The Bow stand Log thread.

[Archerysniper]

Thankyou splake

[bigbucks]

I decided to hunt what we call the sand field stand at a friend's on Monday night. It was a strong NW wind, but over the years we've identified the deer come out there almost like clock work in those conditions as it's protected by a big hill & heavy woods.

I got settled into the stand just before 5:30. I knew it was going to be a good night as there were 10 turkeys, hens & young ones, including the white hen we've seen many times, just North of the gates out in the hayfield. I rounded the corner of the hill & the 7 gobblers my friend's been seeing were up on the sandfield, near the stand. The turkeys all ran off when they saw me walking down the field road. I was getting settled when I noticed a fox bedding down out in the field 50-60 yards downwind of me. Not sure if he was there & just stood up for a bit or if he trotted in while I was messing around. I could just barely make out part of his back line while he lay in the dried down alfalfa. Eventually at least some of the gobblers reappeared, one was as close as 15 yards right in a large scrape to the North of the stand. The licking branch is all ripped up there, like it's a buck with serious attitude for this early in the season. They eventually spooked & ran off, as did the fox. I'm not sure if they saw me or him.

I had my bow hanging up & told myself I was going to hold it from 6:45 on, but at 6:40 I just had this feeling I better not wait, so I grabbed it. Amazingly for once at 6:43 there was suddenly a fawn in the field to the South of me coming towards me at 35-40 yards. I could see it was a button buck. Pretty soon the doe followed & exactly like the one I shot out of that stand last year, she & the fawn looped around in front of me kind of going NE in that 35-40 yard range. Too windy for that shot, plus I figured I might get a better one. They were perfectly down wind, so either I did great with my scent control, or the wind was carrying it over them as they were down hill. With evening thermals going down hill that doesn't totally make sense though, but they are farm deer used to smelling people. She got to about 40 yards in front of me somewhat left, facing left, exactly where I whistled one by in front of the does neck last year & I said to myself, nope, not taking that shot again. Shortly another doe & a fawn appeared from the North about 40 yards to my left. They all milled around together, they were both young does, yearlings or two year-olds at the most. The first one was a bit bigger & more gray, the second one had kind of distinct markings on it's face, can't say how, just a little different shape to her head or the mix with white & brown. She was very aggressive towards the other doe. I decided I'd prefer to shoot the first one, but both were acceptable sized deer, so would take whichever gave me a good shot. (management area) They milled around in that 40-50 yard range for probably 10 minutes. Then the aggressive one kind of chased at one of the fawns, before trotting over to stand in the scrape which I'd ranged at 16 yards. She's steeply quartering towards me, so no shot. Then she & her fawn come to the stand & are sniffing one of the trunks at the base of the ladder, they're twice as far down as they are away, maybe three times, they're right there. I draw on her through an opening in between the trunks of this basswood clump the stand's in, there are 14 trunks, I counted them, pretty solid cover... She's almost straight down & quartering towards, so I'm just waiting for her to turn. She finally does turn broadside after I'd say close to a minute & walks in front of the stand, but she's so close, 3-4 yards, that the leaves that stick up maybe 2' above my stand platform are blocking her. I can just get a glimpse of brown here & there. If I were standing I'd probably be fine, but I didn't dare do that with them walking right towards me. Now the original doe is pointed right at the stand at about 20 yards. Her fawn is over by the scrape somewhere. Then that doe turns & walks to my left & stops, now looking away at a pretty steep quarter about 25 yards. She can't seem me, the other doe & fawn can't see me. I peak at the fawn by the scrape, it's not looking towards me, so I swing onto the bigger doe, while still sitting, & let it fly. I've been drawn for probably a minute to a minute & a half. I'm not shaking yet, but I was considering letting down & was checking to see if I could get away with it when she presented the shot.

I heard the smack as the arrow hit the deer, it wasn't horribly loud, but obvious I hit the deer. I didn't see the arrow hit her or where it entered. I knew it must have either passed through or hit a leg, as it wasn't sticking out of her. She bolted quickly, but not like that all out as fast as they can go death run. She went right up the NW angled trail about 30 yards & disappeared over the hill top, I heard something that could have been her hitting the fence, but it wasn't loud enough for me to be sure. Her fawn followed to the top & stopped. The other doe & fawn have now swapped ends & cleared so they're wide open broadside at 5-6 yards. Obviously I don't have another arrow nocked yet, but I'm not going to shoot a second doe in a Management Area anyway. They stand there for a few seconds, then bolt up the same trail to the top of this hill & stop for a second before proceeding over it. None of the deer had a clue I was there or what happened. I'm pretty sure I drilled her, but not a 100% positive. So I nock another arrow & sit for 2-3 minutes replaying things. I shot at exactly 7:00, so there's about a half hour of primetime left. I needed to know if I drilled her or nicked her or what. I was pretty sure I could see my arrow stuck in the ground, but not positive. I decided to get down & check quick, which of course is right when I'm getting the shakes a bit, but nothing to severe.

