Live from the stand thread

[Tree Spud]

Went out Thanksgiving morning which is a tradition for me. Between 7-7:30 16 does came up out of the marsh to the south of me. Quiet the rest of the morning. Yesterday afternoon had a buck around 125" come crusing through scent checking the doe bedding area at around 3 pm. Thought this was a good sign; however, only 4 does appeared the rest of the afternoon. Overall, talking with my neighbors and what I have observed, deeer movement activity has been slow past week. Views from the stand below .... was a great morning with our first snow and was 12 deg F!

 

[fishin coyote]

28 doe, 5 bucks and 10.5 hours later we’re closing out day 1 with this broken up 5pt. Happy to have had eventful day but super frustrated that the only ones I could have gotten were either not legal or fawns. Oh well there’s always tomorrow.

 

[Tree Spud]

Another quiet afternoon yesterday, only 3 does and no bucks. Nice sunset though.

 

[fishin coyote]

Sitting in some lake effect snow showers to close out day 2. Saw 18 doe and 1 small buck. The Mrs.and I each gave a mature doe a ride in the back of the SxS. Tough to be a turkey in the snow belt. The same spot 20 minutes later

 

[PatinPA]

First day of rifle view. Saw 6 buck and 15 doe. One shooter for sure. Chased a doe around a clump of hemlocks and I couldn't get a shot at him then disappeared up over the hill. I saw 2 buck chasing doe and the other 4 were clearly cruising for doe. More rut activity than I've seen all year. This little 5 pt walked a circle around me cruising.



Second day provided a little different view.
Saw 3 buck and a lot of doe. Tough to tell how many were doubles but I think I saw at least 14 doe. My little corner kill plot has worked well though. Almost every deer using the trail that runs along the corner of my property, has come out for a bite to eat. You can't tell from that picture but there are 9 doe together in a little 30'X50' plot.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Not in the stand currently, but not enough service to post from the tree.
Had kind of a disappointing first day of rifle season on Saturday, saw 8 doe and no bucks. Had a couple doe come into me while sitting in the stand and while trying to pick out the biggest in thick cover a small button buck spotted me, stomped and hit a dead branch on the ground that flew up and hit him in the head. He and the rest of the crew got out of there pretty fast.
Had some young hunters along who couldn't quite line up the sights on some running deer but it was fun to see how excited they were.
Also, my dad got spotlighted while in his treestand by a road hunter. I would guess that they saw a decent buck in the area spotlighting the night before and came back before first light to try to get a crack at it. That dirt road sees 1-3 cars a day when rifle season isn't in and anywhere from 15-20 vehicles while it is open. One guy drove 5 mph down the road 4 times in the first 2 hours of daylight. Makes you frustrated that you do the work, put in the plots, time, energy and money and some lazy turd is gonna benefit from it. Later while walking a pond bottom within sight of that road we found 2 freshly dead does, both shot and left. Guys around here just like to pull the trigger. Definitely prefer archery season over that entitled, lazy nonsense.

 

[PatinPA]

Not in the stand currently, but not enough service to post from the tree.
Had kind of a disappointing first day of rifle season on Saturday, saw 8 doe and no bucks. Had a couple doe come into me while sitting in the stand and while trying to pick out the biggest in thick cover a small button buck spotted me, stomped and hit a dead branch on the ground that flew up and hit him in the head. He and the rest of the crew got out of there pretty fast.
Had some young hunters along who couldn't quite line up the sights on some running deer but it was fun to see how excited they were.
Also, my dad got spotlighted while in his treestand by a road hunter. I would guess that they saw a decent buck in the area spotlighting the night before and came back before first light to try to get a crack at it. That dirt road sees 1-3 cars a day when rifle season isn't in and anywhere from 15-20 vehicles while it is open. One guy drove 5 mph down the road 4 times in the first 2 hours of daylight. Makes you frustrated that you do the work, put in the plots, time, energy and money and some lazy turd is gonna benefit from it. Later while walking a pond bottom within sight of that road we found 2 freshly dead does, both shot and left. Guys around here just like to pull the trigger. Definitely prefer archery season over that entitled, lazy nonsense.

I used to have a stand like that. I could see a dirt road about 100 yds away. Non stop traffic of people wearing orange driving 5 mph. And the colder it was the more there were. The nice buck I saw saturday disappeared and the only direction he could've went was right to the neighbors box blind. Sure enough there was a single shot about an hour later. All the work I put in making food plots and clearing travel corridors and a little hot doe drags him right to the brown is down farm instead of the non hunting farm. At least they are zero effort hunters. I sit and watch buck run all over their land all day, trying to dream up ways to bring them up over to me.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I used to have a stand like that. I could see a dirt road about 100 yds away. Non stop traffic of people wearing orange driving 5 mph. And the colder it was the more there were. The nice buck I saw saturday disappeared and the only direction he could've went was right to the neighbors box blind. Sure enough there was a single shot about an hour later. All the work I put in making food plots and clearing travel corridors and a little hot doe drags him right to the brown is down farm instead of the non hunting farm. At least they are zero effort hunters. I sit and watch buck run all over their land all day, trying to dream up ways to bring them up over to me.

we do that dreaming too...the number of failed "woods plots" to attempt to drag a hot doe up into our hollow with a buck trailer is into the dozens...no telling what will drive a deer's actions, but I think food and safety are among the tops....we are thinking of creating a windstorm next year where a couple trees fall across that road the night before the season starts...bet they wouldnt expend the energy to cut a log out of the way....

