man sorry to hear that. hopefully you can find something soon.

An 8 pt would be nice ... lol... I know your talking about a job but had to get it in there.. There are more important things to life than grinding your knuckles away.. I was a work-aholic. Lookin at it now Im pissed I was at it 8-5, some times 7:30-7, and saturdays, how do you enjoy life with all that goin on. :violin:

Warm wishes for you Louie. I have a feeling you are on top of things and a breather may just help. Enjoy your "me in a tree" time.

Joe, when you're ready, bring your arse to Colorado. I'll do my best to put you on game. And yeah, I'm sort of worried we're missing teammates as well. Hope everyone stays involved!

A few more photos from this past weekend. There are still eight hunters using my Buena Vista home. I talked to one today. He said they were getting dumped on with snow. Tomorrow should be awesome for elk and deer hunting! The fresh snow makes deer and elk easier to find. He also said he was on 15 elk and eight muleys today but couldn't get any shots...bummer.

Tom's brother James with his first ever deer.

This next one is Wayne Jusslin (a.k.a Papa Bear) with a massive cow. That's my sister in the background doing the feild dressing.

I'm looking forward to Friday night. I cannot wait to help these eight finish out their Colorado hunting.

I got my new stand up on Tuesday. It is a hang-on stand. It is up and I think it is in a pretty good spot. I have one moderately traveled trail to the right of the stand. 2 heavily traveled trails to the left of the stand and then another moderately traveled trail to the left of the stand as well. All of these trails are within 25 yards of the stand. The stand is in a draw that comes off of a large bean field behind the stand. There are also 2 major bedding areas in front of and behind this stand. We are suppose to have heavy rains Wednesday and Thursday (26th and 27th) with a large drop in temperature on Thursday. They say Friday morning will probably be in the upper 20's or low 30's. I will be in that stand Friday morning and can't wait to see what will be coming through there. It also helps to have the land owner tell you about how the deer move on his property.

hey guys, i got my first deer of the year on sunday. Button buck which i swore was a doe. it was a 30 yard shot, double lung complete pass through. This is the first deer i have shot with a mechanical broadhead(spitfire maxx) wow did it do its job! now it's time for something with antlers

Congrats on your first of the year. Now, like you said it's time to see some bone on the head. Good luck to you and everyone alse out there. Shoot one for the team!!!!!

I leave Friday morning to go to south east Indiana (Ohio county)to do some scouting and hang some stands for their gun season on Nov 12th. I am hoping to be back by noon on sunday so I can get back in the woods here in IL. Good Luck to everybody on our team this weekend.

Hey guys,working 12 hour shifts,they are killing me-lol
Hunting when time permits and seeing does,no bucks yet but thats about to change soon I bet.The weather is really cooling off here with -3C temps in the morning and some good frosts.
Scrapes and rubs are showing up all over the place.
Building an alluminum trailer as well for my bike.
Once things slow down here with the building I will be out alot more,Still got all of November and december,seems to get better here as it gets colder.
Good luck everyone

jason

I almost had a doe in my new spot this morning but a pickup truck came driving up the lane and spooked her just enough that she turned and went the other way. After she came in I messed around a little bit with a 6 pointer. I grunted at him and he came walking down the hill right at me. He was grunting as he was walking towards me. He came in after I did a rattling and grunting sequence. I could have had him at 5 yards, lol. My friend was out with me and he shot this 2 year old 8 point. It's an average buck but I wouldn't have shot him. Here are a couple of pictures.

Thats no deer to turn down around here 'MOF', Nc dosent have the largest, what kinda trees were around that deer, leaves look like 'tulip poplars' but that one trees bark looks more like a hickory. Ill be hunting all this week at my folks/ bean field, hope I have some news on that soon

anybody been seeing any deer? i looked on the score card and we went from 1st to 3rd place.

I got out last night and boy was it windy! you couldn't even hear yourself think it was so loud. Then about 30 minutes before dark somebody turned the wind off and you could here a pin drop the the woods. I saw 3 deer way off on the other side of the field. I just havn't had any shooter bucks near me. Next weekend should be a big weekend here in IL thats usually when the deer really start moving around.

I nailed my 4th deer Saturday evening. It was a fairly large doe. Here are some pics.

