Well only a few days left until most of us are in stand! The weather conditions are looking pretty good compared to years past. Here in IL it is supposed to be sunny with a high of 60 and a low of 39. It has rained the past 2 days, I was kind of hoping it would be dry so the farmers could get alittle more corn out of the fields but you just have to adapt.

I went out this morning and I seen 21 deer. Most all of them were between 100-120 yards away. i could not tell if they were bucks or does. I'm sure most of them were does, but there were 4 or 5 of them with very large bodies. They very well could have been bucks. I will also be going out Wednesday morning and again on Thursday evening. After that I won't be able to get out again until Monday morning .

i went out this morning seen a doe and a 115 inch or so 7 pt passed him up. he just wasn't big enough to end the season on. i will be back out sunday tues and Wednesday

I went out this morning and I seen 4 does which were all too far away. I could have taken out a cat and a raccoon but I decided to pass on them. I will be getting back out Thursday evening then not again until Monday morning.

I didn't have much luck this evening. I seen 2 does, black, gray, and fox squirrels, a baby raccoon, and about a million chipmunks. Now I won't be able to get back out until Monday morning. Good luck to the rest of you!!!!!

Have we made any progress on the avatar. Let's get one done. I thought the one with the buck and the arrow looked good. Maybe someone can add in our names all around it.

Well today was the opener and the weather here isnt to good.I had plans this morning and went out this afternoon intill dark with the wind howling,it was pretty bad but couldent give up the opener cause of some wind.The Temp was perfect at 7c ,just the wind.
Saw a doe and 2 fawns,fed 20 yards from me,wind caught my back and mom new something wasnt right,kept looking right at me-lol-fed some more,looked again,stomped her foot and her and the fawns just walked off.
Back out tomorrow afternoon and all day Wednesday and Thursday.

Good luck everyone

Well It was a pretty active opening weekend for me. I saw a total of 19 deer this weekend. 4 bucks and 15 doe's. None of the doe's came into range. All 4 of the bucks showed up at the same time 20 yrds away but they were all tiny. If I wasn't in this contest I would have shot one of them because to me meat is meat and gun season is usually when I look for bigger bucks. Anyways I am pretty excited about the season and I think our deer population in my area is doing better compared to past years.

well we have been building a deck and porch on to the house this weekend but i was able to make it out this morning for a couple hours and seen a whole lot of coons not one dang deer but i will be able to start deer hunting every day from here on out until we have hunters come in so hopefully i can get one on the ground before the 24th of October. or it will have to be after the two camps then until rifle season.

I went out this morning and got caught in a fairly heavy rain. I finally got down about 10 til 8 after not seeing anything. As I was leaving in my truck out the long driveway I saw 2 small bucks and 3 pretty nice size does. I won't be able to get back out now until Thursday evening. Good luck to everyone else.

Took fri and monday off, spend roughly 16-18 hrs in the stand... Saw nothing! Hunted some thick woods near a bean field that had tracks all over, spend time in two different trees there, near a creek/ crossing. Also spent two mornings in my ravine, I only have a 6pt on camera down there, but havent seen him in person. Not looking good. My neighbor about 3 miles away shot a 8pt the other night... (ive never seen this deer on camera) and he was unable to recover it, hit it high and center... Im guessing he hit a void/ poor shot from buck fever :(

I was in a tree all day Saturday and Sunday morning. I saw nothing but spikers and does. It was really hot in South Dakota-there wasn't a lot of movement during the day. Things will pick up. Everyone stay after it!

I did work on the avatar. I have it stored on my office computer. If my work schedule allows time, I'll try to get it up today.

I'm off to Texas this weekend. Hopefully, I'll get on a dandy there-I would like to shoot a rio too!

Hey I think I was suppose to be on team 11. I had to work friday saturday and sunday. and I spent monday and today in the woods, so did i miss my chance to check in or what??

I will be out Thursday evening, Friday morning, Saturday morning, and Saturday evening. Then it will be Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Hopefully by then I will have doe #2 to add and who knows, maybe one of my hit listers will just happen to stroll past unawares. Good luck to all.

Guys,

<<<<<<what do you think?

I will add everyone's name if it's ok!

Looks good to me, I say let's go with it.

Ok then, everyone send me a private message with your email address. I will send back your personalized avatar as a Jpeg attachment.

It's looking pretty good here at the hospital for me to get off at 5 so I can get out in the morning.

posted this on the bow hunting forum but i have had some thin sliced deer jerky in the food dehydrator for 4 hours set on 160 degrees is it safe to eat or does it need more time?

Friday morning I grazed a doe. She was quartering away hard and her fawn started acting up because he caught me moving. She immediately stiffened up. I knew I had to hurry my shot because I had a small window. Just as I was about to shoot she whirled to the left and I couldn't stop the arrow. I watched it graze her side. My arrow only had hair and a couple small pieces of fat on it, no blood. Those were the only 2 I seen on Friday morning. Saturday morning I was out again and I seen 16. The one large group that was coming my way looked pretty good until somehow this matriarch doe spots me. She simply looked at me sideways a couple of times, stomped her foot once and turned and walked back the direction they came from. She took the whole group with her. I will be going back out this evening. Then I won't be getting back out until Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Good luck to all.

Sorry guys, I didn't get out Saturday evening. I had a couple things come up and I really did not want to drag myself out in the 80 degree heat anyways. I will definitely be getting out Monday evening in that heat and Tuesday morning. Then, I will have to wait until Thursday evening. It looks like it will be about 30 degrees cooler Thursday evening. But, it might also be raining. Good luck to all.

