A big Congrat’s to all that posted / shared their successful hunting stories and pictures to date ! Man it looks like all the different food groups have been covered ! Good job all !
In our area it has been a very weird season with weather and game movement … as we moved towards the end of October the warm weather made for a real strange 1st rut in our area ?
1st couple of weeks of October worked out well , I took a beauty fall turkey and nice whitetail doe with a 70’s Red Wing Model recurve .
A friend from work ( Frank V. ) bought his first Excalibur ( Matrix 330 ) … He put many hours in the field with me at some of the properties I hunt and on his own at a 10 acre spot close to his place > He had his share of whitetail encounters and found out these key points …
1. Whitetail Bucks are tricky for sure !
2. And when you finally get an arrow thru a deer it doesn’t just fall down and turn into steaks !
Frank had a good season overall and took a mid season doe @ 30 yards with a 40 yard recovery.
And a late season doe @ 25 yards with a 20 yard recovery . ( December 28th evening stand as a freezing rain storm started to blow in ) I was texting him at 4:55pm telling him to hang in there( it was blowing and cold ) > he text over me saying " I got one " so when I got to the tree he climbed down and relived the action while I took a picture and then I took one walk up picture in the field ... ( Both mid/late season doe’s were taken with 150 gr Bolt Cutter Broadhead’s ) > Text book double lung/ heart shots > Congrat’s Frank V. good shooting !
Frank joked with me saying those 150 Bolt Cutter Broadhead’s pack a wallop when they hit because they knocked the antlers off of both of his deer !
As we moved into the last weeks of October the rut was askew with the weather > I hunted with Wylie H. ( here is a picture after a morning hunt when we stopped for breakfast and he changes his wheels over from outdoor to office ) he later took a nice size young buck from the ramp stand …
And when I finally found some rut sign ( Fresh Rub and Scrape ) I blew the shot and only gave the buck a haircut when he charged in under my climber while I was in the middle of the set up … Oops ! < Can’t afford to miss shots like that when the season is as slow as it was for us this year !
My knee flared up again ( recent MRI shows more torn cartilage ) I’m being refered to another Specialist re : Next step additional surgery … But I still get out with the aid of two walking sticks and do some low impact scouting at other properties > One of which I get a couple cool frames of a group of beauty bearded Toms ( eight total ) .
My wife has been a big help this season > Driving me to and from stands and she even picked me up with my gear a couple time with the tractor … We continue to see many doe’s from property to property but the bucks are few and far between …
November Controlled hunt was the slowest I have ever encountered … I passed a doe and fawns with a spike buck in tow on the first morning thinking things were going to heat up , but we ended the week without even filling one Controlled Hunt tag …
Back to the archery season > One night , I had nine does pass within 85 yards of my stand , but still no bucks ? ( time to thin the herd ) . I was able to call one in to 20 yards > then launched a 150 grain Bolt Cutter down the rail of an Excalibur Matrix 380 to seal the deal ! 20 yard shot with 7 yard recovery …
A trip to Court P’s home butcher shop gave me a quick turn around of Steaks / Chops / Smoked sausage / Smoked Roasts / and he made up individual hamburger paddies for me as well from the ground left overs !
Of course if you spent any time in the field thru October into November , no matter what the weather , there are always no shortage of beautiful sunsets !
Early December the 2nd rut kicks in , but I only get a series of buck grunt/chasing a doe pictures and have no bucks close enough to arrow when I am out ..
A break in the action > My Daughter is back from the Yukon and is finishing up her Fish and Wildlife Program at Flemming College > She did an internship at a wildlife rehabilitation place and sent me many happy ending recover pictures with many different critters !
A buddy from out West sends me pictures of his bird feeding walks ...
Yesterday we end the season with a small group of friends doing misc stands and pushes and although we did see collectively a lot of deer , no deer cooperated with our plans in those last trips afield … the last few days freezing rain and ice made it very difficult to do any set up’s without the deer hearing us coming from a mile away as we crunched thru the thin ice layer of snow … we did see our share of turkey and coyote .
Here is CH’s son set up at one funnel area ( later nearly over run by turkeys ! )
Anyway … that’s a summary of some of our outings … A fun 2015 overall ! and now we are into the New Year . ( I turned 55 today ) !
Page Break > Jan 6th 2016
Season over … Yesterday and today > Headed out to drop off some venison to one of the farms we hunted during the 2015 season and take down a couple blinds .
The deer sense the lack of pressure in the bush and show themselves more frequently during daylight hours . So we take some time for a photo safari in and around our area .
This group was across the road from my farm before dark last night …
As we drove approx. 1 hour North , we got a few pictures as misc farms we stopped at .This little squirrel was scurrying thru the fence line till I finally got a focus on him …
Same with this Cardinal > Took about 30 frames till I finally got one in focus …
We bumped into deer at the river flat portion of one farm .
And found these turkeys grouped together in a hay field at another farm there were more but could only get 20 in the frame …
I got a frame of my camera partner ( Eliseo G ) as he walked thru the bush into an opening between two small woodlots …
Some turkeys moving thru the grass flats ( again difficult to get a good focus ) …
On the way home we spot what at 1st appears to be Coyotes in the field to the East , but once we got optics on them it turns out to be a couple of farm dogs doing the rounds ….
Also on the way home we got a few more pictures of deer on another property … And that was it for the day .
Happy New Years to all > Have a Safe Holiday ! > Looking forward to all of your pictures and stories into 2016 !
Thanks for the great story and pics. 
Dave