Good shot on a nice "keeper" ... as you call it. He will look great in the freezer.

Just got back last night from bein out in GS for the last 4 days. I went on some lonnnng walks into some deep woods just exploring the areas. GS is still new to me. Found some great areas, tracks, rubs, rootin spots and more. never saw a one deer or hog. Caught a small bear climbin down the tree but that was it. Cooled off nicely friday and I thought stuff would be movin but nothin much came out of the station that day. Saturday after that cold front passed and it warmed back up already 3 deer and a hog came through the check station all at the same time while i was at camp eatin lunch. all shot around the same time of 10am from what the guys said. One of the deer was a nice 9 point that had some hefty weight to him, guy said he shot him 20 yards from his stand while the deer was goin back and forth across the road. surprised nothin was movin friday when it was cold, warms back up the next day and they are all over.

Lotta those guys that I saw had shot deer had mountain bikes in their truck. Got me thinkin...I'm guessin they are ridin down the closed roads and when the road ends they hike in and set up shop?? cuts the time gettin back to your stand down quite a bit but first time i've seen so many hunters with moutain bikes and really got me wonderin what they are doing.

I like to think gettin deep into the woods away from anyone would prove good, i found a nice watering hole a few miles back in, had to walk through some nasty stuff to find it but I saw tons of signs, sat there for most of the day and barely even heard a thing, yet a lot of these guys are sittin stands in tall pine areas where they can see 300 yards and shootin long range waitin for the deer to cross through to the next bayhead.

I love readin stuff you guys write, its great trading some basic hunting info without trading locations. Damn....I already miss the woods.

You saw a bear?! Yourmthe first person ive heard to say they saw a bear in there. Thats pretty cool.

I've seen them there before. In fact, I saw a huge one in 2010 that I was able to take a short video. Quality is not the best and far, but look closely at the middle of the screen or pause it at 4 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31DG5L_6U4

I was told by the check station operator at RR Road that the FWC moves them from other places to the GS sometimes

Thats really cool. Id heard they relocated them there too but i wasnt sure if it was true or not

spent the last few days in the swamp...yesterday evnin i dropped a four point....or so i thought...he came in thru a thick bayhead i was setup in about quarter till 6...i took the shot at about 40 yds....boom he dropped...sat in the stand for 20 minutes watchin him nomovement...i got to the bottom of the tree...n heard a blow i turned n the sucker is on all 4 s n takes off in the thick...i blood trailed last night n this mornin...only found a few drops n a sliver of lead from the bullet...went back to where i shot him n sure enough the bullet grazed a tree bout half inch in...the thing that got me on the whole deal is how he stayed down so long n when he ran off didnt have a limp to him or nothin...definitely a wierd experience...kinda bummed...but on the up side with the very little blood i found i think he will pry survive...i gotta say that was the wierdest thing thats happened to me huntin

That's a tough one! I saw a really small 4pt taken out Wednesday but that's all. I hunted Tuesday as well and didn't see a thing and nothing was checked out so hopefully this weekend they will start moving.

yea it was....i was in complete shock aint never seen nothin like it...thats the biggest downfall of huntin in them bayheads too thick...yea they really need to realign the season in the swamp to go into February I read an article in whic the biologist for greenswamp confirmed the rut peaks in Feb...I think this is why every season there are very few "trophy deer" taken they are there but we cant hunt em when they are really on the move....from what i was told very few of the 44 bucks checked out 471 have been in rut and all sign in activity i have witnessed through the past 2 seasons have been nothin more than pre rut.

The private land that borders green swamp is open until the end of february it doesent make sense why it closes so early

There would be a lot more deer harvested if they aligned the dates with the rut. There are thousands of bucks in there that never get seen.