Hey guys, sounds like most of us have been getting out. Thats good.

I went out this morning a little late and only saw 4 does but ill hit it hard tomorrow morning and the rest of the weekend. Tonight I have a football game against Solon.
We are ranked 1 in the state for 3a and solon is ranked 6. This is suppose to be the biggest game of the year. People are estimating over 10,000 people to be there and all sorts of tv broadcasters there and a live radio announcers. All just for a highschool football game. Its going to be big!

After the game we are heading out to the cabin so I can hunt tomorrow morning. After tomorrows hunt me and my dad are going to a friends house to get 60 or 70 2x4s for our cabin for the walls. We are gonna start putting up the walls and the roof this weekend. Ill get pics up for you guys sunday night.

I got a decent 9 pointer on trail camera and a beautiful coyote that would be a cool mount. If you guys want to see check out the trail camera section. Thread is labeled "Some new bucks and a coyote".

Hope your game went well Pope!

Got my first hunt of the year in last night. It was only a brisk 89 degrees when I hit the woods at about 4:20. Gross, just too damn hot for this time of year. Pretty uneventful night, no surprise with the weather though. Saw a doe and two fawns after the sun was gone and they milled around for a while. I could have shot the doe 10 times but I just didn't feel like messing with a doe in that heat. So, she got a pass. Supposed to be just as hot today so I think I'll stay home and watch football. Got two shooters on my camera, in daylight, so with any luck they'll stick around for another week.

Well I hate to say it but we lost to solon... 22-7. We played like crap and they had their best game of the year. But oh well, we lost the possibility of 3a disctrict champs but we can still get state champs.

I went out to the cabin friday night after the game and saturday morning I went out and saw a few does. Then we left at around 9 to go to our friends to get a bunch of 2x4s for our cabin. We got back around 12 and worked on it awhile. Then my girlfriend came out after work and went hunting with me saturday night. It was a hot day and I went to go set the blind up. I was sweatin like a pig. I got it up and didn't even get everything inside ready when this doe started walking straight to us. She walked probably 10 feet in front of us and stood their eating for about 30 minutes then she just took off in a dead sprint. Then she decided to come back 15 minutes later and their she was again 8-10 feet from the blind and she was broadside and the video camera was running so I let a arrow fly at her. I hit her with a complete pass through. I watched the video and it looked like a perfect shot but when I found my arrow their was no blood on it. Just a punch of urine and poop.... Not a good sign. I looked at the video again and the enter hole was aimed right for a double lung but the arrow exited way far back. I think she jumped when she heard the bow fire and the motion of her made the arrow move when inside of her. Well I followed a faint blood trail for about 60 yards and lost it. We looked everywhere for a couple hours in the night and didn't find any trace of her. I went out the next day to look again but couldn't find her. I hated to give up on her but I looked everywhere I thought she could be. Being out in the heat all night, the meat on her wouldn't be any good anyway.
I didn't see anything the rest of the weekend. Me and my dad got really far on the cabin though. All of the walls are up and part of the roof is on.

Tough luck on the doe Pope, hard to say how far she could have made it with that shot. Single lung/liver shot deer can travel seemingly infinitely.

went out this morning didn't put anything down but did have a pretty cool encounter with a doe coming into the ol' scarface decoy. Had a deer come in just before sun up couldn't tell if it was a buck or a doe. Deer never came out of the trees to the alfalfa field where the decoy was set up, figured at this point in time that the decoy was a BAD idea. Well about a hour later another doe comes walking in and walked right up to the decoy smelling him and eating right next to where I had him set up. This gives me a good feeling that the decoy is going to work out great this rut!!! Now you maybe be asking yourself well if this dip$it had this doe eating at 15yds right next to the decoy why didn't he shoot her? Well I was hoping that more deer would start following her out into the alfalfa field and of course they didn't and I didn't see another deer all morning, so of course the whole ride home I am asking the question why didn't this dip$#it shoot her!!!!! Hope the rest of you are having good hunts

Well, after my house was robbed, I got a new computer and bow, along with many other things (thank god for renters ins). Any bucks down team?