The arrow was buried 3-4"s into the dirt & had more blood on it then probably any arrow I've ever shot & it was bright red. I quickly found some blood & stepped over 5 yards to the trail she took & verified there was some blood going up it, although not spraying as well as my WI doe had. I decided to climb back up & wait for dark.

I thought well if she's dead the other doe & the two fawns will probably come back in about 10 minutes, as I've had that happen to me at least three times when shooting does somewhat early primetime on hayfields. Maybe around 7:15 an adult deer appears on the trail to the North where the second doe had come from, I think aah hah, she's down. Then it steps out & I see the antlers, okay it's not that doe, it's a small yearling buck, never could tell if it was a forky or a little 6. His "rack" is 5-6"s high & no more than that wide, he's really little. He feeds out into that same 40-50 yard area for 10-15 minutes & then another deer appears where he came from, so the light's starting to get pretty low. I think that's probably the doe as it walks up to the buck. They nose around friendly like & then I see them head to head & hear the clicking, nope it's another little buck, but I can't see his horns, too dark. He eventually walks right under my stand to 5 yards where the second doe had been then wanders over & I think found the blood trail. By this time I can hear at least one deer behind me in the woods & it's dark & I want to get out of there. I wanted to know what his "rack" was like so I grabbed my digital to snap a picture of him, only to find out the battery was dead. So I grabbed a fair sized branch behind me, snapped it off, they bolted, & I got down to go to the truck for flashlights, help, etc.

My buddy came back with me in the truck. We chased at least two deer back off the field in the headlights as we drove up to the point of the shot. We followed a moderate blood trail up over the hill & then West to the fence. We struggled a bit, but gradually followed it across & down slope a ways until I saw a glassy eye up ahead in the flashlight & she was laying there. I found out her quartering angle was a bit steeper then I thought. I hit her just below the back bone at least half way back & it came out just below middle right behind the off shoulder, pretty perfect really. I got one lung, probably got either the liver or diaphram too, but didn't check that. She's a yearling or a two year-old, my scale showed her at a 100 pounds, it seems to way a little light, we were guessing her at 110-115. Just a nice eating sized doe that should be quite tender.

Now time for more wood cutting, ducks, walleyes, & hopefully a dandy buck.

[archerystud]

I hope to finally put my broadheads on this weekend and get out in the woods. I've been spending far too much time traveling for work. Hopefully I can post to the bow stand log forum soon.

At this point I'm not even going to hunt a couple of my best stands until late Oct.

[WaitForIt]

I've been out a few times and finding the activity pretty sparse so far. Time to switch spots - public land gets hammered so hard.

[alwaysonthemove]

I hope to finally put my broadheads on this weekend and get out in the woods. I've been spending far too much time traveling for work. Hopefully I can post to the bow stand log forum soon.

At this point I'm not even going to hunt a couple of my best stands until late Oct.

Either I wish I had your job or your patience.

you are kinda right on waiting till late oct. to hunt. but my self I can't wait it is like tellin a kid in a candy store to wait cause the fresh shipment comes in two weeks.

[tracker x-2]

Last night was a cool wet night in the stand. Notihng happing in the woods I actually seen more deer on the gravel road on the drive home. Hopefully I'll have a little better luck with some ducks this morning.

[archerystud]

Either I wish I had your job or your patience.

Well my work trips were not my choice so I wouldn't call that patience. I would have rather been bow hunting the opening two weekends but with the economy I'm grateful to have a job. I coach youth hockey so of course that is now getting in full swing.

So I'll coach hockey for a couple weekends and then I'll hit my stands pretty hard. At least I have quite a bit of vacation built up to burn the first week of Nov.

However, in 2007 my first bow hunt was on Oct 12th and I did get a buck with an 18.5 inch inside spread that dressed out at 184. So I do think there is something to staying out of the woods early on.

