congrats!!!!

Awesome!, buck Bry, looks to be a nice PA buck, Congrats!

avatar 5 looks great to me!

I really dont want to talk much about it, last Tues evening, I had 5 bucks around me, the buck who i think was Mr. Spread, was walking theu my shooting lane, as i was drawing my bow, i had to give a light "Baaaa" sound to stop him, he was going to be gone, very small window there to the north, anyway, upon my sound, i'm settling the pin and the other deer spook as i release, he moved as well and i caught him mid body behind the diaphram, after nearly a 1/2 mile blood trail that led to no where, the blood stopped i think he is still in the uncut milo field but dont know, he made a large U shape and was trying to return to the woods, not sure he made it. spent all day wedn. looking, rained thurs, i still went fri and this eveing, trying to spot birds or anything that would yield his location, lots of yotes in the area, i freakin suck, and am hating this.

I did get myself back today somewhat and connected on a nice Doe.

congrats again!!!!!!!:woot:

In an effort to move this along. I'm tallying up the avatar vote.

Pops423 - 5
jnrbronc - 3
Treebeard
Ken/WV
finner
Paddles - 3
Huntingbry -3
cjahlert - 5
zmax hunter - 5
snake123

OK, we are getting somewhere. 3 votes for 5 and 3 votes for 3.

zmax, that's tough bud. It happens sometimes. I've learned to back out. 2 years ago, I hit my buck a little back and when I went to trail, he jumped up and walked up a hill. I backed out and came back 4 hours later. Found him 30 yards from where I last saw him.

Congrats on the doe.

Huntingbry, again congrats. Can't believe he only scored 103. I had him around 115. Guess I need to work on my scoring. haha

Either way, great buck just more commenting outloud on my lack of scoring skills.

Well, yesterday i went back to search again, after walking the milo for an hour, i went out into the soybean field to search it without any luck. I was walking next to the shelter belt on the way to the truck when,.....I could smell him, I jumped into the timber and started finding parts and quickly found him! It is in fact Mr. Spread just as I had thought. He grosses 168 1/8" and has a 23 2/8" inside spread. the yotes had pretty much consumed everything. anyway, i have pics of him, and my bow where i found him, i am asking Rob if i can post him for our team. I may have to have someone take my pic with him, not sure, i guess worse case, i will take him back to where i found him and set up the camera on a tripod or get someone to go with me and take a pic with him in the woods, with me and my bow.
Enter a sigh of relief, Brian

Congrats again on a great buck Bry! Nice pics also.

Way to never give up Zmax, and congrats on finding him, he's a stud, WOW. It sure is too bad the yotes got to him like they did, but not much you can do about it. At least you got closure on him, and found him.

sweet man. Congrats again. I'm pretty sure you'll need a picture with you and the bow with him for the contest. They've had issues in the past.

Cool story that has a happy and a sad ending. It makes the nightmares go away when you find them. CONGRATS!!!!!!

Zmax, I'm glad you found him. It's too bad the yotes tore him up so bad, but you gotta figure it he's out there that long it'll happen. Way to stick with it though. Congrats again.

Now get that guy tallied and entered into the contest! That'll put us in the lead.

ZMax, were you able to get pictures with you in it??

Looks like I'm heading out Friday morning for a bit if I can stay healthy. My daughter is home sick with the flu.

I got him posted in the score thread, here is another photo, Thanks guys, I appreciate the nice compliments. Good Luck to All of you still hunting!

just so you guys know, i am 6-2 and about 200. This guy is freaking wide! I am leaning toward doing a pedestal mount with him, he has some 10 -12" trees shredded, want to cut one down and put it on the pedestal with him, they are cedars.

Also, you guys have login issues? i am always having to relogin, driving me crazy, actually, its pissing me off!

WOW, awesome. I have missed quite a bit lately. Sorry guys for not being on daily, but I been working a ton of overtime getting ready for season. Which by the way starts this Saturday!

I see I got some catching up to do, and our team has a stud buck on the ground. Awesome job ZMAX! Can't wait to catch up with everything and again I apologize for being a sloppy captain. I will be on daily from here.

BTW...if it matters still I like avatar 5.

Pops423 - 5
jnrbronc - 3
Treebeard
Ken/WV - 5
finner
Paddles - 3
Huntingbry -3
cjahlert - 5
zmax hunter - 5
snake123

Well now its 4-3 in favor of # 5. Not sure how many votes we need to pick a winner.

