Wow, thats a tough one TE, great ethics and Im impressed with your willpower anddecision. All good things come in time.

i;m back in a new tree .very cold .four doe @ 900 a grey squarrelno wind or rain yet

Hey Guys still here still nothing yet in w md alot of deer just nothing big weather has been pretty good though. We had snow yesterday. Catch up with ya later.

three more doe no sign of any rut at all .all walking and feeding on acorns still very cold .

one smaller buck chasing a does did i mention its very cold .

Hehe, poor Jim freezing his buttox off. No pain no gain, I had to get out so you are tougher tham I am lol, I have to go to my sister in-laws Engagement party. I saw another massive buck this morning, he would not come to rattling, grunt, bleats, nada. That was all I saw all morning. Yesterday and today were suppossed to be the 2 best days of the year to hunt according to a MD biologist, I saw more action the morning of Sept 15th than I did on Nov 9 and 10th morning and evening hunts put togethertogether,who would have thunk it???? Moved a stand to a new location, hoping for some closer shots to a highly travelled lane coming from a bedding thicket. Im not sure what the heck is going on, this has to be one of the screwiest ruts Ive ever seen.

I suck, its done I didn't have a legal buck to shoot.

I will explain later.

Jim, you certainly dont suck, dont be so hard on yourself. Im sure you hunted as best as you could. Someties stuff happens, but the main thing is you got out there, you put your butt in a stand, and you hunted. Theres no way we can predict a deers every step on a day to day bassis, just isnt possible. Im sorry you didnt get one but I couldnt be happier Iwas on yourteam and I made a new friend.

Guys, just keep on keepin on, it will come. The more time we put in the stand,the betterour chances. I am still itching to get in the woods, 2 more days baby, can't wait.

My dad picked up my game cam, I had seton a feeder, yesterday and it had the first mature buck I have seen on camera all year. Which is very unusual, I normally get a lot of good bucks on camera in Sept. and Oct. It is not a monster, but it is mature, probably 3 1/2 yr old. It looks a lot like the 8 I shot last year, not sure if I would shoot him or not. If he goes another year he would definately be a good one.There is onething I know, there are a lot bigger deer in the area, I just haven't seen them on camera yet.

When I get off of work and start hunting, you all might not hear from me much. I will be hooked up with hunting, building the house, and trying to fit my wife into the picture somehow so she doesn't feel left out. I promise one thing, if I get one you will know about it. Good luck guys!!

Here are 4 pics of the buck I was talking about, like I said not a monster, but he is the first mature deer on camera this year:

Well I can say it really felt nice to have “that” feeling again after a couple years. The day started with a phone call from a friend that invited me to his dad’s 70acre place for an evening hunt. I took up the offer of course because of the numerous small bucks I’ve been passing by on a regular basis in my stands. We walked the entire property so that I had the layout and then was asked where I would like to hunt. I replied “the 350 acre property we didn’t stink up you mentioned anyone can hunt adjoining the place” So I took the climber, blindscoutingup into a beautiful ridge top that was calling my name since I laid eyes on it. After an hour of speed scouting I found my tree and at 4:30 spotted this guy moving down to a green field below. Two quick grunts put him right on track and this is where the story gets stupid. I had my camera phone out instead of the bow and was taking a wonderful 5yd shot through the view finder, when I realized I should prolly change weapons, this isn’t a spindaly eight after all. I’ve been pressing my luck with only a week left. I lowered the bar a bit which I never thought I’d do, but circumstances at home with the new lil’ man chillin without me sometimes do funny things to a man with too much tree time on the books. If there is such a thing! Anyway I grabbed the Bowtech and drew back which made him edgy and trot about twenty yards away. The shot was a quartering away that I felt confident in and took. After the arrow hit hide it looked less than perfect to me and I was a bit shaken as he ran the one hundred yards before falling over. He laid for 20 min with his head up as I watched through the binos and then got up and walked out of sight. I left the area hoping he wouldn’t be far not knowing exactly what to think. First light I had two friends at the bed I last saw him lay, and to my delight looked towards the direction he walked with the glasses and noticeda brown blob. It was him! He walked just out of sight and fell over the night before. The 100grn Muzzy was planted to the feral end into the heart. A bad looking shot that wasn’t so bad after all.I’ll get a nice European mount done on him, that will look sharp!