NEOhioHunter

Well, I am mad. I drove home from school to hunt on Saturday morning November 8. I went out and saw nothing but a super-fat raccoon that has been eating all of my corn from my feeder. I figured with the cloud cover and cold temperatures, as well as the rut heating up, that seeing at least one deer wasn't too far out of the realm of possibilities. The long and the short, I was wrong and went home cold, tired, and disappointed. I went home that afternoon for a home football game here at school, we lost in O/T. Then I got a call from my uncle that the other guy who hunts our property shot a really nice 8-pointer. He was in the stand for 20 minutes....and it was from my treestand that I was so kind enough as to let him use. If I stayed home, and hunted on Sunday morning, that would have been my deer. Im mad. That deer was one that we have never seen on the property until now. Oh well, there are still 2 other (smaller) bucks worth shooting I guess. Maybe a booner will show up next weekend, probably not though, haha.

SWThomas

Eh, don't beat yourself up. There will be others.

wis_bow_huntr

Theres plenty of season left, dont let it get to you, been the same way for me and then some.

bdosas

Hang in there bud. Resilience will pay off in the end. It always does.

bdosas

Something else to remember is no matter how bad it gets,your worstday in the field is better thanyour best day in the office.

Texas Hunter

That's hunting!

usmc1978

How about this, from NE Ohio: took last week and this one off to hunt. There are a couple of bruisers I was very interested in, on two different farms. Last Thursday bruiser #1 came in, chasing a doe, at first light. Another step or two to the left would have given me the shot, but no. He came back at 1245. Again, a few more steps along...but no.

Yesterday a.m. I got up my tree in bruiser #2's living room. Here he came, at 0625 (still dark), just ambling along. Stopped 10 yards out. Hung around. Walked over to a tree, even closer still, and rubbed it up. Standing around. I'm looking at my sight pin, looking at his dark form, looking for twigs that might be in the way. He walked off before I had the light.

Yesterday p.m. I get back in the same tree. I start to pull up my crossbow. It was laying too far from the tree, so when I pulled it up it swung in and hit the tree, breaking off the front sight. Which, oh by the way, isn't in stock at Gander Mt., Dicks, or Kames. I was going to drive to Tallmadge and get another one, but a friend who has a machine shop is making me one out of aluminum bar stock (as I type this). Regardless, I lost yesterday evening and this morning. Ugh.

kevin1

My part of Southern Indiana has been strangely quiet too, I see plenty of tracks, but almost no deer. It would seem that they're all out at night.

NEOhioHunter

Yea I know there is plenty of time left. Only problem is, I have next weekend and that is it until the post-rut and the first shotgun season. I am in school a few hours from home, and with my class schedule it is hard to get home any other time than the weekend. And I think shotgun season may fall on the week of my finals, I hope not. Oh well though, there will be opportunities. I haven't shot a deer yet this season as I just got the "fever" back in the last week of October. Lucky for me, Ohio's archery season goes until the end of January.

crokit

That's a perfect example of what I've always subscribed to: No matter how " great " a hunter someone thinks they are, it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time!