Hey guys...where's everyone at? I guess maybe hunting or getting ready. I'm pretty siked. Tomorrow is the opener for me here in VA. I'll be out there. I'm also gonna hunt on this coming Thurs and Friday. Hopefully I'll have some luck.

Anyone else gonna be out tomorrow? Good luck and be safe everyone! Lets get some horn and get on the board....

I'm ready!
Tomorrow is our PA opening day also.
Will be out all morning and possibly afternoon unless heavy rain,
Good luck to all and most of all BE CAREFULL!!!

Hi Guy's !

I hope everything went along great while I was away ,I see that WV had one issue he had to deal with ,It's too bad we couldn't keep the logo with our names on it but OH well.
Anyway's I don't have any good photo's or stories to tell you's ,the weather and blackflies and mosquito's [ too warm for the bull's to go into rut]were absolutely horrid while we were there .We did have the bull's answering to the calls, but they just wouldn't commit to coming out into the open for us to get a shot .I do feel we made a couple serious mistakes that caused us not to be bringing a moose home on a couple of occasion's but that's how it goes. Woulda, shoulda and coulda, if you know what I mean. Our group leader felt that we had certain area's covered appropriately when we knew there was a bull near ,but he ended up crossing the road being undetected when one of our group was out wandering.
The highlight for me was getting a shot at a Timber Wolf ,I guessed her for being 30yrds and coming in on me with her head low to the ground I released an arrow just to watch it hit the ground between her front leg's ,it didn't scare her too bad so she ran back to about 50yrds and turned broadside to me ,I knocked again but just as I was about to release she turned so that I couldn't take another shot at her .When I went to where she was standing when i shot at her I paced it off at 36 yrds DAMMMMMMM ,the only day I don't take my range finder with me .
Anyway's I guess there's alway's next year.
Our deer season opened yesterday but since I have family commitment's with the kid's in hockey this weekend ,I'll not be able to get out till this week Wed or Thurs I hope .
It's good to be home and I'm ready to turn all my attention now to this season's deer hunt ,Let's go get em guy's and show these guy's that we're no underdog's .Good luck everyone and
I'll be back on later today and this evening .
Sumhunter ! Kwinquaga lake was the hot spot for the moose ,we hunted it hard for the last week lot's of sign and lot's of close call's there .

nubo

Welcome back Nubo,
Glad to hear you had a good time despite no moose steaks.
Today was our opening day in PA and I ahve decided to share it with all of you.
At the end of this morning's hunt I scanned my surrondings before lowering my equipment. I saw nothing all morning, even no other hunters, which quite frankly surprised me. I just dropped the free end of my lift rope and took a step off the platform when I saw movement in the distance. It was a small deer walking right to me.
I was trapped with my bow on the ground, one foot on the platform and all my weight on my first step from the platform.
Anyway this button buck walks right beneath me and does everything but look up. He even bumped his nose to my fletchings on the arrows in my quiver. To make matters worse his mama enters the picture and they both hang around for 25 minutes. My right foot seemed as if it was starting to curl around the screw in step.
I couldn't take the pain any more so when she wasn't lookig I was able to get back up on my platform.
Mom looked up a few times but never did spook. She eventuall walked away but junior liked it by my tree and wasn't in any hurry to leave.
After what seemed like forever he walked in the general direction of his mamma.
I waited 5 more minutes before climbing down and as soon as my one foot stepped onto the ground I heard her snort form quite a distance away.
She must have known something wasnt right and decided to watch the area from a distance. What surprised me was that she made no attempt to call her BB fawn from out of harm's way.

I went back out at 3:00 and didnt see anything. At about 6:30 the rain started so I decided to haul out.
And that my friends, was my opening day.

Nubo glad you are back safely from your hunt . Hate that you didnt get a moose but as you say it is the experience that counts. My most memorable hunt in my life I didnt even get a shot. I spent 7 days on the Milk river in Montana and it rained nearly every day but I truly loved it.