Got back from Ohio last night. What a stinking hot weekend. I only saw one buck and he was a 2-1/2 year old 8 point that probably would have scored 90.
He got a pass and I could have shot him so many times.
We aren't headed back until the 29th of this month. The pre-rut should be in full swing by then.

Sportsman 22 sorry to hear about your tough luck man

Wow, that really sucks Sportsman. Did you tell the insurance guy you had a Carbon Matrix when he asked for the bow value? Pretty good storm blowing through right now with a north wind, should take some leaves down. No frost in the near future though so the undergrowth is going to be thick for a while longer.

Good pass on the 8-point dmax, if he makes it for next year, he'll be nice.

been out twice & saw Zero. Not uncommon in area I hunt. LOTs of standing corn in my area.

I haven't made it out for a couple weeks. Friday morning we are going out for the weekend to do some pheasant hunting. We are leaving pretty early so I will be able to hunt all day friday and because you can't pheasant hunt until noon, I will be able to hunt saturday and sunday morning. Depending on if we get our limit or not, I might go out in the evening. I also have a couple turkey tags so it looks like it will be a good weekend.

Sounds like a nice mixed bag weekend Schu. I'm going to sit tomorrow afternoon, sat, and Sun. May try a morning hunt one on Sat or Sun. Traditionally haven't seen a ton in the mornings in the early season on my lease, but with all of the crops out within 2 miles, may be just the right time to try it. And the wind will be right on Sat for the stand I would like to sit. NNW tomorrow, so i'll sit a new set that I feel is pretty promising. I've gotten pics of a good one at 7:05 at night a couple different days, which would put him at the NNW set still within shooting light, so we shall see!

Well boys things are looking up!!! Woke up this morning stepped outside and what did I see. Frost on the ground!!!! Temps were in the high 30's low 40'2 over night. Most of the farmers in the area that I hunt have been gettin after getting the crops out of the fields so hopefully that will put some more deer on the alfalfa field that I hunt on. Probably won't make it out again this week but plan on being back into a stand come monday morning. Hope all of you have a good weekend

Hey guys its been awhile...i have acually been getting out alot latly and have been seeing quiet a few deer. I shot a doe last sunday at 15 yards! FIRST ARCHERY DEER EVER. and saw a GIANT of a buck on monday night...good luck to all!

Congrats Putnam! Nothing quite like that first one. Now, go get that big one!

congrats on the doe-I let one pass at 25 yds today cause she had 2 of this years fawns with. Lots of time. haven't seen a buck yet.

Putnam congrats. That first one will be just as rememerable as the biggest one you ever shoot. Might be heading out in the morning all depends on how much sleep I get tonight. working this new shift is not equaling alot of sleep. nothing like getting off of work at 11:30 getting home by midnight and hopefully fall asleep right away then getting up at 4:30. Gonna atleast set the alarm and see how I feel

Just checked out the score bored and looks like not to many people have scored yet.

Congrats on the Doe Putnam!

Just checkin in. I saw one shooter on the 3rd but thats it for bucks so far. Been really warm. I am stayin at it tho. Good luck guys

hey thanks guy, when out last thursday, when i arived there were 5 deer in the feild. i tried to sneak in, but i have no idea how they new i was there...

So the big buck that I have seen a few times? I got 25 yards from him. He was bedded but I had a pretty good view of his vital area. I shot and missed. I was pretty mad at myself. I think I rushed the shot too much. Really didn't see much all weekend except for that one on friday and two really, really nice bucks this morning. We were driving back to the house to get ready to go pheasant hunting and we saw them a couple hundred yards off the road in a brush patch on a side hill. I snuck in but I knew it was going to be tough. The wind was at my back the whole way and it was blowing hard. I ended up getting fairly close to one but I couldn't see it until he ran. He was probably 4 inches wider than his ears on each side. He was huge. I talked to someone who watched me stalk them and they said one buck got up and ran right when I started walking in. They said the closer I got to the other one, the more he started looking around trying to figure out what I was. I guess I was about right on top of him when he took off.

