OK folks, it is that time of year again…when men are men and the bears, moose and deer are nervous!
If you’re back from the woods and have enjoyed a successful big-game hunt this fall (& have harvested something other than Labatt’s or Molson) I invite you to share your story and photos right here at the Outdoors Guy Blog.
As someone once said, it’s time to show ’em if you got ’em! You’ll notice that all my hunting pics are from previous hunts as no ungulates fell to my rifle this fall.
Please keep in mind that all photos (submitted by pm please) should be in a small file format. Usually less than 1/2 GB is fine.
As I point out in my latest Pembroke Daily Observer Outdoors Column, not every hunt requires a grip-and-grin photo to be truly successful (stated by a man with no such photos this year..)
Pembroke Daily Observer: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2013/11/21/harvest-less-deer-hunt-was-still-a-blast
Outdoorsguy
Congrats to Hunting Mom and her son Sam on a great deer hunt this year!
Memorable Hunt – by Hunting Mom
It was another memorable hunt for us this year. As I’ve said before, Sam and I have the privilege of hunting with a group of highly skilled men with years of experience. They are mentoring Sam and he is benefiting so much from their expertise and wisdom. I do appreciate that they let me tag along too. Sam got this nice doe on the first day of our hunt, and it was not the only one he shot at. Our group got a total of 7 deer during the week — 4 of them were on that first day. It was action-packed — everyone seemed to be getting a shot at something (except for me of course). The rest of the week was great, but that first day was one to remember.
Looks like Imacdon also enjoyed a productive hunt this year – not a bad way to start your retirement!!
Hi Jeff, we got two deer the first week, a doe and four pointer and a five pointer the second week. Nothing big, we seemed to do a lot better than the surrounding hunt camps. Does not seem to be a lot of deer around. We only saw the two bucks, the rest where does and fawns. Even got in some duck hunting the second week.
Imacdon’s brother with some ducks and his old buddy Duke. He could not get his young dog Jed to sit still for a picture. Duke retrieved the ducks.
Matt had a great time hunting with his grandfather this year. Evidently the excitement of a deer hunt never disappears, even at the age of 87!!
Hey Jeff , here’s a special pic of me and my long time hunting partner of over 30 years , my 87 year old grandfather .unfortunately he didn’t get to harvest this nice little 7 point but he wasn’t far away when I did!! Although he did get a crack at a nice ten point on opening day it appears after 50 plus years of hunting “buck fever ” set in and he had a clean miss !! I guess that’s allowed at 87 years young eh ? Lol Cheers Matt
Seems there was so good deer action over at Iggy’s hunt camp this fall. Iggy Junior took a very fine buck which field-dressed 197 and sported a great-looking crown too! Evidently Jr’s buck was a scrapper based on one of the main beams! And from what I read, there may be more pics from Iggy headed our way….
Iggy’s Deer Camp
Opening morning is what everyone dreams of, first chase, a doe and two bucks down! My son, dogging the bush with one of the dogs right in front of him jumped two deer, he got one but the other one got away and ran right past a watcher before he even got a chance to shoot at it.
The two other deer were stirred up by the other dog man and ran to two different watchers. We got another buck on Wednesday, one of our guys that enjoys hunting at the notch was sent there with a little reluctance. It’s probably the hardest watch to get to, but once there a nice eight point ran up from the valley below and that was the end of line for him.
We got another dandy buck on the Friday….Iggy
My pal Maple (and his son Maple bud) also had a great deer season by sound of it!
Hey Jeff, The other day I got your e-mail but decided to wait a couple of days before replying since my son was due to come hunt on Wednesday, and you never know. Anyhow, here’s the short version and a couple of pics….
For me, it’s been a hard deer season. Wasn’t here in early October, and the deer were elsewhere when I was hunting bow season. Since I only had a buck tag, of course, there were lots of does and healthy fawns seen. A good sign.
Some nice bucks showed up for the trail cam photos at night which did me no good until shotgun season in November, when a 5-pointer made his way into my sights at 12:30 PM, and I gladly took him. The first one I’d seen all year! Meat in the freezer and sausages on the grill!!
After that, I had to wait for my son and his buck tag to come hunt with me, which wasn’t until yesterday during the muzzle-loader season. We sat in the stand together for the afternoon and caught up on the news in whispered voices. As the evening settled in, a doe came into the field 60 yards off and kept watching to our left. Sure enough, this thick chested animal shows himself and his antlers at 70 yards, and soon my son sparks up the old smokepole.
As always, we wonder about the hit, get the ropes and big flashlight, and go to the hit sight. Easy tracking in the snow brought us to a dandy 9-point buck only 50 yards into the bush.
Thanks given, photos taken, and tag applied, we hauled him out to join our family and friends for supper throughout the year. What a lucky bugger that son of mine is. Him and his 3 hour hunts. – Maple
Sureshot dave’s deer hunt:
The crew arrived on Sunday, spent the afternoon checking a few tree-stands and setting up a ground blind. A few of us decided to check our guns to make sure they were still shooting straight. That’s when the adventure started for Mike Jr. Let’s just say it was a challenge to get his guns to pattern. He ended up using his dad’s shotgun. That’s how good things were going with his own guns…Anticipation was running high for Monday morning. What would the deer gods put in our sights throughout the week?
