Let's hear your gun season successes!!!!

[DonBo]

My first time in probably 30 years I'm not gun hunting. I NEED your stories! Let's hear 'em.

[GatorBait]

I have a great story.

18 hours, 6 hunters, 80 acres, 120 squirrels, 0 deer. Not to sure what to think of it all, last 3 years have been a complete waste of time, other than enjoying the outdoors in all. But i'm in awe and can only dream about the good ol'days when I actually lost count of daily totals.

[fishtrapgirl]

My husband Ryan and I saw five deer while walking out to our stands Saturday morning, but it was still way to dark to take a shot. Ryan got a big adult doe at 0730 hours. He saw a doe and fawn in the afternoon. This morning we had three small does that came between our stands and bedded down. They were small, so we passed on them. Ryan also saw a doe and her fawn in the morning. This afternoon he passed on a small buck. Hasn't been much shooting in our area, but we are seeing some deer. I have only hunted a few hours in the mornings because of work, but will get alot of time in the stand this week now, so hope to have some success.

[Cooter]

Gonna be lots of stories similar to GatorBaits - where were you hunting Gator?

I saw a decent 8 point on Sat I figured to be a 2.5 year old and let him go - that was it other than 2 squirrels, a blue jay, and several pileated(sp?) woodpeckers, and miles of thick fog.

My uncle grunted in and almost got ran over by a small half racked fork. He then saw a smallish 6 point and decent 8 along with a doe. Let them go to grow.

Sunday I had a great turkey show and a pair of does. About 10:15 I had a dandy 8 point burning across the pasture - that I found out later my dad had jumped. By the time I got the gun up he was 200+yards and just getting into the woods. He stopped and turned to look back and I had a clear shot at the vitals. Couldn't have been much left in the 2.5lbs of trigger pull when he turned and ran up the ridge. So close....couple shots about 10 minutes later up there, probably get to see a pic of him from the neighbors.

Its a broken record for me but 3 straight years of EAB was 2 years too many. I will not shoot a doe and I'm not alone with that mindset in the area. Its beautiful deer country and shouldn't have come to this - just hope things will return to 'normal' soon.

The only positive is we have a pretty good QDM practice going on and with the doe slaughter in the past there are plenty of young bucks with enough mature ones to keep it interesting.

Also hope getting back to 'normal' doesn't include a 16 day gun season, especially if they move the opener up a week. EAB was effective and a reasonable change but IMO they went overboard on it. They had a good tool in the box but should have limited its use a bit.

There my monday morning rant!

[bloc004]

Same as GatorBait. I saw nothing all weekend down by Monroe/ Lacrosse Counties. Our group total saw 3 doe and one fork all weekend. Very dissapointing opener, hope this next weekend is better!

[DonBo]

Even in areas without EAB the anterless tags have been given out like cheap candy on Halloween. I too was hesitant to tag a doe during the bow season because of the (IMO) overkill the past few seasons. Just one more reason I made the tough decision not to purchase a gun tag for the first time in many years.

[leech~~]

Sorry, it was our worst year ever for our group! 1 small buck out of 6 guys. The only good thing is that the small buck was from a 13 year old who got his first deer. That was the only success this year we had.

[rangerforme]

We actually saw about 40 deer between the 4 of us and we knocked down a dandy yesterday on a drive, but since it was supposed to rain over night we had to tail it before dark last night. Bugger was falling down as we watched it run into the woods right after shot so we waited and hour, but after 3 hours and 1 mile of ground trailed we finally ran out of blood(brisket? i'm guessing). Bummed out. Lots of big does and a few small bucks other than that one. We hunt washburn/burnett area.

I'd of like to let it sit overnight but wasn't an option with this goofy weather.

