Tough season so far!

[XB I GO]

Wow, usually my family has several deer in the freezer by now. First, we lost a lot of hunting property and connections when my Uncle Richard died at the end of the summer. Then my Dad got hooked on his longbow and insists on hunting with that. Our property in S. TX has been too hot for deer movement and they just started getting active. I always get a deer with my vertical bow first and then go to my Excalibur. Well I have outgrown my compound bow. I shot over 3 deer! I thought it was all me but it ended up that with everything adjusted as much as it could be the bow launched broadhead arrows much higher than the same weight field tip arrows. My Dad fixed that problem, we went to the bow shop and I have a new compound bow now. But then football kept me from the tree stand until now. My brother has the same football schedule too. We thought Dad would be tagged out by now but I guess he has a learning curve with his longbow - he missed a few times before finally getting one little buck. It seems like the season is getting away this year .... but I noticed less posts with successful hunts than the past few years. Maybe everyone is having an off year. I plan to hunt every day from Dec 27-Jan 4th and my goal is to get a buck with the new compound bow and a buck with the new Excalibur Mag340! Good luck to everyone who is out there now trying to get that buck!

[Hester0305]

Good luck with your new compound bow I hope you get a chance to take a buck with it. I've been fortunate to take 4 does with my crossbow this year and fill our freezers I try to do this before the guns start firing because it's so much harder after that. I'm glad your dad was able to fill a tag with that longbow because that is a chore just in itself to tag a deer with either a recurve or longbow. Good luck to ya'll and stay safe.

[Boo]

Here the deer are pretty nocturnal. I took a cull buck and still waiting for the boss. I have cell cams and only 4 times have deer showed themselves during legal hours since Oct 1st. In my backyard I have a corn feeder, apples and greens and only once has a deer shown up during legal light and that was this morning. Tough yes!

[xcaliber]

Indiana, at least the northern half has been pretty good this year. We had low temps. early in the season, and the rut timing seemed pretty predictable, then we got a bit of warm up, and it slowed some it seems. Anyway, not too bad this year for us.
Good luck young man, and the rest of the bunch!

[AJ01]

It has indeed been a strange year. I have had a ton of nice mature bucks on camera during daylight hours. Unfortunately, I was not in my stand at the right moment!!
Since rifle season started here in Texas, I have NOT seen a mature buck on camera during the day. Not many Does either. Big Deer don't get to be big deer by being stupid.
I have one tag left to fill. Hopefully with this guy...
We have a date later this month!




Seasonal temps have been on the warm side here in East Texas too. I have a buddy that hunts Laredo. It's been t-shirt weather for most of the season. I know back when I hunted South Texas, we had a place we leased outside of Cotulla, in a little community called Artesia Wells. Great deer, Javelina and all the hogs you could shoot!!

I hope you get one with BOTH bows!! Somebody once told me, "the only way you can kill 'em is to hunt 'em"!!
Have fun! Be safe!!

AJ

[flightattendant100]

Wow, usually my family has several deer in the freezer by now. First, we lost a lot of hunting property and connections when my Uncle Richard died at the end of the summer. Then my Dad got hooked on his longbow and insists on hunting with that. Our property in S. TX has been too hot for deer movement and they just started getting active. I always get a deer with my vertical bow first and then go to my Excalibur. Well I have outgrown my compound bow. I shot over 3 deer! I thought it was all me but it ended up that with everything adjusted as much as it could be the bow launched broadhead arrows much higher than the same weight field tip arrows. My Dad fixed that problem, we went to the bow shop and I have a new compound bow now. But then football kept me from the tree stand until now. My brother has the same football schedule too. We thought Dad would be tagged out by now but I guess he has a learning curve with his longbow - he missed a few times before finally getting one little buck. It seems like the season is getting away this year .... but I noticed less posts with successful hunts than the past few years. Maybe everyone is having an off year. I plan to hunt every day from Dec 27-Jan 4th and my goal is to get a buck with the new compound bow and a buck with the new Excalibur Mag340! Good luck to everyone who is out there now trying to get that buck!

XB I GO,
I am so sorry to hear about Richard. I hope your season turns around for you. Hang in there.

[StoneFence]

Mines been tough as well. Between work, stupid mild temps and so forth... Missed a dandy during the gun season which I still for the life of me understand how I missed him but that's why its called hunting I guess.

[Patcon]

This hasn't been a great hunting season for me. I have been hurt since July and it has made sitting painful. So up until recently I didn't think I would be able to hunt at all.
My first day out was last Tues didn't see anything
The next was Fri and I saw 4 deer, which was great. I normally don't see deer in daylight after the first week of Dec due to local hunting pressure
Shot a doe with the rifle last night...
Another observation is I don't hear the shooting around us like I have in the past.
Also the processor I use is going to process only a hundred or two more deer this year, even though we lost two processors over the last two years.
Will be interesting to see what the state harvest numbers end up being

[AJ01]

This hasn't been a great hunting season for me. I have been hurt since July and it has made sitting painful. So up until recently I didn't think I would be able to hunt at all.
My first day out was last Tues didn't see anything
The next was Fri and I saw 4 deer, which was great. I normally don't see deer in daylight after the first week of Dec due to local hunting pressure
Shot a doe with the rifle last night...
Another observation is I don't hear the shooting around us like I have in the past.
Also the processor I use is going to process only a hundred or two more deer this year, even though we lost two processors over the last two years.
Will be interesting to see what the state harvest numbers end up being

Number 1...Hope your health improves greatly!! No fun to be in pain!!
Number 2...Congrats on the Doe!!
Number 3..It's been tough hunting everywhere. I blame Covid!!!!

AJ

[Hatchet]

It's been over here for about 2 weeks. No deer for me but I sat with Mrs.Hatchet in the orchard shack and she got her first deer. If one of us is successful we all get to eat some venison, so I'm happy. Talked to a neighbor and he says they didn't see anything all season.

I miss the season but had to get back to work around the homestead. Got a 16"+ snowstorm and the ground was muddy from 3" of rain a couple days before. What a muddy mess. Next project is putting a woodstove in my shop.

Good luck to you XB and to all the other members that are still out their waiting on a big one.
Take care
Hatchet

[DuckHunt]

My season started out really slow as well. It was six weeks into the season and my 12th hunt before I saw a deer at my primary hunting spot. In the end it turned out to be a decent season with me bagging a deer three Saturday's in a row. All I can say is keep at it. When the bucks start chasing doe, get all of the stand time that you can. At the very least you should get to see more deer when their movements increase. Good luck!

[Patcon]

Thanks AJ!
Im use to being hurt because I work with my hands and have done so for 30+ yrs but this year has been especially hard. Between the two injuries I have been hurt most of the year and about July I found out the 7 acres I hunt was going up for sale. So I had to pull the cameras, feeder and stands. I reset them on adjacent property but not until late November. After 2 cortisone shots and an MRI I am moving in the right direction.
In the end I was just enjoying being in the woods and watching deer move around and thankful for it!