Switching gears?

Ranger Rick

Ranger Rick

Member
Anyone else switching gears and headed out to their deer stand this weekend? I see you guys in the south are expecting to get clobbered with heavy white stuff. We're just supposed to be cold. With the mild fall we've been having, I was looking forward to sitting on stand without freezing. Now I'm preparing all my layers and taking the extra steps to stay warm.

Growing up in Burlington, there were no deer. You had to go north to hunt. Now we don't have deer in the north, but for different reasons. I've seen one deer while hunting over the past 6 seasons. Our traditional group is getting smaller. Two old guys who can no longer go and two guys who don't think it's worth it because of the lack of deer. My brothers and I will go, come hell or high water, because it's what we've always done. And you never know, a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, too. Plus, there's beer and sheepshead after the hunt. We'll make memories one way, or another.
 
Ranger Rick said:
Anyone else switching gears and headed out to their deer stand this weekend? I see you guys in the south are expecting to get clobbered with heavy white stuff. We're just supposed to be cold. With the mild fall we've been having, I was looking forward to sitting on stand without freezing. Now I'm preparing all my layers and taking the extra steps to stay warm.

Growing up in Burlington, there were no deer. You had to go north to hunt. Now we don't have deer in the north, but for different reasons. I've seen one deer while hunting over the past 6 seasons. Our traditional group is getting smaller. Two old guys who can no longer go and two guys who don't think it's worth it because of the lack of deer. My brothers and I will go, come hell or high water, because it's what we've always done. And you never know, a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, too. Plus, there's beer and sheepshead after the hunt. We'll make memories one way, or another.
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I'm not headed out but thumbs up on the attitude. I love being stubborn myself. Sometimes tradition is just as important as the results.
 
I last hunted unit 35 in vilas co in 2007. That was the 3rd year in a row without seeing a deer. Enough was enough. Im reading reports from the northwoods that might be even worse. Theres a problem that just isnt being addressed.
 
Both mornings on the weekend were still has heck. Not a breath of wind. I grunted and could hear the echo through the trees. Hoar frost covering the trees. Heard a few shots on Saturday, but only 1 on Sunday. Really, really quiet.

Sunday morning the grouse were driving me crazy. Their wing beats and then hitting the ground coming in to land. Feeding on some hazelnut buds. They'd jump up into the bush, making noise out of the blue, that would startle me.

One problem that wasn't being addressed, but got a start to, was the wolf population. But the liberal judge in Michigan put a stop to that. I hear of folks taking matters into their own hands, but haven't seen any evidence to that personally.

We've had buck only seasons here for a few years now and it's needed to continue. I saw a fawn Sunday afternoon. One brother saw a doe and fawn. A buddy saw another antlerless deer. At least we saw a few deer.

My brother in law hunts between Sayner and Co M. He saw 4 deer opening day and shot a 2-1/2 year old 8 pointer Saturday afternoon. 4 deer was more than he's seen in a long time, too.

Our traditional family hunting grounds are in west of Elcho in Langlade County. [I do a lot of bird hunting there, too.] My dad started hunting there when he got out of the service in the early 50's with a buddy, one of his brothers and my grandpa. Dad and his buddy are no longer able to come with us, but we've continued on with the tradition. The third generation has one nephew who isn't coming this year because of the lack of deer, another who likes video games more than hunting and doesn't come. Two other nephews are attending college in Ohio and can't make it. There are 7 female cousins who don't deer hunt. We hope to get a few of them involved when life allows it for them.

Ten years ago my wife and I built our future retirement home outside of Sayner. I'll be hunting there this Thursday through the weekend. The deer there are all around the homes. Neighbors feed them and I suspect homes provide some safety from the wolves. However, my brother in law watched a wolf kill a fawn in his back yard during a full moon a couple years ago.
 
Spent about 4.5 hours, dawn and dusk together, on opening day. No movement, few shots heard anywhere, and struggled through the 12 in snow. Only saw one track all day. Sunday was more productive as other hunters in this rolling hill farm country started to move the deer around a bit.

Have one yearling doe and a small spike buck in the shed now. Meat deer. Glad the slogging through the snow is over.

Next week, I'll be able to take the puppy out looking for left-over pheasants.
 
Kis - Venison in the freezer is a good thing!

I'll be hunting in Vilas tomorrow through the weekend. Saturday, maybe I'll get Max out for a while after some grouse. Bird shot in the upper barrel, slug in the lower.
 
This is the 2nd year in about 40 that I didn't deer hunt.

Of course this is also the year that my brother from New York City got a 10 pointer, my cousin who never shot anything but a doe got an 8 point and his boy got his first buck a 7 pointer and the neighbor got a monster 16 point...

Makes sense.

But I went out pheasant hunting in IL and we saw triple digit birds today so it's OK by me. Rather work with the dog anyways.

And I am allergic to deer. Didn't used to be but had a terrible reaction so I cannot clean them anymore or get within about 5 feet of the fur. Crazy.
 
AtTheMurph said:
This is the 2nd year in about 40 that I didn't deer hunt.

Of course this is also the year that my brother from New York City got a 10 pointer, my cousin who never shot anything but a doe got an 8 point and his boy got his first buck a 7 pointer and the neighbor got a monster 16 point...

Makes sense.

But I went out pheasant hunting in IL and we saw triple digit birds today so it's OK by me. Rather work with the dog anyways.

And I am allergic to deer. Didn't used to be but had a terrible reaction so I cannot clean them anymore or get within about 5 feet of the fur. Crazy.
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Triple digit pheasant and IL. Leaves me scratching my head. I grew up in IL and it's been a long time since I've seen that. It's great to hear about good things in IL.
 
shorthairs4life said:
Triple digit pheasant and IL. Leaves me scratching my head. I grew up in IL and it's been a long time since I've seen that. It's great to hear about good things in IL.
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They're out there. There's a few areas (here in McHenry County) where I can work the dog for a half hour to an hour and flush 1 to 2 dozen birds easy. Unfortunately the land owners won't let me hunt pheasants on those properties so I shot them with my camera.

As you know, access is a huge issue down here so most pheasant hunters can't get a chance to hit the good cover to flush birds.

That's the nice thing about Wisconsin. Your open/public lands program is very good up there. We need something similar down here.

Nick
 
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1pheas4 said:
They're out there. There's a few areas (here in McHenry County) where I can work the dog for a half hour to an hour and flush 1 to 2 dozen birds easy. Unfortunately the land owners won't let me hunt pheasants on those properties so I shot them with my camera.

As you know, access is a huge issue down here so most pheasant hunters can't get a chance to hit the good cover to flush birds.

That's the nice thing about Wisconsin. Your open/public lands program is very good up there. We need something similar down here.

Nick
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It's been rough on the public this year trying to find wild birds. I've scratched out a few but nothing like it was even 2 years ago here.
 
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I got up there twice a few weeks ago. Found where they were hanging-out but the habitat they were in fit the weather at the time. Things have changed since then so I'm guessing they're in the nasty stuff at this point.
 
1pheas4 said:
I got up there twice a few weeks ago. Found where they were hanging-out but the habitat they were in fit the weather at the time. Things have changed since then so I'm guessing they're in the nasty stuff at this point.
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I've been good at finding the hens, but found few roosters this year.
 
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