2017-18 Bambi wacking thread

Got a nice doe this season...we got 6inches of snow...jumped a few elk and then some deer. This one came within 15yds so I couldnt resist taking her.

Nice freezer stuffer wil!

Love hunting

Damn Wil, snow already!

Good job on the deer

Nice food for the freezer.

Congrats!

outrider58 said:

Nice freezer stuffer wil!

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Thanks! Indeed it will be good!

engineerbrian said:

Damn Wil, snow already!

Good job on the deer

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Yeah! ridiculous! Ive talked to people and they say they cant ever remember it snowing this early and this much!

j_h_smith said:

Nice food for the freezer.

Congrats!

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Yes indeed! Thanks guys! I put the tenderloins in a 15bean soup and it was delicious!

wilcam47 said:

Thanks! Indeed it will be good!

Yeah! ridiculous! Ive talked to people and they say they cant ever remember it snowing this early and this much!

Yes indeed! Thanks guys! I put the tenderloins in a 15bean soup and it was delicious!

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I like to grill my tenderloin in a mesquite smoke. Cook it slow. When it's half way done, I cover it in onions and wrap it in foil until it falls apart.

Then I really like red potatoes hand mashed in a garlic cheese butter I get from Wegman's.

Talk about a feast for a king!

Went out for the first time yesterday this season and first time ever on public land. Didn't see anything though I think it was the rain - thought it was light enough and had the time to get out. Still fun though.

Question though - any tips for public land? New experience for me and when I got out there I realized how ignorant I am.

T-Man said:

Went out for the first time yesterday this season and first time ever on public land. Didn't see anything though I think it was the rain - thought it was light enough and had the time to get out. Still fun though.

Question though - any tips for public land? New experience for me and when I got out there I realized how ignorant I am.

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I know at first blush, this is going to sound dumb. But if the property is heavily hunted on a daily basis, I've had good luck letting the other hunters trample into woods, letting them go as far into the woods as they like. I then find a place with 2 shooting lanes near the edge of the woods and camp out there. It amazes me how many times we see deer near the fields where we've gone into the woods. Of course you need to have hunter activity to drive them out of the woods toward where you're sitting. You'd be amazed at how many deer will meander around the edge of the woods, if there's a field connected to it.

I shot 2 deer one day during ML season. First one was just after sunrise, the next was just after lunch. Both deep into the woods. My son got a little upset because he didn't get a shot. I took him no more than 100 yards into the woods on a logging road, where there was a deer path. I had seen movement along this path before, so we sat there late in the day. I took him and set him under some brush about 25 yards from the deer path. We weren't there but 10 minutes and in walked a 120 lb doe. Bang, she drops right were he shot her.

Had to drag her out to the road to use the headlights of my truck to gut her out.

Since then, I've hunted on the edge of heavily hunted property and have done well for myself.

Good Luck!

A bit of the above. Heavily hunted properties mean other hunters are likely to push the deer. Go nearer the edges (but NOT where everyone is parked, the opposite edge). Deer are likely to get pushed that way.

The other is learn the land. Deer do the same things on public land as private. They like edges. They like to bed near pines or in thick stuff. They’ll walk trails. They tend to walk towards the bottom of saddles. They eat acorns. Etc.

So far I’ve hunted on on private land and bagged a button buck (you know who you are, thabks! :-) ). Otherwise only public land. An 8-point, a yearling doe and a spike in 3 seasons (this is my 3rd). A couple of times my first season I SHOULD have gotten a doe, but I did something monumentally stupid. Lessons learned to not be repeated.

In a lot of ways with public land a climbing stand can really help. Gets you up higher so deer don’t notice you. They tend to be warier because of the extra pressure. Also you can’t chop shooting lanes and stuff, or bait, etc. so find a likely spot, go up the tree and wait. Just rememebr, deer still move a lot of the day. Sure, activity dies down by mid morning and picks up early evening, but they still move.

Don’t give up. Me personally, this is my first year with a climber. Prior to that I’d find likely places to sit pre-dawn and then by 9 I’d be up on my feet still hunting all day till about 3:30 or 4 and then setup again. This is how I nailed the 8-point my first year with an evening sit. The doe I nailed still hunting. A couple of other does I came across my first year and I SHOULD have gotten, but again did stupid stuff the scared them off (like putting ear protection in and it saw the movement, or seeing if I could sneak up a little closer). The spike was opening Saturday of archery this year in the field at 3pm and shot it at 6:20 or so from my climbing stand right where I thought a deer would come through (okay, 5 yards to the side of the path I thought they’d use).

