Whitetail Deer Season

Anyone hunting deer? How's it going?

To update my season, it's been more or less uneventful so far. We've had lots of warm temps, days of high winds, and maybe a delayed start to the pre-rut. But there's still a long ways to go and I'll be hanging in there for the duration.

Have seen one decent buck but he was a pass for me....a little too young. He walked below me, then as you can see in the video, he pegged me in the skinny maple tree I was sitting in, but couldn't quite figure out what I was. First time I'd seen this buck and had no trail cam pics of him.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/x58K-wlk2uI

Haven't got to check out your video yet, signal is too weak at the stand I'm sitting this morning.

My rutcation started halloween, and I've been at it hard at Crosley. Sightings have been down for me. I think it's due mainly to EHD and that they didn't plant any corn this year due to fertilizer shortages (what the crosley staff said). Did the EHD hit bad in your area? We had 2 behind the house, found one at brush creek reservoir, biologist here at crosley found a few, and heard that a fellow found a bunch along the white river. I also don't ever remember smelling as many as I did this year while driving county roads. The DNR's successful reduction through crossbows and highpower rifles doesn't help either. I'm going to keep after it though, there's definitely still some big boys running around here, and as you know, everything can change in an instant. Good luck out there!

Yesterday had a 2 year old chase a doe by me at 11:30, don't skip midday!

Just had a 130 come cruising at 3pm, but winded me before offering a shot.

Video finally loaded, that's nice footage, i would have definitely been trying to shoot that one!

Yeah he’s a decent buck. I picked up the bow and clipped on the release. But as he got closer decided to pass. I really want something bigger/older, otherwise don’t mind not filling my tag.

https://youtu.be/JJO6UaXu2FM

I was able to get a few seconds of footage of that buck before he walked out of sight. I needed to be further down the hill. I was in the right area, but wrong tree and I should have known better. Next I'll have a stand there!🙂

Nice one. Rut is starting to liven up.

Vac. #1 was a bust (oct. 21- 29), hunted 6 out of the 9 days and only saw a handful of deer, to darn warm (even going to 74 today as I type)... stayed warm at the start of Vac. #2 (Nov.4 thru 12). ... only hunted 3 days cause of warmth/wind ..

Killed a 161# 8 pt yesterday the 9th .... nice critter (State land).. Ill try to post a pic later .. gonna be MUCH colder the opening wknd Gun and the following week .... figures ... I 'prolly wont go back out till gun is over and it settles down some .. I like hunting Dec. for a doe ..

Congrats on your buck. Yeah for sure post a pic.

Pics or it didn't happen! Just kidding lol

hell, I cant figure out how to post a pic I have saved on my 'puter on this place .. their picture posting requirements on here have always seemed troubling, esp. for a non techy guy like me ..

Start a reply, click the button USE FULL EDITOR and then attachment manager.

Same buck came by at first light with a doe, she spotted me, veered off the trail, took big boy with her. I moved to a larger tree (gnarly shagbark) 10 yards down the trail, hopefully they will come by this evening, or another buck will come through. She didn't smell me, didn't really know what i was. Never blew. I'm just on the other side of the ridge where i had my encounter with him the other day.

I did, my pic never showed after posting .... I can easily post pics every place else but here ... smh ... I'll try again ...
nope, nuthin' .. I give up .... the pic shows in the 'manager', I hit 'done' and NOTHING posts nothing shows but in the attachment manager ....

Might be too big of a file. The site can take pics up to 512 kb in size but doesn’t have the ability to downsize pics automatically, just the way it is built. Send it to my email if you want and I’ll add it to your post.

Added the buck pic you sent to your post above. Nice one, congrats!

Bet he didn’t go far with that shot placement.

Yep, that's a nice one, well done!

Thanks ...

the Slick Mag totally destroyed the leg and every thing the leads into the heart, still poked a hole in the far side .. .. went about 130 yds, blood didnt start till about 30 yds, then it was pretty good ... watched him enter a small thicket, he never emerged ..

harvest data is way ahead of the previous seasons. Public land harvest way up too.

Great weather after Nov 12 this year, best I can remember. I killed one doe so far and chasing a good buck who seems to be one step ahead of me

Public land buck harvest in my county is trending downward. Earliest possible start date this year with great weather too. I'm not real thrilled about it lol

Here's the data for switzerland/splinter ridge. It's really quite disgusting. Thank you IDNR lol

isn't half of splinter ridge in Jefferson county?

Here's the public buck harvest for Jefferson county. Showing major degredation in hunting quality.

You can spin it however you want … how do you know that the same amount of hunter’s are hunting every year?

Maybe less are hunting public land and moved to private!

I believe we have killed 2 World Record Deer in the last 10 years in this state Huff Buck(crossbow)&Beck Deer(shotgun) That’s nothing to sneeze at IMO

But some will always complain about their FREE Hunting!

They need to start doing a lottery/quota system for doe permits on FWA's in my opinion. Me and everyone i've talked to is seeing way less deer. I'm sure part of it is ehd, but there was a clear downward trend before this year.

The only way to shoot antherless now on FWA is with archery tag or Muzzleloader tag now! I say that limits many folk now.

Then again you have guys posting their public land location and their kills on internet that has to effect things also…. Sometimes you got be smarter then the system IMO

now that they went to this new data system, it is hard to be precise with the public kill numbers even though you can see it in real time so to speak ... on the state FWA land I hunt it shows 298 deer killed in just one county of the 3 that make up the property, that property never has killed more than 200 total, (usually less than 150) that I know of and Ive been hunting it since '81, and this 298 number dosnt even include the other 2 counties (smh.... ) ... I think the DNR screwed up by not having the yearly report/summary as in years past and the break down of all the named public areas and the rest of the info there ...

Finally got lucky and arrowed this buck on the last evening of firearms season. Had some history with him but had seen him just once during a hunt. He was a clean 10 last year, and added those two stickers for this year's rack. Amazing he hadn't broke much of anything off. He appears to be worn down by the rut, as I noticed very little fat was left on him when I skinned him.

Super nice buck, congrats!

that is a 'looker' for sure ... very nice .. congrats ... score and wt ? ..

great buck... congrats!

I brought him out whole so we could weigh him "on the hoof" and he came in at 215 lbs. No doubt he'd shed a bunch of weight since October. Pretty much there was not an ounce of fat on him. Hopefully he bred a bunch of does over the last few years and passed those genetics on. We've seen a few here over the years with these "crab-claw" type antlers. Will try and green score him later this week.

Here's a pic of him from 2021 season, flehmening at a mock scrape.

I found one of his sheds from that season.

Nice buck Greg! Congrats!

Rough green score info....gross 164 and change. Net typical frame in the low 150's. Deducting the two big stickers will put the final score as a typical in the mid 140's.

Nice Deer....Great pics as always

Congrats guys!!
Great bucks for sure!