[Code-Man]

Friday I decided I would work a friday for a half day which would be a gold star for me on a friday. I just had a feeling I would see something. so at noon I took off got some stuff done at home headed north to get to my deer stand. Decided I would sit in my stand where I shot my big one last year. Wind was not perfect but figured I'd have a shot before they winded me. Strong 15 mph nw wind. Set up kept an eye to my west south and east. I'm only 50 yds off of a min road. about 5 I hear something when the wind died down North of me. I turn and there is an 8 point Chocolate rack buck sitting on the other side of the creek. I got my bow and got ready. It was standing at the trail I came down. FIgured I didn't have much time so I put up my range finder which i bought the night before 22.6 yds. OK!!!! Draw back with my Easton Axis ST and my new Rage 3 blade expandables. Picked right behind the shoulder let my arrow fly. As he ran up the hill I could see I hit perfect up down just I hit the shoulder blade. I am partially color blind so I texted my cousin and he called me telling me to get out of the woods and he'd be there an hour later to meet me. Told him how the deer ran off and he sounded excited. Got out of the woods felt greatly confident well now's when the story goes down hill or I should say up and down hills and across the river (3 times). We found instant blood and nice blood. Folowed it for a ways and he went about .3 miles before going back into the woods. We followed him up this hill down that hill across that river and this one. We followed him for 1.5 miles. Well we went tracking at 7 and at 11:30 pm we lost blood. Blood was hit and miss but we marked where the last blood was and decided we'd wait for daylight. Got out at 8 am the next day and we found one drop of blood after last blood (3 feet) and ya that was the highlight.

Don't know what happened to him. He either tried crossing the river and died in the process and sank which we don't think. Or he clotted up and will be found during rifle season when people start driving the woods. Even though we walked the whole property and didn't find him laying. Or he is clotted up and just fine. I hope it's the last one. I have never seen a chocolate rack before in my life and thought it was awesome to see and hopefully He is ok but just feels nasty. I've never lost a deer before and this feeling sucks!!!!!!!! So last night I got drunk to forget but it didn't work...

Today I went and bought new muzzy's to try out. I had them last year and thought Rage would be better for the tracking but I guessed wrong.

[archerystud]

Bummer Code man. About 5 years ago a friend of mine shot one with the gun while hunting next to the river. She jumped in and made it half way across and then he watched her sink.

[riverrat63]

cm, you might have hit him in no mans land it the spot right between the spine and lungs i shoot a doe a couple of years in that spot every thing looket good but never found the deer till gun hunting by brother shoot it and we looket at it had the arrow hole in her it was heeling up but u could still see it, dont worry keep your head up every budy makes mistakes no one is perfiect.

[Ray1]

To the best of my knowledge deer will not sink. Deer have hollow hair follicles which keep them boyant while swimming. I would look up and down the river and look very carefully because most of the time they look like a log floating.

[Jameson]

A few hours in a a stand tonight. No deer sighted. 3 wood ducks, 2 feral cats, and a bunch of pheasants though.

[walleyeking19]

I spent a few hours out tonight and saturday night. Saturday was pretty slow. I had 1 doe come into range and 4 more way out in a field. tonight i had a doe sneak up on me. i didn't hear her come behing me till she was at about 20 yards. both nights were incredibly slow. Hopefully it starts to pick up soon.

[tracker x-2]

I decided to try a new stand tonight and it showed me some deer. I saw three does and a nice buck ,but it was getting to dark and had to pack up with out getting a good look at him. Maybe next weekend between the ducks and roosters ill get another chance.

[mudslinger64]

hunted all afternoon and all i saw was a mink that went in front of me going to the pond from the lake....

[brassman]

Sat for the first time this year and it felt great even though the wind was cold, only 41 degrees. I set up on a new logged off area doing some reconnaissance for rifle season since the majority of the shots are out to 250 yards. I am not accustomed to looking that far, 99% of our stands are 50 yard and shorter shots. I did not see a deer but that was just fine by me, just glad to be out. I did have a couple wolves howl right before dark about a mile away then I might have had a lone wolf about 300 yards north of me I was paying attention to the ones west of me, maybe thats why I didn't see anything. on the 30 mile trip back home I only saw 2 deer and thats a very low number for me, not much moving right now.

[USPENAMC]

Went out this morning to vermillions higlands, Seeing a lot of sign like I have said before but no deer in sight. I did try doing some turkey calls (newby practicing) and called in 6 turkeys.

