2023 Deer Season

[dak109]

My brother got this one about a week ago. His best to date.

 

[dak109]

I got this one Thursday.

 

[dak109]

A couple more pics from the stand.

 

[DadSmith]

My trail cam shows the deer in my hunting area are not coming out until around 2000, and they are headed back through around 0300-0500.

If this continues I'm going to have to find a new spot. Very strange year.

 

[two70]

It has been a slow season so far, due in large part to standing corn around my hunting property. Prior to this past Thursday, I'd seen 3 does in about 35 hours of hunting. I saw 7 bucks, 9 does and a button buck in 40+ hours of hunting from Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening. Not great numbers for a typical early archery season, especially with the number of bucks on my trail cams but rattling in a nice 4.5 year old 8 and grunting in a bigger, mature 7 added a much needed dose of excitement to the season.

Now, with the nearest corn still standing and all of the other fields finally picked, the advantage should swing in my favor in the form of having better than normal food for the late season. I'm starting to see a few new, mature bucks showing up on my cameras and some more should show up once the guns start going off this weekend.

 

[jagee]

My step dad sent me his Ring camera video with a nice buck in his front yard and a picture of 2 does off his driveway...in Castleton. 75th and Binford area.

 

[phylodog]

We had a 150 class ten point within 20yds of our blind yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately the doe he was with saw something she didn’t like in or around the blind and she changed her course. We watched them for an hour meandering around within 75yds of us before it got dark.

This morning we tried to sneak back in to a spot we watched a nice shooter with a doe last Friday morning. Unfortunately this place is a potato chip factory and we heard a doe blow and a buck grunting back in the woods when we came in. Very frustrating. We’re learning that while t this farm has great habitat, it’s not well laid out for hunting. We’ve still got a lot to learn and figure out.

 

[cg21]

Best deer I’ve seen this year 5am

 

[phylodog]

That’s a dandy

 

[cg21]

That’s a dandy

I’m not a trophy guy or anything like that but big antlers still get the blood pumping… being an amateur how old do you think this guy is ? My uneducated guess is 3-4? Because his body looks younger…?

edit to add I am tagged out and probably won’t see this guy ever again lol but I am taking my dad and kids out…… heavy pressure near this property though

 

[tcecil88]

I'm looking forward to Saturday and breaking out the .50 Beowulf for the first hunt. The neighboring property has 5 hunters on it and the property runs down into our creek bottom thickets. Gonna set up in blocking positions.

 

[two70]

We had a 150 class ten point within 20yds of our blind yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately the doe he was with saw something she didn’t like in or around the blind and she changed her course. We watched them for an hour meandering around within 75yds of us before it got dark.

This morning we tried to sneak back in to a spot we watched a nice shooter with a doe last Friday morning. Unfortunately this place is a potato chip factory and we heard a doe blow and a buck grunting back in the woods when we came in. Very frustrating. We’re learning that while t this farm has great habitat, it’s not well laid out for hunting. We’ve still got a lot to learn and figure out.

Sneaking? There's your problem, I know of a guy that used to dash through the woods in short bursts, he claimed it sounded more like a buck chasing a doe and didn't spook the deer. I've never been much of a runner and I suspect the gasping for breath wouldn't sound all that realistic but it seemed to work ok for him.

 

[two70]

I’m not a trophy guy or anything like that but big antlers still get the blood pumping… being an amateur how old do you think this guy is ? My uneducated guess is 3-4? Because his body looks younger…?

edit to add I am tagged out and probably won’t see this guy ever again lol but I am taking my dad and kids out…… heavy pressure near this property though

It's impossible to be sure at that angle but I'd say he is at least 3 and more than likely, 4 or 5.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Sneaking? There's your problem, I know of a guy that used to dash through the woods in short bursts, he claimed it sounded more like a buck chasing a doe and didn't spook the deer. I've never been much of a runner and I suspect the gasping for breath wouldn't sound all that realistic but it seemed to work ok for him.

And if you hold your hands like this while you're running, it really puts the deer at ease...

 

[two70]

And if you hold your hands like this while you're running, it really puts the deer at ease...

View attachment 312014

I don't know about that but if you hold your hand at waist level and flick it lightly like a deer flicking its tail they will often come closer to investigate.

 

[cg21]

It's impossible to be sure at that angle but I'd say he is at least 3 and more than likely, 4 or 5.

Well! Maybe I can get my hands on him to get a closer look. Have 3 buck tags left in this house would be ecstatic if one of my family members got to tag that boy.

 

[ed1838]

Saw 6 this morning, A small buck chasing a doe. 2 loan does, A very nice buck that if could have put a arrow thru the brush would have. He did come out to open field just not close enough. Then another doe that got around behind me didn't see till out of range. This has been most seen all season.

 

[phylodog]

Sneaking? There's your problem, I know of a guy that used to dash through the woods in short bursts, he claimed it sounded more like a buck chasing a doe and didn't spook the deer. I've never been much of a runner and I suspect the gasping for breath wouldn't sound all that realistic but it seemed to work ok for him.

We've had that discussion many times and we've tried different approaches. When the doe blew this morning it sounded like there were several deer in there and definitely at least one good buck. They were all crashing around so we basically crashed the last 15 yards to the stand. None of them bounded off but who knows how spooked they were. We had three different coyotes out prowling that corner of the farm this morning as well.

Had a ton of deer movement the first 30 minutes of light then it slowed. We got down around 11 when the wind switched and had seen one small buck per hour for the last three hours. Trying to devise a plan for this eveninig.

 

[two70]

We've had that discussion many times and we've tried different approaches. When the doe blew this morning it sounded like there were several deer in there and definitely at least one good buck. They were all crashing around so we basically crashed the last 15 yards to the stand. None of them bounded off but who knows how spooked they were. We had three different coyotes out prowling that corner of the farm this morning as well.

Had a ton of deer movement the first 30 minutes of light then it slowed. We got down around 11 when the wind switched and had seen one small buck per hour for the last three hours. Trying to devise a plan for this eveninig.

It certainly doesn't help the situation with the buck that was spooked but at least this time a year, the sound of doe snorting isn't all that likely to spook deer out of the immediate area.

I'm not sure why but I saw buck movement between 2:30 and 3:30 every afternoon that I hunted this past weekend. The evening movement seemed to occur 30-45 minutes after the end of legal shooting time and morning movement was sporadic but tended to between 9-10:30 most frequently.

 

[trimman83]

Just got back from the park reduction hunt at Shades SP. I did get a nice buck (half-rack), and a big doe. I could have gotten another this morning, but I was plain worn out from dragging the other two. I saw 3 bucks and 10 doe in the 1 day and early morning, today. Had fun with my Knight MK-85 .54 ML.