Late season archery

[SmellEsox]

Congrats OTC!

[O.T.C.]

Thanks Smellesox lol, he wasn't much but feeling the doe population is still not high I thought taking him was best case scenario as we had so many bucks on camera even after rifle season so the 4 giants and the 2 smallest ones were on the list so to speak. You just don't know if or what you may see in legal light. You realize like last year not connecting how much you miss high quality venison. My kids love it also more then any other meat and they both can't wait to ride to the processor to pick it up. Can't wait till we're all set up to butcher our own because when rifle ended that was kinda it. You get a late Muzzy or Bow deer and it's not worth dirtying everything all up again( when I don't own all the stuff) so I went processor route, spendy but high quality. Good luck and late Bow sounds fun as ever, releasing an arrow In December would be cool as heck knowing how tough it is to even see an animal let alone be close enough for a shot, seems like your only snow hunting chance some years also, I miss the snow years.

[Musky hunter 82]

Well back to the original topic of last season Archery hunting, it looks like I'll be able to get out this Saturday for an evening hunt with my wife.  Going to go back to the public that I had the encounter with the 8 and 10 pointer.  I'll set her up in the best spot then I'll go to another area where hopefully I can get a shot at a deer.  This snow is going to help a ton just to know if the deer are still there, and if so where they are heading to.

Good luck to everyone that is still out there with a stick and string.

[1eyeReD]

Decided to get up a tree on an acorn flat in western WI yesterday afternoon on some public (well, somewhat public) land. I didn't plan on hunting unless there was some sign of recent activity and it looked like they were coming through. Leaves turned here and there, trails were faint but definitely used recently (just not heavy). Having no snow in late season for figuring out trails and direction of travel makes for tough planning and a lot of wandering around trying to figure out where you wanna set up... Man, the struggle is real. Anyhow, after some putzing around thinking, "this will turn into just a scouting trip with a stand on my back" - I found a spot and got in a 2 1/2 hour sit til dark up in a nice straight oak and I did see a buck. He was either a basket 8 or a bigger 6 pt and was surprisingly relaxed walking through at about 4PM. He cut my trail that I walked in on and went towards the field about 250 yds away on a neighboring property... I was after a doe, however. Never saw her, but at least I saw something. Gonna go at it again later this week.

On a side note/rant: Rifle hunters left some stands up on this piece of MFL land with climbing sticks and everything, I saw two sets actually. A big no-no. I called the landowner and he said that is not allowed though they do it every year and he doesn't know who they are. He says they usually remove their stands by spring, but it causes issues for him should he need to cut those trees down. How friggin lazy can some people be? The rules state that you have to remove your stand at end of day... I don't get why people do that in places where it's not allowed. I've seen stands on WMAs, WPAs and even SNAs as well. The only exception is on State Forest land here in MN as you can leave it up but not all year as it becomes considered "abandoned" after a certain amount of time I believe... But that's a different topic so this is as far as I will hijack this thread.

Haha back to hunting. Good luck to all who are still going out!

Edited December 21, 2015 by 1eyeReD

[Musky hunter 82]

Well my wife and I both made it out on Saturday afternoon, but didn't see anything.  There were fresh deer and turkey tracks from either Friday night or Saturday morning, but there were also a few pheasant hunter tracks and another set that walked through the woods that afternoon before we got there.  But what do you do that's public land hunting.

[DonBo]

Been a pretty frustrating season for me up till now. Been hunting pretty hard with dang few sightings. Actually went three full weeks without seeing a deer. If the snow wasn't there to see the tracks, I'd have guesed there were none around. So, all that made this morning all the sweeter. A last day success in a nice "eater". Honestly any deer would have made me happy this week.

[monstermoose78]

Looks like a tasty deer.Congrats on deer Donbo

[leech~~]

Nice Donbo on the 3rd hour of the season!

[leechlake]

I've fallen in love with neck roasts so my mouth is watering.  Nice work and persistance.

[rkhinrichs]

Nice!

[Scoot]

WTG DonBo!

[MattL]

I filled my tag with one hour left on the clock on the last day. Been holding out for a mature buck but only had 2 sightings in early Nov and no trail cam pics of any bucks that met my standards. About the 20th of Dec I decided I better start looking for a doe to fill the freezer. Had a few close calls and missed one yesterday that jumped the string. This one was not so lucky. 

[DonBo]

Nice job Matt! Not many were still staying with it this late in the season. Love the last day success.

[leech~~]

What is going on? Two Doe's committing suicidal on the last day of 2015? Hope they don't know something we don't?

Good job guys.

[PropsterII]

That's what I'm talkin about! Son Hunter starting off 2016 with a bang. We were in separate blinds about 100 yds apart along the edge of a small strip of standing corn.  We each had a button buck nearby early. Then I had 5 does and fawns eating in the corn about 50-60 yds out. I happened to glance down toward his end of the field and saw a dandy working his way out toward the open near his blind. I got my binos to n him just in time. Heard the arrow smack him, it popped out right away and he started running up the field. He started snowplowing at 40 yds. After 20 yds of sledding he popped up, tried to make it through the thin strip of trees separating the fields, and crashed. Ten ringed the heart and dead in about 10 seconds. So cool to watch. His biggest buck to date. 

[IceHawk]

Nice buck Congrats! Man that bugger has a big head.

[DonBo]

That is a great buck. Definitely worth the wait.  Congrats.

[paceman]

Awesome Job Guys! I made it out for the last morning. Did not see anything. Kind of a sad slow walk back to the truck knowing it was my last sit for the year. But I had a very good year, saw lots of deer, saw 2 shooters that just stayed out of range, got some new property to hunt on, saw lots of critters... already looking forward to the spring when I will start scouting, moving stands around, trim lanes...

[Scoot]

DonBo, MattL, and Propster's son-- congrats and great work sticking with it.  Ryan and I stuck with it as long as we could- we hunted MN every day we could including the last night of the season.  Then we headed to ND and hunted Fri and Sat.  Today he and I are both sick, so we're not going to hunt the last day of the ND season.  On the last night of the MN season Ryan had a decent 8 pointer (a "huge buck" to him) at 17 yards, but couldn't get a shot.  It was dead calm and he got busted trying to draw-- tough conditions to get a shot for anyone.  The ND season ended for us last night with 28 deer spotted.  Most were a ways away, but we had a forkhorn headed right to us, but unfortunately he came from the opposite direction we expected and when he hit our tracks from walking in he turned around and didn't give us a shot.  He cut our tracks at 30 yards and he was on a line to walk by at about 10 yards.  Dang! 

 

Ryan stuck with it and did everything he could this season.  For an 11 year old to hunt as much and as late as he did, I was very pleased with his persistence.  I carried a bow for deer two times this season!  This season was all about trying to get my son some experience and we accomplished that in spades.  I had hoped to shoot a deer, but that was much less important than getting Ryan opportunities.  Ryan shot his first and second deer this year and I have a feeling he'll shoot a decent buck next year.  We'll see!  It was a ton of fun and it'll be fun once again next year.

 

Great work to all of you who stuck with it and toughed out the late/cold season.  Late season is my favorite time of year to bowhunt and I sure enjoyed this December's hunt once again.  Time to put the bow away for about one month, then bust it out and get things tuned up for turkey this Spring.  Ryan won a contest a while ago and will be headed to California this March to get our turkey season started.  It will be a ton of fun and I can't!  Enjoy the offseason folks.