You wouldn’t believe what I found at my deer camp. A tame deer. It wandered around camp like an oversized dog, apparently unaware that all those people had come there for the express purpose of killing it and its friends. It actually nosed its way into Ed’s ground stand to check out his lunch (while he was hunting other, less stupid deer).
The guys felt sorry for it, and actually put a (pink) collar and a bell on it, so it wouldn’t get picked off accidentally.:rolleyes: Somehow I imagine a deer-conversation like this: “Oh yeah Hal, that arrow must hurt. My collar doesn’t look so gay now, does it?” Eventually, seeing all its friends being skinned seemed to bother it, and it disappeared.
As to my fellow hunters, I’ve collected all their mancards and brought them back with me. I’ll take them to the shredder at work Monday.
Back to my original question, How’d things go for all the hunters this year?
This fellow wandered by my stand on the third day, and I took him with a crossbow. Had to track him for about 30 minutes to find where he fell. After locating him, I couldn’t lift him (by myself) into the UTV. About the time I got him to a suitable tree branch (so I could use the winch to lift) other hunters showed up and helped me out. He’s now resting comfortably in my freezer. (the blue tape on the antlers is holding my tag; couldn’t find my twist ties).
Love to hear from the other hunter’s, stories, etc.
So far it has been horrible. I haven’t even seen a deer in the area I’ve been hunting. But I still have a couple of weeks left. I’m determined to get one of those bastards even if it means camping out for a while.
I shot a 5 point bull in the heart on opening day, my first antlered bull.
I didn’t get a deer and Dad got skunked altogether but we both got elk and deer last year so I can’t complain about the freezers, they’re packed so tightly that we’re giving meat away. Makes a nice change after a couple of lean years.
I shot a coyote that was chasing a doe out of my tree stand so at least I got some shooting.
My dad just got his trap line going so we might get some predators to round out the season.
That’s a nice deer, pullin. Crossbows always sound so loud on tv, do you get a lot of deer jumping/ducking?
The more you guys get, the less there are to make driving dangerous. Good hunting… Got a lot of doe tags? Lots of hungry folks out there, help feed them deer meat…
We had pretty good luck with ducks over Thanksgiving in Colorado hunting the Arkansas River as it flows through the place. Called in some coyotes too laying among the sage in a Ghilli suit.
Should bring some venison home from Burnet this weekend. Shoot that and a whole lotta bull.
Hasn’t happened yet. The arrow’s so fast that it’s more like shooting an unusually quiet gun. Mine has a 150lb draw (I have to use a draw rope in the stand). Surprisingly, in every case the arrow’s traveled completely through the animal. All of my kills so far have been under 25 yards, so there probably isn’t time for the deer to react to it.
Now I’m just waiting for Christmas to be over… 'cause it’ll be time for muzzleloaders!
As far as sighting deer. It was very successful. My most successful season yet in New Hampshire (land of low deer density).
As far as filling my freezer, I didn’t. I’m sure I fed some coyotes though, as I made a very bad shot, and only wounded a nice buck. Either I made a piss poor shot, something was wrong with the gun, or it moved as I shot. 3 hours looking for the trail by two of us, then 3 hours with a tracking dog, and no further sign of anything other than the 20yds of trail we were able to find 100yds from the shot. I’m certain that he traveled for a few miles through residential areas outside of the conservation land I was hunting. The lack of recovery has been eating at me every day since, and caused several sleepless nights.
I didn’t hunt the rest of the season (partially as penance), and need to upgrade my shotgun technology (to a barrel with better sights than the simple bead) before next season. And practice a whole lot more, so that it NEVER happens again.
Sorry for interrupting your killing party, but that story about the tame deer had me squealing like a little girl! Did you get to pet it? Do you have pictures of it? Did you feed it? C’mon, fess up; you all played with the deer, didn’t you? How common is this? What are the odds of me finding a deer I can pet? They are so damn cute!!
Neither my gf nor I hunt, but we have a freezer full of venison. My gf trades homemade apple pies for venison with a few hunters we know. One neighbor gets licenses for PA and WV. He gave us most of one of his deer.
This year we allowed a hunter to hunt on our land. He won’t be allowed back. My only request was that he bag/take his deer guts with him so our dogs wouldn’t scarf it down and puke it back up in our house. He forgot. I was pissed.
They’ve been pretty thin on the ground this year around here. I haven’t even seen many. Last year they were everywhere; I even had a couple race my car down the road, and we were always having to drive very carefully because you couldn’t go anywhere without at least half a dozen jumping across the road in front of you. Small groups of them were always in the fields by my uncle’s house or in my Mom’s front yard. This year I’ve seen exactly 5 in the yards and fields around my house.
My nephew got one on opening day, my Dad’s got one and I managed one in the first week. But no one’s gotten anything else since around here since before Thanksgiving.
I always viewed shotgun slugs as a way for budget-conscious hunters to maximize their ability to hunt various game (deer, rabbit, squirrel, fowl) with a single firearm. My dad bought me a 20-gauge when I was 13 and it allowed me to go hunting with him a bunch of times in a single year without having to buy me a separate rifle just for deer season.
Also considered safer when there are a lot of people in the same woods and when a lot of houses dot the hunting areas. Some places used to be Slug only in modern firearms season.
I didn’t pet it, as it had mostly disappeared by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, I have no pics, but I’ll check and see if anyone else in camp can send me one. One hunter confessed to almost needing an underwear change… he was sitting at the picnic table and suddenly realized a deer was looking over his shoulder. He said it was like it was saying: “Whassup?”.
I turned out that one of the hunting camps across the river felt sorry for it and penned it up for “opening day” and most of the first week. They felt (as we do) that there should be *some *sport involved, and this critter wouldn’t have a chance. Maybe by next year it will develop a more healthy attitude towards bipeds.