Well I went out twice this weekend and nothing. There are alot of crops still up in my area and this heat is not helping me any either. I think it is supposed to cool down at the end of this week, at least I hope so.

Finally got the weekend of work out of the way got home this morning to a couple hour nap and I've been in the tree stand for about an hour in a half now i will be out tomorrow morning and evening then work wed and thurs then be out all weekend if everything goes as planned

Got out saturday AM, from dark till 11am. Saw somthing coming in, stood up, saw two deer far off.. ended up being two small fawns... suckers still had dots! I think they were recently ophaned... looked like they were searching, and may have come into a bleat call I made... They passed by, and 30 min later again went back the way they came, no momma, no daddy... :( I invested in a bow holder (primos) cause my arm almost fell off letting those two fawns dance around below me for 20 min. I just putta 11oz 10" b stinger on the bow.. things sick.. but heavy.. made a vid of my roomate shooting my bow... used two droid x phones. http://youtu.be/VnKM2Xgw9Ko

Been in the stand now for 2 hours and havent seen a thing i hate the oct loal where nothing moves plus there was a full moon this morning so the deer probably fed all night long will sit till probably 930 and get down unless i see something then hopefully be back out tonight

Last night around 7pm I nailed a nice mature buck. I will be getting up the story and pictures later. I'm guessing he will score between 120"-130". He is a 6x5 with a kicker off the right brow tine. I'm guessing he is at least 4 1/2, maybe older.

Congrats buddy cant wait to see pics

Nice job Manofthefall! How do we get our Bucks submitted/ get our points? Photos w/ bow in them/ time stamped?

Great job Shawn. We are on the board! hopefully the rest of us can get in on the action soon. Although the way the deer are moving here in central IL I think it will be closer to November before I see any serious action. Can't wait to see pictures. Don't forget to get your bow in the picture! :wink:

I was surprised, I put the tape on him 3 times. Every time I came up with 144 1/8". I will try and get the pictures posted tonight.

Here is a quick picture of the buck. I will post more pictures later and get it on the scoreboard.

Nice, hope I see anything close to that this year. I wanna fill my tags this season, thats my ultimate goal, hopefully the two buck tags included in it.

Huckleberry- you have pm

Well one of the deer I have seen around the property I hunt has been harvested this year. And it wasn't by me. :s7: A guy about a mile up the road got him. I wish it could have been me cause this 13 pointer is a hog. I would have loved to have seen him with a big ole' fat neck during the rut.

That is definitely a nice buck. That is the one regret I have about my buck. I would have loved to seen how awesome he looked when he was all swelled up in the rut. I'm sure he would have looked beastly.

Here is my 2011 entry for the

Here is my 2011 entry for the archery contest. I shot this buck with my Horton Legend crossbow on the evening of October 10th at 7:05pm. I used an Easton XX75 arrow tipped with the Rage 2 blade broadhead. The buck gave me a 15 yard slight quartering to shot and he ran about 100 yards and went down.
RMB - 21 7/8 LMB - 21 5/8
Inside Spread - 17 4/8
R G1 - 5 5/8 R H1 - 5 4/8
R G2 - 8 2/8 R H2 - 3 5/8
R G3 - 7 5/8 R H3 - 4 2/8
R G4 - 2 3/8 R H4 - 3 3/8
R G5 - 1 3/8
Abnormal Point R 1 1/8
L G1 - 5 4/8 L H1 - 5 2/8
L G2 - 8 3/8 L H2 - 3 4/8
L G3 - 7 3/8 L H3 - 3 3/8
LG4 - 3 2/8 L H4 - 3 2/8
TOTAL SCORE = 144 1/8

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Sweet Shawn! Way to put us on the board buddy!

I was down in Texas this past weekend. I got to hunt Sunday. Wouldn't you know it, it rained! Texas hasn't seen rain in several years and the day I get to hunt it rains buckets.

I will be hunting elk for the next three weekends. I'll be back after deer in November. Go team 11! I will be watching and cheering everyone on! Congrats Shawn!

All over it Louie

Congrats from Team 15.

Way to put some points on the board ManofTheFall.
That is one good lookin Whitetail there.
He'll look real slick hangin on the wall.

Hope the rest of you fellers have as much luck.

Hunt safe, hunt smart.

Congrats on the deer,he is a beauty.

Got out a few times but the weather here is just to damned hot and the deer movement is almost nil.Have been seeing some does but no bucks yet.

Had a Black bear charge me the other day,what an adrenalin rush that was.Got the whole story on my hunting site.

Will be back out this weekend for sure,raining today and the temps are dropping somewhat.
Good luck out there and congrats again,we are on the board

Jason

anyone else have any luck? i just got a call from a buddy saying he seen 2 big bucks go in on some property that we have so i'm gonna get around and head out to that property here before to long hopefully i might be able to stick one of them. i will most likely get out tomorrow morning and hunt either this same spot or try one that i haven't sat yet this year not sure depends on the wind in the morning.

We had some rain come threw yesterday and the temps have dropped. I will be out in the woods for the morning and evening hunts this weekend with my honey do list getting taken care of during the middle of the day :action-smiley-099:. The temperature is looking good it's only supposed to be 68 this weekend with 40's in the morning.
I have been fairly passive so far this season just trying to play the patterns but I think I am gonna start doing a little rattling and grunting this weekend to see if I get any kind of reaction.