Looks like Treebeard, Finner and snake 123 have yet to vote.

zmax. again, great job. I haven't seen any login issues, but I'm using Firefox, not IE as my webbrowser.

Opps sorry i forgot to vote on which one i liked, i vote for #5 as my choice.

Zmax i was having login problems a few weeks back, but since i clicked the little box to remember my password it has worked fine since then. Congrats again on the buck, he sure is wide and has lots of mass, that should put us in the lead for now.

I been hunting quite a bit lately, ive been just seeing baldy's so far, not sure where the bucks are hiding, hopefully that will change here in the next few weeks. Good luck guys!!

Pops423 - 5
jnrbronc - 3
Treebeard
Ken/WV - 5
finner - 5
Paddles - 3
Huntingbry -3
cjahlert - 5
zmax hunter - 5
snake123

OK, now we have 5 in favor of avatar 5. Captain, show we make that our avatar?

Great buck Zmax! Congrats!

I was hving problems with staying logged in until I started checking the little box next to my name at log on. Doesn't seem to kick me off once I started doing that.

Guys,

I got out for the first time Friday night. Earlier I had mentioned this new little patch of woods I was excited to get permission to hunt. It turned out to be everything I wanted, almost.

Walked out my back door at 5:15 and after having to adjust the stand, I was settled in my 5:40pm. Not 10 minutes later, I had 2 small bucks (6, 7) and a heavy antlered 3 1/2 year old 8 point feeding in front of me in the apples. the 2 smallers bucks made scrapes and squared off in front of me while the bigger buck hung back at 50 yards. Soon after a doe walked into the field and they started chasing her. From behind me in the corn comes a doe and she walks right in the middle. Now they are all running everywhere. I could just see them at the top of the orchard moving around but things eventually settled down.

I heard something behind me and turned to see a 2 1/2 7pt that I had seen all summer. He has a wide rack but very short tines and I had no intention to shoot him. He walked out in the field to my east so I thought I'd play around with my grunt tube. I got pretty agressive and out of the apples come a 1 1/2 8 point. It stop 16 yards in my opening and is looking for me. From behind him, comes an absolute MONSTER 10/12 pt. All I saw was the wide heavy, dark rack and knew 'Shooter'. He starts to make a scrape and sees the 8 pt entering the woods and takes off after him. I draw back and can't see my pins, my peep had turned so I let down and adjust it. I draw back and grunt to stop him at about 25 yards broadside and released. I heard a loud crack, swear I knocked him over and then he takes off, down behind me, crosses by the corn and takes off on a dead run and I lose sight.

It was getting dark and I wanted to check my arrow. I got down and couldn't find it or any sign. I followed the tracks thru the corn before it got dark. I backed out and called my Dad who showed up about an hour later. We looked well into the night and again Saturday/Sunday. I've covered every piece of ground that I have access to and wasn't in someones backyard (and I even covered some of those as well.) The only thing I found was about 15 yards from the shot a place that he stumbled over a downed tree and it looked like a patch of gray brisket hair. Not a drop of blood anywhere.

I'm speechless. Never have I lost a deer, but then I'm still not sure where I hit him or if I did. The shot just didn't feel good and I couldn't see the arrow flight. I also noticed later on that my drop away rest was still in the up position. My Dad thinks front shoulder but I saw him running on the side I shot and he was not carrying it nor could I see any mark and he moved thru the corn. I just don't even know what to think at this point.

Pops, that's a tough break. With no blood and no arrow it's difficult to tell what happened. Keep looking though. Look what happened with Zmax. He kept after it and found the buck days later. Knock on door and get permission to search as much area as possible.

Good luck.

Thanks HuntingBry,

I am going to keep looking. I hunt in the back of a residential development and the one corner, the guy has it all posted and is very anti-hunting. The good news, is if he made it this far, he should be fine. I'm actually going to head out in a few minutes and take another walk. The sun is shining and maybe i'll see things differently.

I do fear that he dropped by the road and someone saw him as a roadkill and scooped him up because he was so big. There was one set of mud tire tracks where someone had pulled off and turned around, but not evidence of hair/blood or anything. More I think just my mind wandering.

