The Bow stand Log thread.

[96trigger]

With the rain coming in and the clouds, the deer were in the field early. kicked too many does out on my way in. The bucks showed up just about at dark. Had that same little 7 pointer again offer me the perfect shot. Two more bucks came out of the same area, neither were huge. I am not seeing the sign that I have other years. There are some nice scrapes along the field edge, but nothing like I have seen in previous years. I'm still waiting. None of the bucks responded to the grunt calls tonight. The would stop and look, but just mosey on their way. All the does I saw were with fawns yet. A mile down the road, I talked to another hunter. He had a buck breed a doe in front of hiim and he missed a nice 8 pointer. 15 miles away on another chunk of property I hunt, the deer were responding to the rattle bag and grunt tube. It has been an odd fall for me. I don't know if its the corn still standing or the weather. The clock is ticking, 3 days, that place will be crawling with orange.

[Meat-Run]

Missed an 8ptr lastnight at 5 yards...Ugh!!!! This is my third accounter with this 8 and he comes through the woods on a very fast walk and he caught me off gaurd again by coming out of his bed sooner then expected. Need to move my stand to give myself a better angle and more time to see him coming because I'm in a very thick part of the woods and maybe 50-75yards from his bed. I need to seal the deal by Saturday before the orange arming comes along and pushes him out of the country. This by far has been my best opertunity in all the years of my bow hunting that I have had this deer pegged to the same trail and timing for the past two weeks, so close yet so far away.

mr

P.S. If you haven't been following the moon phase on the In-Fish/North American Whitetail calendars do so because he has been seen by me or my game camera exactly on que during those mid-day periods now if I can just get to my stand by 12pm today I should have me tag rapped around and antler, right!!??

[BRULEDRIFTER]

How do you miss a deer at 5yds?

WOW!

[Meat-Run]

Saw him last second and he was walking at a pretty good clip just the last two encounters. At that distance it was almost impossible to get him to stop with a grunt so it was fast and firious to say the least. Because it was raining yesterday it was so noisy I didn't even hear him coming just saw out of the corner of my eye and he was coming fast.

mr

[tunrevir]

Got out today after work for a bit. First couple hours nothing but squirrels and birds. 4 p.m. I see movement and 2 deer rapidly approaching. A large doe yearling in tow come running out of the brush do a hard right and take off running through the woods. Yep, you guessed it. A nice eight come trotting up on the trail and is 40 yards out from my stand. I grab the grunt tube and do a few doe bleats. He hangs up in the brush and sits there for 15 minutes. Finally I start to see some movement and he turns and trots off to where the does went. No rattling, bleating or grunting could coax him away and niether did the golden eustrus I had out blowing right towards him. I sit for about an hour after they ran off and suddenly I hear leaves behind me and turn to see a large doe and a yearling heading right for the back of my treestand. I stand, turn and get ready, I bleat once and they just keep cooking towards me when i see the darned 8 dogging them about 10 yards back. I bleat again and watch as he comes through on a run at 10 yards chasing the doe and fawn. Frustrating. I tried rattleing and everything to get this deer to turn his attention towards me but he sure wanted the big doe playing hard to get! Good night on stand without the desired results.

Tunrevir~

[james_walleye]

Well i was on the NW edge of Rochester from about noon-2pm while on route today and i saw deer moving all over. Bucks cruising all over. One dandy 8 pointer...probably in that 115-120" range.

[sparkyaber]

My friend and I headed to my mom's late on Sat. with dreams of antlers and fur running through our heads. I hunted the end of the field towards the woods and Ryan went in deep where my group has taken two does so far this year. Nothing for both of us.

Sun. night I go back into the woods to the stand we took the two from, and a doe and fawn walks right up behind the tree. I turn my head ever so slowly and she about 20 yards away. Her and I are in a stare down for what seemed like an eternity. I could swear she would have seen my breath. She puts her head back down and off they walk. Ryan saw 8 deer in the field, he said he had a questionable shot at a doe and passed. He said there was a bigger one he was waiting for.

Mon. morning I sit in the same stand as Sun. morning. Of course I see two dear about 200 yards away that walked right past the stand that I have sat in for many hours and not even had a chance at a shot. They are only about 100 yards from my mom house. One of those two was a really nice doe.

