Bear83

Hunted over the weekend of 10/24-10/25 in the Brainerd Lakes area. Saw a good amount of activity from what I had been seeing. Saturday morning had two does and a fork buck working the area. Buck didn't seem interested in the does, but he did freshen up a scrape. Saw the same deer Saturday night joined by a 3rd doe. Sunday morning a doe passed by at 20 yds. Two minutes later the fork was following her trail, but didn't seem to be chasing too hard. Plenty of scrapes showing up, but only saw a handful of rubs. Things are getting interesting fast! P.S. On a side note, I've been away from the forum for a while.....seems like the posting activity is a lot smaller than it used to be, what gives?

I'll be hitting the woods with a Tikka T3 Deluxe in .270. Have a Vortex Diamondback 3-9X40 sitting on top, shooting Federal 150 gr Fusions. Good luck everyone!

Deer activity has been limited to a doe and her fawns...nothing with antlers showing up yet. Get nightly visits from a pair of photo bombing fox. Thought the second pic with the two fox checking out the doe was cool. Last pic would love to hear what others think...small wolf? Or coyote? At any rate, pretty bold seeing as how the woods that I hunt have neighboring houses 200 yds away and roving dogs.

Appreciate all the congrats guys, and yes, I can see how it is quickly becoming an obsession. Excited to hopefully get back in the woods with the bow the 27th and 28th and chase some antler. In response to NBADGER23 about field dressing: the heart, lungs, and liver were fully intact. Not sure about the internal anatomy in the back end of a deer but the shot hit just a couple of inches in front of where the rear leg articulates with the body and a couple inches up from the belly. Didn't really see any major arteries that I would have caught, but there was a solid amount of internl bleeding that had pooled in the back half of her. At any rate, it did the job, just not the cleanest. Best of luck to everyone as we get closer to the rut...can't wait!

I was in the same boat this winter when I picked up a new Tikka rifle and needed an affordable set of optics for it. As mentioned above, the $200 threshold seems to be where you want to be for features / value. When I was comparing scopes, there definitely seems to be a level at which you reach diminishing returns. You pay a boatload of money for neglible increases in performance that most peoples vision wouldn't pick up the differences anyway. I compared the Nikon pro-staff, redfield revolution, burris fullfield II, and leupold VX-II and settled on a Vortex Diamondback 3-9X40. I believe it to be an excellent value and the no hassle warranty gives piece of mind. At a hundred yards I'm able to pick out my holes on paper at the range. Another thing to consider, if you like scanning over stats is that the Vortex has a significant advantage in field of view throughout the magnification range. That to me was icing on the cake. The low light performance also was rated as excellent for this price level of scope. Depending on where you shop, they can be had for under $200 this fall.

Bear with me, this might be long winded but I like to include details. This last weekend I was fortunate to have off from work on Monday (Columbus day), so made plans to head to the folks' cabin for some bow hunting. This summer I got the itch to delve into bow hunting, so I picked up a Bear Archery Encounter and the necessary gear and started practicing a couple nights a week. I've rifle hunted for seven years or so, but I really wanted to "extend" my season so got into the bow world. A little background on the property...approx 12 acres in the Brainerd lakes area. Not much land to work with, but surpising what a combination of mixed habitat can create for opportunities. There's two patches of mixed hardwoods that are a couple of acres each that wrap around the northwest corner of a swamp. Here's a view of some of the swamp and fall colors: Having cabins and dogs running all over the place doesn't seem to deter the deer one bit. Nocturnal, but probably not more than anywhere else for that matter. Had the trail camera out most of the summer and got to see a doe with her twin fawns grow throughout the summer as well as a pair of fox that showed up regularly. Opening weekend I had the doe and her fawns come in and start going to town on the acorns about 55 yards out. Wind was in my favor but got skylined by momma and that was all I saw for that weekend. Went out again the last weekend in September, splitting my time between the cabin and some public land close by, but I think the combo of a full moon and the warm temps conspired to have everything moving at night. Fast forward to this last weekend. Finally some cooler weather. Woke to a dusting of wet snow on the ground on Saturday morning. Sat and saw one of the fawns motor on through, but nothing else the rest of Sat. Sunday hunted public land because the wind wasn't right and did some scouting. Monday morning gave it one last go before I was gonna pull the plug to get back to the wife and kido. At 9:19 a yearling doe came into the North of me. I was in my climber about 16 ft up and was already standing because I was cold. I'll never know why that deer didn't bolt, because it had me pegged from the get go. She was downwind of me and had a clear line of sight as I pivoted and raised my bow. She gave out a snort and I thought it was over, but she dropped her head and started to slowly walk. Once I saw her head down I drew, but again she saw my movement. Locked up, at a nice broadside, I let fly at 32 yards. She was standing just to the right of the two jack pine tree trunks in the center of the following pic: All the practice and target shooting went right out the window. Needless to say I was shaking like an oak leaf in the wind. I saw her lurch and turn heel and move at a fast walk where she made a beeline for the heaviest cover on the property. I was already questioning my shot, and decided to give things a full two hours to settle down. Around 11:00, I climbed down and slowly made my way over to where I had made the shot. Arrow was stuck in the ground with green bile/stomach gunk. Confirming my fear that I hit her far back, I had to decide what I wanted to do. Since the forest floor was like walking on broken glass, I had a hunch that I would have already bumped her just going to where my arrow was if she was still alive and kicking. After hearing nothing, I hopped on the trail she took and found good blood after about 20 ft from the shot. Things looked a little more promising. Bow in hand with arrow nocked I followed the trail for less than 20 yards and could see where she had piled up next to a deadfall tree. In all, she went less than 30 yards. I was relieved and ecstatic to have such an easy recovery despite my poor shot placement. Here's a view of her, not the biggest, but good to get some meat in the freezer this early in the season. Overall, it was humbling to think how things could have gone differently. Thankful that things turned out well. The experience gained was valuable, and it's renewed my efforts to get out and keep practicing. D

Not that I have a vast amount of experience with the different trail cam brands, but I've tried Cuddeback (3 MegaPixel) and currently have a WildGame Innovations (8 MP). Similar to any of your lower end digital cameras, I feel that the manufacturers in recent years have tried to cram too many megapixels onto tiny sensors with poor ISO performance. Quantity vs. quality debate...people are drawn in by the megapixel #, but for final picture quality, the lower megapixel cam in my instance delivered far superior image quality (contrast, color reproduction, and noise). That said, everything in life is a compromise and you get what you pay for. The WildGame cam has given me several hundred pics at a very affordable price, only wish it had a faster shutter/trigger speed as it tends to blur easily. Just pulled it this weekend and here were some of the better shots of late summer. Doe with her twins - Buck in velvet mugging for the camera -