Some interesting times on the posts above. anyway, I went out again to search for the arrow and came up empty. As I walk into the field I see a Turkey vulture circling around me and I stand and watch. It takes off and I take off on a dead run. now I see 3 of them circling on the next property over. So I got in the truck, drive down and start searching. Looked for about an hour and had to return to work. Funny thing is, while I was there, the birds were back over by my house and then even further down the road circling. Thinking they were just driving me nuts. It's been warm yesterday and today and would think by now, I could smell it somewhat. We have quite a few coyotes and think they would be working on it by now as well. I really think it was a superficial wound if anything and I will see him again. He was definitely the boss of the area and did not like the grunting buck that he came looking for.

Pops, that's tough. Hope you find the buck if he's down.

I've been messing around filling a few antlerless tags for herd control. Maybe this weekend I'll set up for a buck.

Sorry to hear about losing one pops. It happens to everyone, and its the worst feeling in the world.

Yes, avatar 5 is our new official avatar. So everyone that wants to use it lets get them up on our profiles.

Anyway I hunted Saturday and saw a lot of does and one nice shooter buck. Probaly 140" 10...he crossed at 50yrds and while I am comfortable shooting at that distance it was raining and I wouldn't chance it.

Anyway my desktop will be back here this week and I will be able to post a lot more often instead of using my cell phone.

Anyway, keep up the good work team and lets keep posting and hunting. The more active our thread is the better.

Sorry to hear Pops, what was that sound like again, and what was he standing in? Last year, I shot at a buck that was standing broadside, he was on pins and needles and looking right thru me when i released, i was on the ground next to a small cedar, anyway, that buck turned inside out on me and my arrow hit him in the rack, this was in a cut soybean field, nearly bare dirt, i found my nock 24' towards me, then i found about 10" of arrow it had the vanes, i searched several times in ever larger circles, X pattern, back and forth, never found my broadhead or the other 20" of arrow. It made the loudest "CRACK" when it hit him. With no blood, it makes me wonder?

If you are sure of a body shot, keep looking, my guess is he is within a 1/2 mile and i do think they like to circle back, also, if you have a river or creek, ponds, look them over really good, they like water to help soothe the burn.

Best of Luck in finding him, wish I was closer, I'd help you look.

zmax, thanks for the info. It was definitely a loud crack. He had no idea I was there. He was just wired up looking for the buck that was grunting. I thought maybe I hit the shoulder but that was the shoulder I could see as he ran behind me and there was nothing in it. I've searched for the arrow 4 times now. I'm in a pine thicket and there are a lot of down trees and I even looked around under those.

I've searched the pond and streams that lead to the pond. I've covered everything that I have access to.

I'm still wondering about my dropaway being in the up position. Not sure how much that would affect arrow flight. Maybe it was really off.

Pops, sorry to hear about the bad luck, but it happens to the best of us. I had the same thing happen many years ago on 140 inch 8 point, searched for days and came up empty, man was i sick about that deer. IMO i think you either hit the shoulder blade or the bucks rack like Zmax said. Hopefully he's ok and you will see him again with any luck. Sounds like you put in quite the effort in order to find him, not much more you can do about it then shake it off ,and focus on you next hunt.

Again sorry to hear about the deer...it is so hard to formulate a plan when you dont know what happened. I feel so bad for you just because I know the feeling and know what your going through. All you can do is put your head down and push forward and keep hunting. I know shooting in the yard and going over your equipment and form helps me regain confidence before going out again. It's hard to do.

I should be out again Saturday....maybe Friday if it rains us out at work. Definetly be out Sunday as well.

This has been a busy week with work, kids soccer, hockey and the weather got really warm. I plan on getting back out next week and hunting hard the last 3 weeks.

By the way guys, we are in first place!! woohooo!!

Not anymore, were down by about 85", Aim small and shoot big guys, lol

OK, I guess that means I have to get back out there and get after that big buck. But I'm stuck at work...

I got my desktop back today, so I can finally be on here daily. I am working tomorrow and should be off and in the woods Saturday and Sunday.

It warmed back up here, but a lot of rain ahead of us and some cooler temps.

Good to hear captain, Good luck this weekend, ill be out also. We got some snow comming today and tommorrow here, there calling for 2-6 inches of wet heavy stuff:s12: not sure if im ready for winter quite yet, but it will make for some nice hunting. i love a little snow on the ground easier to see them and track them.

Good luck to all getting out this weekend. Let's put some more bone on the board.:cool2: