[Alaska at heart]

Nice bucks, fellas! It was 28* this morning and calm....picture perfect late October morning. I saw a pair of antlerless early in gray light.....then four more about 40 minutes later.....then 5 more around 9am. I brough the rattle bag and gave it a few rounds, as where I was set up on the ground is nearby to a fresh rub line and a couple scrapes about 200 yards away. No buck activity and all the does were well out of range, but it kept me occupied. My layering was perfect.....not cold a bit....and I really appreciate those little pocket handwarmers for my release hand. Heading out shortly with the climber to another section of the same area to hopefully get that buck doing some cruising. It is getting towards Prime Time folks!!!

 

[V3x]

Buck activity has really picked up in the last couple of days. My son was out last night and saw 7 different bucks including 1 shooter and another that was a borderline shooter.
The next 2 weeks is absolutely the best time of the entire year.👍

 

[RLT1]

Going tomorrow,
Kalamazoo area, just a tad north of downtown.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[RB442MIKE]

Got this one yesterday night just outside of Perry. Started seeing scrapes last weekend. He should make me a lot of steak tacos.

 

[Alaska at heart]

Got this one yesterday night just outside of Perry. Started seeing scrapes last weekend. He should make me a lot of steak tacos. View attachment 7726934

Good job! I see you are shooting a similar bow....the Elite Ritual 35. What draw weight and setup for accessories are you shooting? You should post this over the the Elite bow sub-forum where I have a similar thread for Elite bow shooters, as well. I'm still waiting on a buck to get archery close......

 

[wrxified]

Well I got on the board Saturday. Think this is the smallest 8 pt I've taken. All of the tanks on our land seemed to have mysteriously vanished.

 

[RB442MIKE]

Congratulations, it’s easier to wait for the monster when there’s one in the freezer.

 

[normd]

Western UP first time bow hunt success.

 

[wrxified]

Congratulations, it’s easier to wait for the monster when there’s one in the freezer.

So true.

 

[Alaska at heart]

Congrats on your deer, guys! I've been seeing some deer.....and turkeys.....but all from a distance. All my trail cam activity has shifted to nighttime.....nothing during the day the past week to ten days.

 

[Telerado]

This is the best buck on camera so far. I’ll probably let him slide. I’ve been babysitting my natural funnel. This weather is unreal. I’m usually struggling to stay warm and now I’m trying not to sweat walking out. The swamp that acted as a pinch point is all dried up. Warm winds out of the south this week which were a rarity in years past. Shaping up to be a weird one. I might go stomp some public tomorrow. Feels like it’s going to take some luck this year. I’m off through the 15th. Definitely going to try.

 

[computerfixusa]

Congrats guys. I haven’t been so lucky here yet. See a lot. Just not going right for shot yet. West Michigan area

 

[Smada962]

Been tough for me in Van Buren County, but I’ve been expecting that. Long story short, I have a large amount of private land that used to be my dads family’s farm land. It’s a large amount of acreage (340ish) my dad and I hunt, but with very limited stand opportunities. It's mostly open ag fields with some fencerows, and then one 60acre woodlot. It also does not have the cover to hold many deer, especially not the mature ones, but the general area around us is very good. Our crops are on an every other year cycle. One year everything is beans, one year it’s corn. On the bean years there is no security cover and hunting is tough unless you're willing to shoot young ones. On the corn years the corn becomes our security cover and we’re able to pull some of the bigger local bucks off neighboring properties. This year is a bean year and the bigger bucks have been MIA other than some nighttime pics as they just travel through, then are back on the neighbors by daylight. I’m super fortunate to have the private land at all, but it can be very tough relying on them traveling though, and then on top of that we don’t have any distinct funnels or travel corridors, so it’s truly random.

I did pass on a couple 1yr old bucks over the last week including a solid little 8pt yesterday morning. I also have taken out two coyotes and filled my fall Turkey tag so it hasn’t all been bad! I also have 11/4-11/17 off work so my time to really hit it hard is coming.

 

[RB442MIKE]

Weather is crazy but I have seen a lot of movement. Saw the biggest buck yet this year last night but I changed my mind on where to sit. He went by the stand I was gonna sit in, about 20 yards broadside, but that’s what makes it fun (and frustrating). I have not heard much grunting yet. The best is yet to come, hopefully before gun season.

 

[Telerado]

I missed one clean this morning. Pretty nice but not P&Y. He was 35 yards away and he didn’t seem that far when I shot. He worked a scrape and made his way in. He was on high alert and stopped to look back where he came from. I should have been patient and let him come all the way in. Glad I didn’t wound him.

 

[NovemberWhitetailz]

Planning my first trip back to my property since the 15th. With the weather i'm just going to tuck tight to bedding and hunt until about 11 am and bust out when the wind and rain show up. Probably check a couple cameras and try to figure out where these bucks are hanging. Most of my cell cams are showing night time movement but I have a 8 cameras on a cuddielink and a couple brownings that haven't been checked in 3 weeks. Sunday is probably all day in a known bedding area.

 

[elncalls]

First public land buck on camera this year so far. Right behind a doe. Hopefully shooting hours movement will begin. Wish the 70 degree days would stop!

 

[Smada962]

For being an off year for my land with the crop rotation as I described earlier, I’m quite happy to fill my first tag. Passed 3 different one year olds then this buck came out and made a big scrape just before dark. Got him to stop at 40 and put an absolutely perfect shot on him. Out of 60-70 bow kills I’ve had that’s my longest shot I’ve ever even attempted, although I practice all year long at longer ranges so I’ve always felt confident if I needed to. Not the biggest rack but dressed out at 198lbs!

 

[Alaska at heart]

Bruiser body on that one.....good shot at 40!

I very much agree that the weather is very odd. This morning I was out early and ended up seeing 17 antlerless......all at a distance across a big alfalfa field. I was hunting on the ground inside the brushline of the field near a good rub line, figuring that many does would get any local buck interested. However zero antlers seen and I got rained out this afternoon. It was a busy week with our daughter and family visiting from Florida, but they left this morning and next week I hope to really hammer it hard. Most of my trail cam photos are at night or dusk/dawn with this weather pattern and windy conditions.

 

[Telerado]

Monday and Tuesday morning are what we’ve been waiting for. Get out if you can.