Mon. night both of us are feeling good. Wind was dieing down, perfect temp to sit in the stands. Ryan chooses to sit on a bucket on the edge of the field adjacent to one of the hottest trails. I wanted to sit in the stand that I saw the deer by in the morning. He says "no way that is too close, they will smell me and you will never see one." "OK" I say as I head up the hill to the end of the field. Well at 4:15 I hear a blow, he got busted (she was 10 feet, yeah, feet, behind him), and if I had been sitting in the stand I wanted to I would have a nice doe in the freezer. And if that is not enough, that same big doe tried coming out into the field 3 more times at different spots, busting him every time. Chalk this up as a learning experience. Not one buck, just a few rubs and less scrapes. Tried rattling, grunting and bleating, nothing affected them.

[Archerysniper]

Got in the tree tonight around 3 set up a buck decoy at 15 yards in a clearing that was after last nights excitment from the same stand at 5:00 just got done texting a fellow FM member look up and thier is a 145+ buck walking in and he is at 20 yards allready coming down a trail that will put him at 5 yards or under well he walks behind the brush spots the decoy and stops dead in his tracks he stares at it for about 5 minutes as I'm trying to find a hole to shoot through then he turns to walk away I draw and he walks into a little hole I hit the realese and you gussed it a stick I had not seen deflected the arrow right over his back and he trotted off.

[Stratosman]

You sure are in the thick of things.... you need to connect though!

I am jazzed, heading out in the morning to hunt all day thursday, friday, sat and sunday.... I just hope one of the 4 or 5 130+ deer I have seen down there this season makes a mistake in that time. Weather looks decent, maybe a tad warm, but that beats the heII out of wind and rain.

[Archerysniper]

Yeah I'v pulled out all my hair tonight though replaying it and my choices one thing I keep saying is if I had the black powder but that is bowhunting and why I'v been hooked for the last 17 years sice I turned 12 nothing can get better then this sport.

[alwaysonthemove]

Tis the season

[mudslinger64]

well i got into my stand a little after 6:00am and settled in until it got light.a little before 7 i heard some branches snapping every so often so i grabbed my bow and got ready,soon i caught a glimpse of a deer moving in the brush coming from downwind and heading to my shooting lane that i just hung a couple scent wicks in with tinks 69 on them.he popped out from behind a couple balsam trees and into the shooting lane it was a buck,i was already at full draw so i bleated and he froze quartering away from me,i released and hit him in the middle of the ribs and it stopped in the bone in the leg on the opposite side,my arrow stayed in him.i let him go for an hour then went to check it out,i followed him and at about 25 yards i found some bright red blood and pieces of lung.my brother in law called me and wanted me to wait for him because he was on his way so i walked back out to the road,when we got back to the blood there wasn't much some here some there but with a lot of looking we stayed on it and got to the deer at 9:30.now this is what gets me,in that little amount of time either wolves or coyotes got to him and started to eat one of the hind quarters and a little bit of the lower backstrap.i gutted him and started to head for the road and when we got about 150 yards away we heard all kinds of yipping and howling,they were already back at the gut pile.when we stopped to take a break you could hear them running around behind us.also when we were searching for him i could not believe the amount of scrapes and rubs in there it looked like it was carpet bombed.we also jumped a very big buck with about 5-6 other deer with him this thing had some very impressive headgear and when we got back to the road i started walking to the vehicle and when i was about 50 yards from it another buck came out just on the other side of it and stood on the road for a few minutes then walked into the other side,then when i was just about to the truck a big doe came out from about the same spot and walked down the road away from me.what a big change this has been going from seeing nothing to this overnight,the chase is on.here is a pic of him he is not huge but is a good size 8 pointer.

[Stratosman]

Nice job! Looks like a good bodied deer, sucks about the coyotes though....

[Archerysniper]

Freezers getting full with the bear and deer now probaly just enough room for your doe now nice buck and congrats

[mudslinger64]

i got my doe a few weeks ago,i am done.now i just have to get out and pull my stands before the weekend.now the wife is happy,i have been in the woods pretty steady since the begining of august.almost time to start fishing the north shore for some kamloops if i don't get called back to work before.

[Archerysniper]

Forgot about the doe you also have some grouse that need attention.

[mudslinger64]

ya,i have seen tons of them.good time for a break though i am starting to get burnt out.i never did find my arrow and it kind of bums me out,everything i killed this year was with the same arrow.

