MP-In-The-Wind
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Nice! Good for you!
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Mass Gun Season Opener Tomorrow
- Thread starter HorizontalHunter
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Nice! Good for you!
VERY crunchy Saturday morning. Still, better than soggy for walking, but not so much for tracking/hunting. Got stuck in a never ending laurel patch, but pretty sure I flushed out a few which my partner heard crunching around.
Pretty much dusk and dawn, plus some overnight activity. They just hunker down once the sun is up for the most part, at least around here.
Mark from MA
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Same here....like 6pm-8pm the few does around will come out. Bucks tend to be weird times....midnight -3am. I know where they bed, but I don't want to do pushes, there aren't that many deer around, and there's really no smasher in any pictures that I'm after. I push them out, some other ahole will shoot them, I'd rather leave them be where they are comfortable near my house where no one bothers them.
If I saw a big buck on the cam I'd get my son together and push some beds. Can't track right now, it's too noisy, and no snow.
If we get some snow I'm going to track a few different areas looking for a better deer.
This will probably be my last year hunting MA, seems to be the same story year after year.....see one or two deer, don't feel like shooting the only deer in the area. Freeze my ass of and see very little. I could put in more effort to find some other spots, but why really. If I'm going to start travelling and hour to hunt, I might as well just drive to where there are deer. CT is loaded, and I just got a spot in PA, so I can gun hunt.
PA they are seeing 20 deer a day, I can go there for a week and stay cheap now. I don't mind shooting deer when there are that many around. There are some good bucks there too, the 3 pt per side rule is doing some wonders with the antler sizes. ....most walk at night like everywhere else, but still it will be fun.
For Fill in I've got NH and VT too on Sundays. More like hunting MA, but at least you can hunt Sunday, and with a rifle.
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NICE. Looks like he broke his brow tine when he was in velvet and it healed over. Not that surprising. Our underbrush is so thick they get their antlers tangled on shit all the time. But I love his coloration. I would mount him for sure.
Chris M.
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Awesome deer.
Yesterday was a bust. Bluebird weather though. Back at it Friday.
45collector
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I took the smokepole for a long, slow walk in the eerily quiet woods in North Truro yesterday. I mean it was so quiet each time I stopped moving and stood still for half an hour at a time, my ears started ringing. Beautiful day to be out there though. I must have spooked a few deer but I heard one in particular when I happened to be making way too much noise walking on crunchy oak leaves. Dang. There are big deer out there on the outer Cape but I don’t spend nearly enough time out there. Slim chance at shooting a mature buck mid-day stalking by myself. Stranger things have happened though!
45collector
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It was very peaceful. It was the first time I went out for deer by myself since last season. IF I had shot a big buck out there yesterday, I would have had one hell of a time getting it back to my truck by myself.
MP-In-The-Wind
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Congratulations!
I have buddies on speed dial. It cost me a backstrap and some sausage one time to get a hand dragging one out.It was very peaceful. It was the first time I went out for deer by myself since last season. IF I had shot a big buck out there yesterday, I would have had one hell of a time getting it back to my truck by myself.
45collector
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I've got friends further up Cape but I don't think I know anyone at all that lives past the Orleans Rotary.
ETA: Scratch that. My wife's grandmother lives in Eastham but I don't think she'd be game for such a task. Hahaha.
Mark from MA
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Was out today. There was some wind so walking wasnt that bad. I put on a few miles still hunting further off behind the house, made a big loop took me almost all day. Saw zilch...not even a squirrel. Nice day though at least. I just hate not even seeing a flag.
HorizontalHunter
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It should be a banner year when it comes to the deer harvest this year. The early Thanksgiving makes a big difference as shotgun is a week earlier and the ML season is a week longer. Now add to that the two week extension to archery season and it should be a new record. I will be surprised if it is but we will see.
Connecticut DEEP publishes a running total season to date on their hunting page and their numbers are down slightly.
Bob
Connecticut DEEP publishes a running total season to date on their hunting page and their numbers are down slightly.
Bob
Mark from MA
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Yeah, add in that the last two years had relatively easy winters and bumper mast and apple crops should have lead to stable to high fawn production
. Now this year we have low mast and apple production everywhere. The deer should be moving for food, and harvest should be high. If the numbers are what they say they are.
Add to the extended seasons and stuff Bob talked about, was about 5k acres of new watchusett public land to hunt and special control hunts. If the harvest is not a record it will amaze me with all the new opportunities the state has allowed.
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Mark from MA
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Good luck!
I passed on this Mon-Wed due to the crunch factor out there. Yesterday, I go to pull a memory card, and find piles of deer droppings on the trail to one of my stands. I'll be out there Saturday but I'm not sure if I'll still-hunt if it's still crunchy out there. Maybe I'll take a sit in a stand, and take a book with me. Just in case.
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45collector
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I'll be out there Saturday for one last day of deer drives this season. Makes it a lot more interesting using smoke poles rather than shotguns. If you get on a deer, it's gonna be running, and you've only got one shot. I know a lot of guys that can't hit a running deer with 5 shots, let alone 1.
