Huntndawg7mm,

Are you lurking in the shadows out there somewhere? We haven't heard to much from our Michigan connection. How are things going? Michigan gun season starts the 15th of this month right? We could sure use your help buddy. Let us know what is going on if you get some time.

No show on the big one last weekend. Going out before work tomorrow and will do so every morning through Friday. Got another spot that has a good one using the area and they are scraping hard 15 yards from my stand. Last time I hunted it, I left my drag line hanging in a branch above their trail. Went to get it Sunday and they just hammered the area underneath it, plus dug a scrape 10 feet from my stand. Would love to hunt that spot in the evening but work keeps us busy well after dark so will have to hope for success in the morning.

Rifle season starts noon on Friday. Have friends coming up for the first weekend so the bow gets a rest for a couple days. After the weekend is over and if I don't fill my tag with rifle, I will sling my rifle and try to fill that tag with bow since it is legal to do so. I can carry both and if I can get within bow range, I will fill my rifle tag using bow. If not in range the 270 gets the nod. One way or another I will shoot a wallhanger. I am planning on taking the second week of rifle season off. That will be 9 days of hunting from dawn til dark. Will work on filling my bow tag should it not happen in the next couple mornings. Lots a time to hunt and looking forward to it.

Goodluck to everyone.

Tim

Good Golly are the bcks moving now!!!

Yesterday morning, before leaving for work, I walked up the old road to the backside of my property, just to see what might be happening. Didn't see anything going up, but coming back down I see a doe to my left, at about 15 yards, just staring at me. I think to myself, "Well, we're in the rut, or near enough, so maybe there's a buck trailing her." So I scan the woods behind her and sure enough I see another deer looking at me through the fork of a double trunked red oak. I look a little closer and I see two spikes poking up from it's head. "Hey", I think to myself, "that's a pretty nice spike, about 5"-6" long, and a big body too." Then he steps out from behind the oak and I see the rest of story. A Big Ten pointer looking at me and what I saw were the brow tines- the tree was hiding the rest of his rack. I would guess him to be a 140"-150" class buck. I try to raise my bow but he takes two bounds and is over the ridge line.

So, this morning I take a couple of hours off work and set up in my stand waiting for mr. big to come by again. Well, I didn't see him but I saw, in a space of an hour, 1 eight, 1 seven, 2 sixes, 2 fours and a spike. All of the bucks, except one of the sixes, came in after 6 doe came in and started milling around. They drew all those bucks in from every direction. The eight pointer was one that I saw on Sunday morning, and I probably would have taken him this morning if he gave me a shot, but thankfully he didn't. The ten was much bigger. I would guess the eight to be a 120", plus or minus.

I came out of the woods at 9:00, after seeing 7 bucks from 8:00-9:00. What a morning!! I can't wait until this weekend when I'll sit all day for both days. I have a farm that I'll hunt on Saturday that hasn't seen much hunting pressure, and then I'll be back to my place on Sunday. What a blast. The rut is a great time to hunt, to state the obvious.

-Brad

TJF, & by23856,

You guys better be careful....with those kinds of hunting plans it won't be long until you will have a lot of work (gutting, dragging, butchering) to do!!

Tear'em up guys!!!

Went to my buddies house and went on the hill this afternoon and got set in what looked like a good spot. Several scrapes line the low crossing over the ridge and follow several good trails that side hill a nice funnel. I look around and found a good tree and got everything set up...except I didn't snap my bow to my pull rope so I had to climb down(not too bad because I adjusted the cables on my summit while I was on the ground), and I also put out alittle tink's 69 scent bomb on what seemed like the heaviest used trail. And I also put out a buckrut scent wafer at the closest scrape on the low gap ridge(about 70 yards from the stand site). I got back in the stand and back up the tree and got everything set up and adjusted. I looked at my watch....12:48pm! Long sit ahead of me, so I got comfortable and started scanning the area.

Nothing showed until 2:15pm when a doe and two yearlings crossed the low gap ridge into the funnel I was in. They came sorta close to the buckrut wafer and scrap, but hung more towards the high trail and slowly slipped through. Ranged them at 50 yards. They definetly had me pumped up though since they were moving kind of early and I know the buck's are chasing. Well I went 45 minutes with no action until another lone doe crossed the same place as the first three. Another 50min pass with no action until I hear a four wheeler coming at 3:50pm. It takes the four wheeler awhile to get close and finally it passes by at the near ridge, but no-where very close. So I sit tight and take in the scenery. I watch several squirrel's browse around as the sun start's setting. Several times I though I could hear deer moving in and out of the funnel across the heavy used trail but couldn't pick any out of the brush. Well as the sun fades it start's getting late evening around 5:00pm when I hear deer coming. I stand up and get ready as they are going to take the heavy trail at 32 yards. As I watch the trail I can see what looks like 3-4 deer coming. As they finally clear the low sag in the trail I watch them cross....3 big does and a smaller doe. I watched intently as they took their time and followed the heavy trail all the way out of sight. I watched and listened behind them but never seen anything so I put the bow back on the hook and get set back down.

