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Phil's Adventures 2015 2016

hickslawns

hickslawns

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Ohio
Didn't think I would get out. Garrett had a soccer tournament. Made it to the championship game. Tied 1-1 at end of regulation. Tied 1-1 at end of 2 over time periods. Went to a shoot out. They won in round 7. Then we had the award ceremony. Long story short, I am a proud dad tonight and still was settled in by 5pm. Later than I like but better than nothing.

5min After I am settled in a guy on neighboring property starts rattling. Half hour later does it again. Ugh. Eventually had a solo button buck come thru. Short while later a year old buck comes thru. Short while later the button buck was hustling back the way he came in with the young buck following him pushing him. Young buck was either thoroughly confused or maybe just an Obama supporter. Not sure.

uploadfromtaptalk1445818865964.jpg

Hours hunted: 2.25
Deer seen: 2 deer
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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Before I did any hunting tonight, I took 2 arrows to the target. First shot at 40yds. Second shot at 30yds. I was happy with both, so showered, smoked up, and hit the woods.

Felt good to get back in a tree tonight. I set a new stand two days ago in the rain. Saw some rubs but nothing crazy. Surprised I didn't see any scrapes along there. Tonight was the first sit in this set. I rattled around 430 and had a year and a half old buck come in bristled up. Kinda funny until the little turd wouldn't leave. He was curious as could be. Had to be the smoke. He never buggered out, just kept throwing his nose in the air. Finally wandered off. Not before he was directly under me sniffing my tree though.

Year and half old buck. 120-125" point went thru at 35-40yds. Saw two does in last hour. They presented shots at 35yds. Saw the silhouette of a big bodied mature deer as I was putting stuff away. It was 100-150yds off. Not a bad 3.5hrs. I'll take it.

Going to try it again in the morning.

Hours hunted: 3.5
Deer seen: 5

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 36
Deer Seen: 40
 
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hickslawns

hickslawns

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Supporting Member
40,355
288
Ohio
Didn't feel it tonight but headed out anyway because. . . .It IS Nov 1st! Walked in as quiet as possible. Houdini couldn't have snuck into that tree any smoother. Saw some very impressive rubs on the way in but no scrapes. One rub was a pair of saplings about 2 feet apart tore up evenly. I'd like to think it was done at the same time, but they could have been tore up individually. Climbed up and it was pretty windy. Couldn't even hear the squirrels moving but could see them on the ground. Winds died down closer to dark. 430, 500, and 530 I did rattling sequences. Property owner told me he bumped up a big bodied deer while walking thru there yesterday. Never saw antlers, but it was a single deer and he said it was huge. I was hoping it was the deer I have in my mind which made the rubs and I have pictures of 2yrs ago on this property. I also have pictures of him a mile or so away this year. Never saw a buck tonight. Saw 5 turkeys. Saw squirrels up close. They were eyeballing me from about 3-4 feet away. At last light I finally heard some deer moving. Nice sized doe with a set of button buck fawns. She gave me a nice shot at 20yds, but I was waiting to see if anything was following them. Nope. Just the three of them.

Hours hunted: 2.5
Deer seen: 3

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 38.5
Deer Seen: 43
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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Ohio
Set up early. Waited for daybreak. Hit the rattling antlers at 7am since I had seen nothing. 722am I had a buck come in and hit a licking branch on his rear quarters, then continue my way. Had a cool looking rack. Wanted a mature buck (4 or older). Knew he was 3, but decided to kill him anyway. The end.

I did end up seeing two other bucks later and a pair of does.

Hours on stand: 3
Deer seen: 5

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 41.5
Deer Seen: 48
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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Ohio
Made it out again tonight with Garrett. Between work, him getting off the bus at 3pm, and the fact we had to sight in his cross bow, we got in late. 430pm-6pm. Never saw a deer. Rattled a couple times blindly. Nothing. Beautiful evening to be out.

