Mass hunters blew the old record away. Again.

[Mark from MA]

I still hunt deer but I don't kill them anymore. I like going out and finding their beds and travel routes. And I really like finding active buck runs. This year I set my ladder stand on an old run that hadn't seen much use the last few years but was all torn up with rubs and scrapes this year.
I had a small 4 prong little buck walk up and start eating the tea berries that were growing around the base of my ladder. If I didn't move quick and just talked quietly I could sit there within a few feet of him for an hour.
3 does showed up and they didn't seem to mind my presence either. They may have been the ones I was feeding earlier this year.
I finally saw the buck that was doing all the marking. He was a nice sturdy fellow with nice, wide, thick-tined rack. I counted 4 on one and five on the other side. Would have made a nice trophy rack if youre into that. Im not, Ill shoot for meat or not at all. Anyway, He wouldn't come as close. He stayed near the woodland and about 30 yards from where my stand is. He would watch me and the other deer but he never relaxed. His tail was always flicking up and once in a while he'd snort and stomp until the females went away. I don't think the liked them getting friendly with me.
I saw them again a few times as the season went on. I know at least two survived be a use they've been in my back yard scrounging under the bird feeds the last few nights.
It's fun practicing my hunting skills and knowing I could get meat if I needed it. All the pleasure of hunting without having to drag and process a carcass.

Sounds like most of my CT hunts....except if I see huge buck, I usually take the shot if it's better than something I have on the wall. Even that though, gets kinda old when you have 6 deer on the wall, and more that my father took as well.

Other than that early season I'll take the meat does first day if possible. I do enjoy watching the deer now....having a lot of deer around is a blessing. You get to watch and learn, rather than shoot the only one you see. I enjoy that just as much as hunting now.

 

[45collector]

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It's fun practicing my hunting skills and knowing I could get meat if I needed it. All the pleasure of hunting without having to drag and process a carcass.

That's a good mindset to be in! Several years ago some guy on here started a thread about how frustrated he was with hunting, that he ended up throwing his gun against a tree one day. If hunting brings you frustration and anger, you're doing it wrong, 100%.

I love being outdoors at any given time of year, but winter especially. The colder it is, the less people are out and those are the days that are best for hiking around, looking for sheds, carrying the .22 rifle on the shoulder even if there's nothing really worth shooting in season. (Now that deer and waterfowl are over). Just to stay in the mindset of being an outdoorsman. I took a few days off beginning of this week and hiked around one of my favorite areas of the Cape, out in Truro. There's some nice open areas of woods there that are about as remote as you can get on the Cape. Found an old rotting makeshift stand in the middle of nowhere. Later that day, found a shed in a piece of woods that abuts a big marsh in Barnstable. I'm not a loner by any means but there's something about getting out into the sticks away from everyone and everything for hours on end.