is, we have overcrowded WMAs with stocked pheasants and that’s about it.  There are a couple woodcock that come through for the 2 weeks the season is open.  Grouse season was cancelled 5 or 6 years ago due to low populations.  The nearest grouse are a solid 3 hours.

 

I went out into the woods today for 2 hours.  I had some cameras and steps still in the woods from last year that needed to come in.  On the way I walked a few trails to see what was happening in the woods.  call it micro scouting.  If I do hang in a tree for an evening it would be in one or two of these spots.  One looked alright with fresh scat and torn up trails.  The other was overgrown and had no sign of deer. 

I lost some nice spots this year and havent been feeling as hopeful as past years. Like you I'm a little over a week away and havent even pulled out my bow yet. I already dont want to go and not looking forward to 4am or earlier wake ups but I typically drag myself out and am really happy once I am sitting in a tree.

 

I do this with a few hobbies though, rifle competitions I hate loading and prepping for days before but once I'm bangin steel at 8am you cant drag me away. 🤷‍♂️

 

I'd say go do some sits with a bow and if its not too expensive renew the license. Your luck this year youll go sit for peace without anything and a big wide 5yr old 12pt will stroll through and stop broadside 20 yrds from you.  

Hang in there @casts_by_fly. The drive may come back. 

 

I lived and died waterfowl hunting years ago. Would plan out long trips with friends, even created a dedicated web site for our hunt back in the early 2000's to showcase pictures, information, even created awards...it was good fun. 

 

Got in to mule deer big time in ~2010, and tagged a few nice ones. @gim I cannot sit in a tree stand...drives me nutty! So I headed west to spot-n-stalk...much more to my liking. Had permission on 19k acre ranch for a few years...that was great. But lost permission. 

 

Since I got the Lund back in August 2023, it's been mainly fishing in the fall, until hard water season. Then I do a little waterfowl after that. 

 

I've owned a nice bow for about 6 years...but never had any place to hunt. I might consider selling it...We shall see. 

4 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

but never had any place to hunt.

 

Lack of hunting access is a big problem in many areas.

 

Public land often gets heavily pressured and rarely yields consistent results.  Private land is difficult to gain access to.

 

Doesn't leave a lot of options for some.

I quit a few years ago myself, I just got tired of killing them. I’ve taken whitetail up to 12 points & 235 pounds field dressed, but I have a problematic spine and I decided to protect it for making money. Rarely do I miss it, but sometimes I do. I’d rather fish in the fall anyway, water is much more enjoyable for me anyway.. fall and spring. Good times for a big bite. 

I stopped hunting 4 or 5 years ago.  I lost interest as fishing has taken over most of my outdoor time.  While I curse Pa for its lack of lakes, I will be chasing salmon next week in NY and the months after, Striper in NJ…so I guess living in SE Pa isn’t that bad.

I used to go out to Nebraska deer hunting. There were usually 4-6 of us and we hunted a 30k acre buffalo ranch. We’d tag out every year and they were all quality bucks. Here in Michigan, land is hard to come by. My parents have 50 acres most of which is farmed and they are surrounded by Amish. Since the Amish bought all the land around them the deer are few and far between. My son hunts now so I let him have at it. We have a couple small chunks of land he can hunt. I hunted public land once during rifle season and that’s the only time I’ll do that. Nebraska really spoiled me. I do like sitting in the woods on a nice fall day. Sometimes it get boring but that all goes away when the deer start to move in, plus seeing my son getting excited and me be able to teach him what I know and watch him grow as a hunter makes it all worth it!

 

Spring turkey I still do and love and landowners are more willing to allow you to do that. 
 

15 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Since the Amish bought all the land around them the deer are few and far between.

Don't even get me started. 🤬

100%.  Not feeling it.  
 

im driving to Texas to hunt some land my brother bought.   He’s stoked im coming.  Me, im going more to show interest in his purchase.   I’ll shoot a hog and bring it back on ice.  Bringing a bud to help pay for fuel.  No backing out now.  
 

im tired and would love to relax at home before Christmas. 

still hasn't kicked in for me either.  I've had a a couple decent bucks on my cameras here behind the house but just offered them to a buddy to come shoot.  

oh..I'm back!!

 

thinking of driving to Nevada to chase Chukkar.  not even sure I know what a chukka looks like!!@

 

 

They are a small upland game bird that generally thrives in warmer, drier, more arid climates.  I've never hunted one because they cannot survive winters in the Midwest.  Some game farms will release a few mixed in with pen raised pheasants.  That is not really my thing.  Here is a photo of one.

 

When NJ couldn’t produce enough pheasants a few years back they bought chukkars and stocked them on the same wma’s as pheasants. They also put out a few thousand in the 3 weeks leading up to pheasant season on the wmas that have dog training areas. You can’t shoot them for those three weeks but you can once the season opens. 

Of all the upland game birds, chukkar are the best tasting by far, to my palate.

 

And considering where they are found in the wild, the hardest to hunt. A covey run you up and down a steep slope only to disappear at the last minute. I was hunting in Wyoming once when a covey started up a cliff in front of me and my GSPs. I stayed put while a couple of buddies went around up to the top. We never did see 'em again: they seemingly disappeared right into the face of the cliff. 🤨

ewww..  

 

I'll try.  

I had pretty much stopped hunting once we moved away from our old place and I didn't have private land to hunt anymore. Once my oldest decided he wanted to try deer hunting and decided he really liked it, it got me back into it. I still don't really care to go shoot one myself, but seeing him get excited gets me more excited than shooting one myself anyways. We were really lucky to get invited to hunt private land also, because I was not at all looking forward to hunting public land. 

So cool!