Ive been out the past week or so, every other day, and straight the past 3 days, either morning or night. Ive been out on my 100 acre lease, my starting spots that I pruned stunk. I found a trail that leads to an acorn plot/ open oak trees. I set up there last night and this morning, I found a fresh scrape on the corner of it. Rattled this morning at 845, (I think my good window in the morning is 820-940) after that Ive seen nothing. 4 came in to the first short rattle set, I think they saw eachother and went back the way they came, one ran off.. I couldnt tell if they were bucks or what.. I walk in, spray down, and use a climber, havent touched anything out there, and can get off some 20-30yrd shots in those oaks. I think its going to be a waiting game. Any help? Lemme know. I do a little blind calling/ a few rattles in those peak hours + I found that scrape so its on down there.. winds been good also.

Hey Louie it's not a bad idea to put out doe urine early in the pre-rut and then as time moves on switch to estrus scents to hang up. Also If your not sure if your calling is having any effect just don't do it. If you are in any kind of high pressure area your deer may not come running to a call or you could just be doing a combination they don't like. One last tip to see how often deer might be coming to the scrape is kick some leaves over it then come back the next day to see if it has been cleaned. This will help give you an idea when a buck might be coming threw the area or if they are still tending scrapes.
But as usual with hunting and we all know this, the best way to get a deer is to be out there trying! So as long as you stay with it I believe you will have some brown down here soon.

Henson, I hit it again this morning, I really wanna say doing a short loud rattle around 830 has been working, and Ive seen deer shortly after doing so.. But I may also not be seeing whos making the scrape as everyone states they might circle around me. Winds been very minimal, this morning shortly after rattling, 3 does came in (small like 100# each) They came within 10 yards and one was pretty intrested in me, stomped a few times, then passed by slowly. I was shakin in my boots lol. 30 min after that I saw a silhouette of a deer go running past, No idea what it was doing or if it were a buck.. Grunted and it never stoped. Im gunna go again tonight, Ill try not calling at all. I think pressure is very minimal, but I do hear some muzzel loaders goin off this past week

Update for this evening: Got out there, saw more deer, a nice doe w/ no shot. And then an older deer with some bunk genes, Huge 4 pt lol, I grunted at him, he fluffed right up and tore a cedar tree to shreds, but never gave me a shot, went sulking down past me in the woods. Deer showed up in the middle of the day 4-5 o clock, hot n windy out 65 deg. But a storm hit tonight at 930. Maybe that had them moving. In total Ive seen 8 today in the same spot. Going to relocate for sat, get more on their trail I saw them all migrate on today :) Also climbed higher tonight, might be more pressure than I thought, none looked at me at all, and I got away with a few stupid moves

Just to put this in there. My wife nailed a nice 8 pointer from the same tree stand I nailed my 12 pointer out of. I will post some pics later on. I'm guessing he will go 100"-110". This is her first buck. She told me it was a huge 8 point and I thought maybe it was my big wide 8 that would probably go 150"-160" but it wasn't him.

Saw a 6pt this morning around 8, hr later a monster came in... was right behind me and bolted running.. both came in down wind and prolly smelled me to some extent 22mph gusts. Ide say big boy was 8-10 pts, prolly over 120"... Im going to lose sleep over this, going out again tonight, never seen so many deer in my life. All have been in bow range, but just not cooperating lol :(

Hey just checking in see alot of dead animals on the threads congrats to all. Ive been out and seen a lot of deer passed on alot of small bucks seen some good ones holding out for something 140ish . Buck chasing real hard here had 140+ run right under stand this morning couldn't stop him for nothing . Talk more later good luck all!


Good luck
Shane

I dropped a 125 inch South Dakota Black Hills buck with a 23 yard double lunger. This is the biggest deer I've taken in SD. In this region, this is about as big as they come!
He was definitely a keeper!

congrats on the deer buddy did you get him entered?

What a great buck!
Well I got out a few times this weekend and I didn't see a thing! The wind wasn't helping me blowing from the east. This was my last time bow hunting for the next two weeks. I am going to Indiana for their shotgun season Nov. 12-16th then I am heading down to southern IL to hunt in the IL gun season. But as soon as thats all over and I have collected my trophy shotgun deer :) I will pick the bow back up and try to put some bone on the ground with a bow.

Great job on the buck. Get him scored and up on the board. 3 down and 7 more to go. It sounds like a few of you guys are seeing some really nice deer. Hopefully we will knock a few more down here real soon.

Here are a couple pictures of my wife's 8 point.