Hey Nubo...glad to hear you made it back ok. Sorry you didn't have as good of luck as you had hoped, but hey I'm sure it was still fun. I'd rather have a couple weeks hunting than work and all the other stuff we usually have to do. Next time bro.

MR D...LOL, doesn't it always seem to happen that way! Sometimes when I get into situations like that, I just bust em out of there and go on my way. I've had my share of bad timing decisions. Never had one smell my fletchings though, LOL

My opening day here in VA was uneventful. I was on stand early, and the only thing I saw was a red fox and some squirrels. I hunted until about 11, then came back in. I was planning on hitting it again in the evening, but got wrapped up in helping my wife refinish some furniture, and between that an the rain...never made it back out. No biggie...the season is long. Got plenty of time. Hopefully someone on our team had some luck.

Well MrD! at least you seen deer and that my friend is a very positive feeling to this season .I haven't been able to get out as of yet but hopefully this week coming I'll have a chance to get out.Keep up the good work.I'm certainly looking forward to reading all of our first outing's of the season so keep them coming guy's.

Well guy's got to get the little guy to hockey ,I'll be back on later this morning good luck team #11

nubo

Had my chance tonight but I blew it!!!

Time 6:25 pm About 15 minutes of light left. I heard movement to my left and really didnt know what it was I saw. I saw something small with brown and black moving across a very small trickle of water towards me.
From 20 feet up it appeared as a small animal such as a weasle or something like that.
After a hard second look It turned out to be the snout and nose a a deer right below me.
He walks right to my tree, near my clijmbing sticks and looks up!
It is then that I recognize him as the 7 pointer that I have pics from on my stealth cam.
I am standing with bow in front of my face just praying that he wont spook.
He doesn't and takes two steps out from the tree directly the way I am facing. He gets to about 5 yards and makes a right.
Now I am at full draw just waiting for him to clear some leafy limbs under me.
When he finally does I simply cannot find the red dot in the center of my scope. I give up and assume that the battery ran out and settle the crosshairs behind his shoulder without the red dot in the center of them.
Its now or never, so I release and hear a familiar thud. The buck does a 180 and scampers away from the same way he came.
I was very calm up to this part. I was so nervous that I couldnt get my haul line untangled fast enough. Thank goodness my buck fever sets in after the shot and not before.
I mentally marked the spot where I had last seen the buck run and looked for my arrow from above and could not find it.
On the climb down I was mentally preparing to take work off tomorrow to go find this deer. But when I reached the spot where the buck stood while I shot, my heart was filled first with disgust anf secondly with happiness. There, about 12 feet out from the tree, I saw my arrow sticking straight in the ground without even a hint of blood or hair!
It was a good foot closer to my tree than where the deer stood.
I imediately picked up my bow and leveled it out and there was the familiar red dot right where it belonged, in the middle of the crosshairs.
Next I imitated a severe downward shot and again could not find the red dot.
I broke a rule that I have stressed to many beginers in archery; that is bend at the waist keeping the bow level , and not lowering your arm.
I really never shot at a deer almost directly below me like this one tonight and learned a valuable lesson the hard way. I was sick that I missed but happy it was a clean miss.
Thats all folks!
I wont be able to get out again till Sat.
Hope you have better luck than I did.

Just told the whole story about the above post to a buddy of mine who shoots the same red dot scope that I do. He asked me why I didn't have a kisser button on the string. Using one would have guaranteed that the dot would be centered. I lost a buck due to a 50 cent kisser button. Could you imagine that!
Oh well, live and learn.
c-ya later

Well at least Rocky your having some positive signs ,your at least seeing deer and your getting your lick's in .Sooner or later it gonna be a great story that all your team mates are going to be reading .Keep up the great work . Those darn kisser button's ehhh get one on.
We all make these kind of mistakes , I'm sure we're gonna hear of alot more of them from our teammates including myself haha.

nubo