Well I hope you had a good morning and found the doe. Must be nice to be able to hunt deer so early in the year. I have to wait till October. I hope you find it, we all know how nice it is to hunt once you've "dulled the edge of lust" LOL! Don't know if I could sleep if I were you RIStutStopper! Ok, now I'm not so envious! Let us know what happens today!

No joy this morning, at least not for me. We found her right where we left her, except....we got there and she was STANDING. Head down in the brush, we walked up to within 10 yards undetected. No hunting on Sunday in CT, and being the moron I am, I didn't bring my bow. I figured she would either be piled up or gone. She was up against some thick stuff, so my buddy figured if she takes off into it, she might get tripped up and we might have a chance, but she ducked into a hole and out the other side. We could hear her take off towards where I shot her. we found where she was laying, and there was no blood to speak of. Anyway, we hung around the property to check on some other spots figuring that was the end of that. On our way out, the landowner was coming up the access road, so we stopped to chat a bit. After we told him our story, we continued out and a skipper crossed the road in front of us. Would you believe she led us right to the doe I shot? She was bedded down maybe 20 yards off the road with a second skipperhanging out. This was a good .25 mile from where we pushed her. My buddy got out and confirmed what we thought. The arrow must have gone right under the spine, shocked it a bit, thats why she fell over. The doe took off running, limping a little, but I do believe she will make it. Not a good season opener, but the season is still young. I probably won't get out again until the end of the week and again on Saturday.

RIStrutStopper, atleast you got a rush out of it! I had a similar instance two years ago. Shot a moose with a 300 win mag. Heard the thud and it dropped like a rock (even heard the thud of the moose hitting the ground). It got up, hit it again, dropped again, even heard the thud again (was aiming high on the shoulder) when it hit the ground. Third shot I missed completely. My buddy hits it, front legs buckle and it drops. I jumps a fence and we track it in the snow for 8 hours through the most horrible coolie known to man kind! barely see any blood. Saw five of its beds during tracking only the first one with blood, maybe a 1/4 cup or so. We bumped it twice, friggen thing looked heathy. Moose is educated and laughing today! I'm sure you are right about your prognosis. It was half an hour before sunrise and we guessed at 120 yards. Next day proved that we were wrong it was a bit less than 100 yards and I was wacking it too high.

How's it going for everyone else? Weather is supposed to be lousy here today and tomorrow, thats good. I'm stuck in meetings anyway. I may get out Thursday or Friday afternoon, and again on Saturday afternoon. I'm dying to get back in the woods. Midweek, I'd be hunting public land with one buddy and Saturday back where I was last Saturday with a different friend. I want to give that spot a break given all of the moving/tracking over last week end.

I will not be deer hungting until mid Oct so for now I am merely a jealous spectator.

Well, had to pass on a chance to hunt this afternoon, my daughter is sick and actually asked me to get her a Dr appointment... My buddy won't be heading out tomorrow, but I may see about hunting a different property tomorrow afternoon. My friend has a small orchard that the deer are probably hitting pretty regularly about this time of year, but I've never hunted deer there. I usually hunt turkeys in the spring over at his place. I'll give him a call and make sure I have the okay to set up there. I'll take a ground blind and a tree stand, I'm not sure where I'll have to set up to get a clear shot, so I'll keep my bases covered. I'll be heading out again Saturday afternoon too.

Well I almost had us on the board last night. I had noticed last Saturday night when i went out hunting that there were 2 new scrapes about 20 yards from my stand. So i went out last night about 5 p.m., brought my trail camera with me and put my camera on the tree that will get a good shot of anything that comes to rework the scrape. It stayed pretty uneventful until about 6:45 when I had a small 1 1/2 year old buck come out he would have been probably a 70 inch deer but he only had one sideof his rack. He fed on the standing corn for about 10 min then came over to the scrape and worked it over for about 5 minutes. I thought i could here something in the corn. When I looked about 80 yards down thedrainage ditchhere comes this buck that i have gotten multiple pictures of this summer, he is a pretty nice 9 point. After watching this buck devour ear after ear of corn the small buck walks over to him and starts sparring with him. The 9 point tolerated it for a little bit, but then must have gotten sick of it because he stuck the wood to the little buck and nearly knocked him off his hooves. After that, the 9 point started making his way torward the scrape. He finally made it to the scrape and started working it over,i could see my camera flash as he was standing there. when he had his head behind the tree i drew back thinking he was going to walk out from behind the tree, Was i ever wrong. He continued to mess around with the licking branch for a few minutes, meanwhile i was to affraid to release my draw because the buck was facing in my direction and i was affraid he would see me. He finally stepped out at 25 yards, I lined up my 20 yard pin just a tad high and released. Arrow went right underneath his chest. My string had struck my jacket sleeve making a horrible racket, almost sounded like a gun shot. The buck took a few jumps going about 30 yards and stopped, looked around and slowly walked back into the cornfield. I guess from now on i will be wearing an arm guard or something to hold my sleeve tight, plus as soon as i released i know i peaked to see where my arrow went, probably the main reason i shot low. Well i guess i am glad i missed and didn't make a poor shot - plus he wasn't to spooked when he left. I'm gonna leave that area alone for about a week then go back and check my camera to see who is still working that scrape. Goodluck to the rest of you guys hope you score on a big one.

Here is a pic of the guy I missed

Sorry about your miss FF/EMT. The emotional roller coaster we ride when we bowhunt! That's a nice buck for sure. I'm guessing 135"+ I'm sure the next picture you post on here will be the one with your hands on his rack! Good luck.

That is one awesome buck! I got nada tonight, didnt even see a deer. The cows did get out though, lol... Tomorrow I should see something, but not alot of bucks where im going though.