 

[Bassattackr]

I used to have a stand like that. I could see a dirt road about 100 yds away. Non stop traffic of people wearing orange driving 5 mph. And the colder it was the more there were. The nice buck I saw saturday disappeared and the only direction he could've went was right to the neighbors box blind. Sure enough there was a single shot about an hour later. All the work I put in making food plots and clearing travel corridors and a little hot doe drags him right to the brown is down farm instead of the non hunting farm. At least they are zero effort hunters. I sit and watch buck run all over their land all day, trying to dream up ways to bring them up over to me.

Summary of my season so far. The neighbor now has a stud of a 9 pointer at the taxidermist after the MO opener here.

 

[PatinPA]

we do that dreaming too...the number of failed "woods plots" to attempt to drag a hot doe up into our hollow with a buck trailer is into the dozens...no telling what will drive a deer's actions, but I think food and safety are among the tops....we are thinking of creating a windstorm next year where a couple trees fall across that road the night before the season starts...bet they wouldnt expend the energy to cut a log out of the way....

They come up on my property in archery season but in rifle they almost always stay down there. I get shots when they cross the corner of my property going to the non hunting farm. I know why. In the 5 years I've owned it I've seen one person hunt over there for a total of about 2 hours. It's basically a sanctuary.

As for the windfalls, my dad told me when he was younger somebody did that the night before rifle opener across the only access road to a very popular state game lands. People were hot.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

They come up on my property in archery season but in rifle they almost always stay down there. I get shots when they cross the corner of my property going to the non hunting farm. I know why. In the 5 years I've owned it I've seen one person hunt over there for a total of about 2 hours. It's basically a sanctuary.

As for the windfalls, my dad told me when he was younger somebody did that the night before rifle opener across the only access road to a very popular state game lands. People were hot.

ive heard a similar story around where I live about a guy with a camp who would park his bulldozer sideways about a half mile back on the access road to the camp because of the number of road hunters...by the time people saw the dozer and reported it...it was already nighttime of the first day...then they had to answer why they wanted to drive back a private road in orange with rifles as well....

 

[Troubles Trees]

I don’t have service where this spot is so it’s not live. Love it when they drop in their tracks though!

I’ve only seen little bucks and doe since gun season opened. Might have had a bit of an itchy trigger finger, definitely was cold by this point in the day and ready for an excuse to get down so when this doe showed up it was an easy decision :)

 

[Gravel Road]

9:00 on the Kansas opening day of rifle and haven't heard a shot. Too hot, but seen a dozen doe and 3 small bucks.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

Wow KS is another state with guns starting after peak rut? Like IA. Wish we did that. Good luck to the KS hunters.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

9:00 on the Kansas opening day of rifle and haven't heard a shot. Too hot, but seen a dozen doe and 3 small bucks.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Wednesday opener huh. That is different

 

[Mortenson]

Our 2nd gun opener is tomorrow, Thursday. With the 62 degree temps I expect the food plots to be smokin, NOT. Maybe a good day for a watering hole sit. Ordinarily I could expect a little late rut action, but this year has been so weird and messed up. All it takes is 1 doe...

 

[Gravel Road]

Wednesday opener huh. That is different

I like it. Seems to ease into the season instead of a weekend opening.

 

[Mortenson]

I think I have a bead on where a 5+ year old buck is bedding and moving to each day. My 8 yr old has a turn to hunt with me tonight, so my best bet is moving a large hayrack blind into a new spot. This thing sits around the farm all year in various spots. I'd like to move the blind now and have a crack at this buck tonight. I know any deer that comes out will be looking at the blind, but can I get them within 150 yards of it? Like clockwork this buck comes into our farm the past 3 years in late Nov. and he did it again just now. Worth a chance moving the blind or should I leave the kid behind and lay in the brush?

 

[PatinPA]

I think I have a bead on where a 5+ year old buck is bedding and moving to each day. My 8 yr old has a turn to hunt with me tonight, so my best bet is moving a large hayrack blind into a new spot. This thing sits around the farm all year in various spots. I'd like to move the blind now and have a crack at this buck tonight. I know any deer that comes out will be looking at the blind, but can I get them within 150 yards of it? Like clockwork this buck comes into our farm the past 3 years in late Nov. and he did it again just now. Worth a chance moving the blind or should I leave the kid behind and lay in the brush?

Can you build a quick makeshift natural blind in the brush for you and the kid?

 

[Mortenson]

Can you build a quick makeshift natural blind in the brush for you and the kid?

Yeah that would've been best. I just dragged the rack over near the area. That's a pretty small woodlot and we'd bust it out if we tried going in there. My child who is with me today is pretty fidgety. We'll see it anything wants to step out in any event.