I figured this would be a good way to pass the time while I hang out in the blind or stand waiting for my buck to stroll by and will be nice for me to look back after I fill my tag or the season ends.
I can't say how many hours I've hunted so far this year but I have not been slacking.
I started off this year with a few goals. Fill all my tags without using a firearm, take a buck that would look good on my wall, and finish before gun season. I almost did all that by last week until I was not able to find the buck I shot last Thursday.
On the second day of the season, in the evening from my blind, I shot a nice doe at less than 20 yards with the crossbow. She went about 40 yards and piled up in some brush- first bow kill.
After struggling with my Barnett crossbow I decided to bite the bullet and buy a TenPoint. I was planning on holding out for a nice buck before shooting any more deer but then a nice doe tempted me at 20 yards so I shot her and recovered her maybe 50 yards in the corn.
For almost a week no deer sightings. I was switching back and forth between morning and evening hunts at 2 different properties and just was not seeing deer. That's I started to see I was getting too wrapped up in it and it was killing the fun.
A few days later I finally saw a deer, a nice doe came to the corn pile and stayed for 5 minutes or so and then calmly walked off. Kept an eye on her but kept scanning the woods for a buck but he never came.
The next evening the big buck came strolling by at about 3:00, less than 10 minutes after I settled in. Took a shot at about 35 yards and felt good about it but never found the arrow, a blood trail or the deer. While I was searching for blood a nice tall ten point walked to within 20 yards of me on the other side of a brush pile headed towards my blind but got spooked and took off. So far those are the only 2 bucks I have seen this year hunting and neither were ever on my camera that I remember for sure.
November 17th, in the blind now for an evening hunt since about 3:45. 4" of fresh snow, snow falling and about a 12mph SW wind. Somewhere around 20 degrees but feels colder! About an hour and a half left of legal shooting light and so far no sightings.
I can't say how many hours I've hunted so far this year but I have not been slacking.
I started off this year with a few goals. Fill all my tags without using a firearm, take a buck that would look good on my wall, and finish before gun season. I almost did all that by last week until I was not able to find the buck I shot last Thursday.
On the second day of the season, in the evening from my blind, I shot a nice doe at less than 20 yards with the crossbow. She went about 40 yards and piled up in some brush- first bow kill.
After struggling with my Barnett crossbow I decided to bite the bullet and buy a TenPoint. I was planning on holding out for a nice buck before shooting any more deer but then a nice doe tempted me at 20 yards so I shot her and recovered her maybe 50 yards in the corn.
For almost a week no deer sightings. I was switching back and forth between morning and evening hunts at 2 different properties and just was not seeing deer. That's I started to see I was getting too wrapped up in it and it was killing the fun.
A few days later I finally saw a deer, a nice doe came to the corn pile and stayed for 5 minutes or so and then calmly walked off. Kept an eye on her but kept scanning the woods for a buck but he never came.
The next evening the big buck came strolling by at about 3:00, less than 10 minutes after I settled in. Took a shot at about 35 yards and felt good about it but never found the arrow, a blood trail or the deer. While I was searching for blood a nice tall ten point walked to within 20 yards of me on the other side of a brush pile headed towards my blind but got spooked and took off. So far those are the only 2 bucks I have seen this year hunting and neither were ever on my camera that I remember for sure.
November 17th, in the blind now for an evening hunt since about 3:45. 4" of fresh snow, snow falling and about a 12mph SW wind. Somewhere around 20 degrees but feels colder! About an hour and a half left of legal shooting light and so far no sightings.