As the clock get's to 5:35pm I hear what sounds like more deer coming up the trail where the does had just came. Well I get back up just in time for a doe to come at 1/2 trot up the trail and out of sight. I start watching behind her as another deer appears....a small spike about 6" tall. I get my bow off the hook and watch as he follow's the trail at a 1/2 walk smelling the ground. I stay ready as another deer comes up over the sag. A good looking 6pt appears as the spike stop's and looks back at him. The spike quickly head's on the doe's trail and out of sight as the 6 pt start's forward on the trail......then I notice another buck is behind the 6pt but is hanging back. The 6pt very cautiously walks the trail and stay's alert with where the spike run off to. The buck trailing behind finally get's to the sag and I can see he is bigger then the 6. He has to be a good 8 I think to myself as I watch him walk very slowly behind the 6. Finally the 6pt get's to the tink's scent bomb and he freeze's in his track's. He look's around above the trail and does a few lip curl's. I watch him smell right around the scent bomb a few times before looking back at the bigger buck that has closed the distance from 50-60yards behind him to about 30. The 6pt takes a few step's forward and cross's the short sag where I plan to shoot and goes up on the bank still on the trail when he freezes.

I'm still standing with bow in hand and release on the string. And I watch the 6 as he is on alert now....when I can finally hear what froze him....the four wheeler was coming back from where-ever it went in the first place. As the fourwheeler get's louder/closer the 8pt goes on alert as well. I range the 6 at 40yards, and the 8pt at 34 yards. Just a several step's from getting to the tink's and the short sag where I have a open shot. The fourwheeler finally get's to the point on the ridge where it start's away again. The sound finally die's as he is far away and over the far hill. Both buck's stay on alert and don't move for several minutes before the 6pt finally sneaks out of sight in the same direction as the does. The 8pt stays still until well after the 6pt is out of sight when it finally moves forward to the scent bomb. The sweet scent catch's his nose as he passes and he stop's to smell the small tree. He stay's at the bush for several moments before pawing back a small spot on the trail and pee'ing down his back tarsal gland's and onto the ground. I draw the bow as he urinates and ready myself....the buck finally step's into the short sag and I sight down on him....

But it's around 5:50pm and it's hard to see through the peep! The buck stop's for several moment's in the sag....I make two attempt's to get a good look at him and get the sight in the right spot...but I decide it's alittle too late to take a shot and risk a bad hit, or long track job. So I let down and get the bow back on the hook. The deer look's in my general direction right after I let down, but with the late evening, good treestand height, and lack of too much movement I think he looked under me and just up into the low gap ridge crossing. I finally get my bino's off the back of the treestand and get a good look at him as he goes through the short sag and out of sight.....from what I could tell he was a nice 9pt(one 2" kicker on his right side) that is around 16" or 17" wide. Definetly a good buck. Probaly a 130" deer.

On something like the small 6, I would have been confident enough to take the shot, but I was sorta intimidated to take the shot with it being late. The thought of trying to track him through over night, or the fear of losing the blood trail with the frost made me hold off. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll catch him coming back.


**NOW ONTO THE FOURWHEELER**

I get off the hill at 6:10pm to find out that the fourwheeler was my buddies neighbor who was checking his trap's on the far side of the ridgeline. He uses the old trail on the ridge from my stand to get to where he is going. Well he pass's on some info that as he went past the bank where the low gap ridge crossing comes out that a nice 10-12 was standing at the old feeder location with 3 does. The buck didn't even run from the four wheeler, he just stood there for several moments and then turned and went over the bank and stood again before the guy finally drove away from the buck. The guy said nothing was around the feeder when he came back, but a couple does were along the field edge where the heavy trail leads out.

So it definetly seem's I'm in the right area as far as the deer are. He said he would try to run his trap's alittle earlier and he would try to use a differnt trail to avoid the ridge I am hunting. I think without him coming through at the wrong time the 8pt would have entered the short sag with good shooting light. But you'll have that sometimes. Looks like I'll be back in the morning to give it another go.

Any updates.....????




I posted some real good pic's of the white deer I shot Saturday Nov 6. Hopefully I'll raise our score this week.

I've hunted 6 out of the last 9 days and have only seen two bucks(Eights)! This should be primetime in WI, but I've only seen a handfull of deer! Something strange is going on. I hope you guys are having better luck than I am![&o] Congrats on the white deer HIghCountry, that's a trophy of a lifetime.

He's at the taxidermist right now.


So I will have him full body mounted, and will never forget him.

HighCountry

Congrats on your piebald!! Not much new here with my bow hunting. Taking off work next week to hunt. Last weekend I carried the 270 instead of the bow for our rifle season opener. Went looking for the big 5pt but only found a 120 Class 4 pt. Passed. Had a lot of fun as it was just me and Tyler for the first afternoon. He is too young to rifle hunt yet but was chomping at the bit to go out and see some deer.

Saturday afternoon I had to passed on a huge 6 pt. He was running and only shot was a 100 yard neck shot as he ran around a cattail slough. Probably would have pulled it off but didn't like the odds. Even thinking about it for a couple days, I don't regret passing on that shoot. Bowhunting has instilled in me to be positve of a shot, if not they get a pass. Course that big 6 wrecked me for the rest of the weekend and no buck interested me after that. Passed on a real nice 5 pt that would have been an easy shot. He was at least a 145 Class buck. Brother-in-law thought I was nuts for passing that one up. He is probably right, but I couldn't get the big 6 out of my mind though. What a brute!! My dream buck. Wide, tall tined, lots of tines, good mass with main beams out to the end of his nose. He should push 170 at least.

Tim

Any of those buck's would look nice on the scorecard.


With only a week and a 1/2 to rifle season...I'm thinking of tagging the next decent buck that offers a shot to get another buck on the scorecard.