If I had more time to hunt them this weekend, I would have spent more time trying to get a better plan or waiting for the wind to go down. Knowing how habitual a mule deer is, odds are they will both be back.

We ended up getting 60 pheasants this weekend. We had 42 yesterday and just 18 today. We were all a little disappointed in how today went. We got permission to hunt an area that hasn't been hunted more than once or twice a year in the last 20 years. It is a perfect pheasant and deer area and we always see tons of birds around. We walked about 3 miles and only got 6 birds so it was pretty disappointing. Oh well I guess. Overall it was a pretty good weekend.

Another close call Schu! One of these times you'll connect. Slow weekend here for me. Had a small 8 under me on Sat night, just not a shooter, maybe 100" max. Fun to have one that close though. He spent a good ten minutes milling around under 5 yards. I think if he doddles that long in two weeks, when its my brother and not me in the tree, I think his fate will be sealed! Couple new scrapes showed up, but nothing good on camera, lots of does a couple dinks. Supposed to get some rain here coming up, which will be nice, sounds like herds of elephants out there walking around on the dry leaves.

I start hitting it real hard after the weekend.

Schu sounds like you had a fun deer hunt and anyone that is not from the mother land of pheasants pheasant hunt. Reading that makes me anxious for my trip up there. Not sure what we are going to do yet but if you know of any good public spots around mitchell you could hook me up with it would be greatly appreciated. Yooper way to show some patience with stories like that sounds like you will be putting up some great numbers for the team this year.
I went out Monday morning had a small buck come in to about 80yds he stopped for a second and then took off like a bullet! No more than 10seconds later another two smaller bucks came hauling over the hill same path that he was on and tailing them was a definet shooter, couldn't see for sure if he was the one I have on camera but he was definetly a shooter. I grunted at him and he locked up for a few seconds and then went back to chasing those other 3 bucks off of the alfalfa field. Hopefully that is a good sign that the pre-rut is going to start kicking in here soon. The weather has been a little screwy around here about 38 degrees in the morning and low 70's in the afternoon.

The bucks still aren't moving here. Hopefully they should start any day. Taking my son out this weekend for the Junior season.

dmax good luck to you and your son this weekend

Guys.. Tonight I saw the biggest buck of my life!

I went out after school today and I was sittin their in my stand just thinking of big bucks and at 6 pm I look into this field and see the body of a buck. Instantly I knew it was a buck and my eyes went from that big body straight to his BIG rack!! I got my binos on him and the only view I had was at his side and I had my 10-22x60 nikon binulars so I zoomed way in on him and I counted 14 points from the side view and then he turned his head straight to me while eating some and I counted 4 more points. This guy was HUGE! He had the points, the mass, the length, the character, and width. He had everything I could ever dream of! Well except a droptine but still... HE WAS HUGE! And there he stood broadside 100 yards away.. my bow in my hand... wishing I had brought my muzzleloader since its early muzzleloader season and my youth tag is good for alteast one gun season. :(
He walked into the big thicket patch in front of me and 5 minutes after seeing him I hear the scraping of antlers on a big solid tree and bark flying off. He started a rub half way through the thicket and then 15 minutes later I hear him make another rub just 50 or 60 yards to the east! He never came back out sadly but with him making several rubs he should be coming back to that same area wont he? Since rubs are a sign of territory..I saw also saw a small 8 pointer when sun started to go down. My brother was hunting a differant spot and he came back to the cabin with a small 4 pointer skull that he had found in a crick in our pasture.

When are you going? I really don't know of any good public places around mitchell but knocking on doors always works. I know the numbers have been down as far as I have heard. When the state did their count they said they were down but just slightly. From everyone I have talked to, they have said they are way down. But, a down year for SD is still pretty good.