Monday morning was cold, and still. Not much wind, which made it a perfect day for deer movement. I had a doe right next to my ground blind at legal light, and then the morning started out with a bang! Well, a bang, bang I guess. Mike jr had two bucks go running past his stand, behind him of course. Without time to adjust, he had to shoot left handed. First shot was about 10 yards, second would have been closer if the slug had not buried itself in the tree right behind the stand. He called on the radio, I told him to sit tight for a while because it was such a perfect morning. When I got to his stand later on, he and Michel were scouring the ground for any sign of a hit. There was some hair, but no blood. We spread out a little and continued to look. Nothing. I decided to go back to the stand and start over. I walked the ATV trail checking for blood. I’ve been lucky in the past to find drops of blood where deer have crossed the trail. Sure enough, one drop of blood. Something to start with. Once we found the trail, it wasn’t that hard to follow. We found where the buck had stood for a while, then where he bedded on an old ATV trail. The frost was all gone from the spot, and lots of blood in his bed. I told Jr to be ready to get another shot off if he wasn’t dead yet. I knew he couldn’t be far judging by the blood we were seeing.
A little farther up the trail, he jumped up and took off out of the hemlocks. I managed to find him in my scope for a second. The .257 barked, and it looked like he went over a hill just as I fired. We walked up to where he was when I shot, and there he lay. A nice basket rack 8 point was the first deer of the week. We tagged and gutted him before going back to the camp. Everyone saw deer that morning except for Big Mike at the front food plot. The afternoon sit was just as eventful. Mike St. Amour is always one of the first to head back out. He picked the condo, never sat there before so he wanted to see some new ground. The rest of the gang headed out, and I settled into my stand just after 2. Not long after, a shot rang out, and almost immediately Mike St. Amour came on the radio. “Buck down” was the report. The excitement in his voice was obvious. Sounded like a kid on Christmas morning.
I headed over to the condo, and sure enough there was a buck across the beaver meadow. Turns out that Mike had shot him in the neck, when I got to the buck he was still alive so I put another round into him to end his ordeal. Tagged and gutted him right there because we were going to have to drag him a little ways to get to a trail. Or so I thought. Turns out that the Keddy’s had cut a new trail in, and it was a 50 yard drag to it. Nice and convenient. Michel was down at the homestead, so we got in and out of there quickly as to not screw up his hunt. Mike walked back to the camp, I climbed in to the condo stand to see if lightning would strike twice in one afternoon. Not long after, a shot rang out from the homestead. Michel had a spike come out to the food plot and decided to take a crack at him. Sure enough, just down the hill lay a nice little spike. 3 bucks on opening day!
Thursday afternoon Rodney chose the condo. He had gotten a nice buck there a couple of years ago. Sure enough, at 2PM another buck came down the same trail that St. Amour’s buck did. Rodney had to put down his smoke, but he did a fine job of sending some lead on its way. I had brought the boys to the camp for the rest of the hunt, so the first thing we got to do was go and look for Rodney’s deer. The boys were excited to get out and search for a buck. It was right where he shot it, victim of a perfect shot right behind the shoulder. Two bucks, middle of the day, on the same trail. Not bad!
Friday we sat for a couple of hours, then decided to push some bush. The honey hole didn’t produce any deer, but yours truly missed a big coyote with the 12 ga. Those buggers are fast!!! Since we were all together, we decided to put the Shadow Ridge push on. As I was going around to get started, the boys put up a bunch of deer on the way in. A nice buck with a couple of does, and then a spike. Apparently the deer were already where we needed them to be. No shots presented themselves, so I just hoped that I could get them turned around. On this drive, Cameron was with Big Mike, Evan was standing with Michel and Ryan was with Jr. I got into the pines and it wasn’t long before I saw some deer ahead of me. I got on the radio to say that they were heading towards the guys and to be ready. A shot rang out soon after, and Jr came on the radio saying “deer down”. We only had one buck tag, and one doe tag left, so we needed to know what had just hit the dirt. “Doe down” was the call. So now we needed antlers. Nothing more came out of that drive, but Ryan sure was pumped when I got out to them. Jr. had shot the doe at about 10 yards, and Ryan saw the whole thing. What an awesome experience for a 7 year old boy!
That was the last tag we filled. Friday afternoon we saw some more does and fawns, but no bucks. Not a bad week!!! – Sure shot Dave
Ok , we all know how ‘timing’ plays a huge role in anyone’s deer hunt. We all know the concept of ‘being in the right place at the right time’ and conversely we have experienced the sorrow of ‘being in the right place and then abandoning it right before the big buck arrives’. Its a situation demonstrated here by Otter Burn:
Right place wrong time – by Otter Burn
“First decent Buck I have seen on Camera and/or LIVE… since Oct. 1, 2013…AND I was AT THIS SPOT on 11.28.13 until about 4 pm…..WAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! :o( LOL…but as they say…..”that’s FISHING”!………………
Needless to say, I know now where I will be spending the hours in the cold until I can arrow this puppy or until end of season Dec. 31…..Which ever comes 1st…..
A magnificent animal…worthy of the effort not experienced since ’09 success with the two year quest of “Bouble Brow”….
