You know you've been hunting hard when...
11-15-2006 | 08:03 AM
#12
Spike
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 49
Likes: 0
From: Southern, WI
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
One thing I really notice, and maybe some of you have too, is that after I've been sitting all day on a nice breezy day, when I lay down at night to go to sleep, I still have the feeling of the tree swaying back and forth.
I think it has to do with your equilibrium, but I know I've been hunting hard when it's been 2 days since I've been in a tree but can still feel it swaying in the breeze.
I think it has to do with your equilibrium, but I know I've been hunting hard when it's been 2 days since I've been in a tree but can still feel it swaying in the breeze.
You mean to tell me I'm not sitting in my treestand with my bow next to me and deer all around me?
11-15-2006 | 08:47 AM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 0
From: Northwest suburbs, Illinois
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
My bills sometimes go several days unpaid, it's never that I don't have the money.. I just need the time in the woods!
I also begin to get severe headaches by late October from the lack of sleep and malnutrition![&:]
I also begin to get severe headaches by late October from the lack of sleep and malnutrition![&:]
11-15-2006 | 08:49 AM
#16
Thread Starter
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,051
Likes: 0
From: Jackson, Missouri
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
Rick, You ever seen those videos at the end where they say, "Boy, we've been hunting hard!" Well, we had every right to make that statement ourselves. The rut has been virtually non-existant in my neck of the woods (at least where I hunt in Southern Illinois...). The winds were completely wrong for us all week (mostly south winds all week), the temperature was pitiful (mid- to upper-70's a couple days) and the access route I normally take in to the woods had a drainage ditch waist-high full of water. That meant mile- to mile-and-a-half hikes in from the public access point a couple miles away. That translated into a couple 3:30 a.m. wakeup calls to be able to drive over and have the time to hike in and get set up before light.
Matt did get to touch off his release and send an arrow towards a book buck... I say towards because the thing was on pins and needles as it sneakedthrough at 37 yards after some bozos came in on us from the north with a north wind. Some people just don't get it. (We had come in from the south...) They probably had no idea they were approaching amajor buck bedding area, either. Anway, the deer was ducking and going before the arrow cleared his shelf, he said. It was the only mature deer either of us saw.
I myself identified six different 2-year-old and under bucks within 20 yards, but nothing that made me even want to clip a release on...
Other cool encounters: Matt had a bobcat come in and sit down in front of him, and a coyote ran in and sat directly behind his tree about two feet away. He also had a coyote walk right under him at first light from a different stand, and watched yet another coyote attempt to put a stalk on four deer in a wide-open cut corn field.
We saw a mature bald eagle one day (rare around here, no matter what Matt tells ya! [8D]), and -- of course -- the coolest encounter of all: getting to hang out together and hunt for a solid week.
Matt did get to touch off his release and send an arrow towards a book buck... I say towards because the thing was on pins and needles as it sneakedthrough at 37 yards after some bozos came in on us from the north with a north wind. Some people just don't get it. (We had come in from the south...) They probably had no idea they were approaching amajor buck bedding area, either. Anway, the deer was ducking and going before the arrow cleared his shelf, he said. It was the only mature deer either of us saw.
I myself identified six different 2-year-old and under bucks within 20 yards, but nothing that made me even want to clip a release on...
Other cool encounters: Matt had a bobcat come in and sit down in front of him, and a coyote ran in and sat directly behind his tree about two feet away. He also had a coyote walk right under him at first light from a different stand, and watched yet another coyote attempt to put a stalk on four deer in a wide-open cut corn field.
We saw a mature bald eagle one day (rare around here, no matter what Matt tells ya! [8D]), and -- of course -- the coolest encounter of all: getting to hang out together and hunt for a solid week.
11-15-2006 | 08:55 AM
#18
Nontypical Buck
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 4,679
Likes: 0
From: Albany, NY
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
ORIGINAL: Greg / MO
Rick, You ever seen those videos at the end where they say, "Boy, we've been hunting hard!" Well, we had every right to make that statement ourselves. The rut has been virtually non-existant in my neck of the woods (at least where I hunt in Southern Illinois...). The winds were completely wrong for us all week (mostly south winds all week), the temperature was pitiful (mid- to upper-70's a couple days) and the access route I normally take in to the woods had a drainage ditch waist-high full of water. That meant mile- to mile-and-a-half hikes in from the public access point a couple miles away. That translated into a couple 3:30 a.m. wakeup calls to be able to drive over and have the time to hike in and get set up before light.