Hours on stand: 1.5
Deer seen: 0

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 43
Deer Seen: 48
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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40,355
288
Ohio
Last weekend we hunted Sunday morning. Saw 5 deer. Hunted a couple hours roughly.

Friday morning: Hunted 2.5hrs. Saw one pretty decent buck 75-100yds away just before legal light. Waited for legal light and tried to rattle him back in. No dice. Didn't see another deer. Hunted 2hrs. While putting his coveralls on, Garrett did manage to knock one of his boots off the buddy stand. I got a kick out of that. He was apologetic. Said sorry several times and I looked at him and said "Do I look upset?" He was like, "No but I feel bad." I laughed and said "1. It was an accident. And 2. I've done it myself before." lmao

Tonight: The youngster was on the fence whether to hunt or not tonight. Finally decided to go. Got in about 415. Mounted another blind to the shooting rail of our other buddy stand. By the time we were all situated it was about 430. Garrett and I had a pair of young bucks with a doe. One buck wandered off. I figured he had his butt kicked earlier and was conceding. The doe disappeared from sight but the other buck milled around. I think the doe bedded. Then the buck started walking back the way he came and the doe got up. She wandered around with her tail up but never more than 50yds from where we last saw her. We tried some grunting with the True Talker. I used a younger sounding buck grunt. Not the deepest grunt it can offer. I know they heard me because the woods were dead silent. One time the buck stopped and looked around but never turned our direction. Would have loved to have seen Garrett get a crack at one of them.

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 49.5
Deer Seen: 57
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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Ohio
Here is video one of two of the buck Garrett and I saw tonight. So close. . . yet so far.

[video]https://youtu.be/u5wV4VH2s4k[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/t3sHAqkB1yQ[/video]

We got in at 415pm. Rattled around 445pm. By 515pm we heard several animals moving towards us quickly. We had a big nanny doe stop within 40yds. She took about 10min of head bobbing, stomping, and staring us down before she calmed down. Then she had a fawn join her. We were pinned down because they were now within 30yds but we heard more deer to our right. We finally got a chance to look that way and found a hot doe with an old buck and a little buck. We had 6 deer within 60-70yds at the most and we were frozen. Finally the Momma with her fawns left and we could concentrate on the bucks with the hot doe. At this point I tried grunting with no luck. I threw out a snort wheeze with no luck. The little buck would get close to the big buck and hot doe and the big boy would posture and run him off. Big boy and the doe were moving away from us. I kept hoping the big boy would chase the little buck towards us and offer a shot but it didn't happen. Eventually the little guy was heading our way and Garrett said he wanted to shoot it. He was ready. Safety was off, he was looking through the scope in the opening, and the little guy entered our shooting lane. I tried to stop him but he wouldn't stop. Garrett was bummed. I was hoping the doe would bring the big boy our way. Once the little guy was 50yds to our left and big boy was 60-70yds to our right, I threw a snort wheeze his way. He stopped and looked but turned and kept walking. I threw out another followed by a long, low grunt. He had bootie on his mind.

Finally, the doe made her way in our direction. We had them within 20yds. It was simply too dark. I wouldn't let Garrett shoot. I don't know how much light that scope will gather, but I wasn't comfortable taking the chance. Quite frankly, if there was a question about it, it was probably past legal light anyway. I just wasn't looking at the clock. We couldn't move much and I wasn't pulling my phone out to see.

Hours on stand: 1.5hrs (not including the 30-45min we sat and waited for the deer to move out)
Deer seen: 6

Season totals:
Hours hunted: 51
Deer seen: 63
 
hickslawns

hickslawns

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40,355
288
Ohio
Here is a video of the same buck I filmed from the stand in 2013. I honestly think he is on his way down. He wasn't huge in 2012. The video is 2013. I will add a couple more pics I have from 2012.


[video]https://youtu.be/Ljg6uxP_TZg[/video]

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