RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Man that is a GREAT looking bull. I would love to do that at some point in my life. Congrats on an awesome hunt, and keep the luck going with the bucks.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

hey guys, im the one who is making yall a logo. I had a busy weekend so I didnt get a chance to get started on the logo till yesterday, I SHOULD have them done tomorrow. and Ill post them in here once it is done so you guys can review it and we can tweak.
Slim

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Thanks alot, I really appreciate it.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Is it just me or does this year seem to be getting off on a slow start? I guess a majority of the areas' seasons haven't started yet but it seems like this time last year we had 6 or 7 deer posted on the score card. Has anyone on our team started their season yet?

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

sorry guys its been awhile since i have been on. my season started the 15 of sept. i havent been hunting to hard but i did go last weekend and saw a decent 8 point on the other side of the feild i am hunting. high school football is really gettin in the way. and the doctor thinks i tore my acl on monday so my season might be over. i go back next monday to see what is wrong.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Sorry to hear that jtizzle,hope you are better soon. Are you sure you're out for the season? Should we see if Rob can give us a replacement? Don't know if there's an injured reserve list. Can't remember seeing that come up before. Captain, want to send a PM to Rob for clarification?

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

i think he meant his high school football season is over. He can probably still make it into a tree but i dunno

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

I personally don't see a torn ACL as a ligitimate reason to be out for the season of hunting. Heck, I tore mine and managed to hunt thre rest of the season years ago. Tape up the crutches with some camo and get out there!!

I will wait for some clarification on rather he is hunting or not, but I would tend to think we willkeep him!

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Sorry to hear that jtizzle, the best of luck to you and your ACL. I jsut got a wisdom tooth pulled last night and I tried to pull my bow back when I got home and couldn't stand it. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hunt the opener on Sunday, but I just got done shooting about 50 arrows.

Can't wait for Sunday!

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Virginia’s opening day was this Saturday and to commemorate the event we had a Statewide monsoon. Radar showed that the whole State and just our State had rain covering it like a blanket of wet sunshine due to a Nor’easter, with highs in the lower 50’s. Fool that I am I went out anyway. I hunted on the ground and was doing ok until about a half hour after sunrise the wind picked up to about 15 MPH. Since I had to come out early anyway, to go to a remembrance service for my son at the hospital, I decided now was early enough.

