Opening day

arlow

arlow

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It was a great morning. I didn't know what to expect. The wind was cranking as I got out of the truck. I got in my stand for 6 am and the wind died shorty after and made it was pretty nice. It started to get light and the squirrels and birds started working on the acorns in the branches above me and they were raining down all around. About 6:45 three does come running in and stop directly below me and start munching on nuts. The tree I am in, is a white oak growing up through a pine tree, so the canopy of the pine tree hid them save for small glimpses for 15 minutes or so. One doe was much bigger than the other two. I waited for her to open herself to a shot, the other two were getting a free pass. Finally at 7:05 she stepped out to 10 yards and gave me a good shot opportunity. It was a steep angle but I slid the arrow right next to her spine down into the opposite shoulder. She went 40 yards and was done. The other two deer had no clue what happened and hung around for a half hour eating and investigating her. Another group came in from the opposite direction. There were 9 or 10 in that group, hard to tell. They stayed around me till a little after 9:30 and then spooked off. A minute later a blond coyote trotted up. I squeaked at him and sent an arrow his way. At impact he took off like a rocket. I found him about 60 yards away.

Checked her in at the Hatchery in Palmer, whe weighed 117. Dropped her off at the butcher and back at it this afternoon!! Now for horns!!

Great morning. I took tons of video from my Iphone. Here is a sampling...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=250666688318791

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=250813241637469

302406_250738461644947_100001263860247_820686_993587395_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
I got one to. Just checked her and now I'm going to cut her up.
 

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Here is the doe I shot a little later at 7:05 but it is real dark and only can really see at full page view. This is at about 6:45.

[video=youtube_share;miKOPJflKDE]http://youtu.be/miKOPJflKDE[/video]

Group of does that came through at 8:30 and stuck around for over an hour.

[video=youtube_share;LnR84o0KH40]http://youtu.be/LnR84o0KH40[/video]

Same group

[video=youtube_share;LGvxeoAGL64]http://youtu.be/LGvxeoAGL64[/video]
 
Afternoon hunt

Went back to the same stand.

On the way in at 3 pm I walked up on a small doe feeding under my stand.

[video=youtube_share;tSAbr_kffMI]http://youtu.be/tSAbr_kffMI[/video]

Got up and situated and she came back 15 minutes later.

[video=youtube_share;2CMVMbhbRzw]http://youtu.be/2CMVMbhbRzw[/video]

Then a button buck came and joined her.

[video=youtube_share;5SP2YfJfCqs]http://youtu.be/5SP2YfJfCqs[/video]

They hung out for a couple hours vaccuming up acorns, she laid down a couple times right under me.

314567_250881304963996_100001263860247_821000_6599 29719_n.jpg


No horns though tonight
 
Madball13 said:
You got some restraint, i would have shot that button buck dead.
Click to expand...

Thats why there are no huge bucks in MA, everyone shoots whatever they see even button bucks. Great job on the pass on that buck, give him a few years to get bigger. i passed a four pointer in CT early bow season. If everyone would follow this maybe we would see some big bucks in a few years. example TX they got some huge bucks and only shoot the very old and the biggest.
 
Madball13 said:
You got some restraint, i would have shot that button buck dead.
Click to expand...

Thats retarded.....

After already using your doe tag? Horns have to be 3" to use a buck tag. Even if I had multiple doe tags why would I shoot a 60 lb Button? Did you see how many 100lb + mature does came in on the video?

I try to only shoot adult deer unless I get real desperate for venison (not often). I still have some left from the couple I shot last bow season. Looking for and adult buck only now.
 
Congrats on your animals. Looks like you have a great spot there. No whitetails for me yet. I did get a mule deer earlier this year. I've never seen a coyote close enough to take with a bow. Hell I've never seen one close enough when I've had a rifle.
 
Sat Oct 22

Honeyhole stand

Was raining as I got dressed but it was not going to last long. The brightening day took a bit longer due to the clouds in the sky. Pretty uneventfull other than a fisher nosing around in the leaves for a stray rodent tidbit.

a70ece7f.jpg


33fa9bf9.jpg


[video=youtube_share;xlp5koAMAwM]http://youtu.be/xlp5koAMAwM[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ZCD5uFSO95o]http://youtu.be/ZCD5uFSO95o[/video]

Got out of the stand at 9:30 am to go have breakfast with the family.
 
Sat Oct 22 Afternoon sit

Big woods

A friend invited me to go with him to a 600 acre piece a friend owns in brimfield. We walked in with climbers around 1 pm and did some speed scouting. Nice looking property, lots of potential but not a ton of sign. We ended up setting up on opposite sides of an oak grove on the side of a ridge with a good view of the bottom. I set up over a little brook with a bunch of pawings in the leaves around.

a1681d0a.jpg


Had some nuts on the ground to keep the squirrels busy but we saw no deer this night. We will explore here again some day. A great place to keep in mind to roam around with a shotgun in the snow to try to learn the travel patterns better.

I really liked how this picture came out.

d55034f0.jpg
 
Nice fisher pics! As I got settled into my tree yesterday afternoon a fisher ran down the tree opposite me. Kinda makes you think twice when picking out a tree! I'd hate to piss one of them off in the same tree.
 

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