Matt did get to touch off his release and send an arrow towards a book buck... I say towards because the thing was on pins and needles as it sneakedthrough at 37 yards after some bozos came in on us from the north with a north wind. Some people just don't get it. (We had come in from the south...) They probably had no idea they were approaching amajor buck bedding area, either. Anway, the deer was ducking and going before the arrow cleared his shelf, he said. It was the only mature deer either of us saw.
I myself identified six different 2-year-old and under bucks within 20 yards, but nothing that made me even want to clip a release on...
Other cool encounters: Matt had a bobcat come in and sit down in front of him, and a coyote ran in and sat directly behind his tree about two feet away. He also had a coyote walk right under him at first light from a different stand, and watched yet another coyote attempt to put a stalk on four deer in a wide-open cut corn field.
We saw a mature bald eagle one day (rare around here, no matter what Matt tells ya! [8D]), and -- of course -- the coolest encounter of all: getting to hang out together and hunt for a solid week.
Rick, You ever seen those videos at the end where they say, "Boy, we've been hunting hard!" Well, we had every right to make that statement ourselves. The rut has been virtually non-existant in my neck of the woods (at least where I hunt in Southern Illinois...). The winds were completely wrong for us all week (mostly south winds all week), the temperature was pitiful (mid- to upper-70's a couple days) and the access route I normally take in to the woods had a drainage ditch waist-high full of water. That meant mile- to mile-and-a-half hikes in from the public access point a couple miles away. That translated into a couple 3:30 a.m. wakeup calls to be able to drive over and have the time to hike in and get set up before light.
Matt did get to touch off his release and send an arrow towards a book buck... I say towards because the thing was on pins and needles as it sneakedthrough at 37 yards after some bozos came in on us from the north with a north wind. Some people just don't get it. (We had come in from the south...) They probably had no idea they were approaching amajor buck bedding area, either. Anway, the deer was ducking and going before the arrow cleared his shelf, he said. It was the only mature deer either of us saw.
I myself identified six different 2-year-old and under bucks within 20 yards, but nothing that made me even want to clip a release on...
Other cool encounters: Matt had a bobcat come in and sit down in front of him, and a coyote ran in and sat directly behind his tree about two feet away. He also had a coyote walk right under him at first light from a different stand, and watched yet another coyote attempt to put a stalk on four deer in a wide-open cut corn field.
We saw a mature bald eagle one day (rare around here, no matter what Matt tells ya! [8D]), and -- of course -- the coolest encounter of all: getting to hang out together and hunt for a solid week.
I was off work hunting the entire week as well and the same warm weather affected APAJaws (Dan) and I out in NY and PA in the middle of the week. That combined with the full moon I am sure made a lot of the rutting activity nocturnal I think.We both managed to put deer on the ground, and both managed to have encounters with some 110-130 class bucks but no true monsters down unfortunately.
11-15-2006 | 11:14 AM
#19
Thread Starter
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,051
Likes: 0
From: Jackson, Missouri
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
Rick... yep, I'm sure the full moon had a lot to do with it, too. I'm heading out in a couple hours; we'll see if it's starting to get any better. I've never hunted this deep into the season without seeing some nice wallhangers.
Oh, and we both had fifty or sixty turkeys around us several times as well. Another cool encounter. They keep hanging around, and I'm liable to have another fan on my wall... I'm really starting to get the itch to shoot something!
Oh, and we both had fifty or sixty turkeys around us several times as well. Another cool encounter. They keep hanging around, and I'm liable to have another fan on my wall... I'm really starting to get the itch to shoot something!
11-15-2006 | 11:35 AM
#20
Spike
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
From: Indy
RE: You know you've been hunting hard when...
You sit down at the dinner table..like last night..and your 2 year old boy says "Daddy, do you smell like doe pee today?"
At least he didn't say "who are you?".