We need to crank it up a notch folks! Team 13 is handing it to us. Everyone stay after it, hunt hard , and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Let's do this!

Well I leave in the morning for my Indiana shotgun hunt. Good luck to all you guys over the next week. I hope I come back to my laptop next week to pictures of all the booners team 11 has taken in the week I am gone. Good luck and be safe.

Well guys! For me it's back to work tonight. I will still try and tag out on a couple doe in the late season and my son and daughter have still not got their buck yet. So hopefully we will still be after them for awhile yet. Hopefully every one else that hasn't got one yet will be putting one down soon. Good luck to everyone!!!!!

How are we doing teamies? Who's still in the hunt?

I'm off to Missouri this weekend. I cannot wait to spend three and half days in a tree! Sadly, I'll be sharing the wood s with the orange army. Then again, this might be a good thing. They may send more deer my way. Let's hope that's the case!

Good hunting everyone! Hit it hard!

Good luck over there in Missouri. Hope you nail a big one. Also, good luck to everyone else as well!!!!!

is the contest really over? it says it is but not for sure.

February 1st I think is the closing date

It says it closed early

Well I am back from my hunting trip. I saw some big deer in Indiana the day before the season started. Then the 30mph winds kicked up and I didn't see a thing. Plus the full moon didn't help my cause what so ever.
For my southern IL hunt I got to bow hunt for 2 days before the gun season and never saw a deer. the rut hadn't even started yet in my area. When the gun season started it was the same thing. The full moon the week before turned them nocturnal and then the wind started in again! this time 20-30mph winds. so any deer that were out bedded down the majority of the time.
I have hunted the same spot in wayne county for 17 years and I have never heard so much silence in my area before. Hardly any gun shots so I think I wasn't the only one with a bad season.

I hope to get back out and bow hunt this weekend.

After nearly 2 weeks out of the woods it looks like my son, daughter, and myself will be back at Friday and maybe Saturday. This contest is NOT over yet. C'mon guys !!!!! Let's see some more bone on the ground. Good luck!!!!!

While in Missouri, I had zero cell service or internet access. Being in the dark sucked! I so wanted to hear how everyone was doing.

My hunt went pretty well. On the second night and with only three minutes of legal shooting light, I put away the bow and used a rifle to kill a Missouri flattop. I was told to do so by the landowner, Richard Wies. He said, "If you don't kill some of these corn eaters, my share cropper won't plant a crop next year". At that point, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I dumped her with a single shot from 100 yards. It was nice to know I could still handle a gun, and at the same time, helped with a serious problem.

The next morning, a ten pointer walked past me; he was deep into the woods. I waited for a window through the brush and then I cracked him. Cross "a good representation of the species deer" from Missouri off my bucket list! 21 states down and 29 to go (unless I use Obama's 57 states).

Will
Never knew you owened a rifle! You look dangerous with one in hand:barmy:. Oh yeah congrats on the buck:arms:.
Rocky

Well glad Ill be putting some points on the board, not much tho, shot a 6pt this morning from about 20 yards in some thick oak trees. Ill post a pic and try and get him scored/ submitted. 1st buck Ive ever shot, my Thanksgiving day buck :)

Nice work Louie! Congrats! That'll be a good one to remember.

Rocky, I started some 36 years ago with a rifle in my hands. My great uncle, Fred, gave me my very first. I, for the most part, put guns away in '84. I took one with me when I went to Missouri. I guess my expectations got the best of me; I thought there would be rifle hunters everywhere, and I would have zero chance with the bow. Although I hunted two sits with bow in hand, I was asked to perform a service-which I did. When I go back to Missouri, now knowing what I know, I will only hunt with the bow. I really feel I can accomplish the same with only the bow.

Life is a game of connect the dots. I'm moving on to the next one.

Good luck up there! Get that big Canada brute, eh!

I measured that 6pt, tell me if yall think this is correct, and Ill submit it on the score card
R---------L
Main beams:
11-2/8 ------- 10-5/8
Spread of main beams 9-1/8
g1: 1-5/8 ------- 1-2/8
g2: 2-7/8 ------- 3

h1 2-5/8 ------- 3
h2 2-3/8 ------- 2-4/8
h3 2 ------ 1-5/8
h4 2 ------ 1-5/8

added: 9-1/8 + 24-6/8 + 23-5/8 = 57-4/8
so what score do i roll with.. does this look correct for this 6pt?

lemme know guys lets get him submitted offically