[Archerysniper]

You can allways get it tomorrow and maybe some grouse

[totally_addicted]

Tonight I decided to go out and give it another try on some state land I hunted earlier in the week. I set up where I had seen a couple deer earlier and at about 5 o'clock i decided since it was pretty windy and I was in good cover that I should go for a walk. So I walked to the other end of the thicket I was hunting so I could walk into the wind. I was walking around for quite a while when I noticed a yearling out in the field. After some thought I decided I was going to take the small deer before the army of orange did. So I drew at 35 yards in the wide open and missed! The fawn and a doe (which I hadn't noticed) took off across the field. They stopped at 150 yards. I bleated once with my mouth and the they started walking back towards me. Did it a couple more times and the doe came in on a string at 30 yards. I drew and made what I thought was a solid shot. I followed a blood trail for about 5-600 yards before it finally dried up. What a horrible feeling! I am going to go back out and check again in the morning. If I can't find her, chalk one up for those pesky coyotes.

[BirddogBenelli]

I have secured about 100 acres to hunt in centerville area. Sat from 1-dark, saw 1 small buck and jumped a doe on way out. Tuesday, got out at about 3pm.- No deer but had about 40 turkeys within 15 yards which was cool. Got out there about 2:30 today and only saw a doe WITH a fawn. However, had a red fox come within 5 feet of me, while sitting on ground so that was really cool.

I have tried grunting and rattling but when you are almost surrounded by standing corn it is tough.

[TDH]

Went out tonight didn't see any deer, but I did see a black gray squirrel which was pretty cool. On the way home though I seen a monster 10 point on the road and a little farther up the road there was a doe so I bet he was chasing her.

[maros91]

Hunted today from 6 am till 11 am then from 1:45 till dark. Had a 4 pt. come through at 7:15 am. Nothing the rest of the morning. Afternoon action was better. At 4:45 another 4 pt. comes wandering through. 5 minutes later a 6 pt. comes in and instead of continuing on the trail he turns and heads towards the picked beans where I see there is another large bodied deer. The 6 pt. walks in with a stiff neck and the other one has his head down and I think here we go I am going to see a fight only to have them both put there head up and look over and see a bigger bodied deer come up and chase the other 2 off. It's getting dark but as he makes his way up the hill i can see his sillouhette and he has a wide rack with tall tines. I am guessing a big 8 or 10. I tried grunting...he stops and looks but didn't want to come in. I tried a second time and same thing. Now it's dark and the brush starts getting louder and here come yet another 4 pt. crashing through. So from 4:45 till dark I had 5 different bucks around. Very cool.

[Wanderer]

Yeah, cool night Biff.

Congrats Mudslinger - you've sure put your time in!

[catfishkid]

I sat out from 730 to noon, nothing. then again from 330 til dark, nothing. I got called off from work or I would have been there earlier.sun night I saw a nice 8 and wednesday morning a small 6. hopefully the guns don't chase them to far.

[96trigger]

So close, yet so far away. It was like deja vu all over agin last night. Went out and sat from 6:00 am to noon. Saw one deer, think it was buck. he never got all the way down to me, grunted and he disappeared in the brush, I think I saw him walking back the way he came about 10 minutes later. This was about 10:00 AM. Yesterday afternoon I moved a stand about 100 yards to where the big guys have been coming out. I was in the stand at 1:45. Hot and windy, with the winds out of the south blowing in the field. Should havbe been perfect. Kicked two deer out of the alfalfa field on my way back out, only 20 minutes after I moved my stand. Anyhow, about 4:00 a lone doe is ouit feeding in the picked corn field. At 4:30 Mr. big comes trotting in across the field, grunting, head down, ready to go. He's staying on the high side of the alfafla field and he is on a mission. Anyhow, I get drawn back, it's going to be a wide open shot at about 30 yards, very makable. I have a big basswood tree in front of me, as soon as he hits the first limb, I draw back, It see him in the 2nd V of the tree limbs, my shot is when he gets just past the 3rd V in the tree. I see him get to the 3rd V, throw on the brakes, turn around and high tail it back the way he came. BUSTED.... It was only about 30 seconds worth of adrenalin, but there it was, there was my shot for the year.

About 4:45 I had 9 does in the field, no buck came back out. On a crappy note, the does fed in front of me for a long time, offering multiple different shots, eventually, a big old doe winded me and they all took off. I still had 3 more does feeding to the west of me. at about 5:00, all three of them look back in the woods and a lone doe comes tearing up the field, I think great, here comes another one. The doe stops about 10 feet in front of me, then turns around, and tears all the way back the way she came. Wierd, never saw another deer after that. Very surprised that all the does I saw had fawns with them, except the one crazy one that took off back and forth across the field.

BTW, It is so tough to play the wind up there, you just never no where they are going to come out. The big guy came out right where I have my other stand and where I was sitting last night.

Maybe during firearm he will give me a shot, but I am not optomistic.