[delmuts]

I had deer die while crossing a stream/river. It was found down stream against the bank.

[chuckwagon]

Went out this morning to vermillions higlands, Seeing a lot of sign like I have said before but no deer in sight. I did try doing some turkey calls (newby practicing) and called in 6 turkeys.

Where is this?

[USPENAMC]

CHUCKWAGON,

This area is located in rosemount I was drawn for a special deer hunt on the vermillion higlands Research until oct 31st. There is the regular vermillion wma right near it but have to be carefull they are adjacent to each other but the Highlands research is posted with red no hunting signs.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I've shot a deer near a lake, it fell in the water and sunk to the bottom, good thing it was only like 4 feet deep, but yeah it sunk like a rock.

[sticknstring]

Shoulder blade shots are tough. From the details you provided, I'd bet that buck is on his feet and other than being educated, is no worse off than he was before. Stay after him and maybe you'll get another crack before the riflemen do.

[rbs]

Went out in the light rain on friday. Had always heard that it was a good time to go out so figured what the heck. Walking out to my stand I noticed tons of fresh deer tracks so I nocked a arrow and slowly sneaked thru the edge of the field. I guess I was not sneaky enough and got busted by 2 bucks and a doe as I rounded the corner. Oh well I said to myself and climbed into my stand anyways.

Sat for a hour or so with nothing but a bunch of woodies down below me in the creek making noise. I caught movement where the 3 deer went in the woods and a doe and two fawns walk into the field. They came in down wind from me and didn't act as if they smelled anything so the scent away must have been good. Let them pass and took a few pics of them.

about 10 mins later another deer came out in the same spot and took a half a second to figure out that it was a buck by his body size. grabbed for the binocs and by this time he was walking along the field edge at me. When I got the chance to see how big he was I put the binocs down and grabbed my bow. He walked really slow and came thru a shooting lane that I had opened up last year at 20yds. I did not draw back because there was some twigs in the way so I had to wait for him to come another 10'. slowly he walked towards my very open shooting lane. At 5' from a arrow streaking thru his side he caught my scent and bolted. I hung my bow up and sat down and was swearing to myself at why I did not re-open that shooting lane. Stinks when you have a huge buck that close and can't take the shot. Oh well...lol

Sun night I was in the same stand. Was slow right away and then it was like mayhem. I had a doe and fawn come out first and they walked right into the shooting lane that I had just opened up after not getting the shot on the buck a couple nights before. So close I was worried that they would bust me breathing...lol. Then they walked back out front and then 2 does come in from the west. Then 2 fawns, then another doe. By the time it was all done I had 6 does and 5 fawns all in front of me within 30 yds. Had to wait until pitch black to get out of my stand to not have them bust me. Wow what a night!

[mudslinger64]

sat all afternoon again and saw nothing until i was driving out to the highway,then i saw 4 deer on the road by a powerline about 1/2 mile from my stand.this is about the 3rd time this has happened,so tomorrow i am going to look around that area a little and see if i can find a good spot to hang another stand.

[Archerysniper]

Went out tonight passed a doe and fawn and got soaked.

[sparkyaber]

Sat in a ground blind last night and saw nothing but gray clouds, rain, and wet trees. Still better then sitting in the house. Got back home just after kick off.

[bigbucks]

Hunted at one property Saturday night with a friend. Found a few scrapes that were dry on a day when it had rained off & on until around 2:00. Didn't see any deer.

Hunted another place Sunday with my cousin after the Twins game that I'd setup before the game. Saw two small bucks, as well as a doe & two small fawns. Could have shot one of the fawns, everything else was out of range. Found more scrapes & quite a few small rubs there, but all on finger sized saplings.

[rbs]

It was windy last night (4pm) when I got to my stand so I opted to go back to the truck and get my ground blind and set it up on the edge of the corn. No more then did I get it put up that I look out and there is a fawn looking at me from 40yds out.

At right about 6:45 I noticed a fawn was feeding at about the same spot the other fawn was earlier. Then came 3 decent sized does out. They were not impressed by my blind at all. They still walked closer to 20yds but they kept looking up at it. I guess maybe I will just stand in the corn next time instead of trying to use the blind. When they came out the wind had gone down some and then I was wishing I was in my stand...figures.

[walleyeking19]

rbs, how big was that buck that got away???

[rbs]

d*mn big...d*mn big! Wide with a lot of stuff going all over...definite non-typical. I will show you a pic as soon as I get that arrow thru him