Mark from MA
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LOL...lots of them out there.
I've got a few guys hunting state land near my house. Man....diehards. Guys out there all day every day. Talked to one of them the other day, who's truck is parked there all last week, he was walking out of the woods at dark, said he's seen nothing in a week solid of all day hunting. I said, what you don't have a doe permit...he's like, no......I've got one......I haven't seen a deer! Doe or Buck! He said he saw a tail in Shotgun season after huntng most of a week...same spot....WTF?
Man...I'm not sure how you tolerate that. No offense, gotta love it, but really, after a day of seeing nothing I'm moving on, never mind a week. A week solid, I begin to think deer are extinct! Which by me, it's a pretty thin herd.
I know part of it is that guys bang the same spot every day, and sit the same stand, and don't look for new fresh sign, which is not helping yourself out. If your a stander, you've got to at least find fresh sign not just walk in and hope.
I know it's hunting, not shooting, but if your gonna drive to a spot, hunt a solid week there, wouldn't you find a decent spot to hunt rather than sit somewhere all week? When I hunt state land it's because I can walk out my back door. If I'm driving somewhere, it's where I'll see a deer. I'd rather drive two hours and see deer than sit all 8 hours and see nothing.
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Once the green is down deer move to another habitat. If the guys out there keep hunting the same stands they set over early season sign, they won't see anything. Time to get down and still hunt/scout around. They're out there. But they've felt hunting pressure for months now and the cover is down. Days are shorter so you have less time per day to catch them on their feet as well. Rut has wound down. So you gotta adjust. Early season pre-rut tactics don't cut it at this point.
It's the end of Dec. Some bucks have already dropped their antlers. Some will drop in Jan.
Sparkey
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Been moving around put 10 miles on Saturday Thur some thick swampy stuff just didn’t move anything. Or at least anything that we could see.
Just seems like a strange year for me.
I wouldn't sit in the same stand day after day if I wasent seeing something I would go out of my mind you have to go explore.
Just seems like a strange year for me.
I wouldn't sit in the same stand day after day if I wasent seeing something I would go out of my mind you have to go explore.
45collector
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Absolutely. We always try to move slowly whether it's shotgun or ML season. I couldn't even guess at how many smart deer have just sat and watched drivers walk right by them crashing and cursing at briars and shit. Hahaha. I try to tell the new guys "Slow. Stop and look around every 30 seconds or so. Stand completely still and then make short, abrupt noises and see if anything gets the willies and jumps up. You never know. You'd be amazed at how close you can be to a deer laying down and not even know it's there."
If you have some water around, like a stream or creek, check those out. Often times somewhere along the edge they'll be a grassy area. If there's tall grass and/or cattails in like a marshy area, they love that stuff. Find some trees along the edge of that grass and you'll find beds.
Some may say find the food and you'll find the deer. But that's not such good advice for me I've found. I find they're eating green briar this time of year which is everywhere. They literally don't have to get out of bed and go far to start browsing. The swamps will have some grass in the low areas as well that's still green. Again - they don't have to go far for it.
When the weather is bad I like to look at pine thickets at the time the storm breaks. They can avoid the wind and precip in them. If it's immature pine with branches/cover close to the ground they'll probably be bedded on the downwind side of the thicket. If it's mature pine (branches higher up in the canopy and not close to the ground) they'll probably be on the upwind side.
Nothing is absolute though and pressure rules above all. They won't go where they've felt it.
Pay attention to scat.... Right now 90% of the deer are occupying 10% of the woods. So look for large quantities of scat. That's when you'll know you're in the game.
Expect to have to work for it too. They've been pushed around pretty good so they've gone where people don't go. That doesn't necessarily mean 2 miles deep, but it could mean busting out the hip boots and hand pruners.. that sort of thing.
Some may say find the food and you'll find the deer. But that's not such good advice for me I've found. I find they're eating green briar this time of year which is everywhere. They literally don't have to get out of bed and go far to start browsing. The swamps will have some grass in the low areas as well that's still green. Again - they don't have to go far for it.
When the weather is bad I like to look at pine thickets at the time the storm breaks. They can avoid the wind and precip in them. If it's immature pine with branches/cover close to the ground they'll probably be bedded on the downwind side of the thicket. If it's mature pine (branches higher up in the canopy and not close to the ground) they'll probably be on the upwind side.
Nothing is absolute though and pressure rules above all. They won't go where they've felt it.
Pay attention to scat.... Right now 90% of the deer are occupying 10% of the woods. So look for large quantities of scat. That's when you'll know you're in the game.
Expect to have to work for it too. They've been pushed around pretty good so they've gone where people don't go. That doesn't necessarily mean 2 miles deep, but it could mean busting out the hip boots and hand pruners.. that sort of thing.
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It's probably too late for that at this point. Never say never... but it would be very rare.
