Virginia Opening Day
 

The full moon and the warm weather seemed to keep the deer off their feet. Anyone have any luck?

my brother missed a buck and a buddy had a buck come right under his stand was not able to drawback on it i saw nothing, but there is always Monday!

None during the hunt but I saw a nice buck as I walked out at 7pm

Jerry

I headed out this evening, and seen ALLOT of does grouping together just before dark. Nuthin but slickheads this evening.

Nothing this evening but had 9 doe in my backyard about 1 hour ago.

Shot a doe at 35 yards at 6:25 pm. Found the arrow with blood but backed out becuase it wasn't a great shot and I had to go to work. Going back in the morning to find her.

Morning hunt found us getting to the field. It was just turning grey as my partner peeled off the field edge into the oak flat and into his stand. I continued around the field edge making my way toward my stand. About 2/3 of the way to my stand I see the corn stalks in front of me start moving, so I stopped. After a few minutes of watching I was able to make out the back of a deer, so I nocked a arrow and started to creep forward. This deer and I played follow the leader for about 100 yards with me being able to steadily close the distance to within 15 yards and hold it. Finally the deer decided to corss out of the row of corn it was feeding in and into the field edge. At this point I came to full draw in anticipation of a shot. When the buck raised his had I saw he was only sporting a scrubby rack about 10 inches wide or so. I let down and watched him feed into the woodline, never knowing I was there. I continued to my spot and climberd my tree, hunting until 10:00 I saw another deer out in the corn which I was only cathcing glances of here and there and a ton of tree rats. We ran some errands and scouted another tract of land and were back in our stands by 4:30 in a different field on the same lease as the morning hunt. By the end of the evening I had seen a total of 8 additional deer including two shooter bucks that never came close enough to present a shot, the rest were a mix of a spike and does.

My buddy had a 5 pointer walk under his stand so close that he was able to take his hoist rope and move it and touch the side of the buck who tensed up, looked around then continued feeding. IN the evening he was covered with deer totaling 14. He had two does at 15 yards for about 20 minutes and was going to shoot them, but one of the bruisers we are after this season was feeding between 55 and 70 yards for almost 45 minutes never coming closer than that. He finally ran out of shooting light. He packed up and continued to sit in the tree for almost a hour after dark watching the deer in the bright moonlight feed down the field. When they were a safe distance away he climbed down and headed to the truck to meet me.

My brother and his buddy were hunting the adjoining field and saw a total of 11 deer between the both of them.

So in all for as nasty hot as it was, it turned out to be a pretty good day. While we did not harvest anything everyone enjoyed their day in the field. As we all know hunting is not about the harvest but the experience!

Opening Day
 

I saw four deer on the drive out to my stand @ 6:00ish. Two on either side of the road at the same crossing. If I had my foot on the gas and not the brake, I could have "earned a buck." That fourth deer was the last deer I saw all day.

First day in the woods will be Tuesday...best of luck Virginians!

You already know my dismal start! The thiing is I was surrounded by deer al day long, just held out for the big boy I have pegged down to a time of day that he is using trail that my stand is directly over!

Damn hounds!