bristowboy_20

Not really. I love it but sometimes it just gets sooooo frustrating!

Okay today it was raining pretty good and I decided to get out and do some still-hunting. So I get to the woods and walk slowly up a hill to a stand of pines....I see nothing. Then I walk down a valley that Ive seen lots of deer in before.. I see nothing. I get down to where I first went in, and I hear a deer do an alarm snort. I look to my right and see a doe taking off down the hill. It stopped after 30 feet and I walked down the hill to intercept it. Theres an old road that goes back through the woods and I was standing on it waiting for the doe to come down and cross the road. 30 seconds later it crosses the road but 30 feet behind it is this MASSIVE buck! He had a 24-26 inch spread easily. I took off walking really fast to where I saw it cross the road. When I get there I see it trotting away after the doe... I ditched my backpack and took off after them. I finally caught up with them and I see another buck. Hes staring at the doe and the monster. The monster is standing broadside at 60 yards. EASY SHOT. Except my scope was fogged up. I couldnt see the deer! Then they take off again and I wipe the fog off the lenses and take off after them again. I walked up this steep hill from where I last saw them run into the thicket and When I get there, unknown to me, I was standing 10 feet from that monster. The doe took off again and the buck followed. And I followed the buck. Finally they started to go around the hillside so I decide to run to the top of the hill to cut them off on the other side. The last time I saw the doe, she had let her tail down and just stopped running and started walking. These deer didnt care that I was there! But with the rain, foggy lenses, foggy woods, and everything looking the same, I just couldnt find the deer in the scope. I then gave up. Im disgusted. I see a monster every year and fail to bag one. I have shot plenty 115-130 class bucks, but the bigger bucks always seem to be one step ahead of my sights. I hope he doesnt chase her 10 miles. Man he was big. his tines were a good 12 inches. Makes me sick.

doetrain

One day it will come together for you and all the close calls will be distant memories as you grasp the Rack of your deer of dreams and hopes. Just remember to thank GOD for his good gift to you.May the LORD of the hunt bless your effots the rest of the season. Good Hunting to Ya!

IOWABUCKHUNTR

Sounds like you had a great hunt regardless of the harvest!

MD DEERHUNTER

Sometimes I just happy to be in the woods and happy if I see any deer at all. Hunting on public hunting grounds is tough! But I'm not going to give up, hopefully one day I will bag that big buck.

BadCompany1

I too get a kick out of just being in my stand and watching anything that walks by.

WVCritter

I have iron sights and see through mounts for my scopes on all my deer rifles. Several years ago I leveled up on a big 10 pointer only to find ice and snow packed in my scope. I dropped down on my iron sights and made the shot.

hardwoodhank

Ditto

bristowboy_20

This was the ONLY day I let my nephew use the Omega. It has see thru scope rings and is deadly accurate with the sights. Lol. It just had to be the day the big one showed its face.

The gun I used instead didnt have see through sights.

M92

I hear ya. Today was a doozy for me too.

I hunt on federal game lands down where Im at because I don't belong to a hunting club (they are worse than unions), and because I can't hunt on base anymore.

What ever happened to southern hospitality? The people down here remind me more of newyorkers than southerners. Ill explain.

I get out to my spot just before sunrise. Get up in the stand, and wait. Sun comes up and I hear a doe on the other side of the thicket Im in, I aim at where I think she is going to walk into me at and I start hearing people talking and dogs howling, The doe jumps into where I am and I drill her, perfect heart shot, flag falls, she bolts, I come down out of the stand and track her out. She made it about 90 or so feet before she dropped, but who do I see already dressing her? Some 50 year short and morbidly obese old man with a slung shotgun and about ten people standing around him, him talking about how she walked right up to him and he shot her (note that the only shot was mine), I step up to him and his friends and politely tell em that I shot her, and no one else fired a shot after I did. He gets red and starts to yell bout how Im not going to steal his deer, etc etc. His friends back him. I point to his shogun, ask what hes shooting, he says slugs, I bend down over the doe and point out the rather small entry, and slightly bigger exit. Then point at his shotgun again and ask how a 12 gauge slug made such a small hole. He stammers and I show my M92, and eject a HC lead .357 mag. He shuts up and he and his boys walk on.

I finish dressing her and drag her back to my truck (there are five or six trucks parked right where mine is) then set out on my markers to retrieve my stand and pack. When I get to the thicket I notice my markers have been taken down, but I hunt pretty regular out of this spot so I know it pretty good. I get back to where my stand and pack was and guess what? It is gone. Now I not only know that was the spot because I know it well, but because the 6 inch field bandage I use as a scent marker was still hanging from a nearby tree. I haul ass back to my truck to see the dust trail of six trucks. I look in the back of my truck and guess what, the doe is gone. So I not only had my stand stolen, but my doe.

I did get a plate number, they are going to fry. I only hope the authorities catch em before my six foot five two hundred and sixty five pound frame full of pent up aggression left over from a decade and change in the Corps does.

Now where I grew up in the midwest folks were proper to each other. We don't slow our pace when we see a car stopped at a crosswalk being nice by letting us cross it. We say please and thank you, if we go out to public land and see a vehicle already parked where we were going to hunt we go someplace else, and we dont steal game and stands.

I cant wait to get out of this damn state.

bristowboy_20

Wow thats sad. Good thing you got a plate number! The guys who hunt on the neighboring property to us are difficult sometimes. A couple years ago they posted trespassing signs all over the place on the property line. We have never bothered them at all. One day we were walking and found a fresh fourwheeler trail coming from their property. They had cut the fence to get through and there were several deer laying around with no heads. they just shot the deer and cut their heads off! The man who owns the land we hunt on doesnt allow ATV's on his property, so we fixed the fence. 2 days later the fence was down again. More dead deer. We got fed up with it and took some boards and drove nails through them and hid them right on the fence line so those @#!#!$$@ would puncture their tires. That FIXED the problem. But before that happened, they had come down and stolen multiple stands from me and my friends. They also have moved the property line and gained about 30 yards that doesnt belong to them. Me and my nephew were walking to our stands on opening morning last year and one of the guys was hunting right on the line. He says "You do know youre on private property dont you?" So I made it clear that the property line is right there where he was. And we were walking our normal trail that weve been walking for 10+ years.

They give us problems and post POSTED signs all over the place, yet theyre the ones who are poaching and stealing stands. I know they stole the stands because of them bragging to people they know. I wont put up with any bull from those guys.

I was hunting one day and Had just got done blowing on my call WELL on our side of the line and all of a sudden about 50 yards away one of the guys comes walking and sees me and proceeds to fire his shotgun 5 times into the air and turns around and walks away.

yeah.