206 hours later...

[lungdeflator]

Still no deer. I added up my hours starting from the 17th of September when I hunted in ND until last night and have been on stand for 206 hours. Ive learned alot about the area we hunt but have only seen 3 mature bucks that whole time! After 157 hours of bowhunting I had to pick up the rifle and try to fill the tag that way. No luck so far. Now the rut is winding down in our area and I have to start planning and moving stands for the late season bowhunting.

[Cheetah]

If you pass up deer waiting for a big buck, you don't get to complain about how long it takes to shoot a deer.

[mrklean]

haha yea, i have been very lucky this year saturday was the first day so far this year i didnt see a single deer all day, but most of the stuff i saw all year were groups of does

[bottom-bouncer]

If you pass up deer waiting for a big buck, you don't get to complain about how long it takes to shoot a deer.

+1

[sticknstring]

I've hunted until Dec 31st nearly every season and most often end up eating my buck tag. Give it another month and then we might have some sympathy!

[LightningBG]

206 hours????

That's over 5 - 40hr weeks. I take it you're retired or something?

I thinks you need to look for a new place to hunt or lower your standards.

I pegged mine 7:50am opening day archery.

[stifler51]

well lucky you guys. First year bow hunting and didnt see a thing. EXCEPT the one bouncing off the front end of my pickup about .25 mile from my stand on the way to my stand.

[mabr]

I've hunted until Dec 31st nearly every season and most often end up eating my buck tag. Give it another month and then we might have some sympathy!

It sure feels weird doesnt it S&S without a buck tag. Im seriously sad that I wont be hunting late season. I can get one more doe, but im about full on venison in the freezer thanks to our youngest's first buck this year.

Only good thing is they will be a year older next year.

[Bear55]

Ive learned alot about the area we hunt but have only seen 3 mature bucks that whole time!

Then you had a great season, bowhunting is often more about encounters then filling tags. I have seen two mature bucks in 10 years of bowhunting, I finally connected on one this year. Now I am hunting public land so you might have higher standards and better land but I would say you had a heck of a season and the more you learn you just might find yourself connecting on a few of those deer.

[BLACKJACK]

I'm starting to question my decision to pass on a fork-horn and a few does, I know one of those big bucks that I have on my trail cameras are going to be tough to get now after gun season - if they're still alive. But I also know that I can't shoot a big one if I shoot the first little one that passes by. I'm looking forward to getting out over Thanksgiving and into December, any deer I get will be a true trophy!!! And if I eat tag soup, so be it. I did that lots of times in my early years of bow-hunting!!

[Musky Buck]

Blackjack you are inbetween deer hunting levels, I remember it well and apparently those big bucks on your trailcam were tough to get before gun season. Keep trying you never know, a guy got a monster this morning in zone 1 after hunting every day, he was about to give up when this 230 pound dressed 14 pointer with a rack that looks like it weighs 40 pounds on it's head showed up, will push making the B and C for sure and glad his wife brought a digital in an hour ago for me to see, big bucks definitely don't follow our game plan, the guy said he thought someone else likely got him the first or second weekend, but I guess not.

[lungdeflator]

ha no im not retired...im in school and living at our hunting cabin so I get "home" and then go hunting! I passed a 3.5 year old 8 pt on opening night of rifle season that I might regret when its 20 below here in a couple weeks

[deerminator]

[chris63]

Dude that is all from a single deer?How fast were you traveling and how big was the deer?c63

[stifler51]

yea it was a single deer, weighed in the ball park of 150-160#. Hit it doing bout 55. Came up and over a hill on a paved road. Saw a deer in the north side ditch. so i started hitting the brakes and was thinkin to myself dont jump, dont jump. Next thing i know i see a flash out of the corner of my eye and a deer popped out of the southside ditch and it was all downhill from there. Then it was deer, locked up brakes, hoping it would do one of the zig zags back into the ditch it came from. NOPE, i had to manually tell it to go back into the ditch.

OHHH and on the way to my girlfriends dorm in WI. Heading around a blind corner and almost hit a doe standing on the road. Though this time i had a few more seconds to stop. I swear deer found out i decided to put down the duck decoys for awhile and pick up a bow.

[Stcloudangler]

Sometimes life is like that, I've hit two deer with vehicles in my life, and they came within 5 days of each other.

Weird thing is they were both in city limits, on major highways in St. Cloud.

[bobbymalone]

Weird thing is they were both in city limits, on major highways in St. Cloud.

Maybe not that weird. Vehicles are often the only population control in the city and it really only takes a few wooded parks for good habitat.

I saw a kill on I-94 about a quarter mile west of 35E in St. Paul last year. Not sure how the deer got down there but with 20-30 foot concrete walls on both sides I'm sure it didn't have much of a chance.

Had a button buck hit me, literally it ran into the driver's side rear door of my car, on the north end of St. Paul. Hit so hard it killed itself.