The afternoon was cloudy, cool, and windy. It felt like fall. I figured the cloud cover may counteract the effects of the full moon and the deer might be moving early. I still had to change clothes so my father volunteered to wait for me, in his stand. As I was making my way up the mountain I checked in with him on our radio. He said he had 4-5 deer run out our piece of the woods when he got to the edge. So they were out early, too early. I figured the coast was clear now but decided to sneak up anyway just in case. I was hunting higher up the mountain than he was and thought there might be a few deer that didn’t run off when he came up. The wet leaves made it easy for me to move quietly up the woods. These woods are some older hardwoods that I had selectively cut this past winter. I left mostly oaks, red, black, and white, and the few beeches that were there. I wanted to cut back on the competition between trees allowing the remaining trees to expand their canopy and produce a better crop, plus allow more light to the forest floor creating more browse. I had all skid trails and the stripping deck (a flat bench half way up my property) fertilized and seeded with a wildlife mix. We were anxious to see how the changes would impact the deer and their movement patterns. My stand was about 50 yards off the deck area on the downhill side near a break in an old barbed wire fence where the skidder had blazed a new trail. The deck area was nice and green and the oaks were dropping acorns bigger than quarters, in fact almost fifty-cent pieces. I reached my stand without incident and started my climb. Halfway up the ladder I notice a doe in the deck “field” and she’s looking my way. I had “tinked” my wedding ring on the way up the ladder and she must have heard it. (It takes me a few hunts to get into full predator mode I guess) The wind was from her to me, and blowing steady, so she couldn’t ID me. I froze with one foot on the rung above the other. She stared for a while and then started walking my way. She came the exact way I had hoped she would, if I was in the stand and ready. She walked within 6 feet of the stand and started feeding. I was trying not to make eye contact with her and not to move as my right calf started to cramp. I eased my foot so the rung was in the arch to alleviate the cramps in my calf. Looking sideways at her I could see she was about 120# long faced doe, just what I would like to shoot. She feed on through the fence gap behind me and I kept waiting wishing her to move on. After a while I couldn’t see her anymore. I slowly looked over my right shoulder. Nothing. I looked over my left shoulder. Nothing. I practically turned around and still didn’t see her. Hmm, I guess she fed downhill. I resume my climb and she jumps from behind a tree and bounds off to the east following the fence. Well we’ve now run off maybe 6 deer. Not a great start. Usually if we bump the deer going in we don’t see any more that day. I start to get set up and let the cramps ease out of my legs. I discover that my bow hook is not in my bag; it was later found on the kitchen floor, so I have to hang all my stuff on a limb several inches below my seat. I also started to realize the difficulty of hunting in a gun ladder stand with a 64” bow. This stand has a gun rest in front and low side-rails even with the seat. I decide I’m going to have to hunt standing on the seat. This changes my shot windows a bit with understory blocking most of my left-hand shots, more first day mishaps. About thirty minutes into the hunt my Dad radios to me that he sees two does in the pasture heading to the woods in front of him. He thinks they are angling up towards me but I never see them. After a while I think I see a doe up the mountain but I lose track of it and start second-guessing my eyes. My Dad radios to tell me he has more deer near him heading towards my general direction. I spot a big doe (?) in a skid lane that leads to the deck field. We decide to go to radio silence since the deer are definitely moving. Slowly a few deer start appearing in the “field” and I decide that if another big doe comes my way I’m going to take her. There’s four deer by now in the “field” and as one feeds closer to me I notice what looks like antler. I take out my binocs and look. Between fogging of the lenses I’m able to see a couple of 4 pointers. The closest one to me is raking the ground with his antlers and flexing his neck muscles. A second four pointer comes over and they get into a friendly shoving match, nothing serious, just some tickling of the antlers and a push now and then. By this time I’ve identified four small bucks, a small doe and a reddish big bodied deer I haven’t been able to see clearly yet. After a while I’m able to see the big red’s head and it has a nice 8 point rack on it, he’s probably a 100”-110” deer, plenty big for a candidate for my first trad kill. He’s further uphill from the smaller bucks and pays their playful antics no mind. Soon after spotting him the first buck starts heading my way. He’s following the same path the doe did earlier. I’m watching him thinking this will be a good trial run for the big buck. The early shots I have of him are all head on. This isn’t good. He gets straight off my port side and is blocked by the understory. He turns his backside to me and starts rake a tree. He then slowly raises his tail and shows me what he thinks of me. I’m close enough to smell it. A second buck comes along the same way and then a third. Instead of cutting in front of my stand and going through the break in the fence they move along the fence away from me and duck through a small opening then walk back in front of me on the other side of the fence, occasionally stopping to mistreat a small sapling. None of this offered a good shot if the big buck follows the same path. I’m starting to second-guess my position now. Should I sit down and commit to a single opening on my left? Too limiting. I stay standing. The last four pointer moves on and then the small doe comes down, only as “she” gets closer I notice two three inch spikes with a fork on each end, that makes five four pointers in a row. He follows the others but lingers around my area longer, and while I watch him a REAL doe walks up from below and crosses the fence and heads to the “field”. She’s safe now with that buck out there within eyesight. The diminutive buck moves on and I’m able to concentrate on the “field”. The doe is entering it and big red gives her an aggressive mock charge and she scampers to a corner far from him. She is feeding and then starts looking uphill. I see a grey big body buck coming down the skid trail. He could be the red buck’s twin rack-wise except he’s slightly thicker and slightly taller. He comes down the hill stiff legged and aggressive like he’s the boss. He comes down to the red buck and they commence to stare each other down. They start to push each other, again not real aggressively but just preliminary contests. I’m ear-to-ear grins by now.