Still hoping for more success this year of course.

Don’t let public land scare you. Of course you have the time you have, but I’d definitely say if you can afford to take off work, try to a little. A lot fewer guys out there. Also that is where early season archery comes in. The deer haven’t been pressured much and not many hunters in the woods.

Early muzzleloader where I hunt for the northern end of the park I might run in to 1-2 hunters on Thursday in the park and there might be 2-4 trucks/cars parked at the two busier parking spots and maybe 1 at the less busier spot for about 1500 acres worth of park there. Friday add maybe 1-2 encounters and an extra vehicle at each spot. Saturday there might be 5-8 encounters and 10-12 vehicles at the one spot, 5-6 at the next busiest and 2-3 at the slow spot.

Gun season during the week is a little less busy than Thursday of early muzzleloader. A Saturday, especially opening Saturday is twice as busy as early muzzleloader Saturday. The late muzzleloader and gun season even on Saturdays is pretty empty again. I might run in to 1 or 2 hunters and see 2-3 vehicles parked at the busier of the lots.

Last year I was in over Columbus Day (I wanted to this year, but crap weather) I didn’t see a blessed soul the entire time over about 800 acres of park I hiked and zero vehicles parked in any of the parking lots. I saw an awesome 6-point that walked up 20yds from me, but I was squirrel hunting with my 20ga. I didn’t have a crossbow then.

Slightly O.T.

Cornell gives deer tubal ligations, everything goes wrong

Liberals thought deer contraception would work. As far as we know, no plans were made to control the faculty population.

There's a simpler answer to deer overpopulation: The dinner table.



PETA couldn't be reached for comment ...

Like others have said, when hunting public land, try to hunt as far in as you can get away from the road or parking lot. Fine tune this strategy by finding escape routes leading in and out of the property. I cut my deer hunting teeth hunting a piece of public land in Garrett Co.We hunted it for many years. We had the place so wired, we were almost guaranteed a buck every season.

1st deer of the season. Hunting near Tulsa, OK all week, then a few days near San Antonio next week. Feels good to have some goodies for the freezer again!

So, I am thinking out loud on a forum here. I went by Patuxent. I setup my stand really late, around 4:30 at the choke point I saw a 6-point at last year about the same time. Not, I wasn't really expecting to come across the same deer a year apart after being in a stand for 2 hours. Anyway, last year a lot of the fields were corn and harvested early. This year, it looks like everything around there is planted with soy and nothing has been harvested yet.

I feel like that is going to give deer less reason to migrate between the pockets of woods between bedding and feeding during the day (choke point is at the river, narrow neck between a couple of really big wooded lots, hundreds of acres each, soybean fields all around them).

Puzzling through in my mind though, 2 years ago I ran in to a couple of does and bumped a few others on a creek bottom and backside of the hill across from the nearest fields (nothing planted for the park or nearby farms anywhere else close, except that one field). That year the corn was still standing during early muzzleloader.

I am wondering if that same area that was hot 2 years ago might be this year (last year when everything was harvested there was NOTHING in that same area. Didn't even bump anything).

Food pretty near by (maybe 1/3rd of a mile away) and no high protein/calorie source anywhere else close, but still some good cover (the creek bottom) and also pines and dense forest a little further than that.

I realize without cameras or some serious scouting it is just a guess. Mostly just seeing if the hunter inteligencia here thinks I might be on to something and should try pursuing it, or if I am shooting in the dark (pardon the pun).

I've got 3 days and I'll figure it out I am sure. I hate sitting in a stand all day and I probably won't setup the exact same place twice (but I might, dunno. I guess it depends on how lucky I feel or what kind of signs I can find). But I am thinking of setting up midway down that hill opening day where I've seen several trails in years past and run in to a number of does.

Also semi-related question. Anyone ever have luck calling anything in? Anything work better during mid/late October? For giggles (and probably scaring everything away, except that F-ing squirrel that was laughing at me in the tree 10 feet from me) I tried a few doe bleats, one or two every 5-10 minutes for about the last 45 before I climbed down and beat feet back to my car. My neighbor mentioned he almost never calls, but he has a few times and managed to call a small buck in a number of years ago (said it scared the crap out of him because it appeared 10 yards from him running up and he fumbled his rifle).

j_h_smith said:

I like to grill my tenderloin in a mesquite smoke. Cook it slow. When it's half way done, I cover it in onions and wrap it in foil until it falls apart.