I am actually headed back out in the morning. Hopefully do a little more pheasant hunting and try to get on a nice buck. We will see what happens.

Awesome encounter Pope! With the rubs and sign making, he'll likely frequent that area for another week to 10 days before he starts expanding his range somewhat. This is definitely going to be the time to kill him though before the chase phase gets cranked up. Seeking is my personal favorite phase to hunt bucks like this because they are up and around, but not running wild yet. If he's aggressively making sign, he may be susceptible to some calling/decoying in the next few days. Good luck on him! I'm heading out after work today, looks like rain tomorrow and Sunday, so depending on the ferocity of the storms coming, I may or may get out much more.

Schu me and my buddy are going to take off Saturday november 20th early in the morning enough time to be up there before 10am. His brother's father inlaw hunts out that way and says he has a couple of spots but never hurts to look for more. Not sure how far of a drive that would be for you but maybe we can meet up and do some bird hunting together it would be cool to actually meet a member of the team. Let me know what you think.

Pope sounds like you had a great encounter and with him making rubs that close to your stand I would say you have a really good chance of seeing that buck again in the near future. If there is any way to possibly move your stand a little closer to where he is actually rubbing that would be an option that I would look into myself.

Not sure if any of you guys use decoys or not but what is your take on them and when would you start using one?

Very uneventful hunt last night, not a deer to be found. Lots of new sign, scrapes and rubs, but with that spotlight in the sky at night, no surprises really that it was so quiet. I'm going to leave it alone today and tomorrow. My brother will be here in a week, staying a week, so we'll pound it pretty hard during that time. POURING rain right now, which is great to quiet things down and knock some more leaves off the trees. Good luck guys if you're out this weekend.

There is a chance that I will be out in the south central part of the state rifle hunting that weekend. Once the time gets closer I will know for sure though.

It's been pretty dead around here. I'm still only seeing does and fawns.
I will be heading out to Ohio again this Friday. Things should really be starting to move out there. We plan on going out two weekends in a row. Definitely didn't want to waste a trip out there with this full moon.

PalmerGT, Decoys
Now is the time to start using a buck decoy. You should be able to grunt them in to it.
The first and 2nd week of November you want to set it up as a doe with her tail straight out. Make sure you spray it down with scent killer.
I like to hang a wick from there tail with dominate buck urine when it's a buck and doe estrous when it's setup as a doe. They definitely work.

Good luck to all.

Schu sounds good just let me know.
Dmax thanks for the advice I will be sure to give that a shot and hopefully it will get the team some points!!!!

I'm hoping by this time next week we will be on the board with some points. These next 3 weeks are going to be crucial.
Good Luck to All! Shoot Straight!

Sounds like one hell of a new spot! Good luck out there. This wind the last couple days is insane, hopefully none of my stands took a beating. Going to check my camera Friday, then hunt starting Saturday afternoon when my brother gets here, and we'll hunt everyday through 11/7. With any luck, there will be a couple giants hitting the ground. Moon phase looks pretty good, weather is shaping up nicely, now just need a buck to cooperate. I REALLY want my brother to see a shooter, whether he kills or not, just to see a true midwest mongo will make the trip for him. On his camera back home, he had pics of a spike buck 6 days in a row, then they found him yesterday while bird hunting, after being eaten by wolves, just a mess of bone shards, hair, and the top of the skull with his spikes. Kind of unnerving to see, from what he told me. Plenty of wolves around up there these days.

Well thought we were going to get a cold front in to nebraska and things would start getting going in the woods but only looks to be a teaser, temps are supposed to be back up into the 70s come saturday. One more full week of work after that then I start my 5 days of leave just before the gun season here starts and the deer start getting really skidish.

I'm seeing no Bucks but Buck sign is popping up. Some does & Fawns. Like hurricane outside right now. I'll be back at it Monday...