At some point the doe fades into the woods like deer are able to do. A third buck soon joins the two bucks, a nice sized buck with wide racks that end in some odd crab claws, a big six. About 7 o’clock Big Red starts to make his move. Instead of walking down the same path the other bucks did, Big Red decides to take the road down which makes him pass off to my left (as I’m facing the tree). So I have to do a ballet turn with my bow and arrow to put them on the correct side of the tree. He slowly walks down the road and stops broadside inside a large open shooting lane and starts nibbling the clover. Unfortunately he’s close to 30 yards off and my practice tells me that my skill isn’t up to this shot yet. I have to watch him walk. This starts a race of panicked thoughts through my head. If the grey buck goes the same route I will not have a shot on either buck. Options fly through my head, I change my mind several times. I had a grunt tube but I didn’t want to use it. These bucks were oblivious of my existence and I didn’t want to draw attention to me. With light fading fast something starts to get the attention of the last two bucks. They started looking along the hillside, staring hard. I decided I was running out of time and this was my chance to make my move while they were distracted. The “field” edge offered no cover, not even a fat tree, and even if I could reach the edge the shot would be too long. So I decided the best course to me would be to either sit tight and hope he moves and in the right direction, or climb down and sneak to an adjacent tree which would put me closer to the road and also open a better shot along the route the four-pointers took. The points that made me chose this course of action are: that the deer were distracted by something looking another way, my stand is on the backside of the tree and my movement would be screened, once I’m on the ground I would be below the rise so out of sight, the wind was quartering from them to me and steady, the leaves were wet and soft, and I had a few good trees to cover my movement if they started their move. I made it down ok with them still looking away and crouching low I slowly work to my destination. I made it to the tree without much noise and took a kneeling position facing the road and waited……and waited….nothing. Soon it was last light and I hazard a peek into the field from around the tree. Nothing…empty. I move a little closer to look some more and still can’t see anything. At this point I think that as long as I haven’t been spotted it would be best to sneak back out then finding out they were just on the edge of the “field”. I worked my way back to my stand and gathered my stuff and left. I didn’t get “blown at” the whole evening and didn’t jump anything on the way out. I’m sorry for the long read with it’s anti-climactic ending but it was great to see the kind of action I did and a positive reinforcement for the changes we’ve made on my property. I have never seen more than two bucks at a time and certainly not two “shooters”. All in all I saw nine bucks, three were at least 2 ½ years old, during a full moon. It was a good day and if trad hunting brings me these kind of results I’m in for a lifetime love affair.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Sounds like a great evening in the stand talondale!!

Wish I had something or even anyhing to that matter as a comparison.

I have saw 1 deer from stand in 3 sittings. A small 6 pointer out in the corn about 8 rows. Nothing big enough for me to even take a second look at (as far as shooting). I tried to geta picture of him, but he was moving too fast. I do however, have a nice quality photo of a opposum.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Well I came about 10 yards and a small bush from putting up about 135 points for us. Real nice 3 1/2 yr old 8 point came in CHASING a doe. Very unusual for this time of year up this way, but a local archery shop has said that people have been coming in and reporting this.

Anyways I went to one of my "doe" stands to try and harvest a doe. I looked up and a doe and fawn were walking away so I grunted and bleated. All of a sudden the buck came running off the hillside chasing the doe. The does ran off, but the buck just sat there walking towards me on the trail and stopped about 50 yards, with a bush in the way. Another 10 yards and I would of had a perfect broadside shot. I am going to set up a camera by one of the scrapes that I watched him make, and let the area cool off for a little while.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

My Dad sat in that stand last night and missed two shots at a small six pointer! Deer didn't know what was going on but walked off. :D I got in from work and set up in a hollow with deer trails as deep as a cow trail but didn't see anything. Wind was wrong for me to enter the other woods. I'm going back out tonight for a short hunt after work.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

It's just a matter of time befour WE start putting point's on the board.I have not been seeing alot the last couple of evenings:(.But i did get a Special bow permit today!!It's7000 acersof a military base that has not been hunted in over 40 year's.They onlyhad 100 permit's and i was number 98.This is going to bea dream season for me just to sit in a tree in this place.Over the year's of driveingby this place going to work i can't even tell you guy's how many BIG BUCK"S i have seen.The only bad thing is we can't start hunting till oct 30th.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Blue Ranger congratulations on your luck. I have a similar place around here that I drew out for my first year hunting. I definantly wish I could have the tag now, so much I would have done differently. I still managed to see a good number of bucks but I was unexperienced and missed my shot.

Good luck. I got 2 more wisdom teeth pulled again today and can't pull my bow back right now. It should be better tomarrow however and I will try to get back into the stand this weekend.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Saw a doe last night. I was peeking over a rise and saw her maybe 80 yards away. Eased back down and got my binocs out to ID the sex. Slowly raised up again and was glassing her when she eventually turned my way and instantly locked on me. Only my head and upper body could have been exposed and I was wearing full camo in woods. I don't know how she spotted me, I wasn't moving and wind was from her to me. Anyway she got nervous but I froze and she eventually went back to feeding. I eased down to the ground when she went behind a tree. A minute later she blew twice but stayed in the area. She didn't blow again but eventually walked off after feeding some more. If I get a chance at her she's toast.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

It got real cold today and I decided to just tough it out even though my mouth was still killing me. Took some painkillers and headed to the stand this afternoon. Wind was perfect for my setup (or should of been anyways).

At 5 I bleated and grunted a few times with my True Talker and herad the brush pop. I looked up the hill and saw some horns coming down the hill. He was coming the wrong way than what he should of been and was getting full wind of me. I hid behind my tree to try and break up my outline as I didn't know how big this buck was. I heard him getting closer and popped my head around. He was a very nice 9 pointer that would probably come very close to 125 B&C.

He closed within 12 yards and kept trying to get wind of me. Thankfully I was dressed head to toe with my Scent Lok suit. This is just proof for me that this thing works. Anyways I decided to pass on this deer since he was only 2 1/2 years old and it is only Oct. 11. He never got wind of me, just crossed where I walked in and got nervous and turned around.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

I saw a spike and a small 5 pointer tonight...that is it. Buddy of mine shot a doe tonight.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

It's starting to feel good outside. Are they calling for real low temps tomarrowwhere you are IL_BOW_MAN? I am hitting the standtomarrow as soon as I can get home and changed.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Went out tonight to the same stand, and saw the same 9 pointer. I really hope he makes it through this year because he will be a STUD next year. Saw some does but it was to dark to shoot.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

I wish I hunted in a place where I felt I could pass a 125" buck. :D I'm going back out tonight after work but I'm gunning for a doe. I'm only allowed one a day so Friday evening is a good time to try for a doe. It will be cold tonight, in case I can't track right away, and I'll have Sat to butcher.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

I've been seeing some nice deer on our farm lately... heard does bleating already on Friday and some of the smaller bucks seem to be getting interested...Good Luck to all

DeerHuntMO

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

I am not very happy right now. I got stranded last night and was had to find a ride home this afternoon. So anyways I didn't get home in time to hunt the stand I wanted to. I look out my kitchen window (I can see my stand from here) and 6 does come out 20 yards in front of it over the next 10 mintues. Right before dark to young 6 points came out and fought for about 5 minutes, then ran off and a few minutes later they came back out and went at it for another 5 mintues. Very interesting to see as I had not seen that before.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Friday night I had two does at 50 yards until dark. Saturday morning I saw nothing. Saturday night I had two does come down by my stand but it was too dark to shoot. Going back out tonight.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Busted by a doe going in last night. Saw some movement 60 yards away right at dark but it never came close.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Guys we need to start gettin some points on the board. I am strictly big buck hunting right now, and will be until the end of November. Things have not really gotten serious around here yet, but things will really pick up in a week and a half.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Thought I had a doe coming to me on the ground at 15 yards and when she emerged from behind a bush "she" was a "he", a SMALL 4 point with about 3" main beam. I let him walk. I was doing some still hunting since rain had made the ground quiet and a steady wind was blowing. I got about 40 yards from a buck but couldn't get ahead of him in time to intercept his path. I'm going to try on National Forest land tomorrow evening and all day Saturday. I'm going to hike back in deep and see if I can find an undisturbed bruiser.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Well the deer is down and hanging on the meat tree. But she isnt sporting anything on her head. Got a doe on a food plot this afternoon...ran 40 yards and fell over. Go to Bowhunting for the story.

Going tomarrow to hang some more stands for the next few weeks and get this one butchered.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Got close guys...but not quite close enough.

Had a 140 class buck at about 40 yards. He came out of the corn field I am set up on right at the end of the night. I actually sat in my tree way past hunting hours just not to spook him off.

Hopefully he will give me another, closer opportunity.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

That was a Cool story Illinois Buck Hunter.Must be nice 2 have some fresh back straps in the freezer. IL BOW MAN i hope you get that buck.Is there still alot of corn that need's 2 be cut i u guy's area?

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Good luck on that buck BOW MAN.

Went scouting yesterday at my farm. For some reason there is a hillside that runs about3/4 of amile, and it has not been hunted by anyone in the last 20 years. At the north end of this there is a little part that come out and splits 2 bean fields.

I started looking around and instantly jumped some deer out of this spot. Found some trails and acorns were littered all over the ground. To the east of me there is a large spring that runs through and on the other side there is a thicket about 5 acres. Beyond that is another bean field. All the deer that go to the bean fields, must cross by me eventually, as it is very difficult to cross the spring anywhere else.

Won't hunt it until early Nov. but then I will hopefully get a big one down.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Guys I just saw maybe the biggest wild deer I have ever seen. I was coming back from a friends house tonight and going past one of my properties I hunt on,and there stood a monster non-typical.

I couldnt tell much of his width, but it looked like he was a little past his ears.I got a pretty good look at both sides of him and he had 5 points coming up on each with a ton of kickers and forks everywhere. He was very massive, and on a rough guess I would say he is comparable in size (maybe a little smaller) than the 195 18 pt. that my cousin killeda few years back.

If I get off work tomarrow, I am going to set up back in the woods by a bedding area to see if I can at least get a look at what these deer are doing. I hardly ever hunt this land, but I think this just changed my mind. BTW I am going to have a guy running a camera tomarrow, so hopefully I will be able to get some footage of him.

Sorry for the length, but I am pretty pumped about this.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

IBH, Careful who you let know about this deer. Word gets around and you'll have hunters and poachers alike all over your woods. I'd keep it mum until he's on your pole.

I had a repeat of last week. Friday night I had a deer coming to me, on the ground, "she" got to within six yards and noticed two pencils on his head. Our buck fawning rate must have been great this spring because I've seen almost a dozen small bucks. No sign of the three bigger bucks from the first day. Saturday I hiked/hunted 5 miles of National Forest but didn't see anything spectacular to set up on so I went back to my place. Saw a few turkey hens and does far off.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Talondale I doubt anyone here knows what land I hunt, and if they do they still would have to figure out which property, field, etc. I don't think this buck is bedding on my land however, which will make things difficult.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Anyone had any luck? Lots of reports of rutting activity around my area. A couple of people have already taken bucks that were grunting, nose to the ground, with dark hocks. Seems a tad early but seems they're on the move. I pulled a zilch last night, area's been hunted too much. I scored a new property, a dairy farm, Wed night. I meet the owner Sunday afternoon to show me around. First farm I stopped to ask at.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Congrats on the new property and good luck with it. I got permission from a land owner to hunt some new land this year, but the guy already hunting on it was not to friendlywhen I talked to himandI think hewould havepretty muchmy season the best he could had I tried to hunt it, so I backed off and figured it wasn't worth the time or trouble.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Im still here havent been able to get out as much as I would like working 70hrs a week . I came close the other night in the rian had a 150ish come with in 40 yards just enough to get me real mad Im working alot of hours .

Works going to let up next week be able to hunt almost every day . I have the deer here just need to get out and put some time in the stands. My brother owns the farm right behind the land I hunt and been seeing a huge nontipical and he thinks a 160 small.
Im going to try to get him on cam .

Good luck all
Shane

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Wow, that farm is 1,200 acres!!! about 400 acres is lush alfafa and the neighboring property is probably another 400 of standing corn. Mostly open fields with a few patches of oaks and thickets. Probably 80 acres total that's wooded but all the surrounding area is wooded or fields. Just wish my schedule would let me hunt it more. I have no time off left and hunts in other areas planned for the weekends. About 7 other people have permission to hunt but sounds like most are gun hunters. Next year should be real good.

Hunted my neighbor's property yesterday for the first time this year. He is an absentee owner and has given me permission to his 80 acre piece. I set up on a saddle with my back to a corner fence with the wind blowing into the fence area. From the fence there's about 30 yards before the saddle drops off so I figured it was a good funnel. I set up on the ground with a screen of leafy branches and two trees behind me. At 6:05 I had that small spike come over the rise. He stood on the ridgeline 15 yards away broadside for several seconds and then came past the fence corner and stood 5 yards from me. He looked my way and gave two head bobs but I remained still and avoided looking at him directly. He walked on presenting going away broadsides from 5 yards on, tempting me to shoot but that's not what I was looking for. I don't know why the does won't do that for me. A good hunt none the less.

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Well guys, we had the baby this morning, so hopefully I will be able to get out during the remainder of my vactation atleast a handfull of times.

Here is a picture if you are interested. Follow the link.

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=1773790

RE: 1-Team "Rack Rangers" Official Thread
 

Also...quick note.

Please see Robs post stuck to the top about the other hunters and not quite following the picture rules.

I was just hoping to get a couple other guys opinion off the team before I make a statement for the whole team.

Please PM me in the next day if you can and let me know what you think, and I will pass on the majority rule from our team.