[iceman1603]

Our group of 4 saw many deer yesterday. I was the only one that went with out seeing anything in the morning sit. First shots were from Sean. 7:05am Boom.....one dead tree, 7:06am Boom... second shot finds its mark as a small racked 5pt falls. 8:07am Boom... Brad touches one off at a small racked 6 almost 7pt, 8:10am Brad had reloaded his Muzzle loader and finished off his first ever buck. At 9am I went and got the kodiak and retrieved both deer for them. Both bucks weighed in around 120-125lbs. The late morning 2 man still hunt didnt produce anything. Ate some lunch and were back in the stands around 230. Had a small croch horn entertain me for about a half hour with many chances to put him down. I want somethin a little more mature. At last shooting light as we are walking back to the house we hear the crack of Bryans 20ga ring across the swamp. Text message says Doe down. she weighs in at 105. No monsters shot but a good day for us. Total of 11 deer were seen by the 4 of us and 3 of them ended up in the tree.

[TR21]

A friend of mine just emailed me and said he finally got his trophy buck in Wisconsin on Saturday. 12 point typical with a 24" spread, 213 lbs. Beautiful animal.

[Cooter]

Sweet, can you get some pics for us?

[TR21]

I have the email at home with 1 pic, I'll see if I can figure out how to post on here or if you want to post your email I'll just send it to you.

[Cooter]

Sure, send it to [email protected]

[TR21]

I'll try to access it from work and send it over. It should work

[Cooter]

Holy brow tines on that thing! Congrats to your bud and thanks for sharing the pic:

[Cooter]

What part of the state did he get that bruiser?

[TR21]

Scott,

Just north of the Town of Brule, northwest part of the state.

[DonBo]

Holy carp batman! What a hog.

[Cooter]

Listening to the radio at lunch I heard the gun kill is down 25% thusfar. In the western portion down 28% overall and doe harvest down 40%.

[DonBo]

Listening to the radio at lunch I heard the gun kill is down 25% thusfar. In the western portion down 28% overall and doe harvest down 40%.

So, can we now do away with all the doe tags please? No, wait...let's add another week to the season instead!

Can't blame it on the weather, wonder what they'll come up with for an excuse this year?

[GatorBait]

Hunting in Southern Waushara County in which our county had a negative 45% drop in registered deer this year from last year. Ain't that great news.

[tunrevir]

Our party didn't do any shooting this past weekend but we all saw deer, just not the ones we were after. I saw 2 yearlings and a buck out a hundred fifty yards but couldn't make a positive ID on him for a shot and he never stuck around long enough for me to take a shot. My daughter who is 10 was hunting with her grandfather and saw a nice 10 pt. but was asked to pass on it by her grandfather as it is a 3 1/2 yo deer and has alot of potential to grow larger in the next couple years. I have a still photo from a video clip from when they are hunting if anyone knows how to post it. Kind of blurry due to the stop frame on the video but a nice buck nonetheless. She shot a doe already this year and will be doing more hunting with us through muzzle loader season. Hoping to get a crack at a nice buck this weekend. Maybe they will be moving more with the cooler weather coming in.

Tunrevir~

[bottomdweller]

We went four for twenty. Yeah lets extend the season LMAO

[trimbelle22]

I saw one buck opening afternoon, but didn't get a shot. Turned out to be the only deer I saw all weekend. My uncle shot a doe opening morning, that was the only deer he saw. Our 4 person party only saw 3 deer the whole weekend.

I am going out with a friend on some private land around Prescott this afternoon . He has been out the last few afternoons and has seen bucks chasing does and sparing so apparently they are still rutting if they haven't gotten pressured.

[klecker]

Hunted up around the crex meadow area. Saturday we had three bucks hanging and 1 doe. Added another doe sunday. One buck was a nine pt. with a 18" spread and good mass. Buddies biggest to date around crex. Warm weather and the swaps were drier than i thought they would be with all the October rain. We kicked up many deer on Sunday on drives, but didnt get any good shot opps. Lots of active yoggi dens all over the place. During one drive sunday afternoon in the rain turned around and had a bear running straight at me 20 yrds away. That will wake a guys colon up. Thing ran up and down the line, had a nice ear tag to boot. Not many gun shots all weekend and it seemed like there were less hunters up to. Headed back up tonight, till saturday. Good luck to every one the rest of the season.

klecker