Then I really like red potatoes hand mashed in a garlic cheese butter I get from Wegman's.

Talk about a feast for a king!

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sounds really good!

T-Man said:

Went out for the first time yesterday this season and first time ever on public land. Didn't see anything though I think it was the rain - thought it was light enough and had the time to get out. Still fun though.

Question though - any tips for public land? New experience for me and when I got out there I realized how ignorant I am.

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carefully follow some hunters and go about 50-100yds further than they do...thats where the deer will be

HogCommander said:

1st deer of the season. Hunting near Tulsa, OK all week, then a few days near San Antonio next week. Feels good to have some goodies for the freezer again!

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Nice fat doe! Yum!

lazarus said:

So, I am thinking out loud on a forum here. I went by Patuxent. I setup my stand really late, around 4:30 at the choke point I saw a 6-point at last year about the same time. Not, I wasn't really expecting to come across the same deer a year apart after being in a stand for 2 hours. Anyway, last year a lot of the fields were corn and harvested early. This year, it looks like everything around there is planted with soy and nothing has been harvested yet.

I feel like that is going to give deer less reason to migrate between the pockets of woods between bedding and feeding during the day (choke point is at the river, narrow neck between a couple of really big wooded lots, hundreds of acres each, soybean fields all around them).

Puzzling through in my mind though, 2 years ago I ran in to a couple of does and bumped a few others on a creek bottom and backside of the hill across from the nearest fields (nothing planted for the park or nearby farms anywhere else close, except that one field). That year the corn was still standing during early muzzleloader.

I am wondering if that same area that was hot 2 years ago might be this year (last year when everything was harvested there was NOTHING in that same area. Didn't even bump anything).

Food pretty near by (maybe 1/3rd of a mile away) and no high protein/calorie source anywhere else close, but still some good cover (the creek bottom) and also pines and dense forest a little further than that.

I realize without cameras or some serious scouting it is just a guess. Mostly just seeing if the hunter inteligencia here thinks I might be on to something and should try pursuing it, or if I am shooting in the dark (pardon the pun).

I've got 3 days and I'll figure it out I am sure. I hate sitting in a stand all day and I probably won't setup the exact same place twice (but I might, dunno. I guess it depends on how lucky I feel or what kind of signs I can find). But I am thinking of setting up midway down that hill opening day where I've seen several trails in years past and run in to a number of does.

Also semi-related question. Anyone ever have luck calling anything in? Anything work better during mid/late October? For giggles (and probably scaring everything away, except that F-ing squirrel that was laughing at me in the tree 10 feet from me) I tried a few doe bleats, one or two every 5-10 minutes for about the last 45 before I climbed down and beat feet back to my car. My neighbor mentioned he almost never calls, but he has a few times and managed to call a small buck in a number of years ago (said it scared the crap out of him because it appeared 10 yards from him running up and he fumbled his rifle).

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Deer are typically creatures of habit, check the trails they used to go on. If they look worn out they prob still use the same ones.

Got another doe on the evening hunt today. I live in Vegas now & not sure whether I'll get another hunt this year so trying to make the most of this trip.

HogCommander said:

Got another doe on the evening hunt today. I live in Vegas now & not sure whether I'll get another hunt this year so trying to make the most of this trip.

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Nice shot commander!

Keep your head down...

lazarus said:

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It's hard to say if calling got me many deer or not. I usually hit a call every 30 min or so. I don't have any reason to believe it's hurt me. I credit a call last year with having a buck come into my zone. I hit the call a couple times and five minutes later, I had a young buck standing directly under me looking furious--stamping the ground, tail wagging like a crazy dog, etc. He was looking for a rival buck.

Derwood said:

It's hard to say if calling got me many deer or not. I usually hit a call every 30 min or so. I don't have any reason to believe it's hurt me. I credit a call last year with having a buck come into my zone. I hit the call a couple times and five minutes later, I had a young buck standing directly under me looking furious--stamping the ground, tail wagging like a crazy dog, etc. He was looking for a rival buck.

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Ive had small bucks come running to calls in late Oct, early Nov. Ive also had mature bucks not even bat an eye at calls in the same time frame. Ive never taken one as a result of calling.

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