# 2013 Whitetail Bow Season... Git Sum!



## panFried

I love opening day, the excitement, the outdoors, and getting away from it all. I posted this topic to see who's ready to git sum and to hear about your 2013 experience.

Myself, ill be hunting SE Missouri and various managed hunts outside the St Louis area. I participate in the MO conservations bow hunters wildlife survey and last year I spotted several red tail hawk kills, fox and bobcats. I have yet to harvest a deer via bow on my farm, but I have let too many pass. Freezer is low and I have a craving for some summer sausage. 

I have 3 150+ class bucks running together but I assume they'll be going nocturnal the closer I get to new moon in October. So the time is now  Sunday will be sunny and 43 low. CAN'T WAIT!!!


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## baseball_guy_99

My wife and I just moved to MO from Illinois. 

Our Illinois season does not open up until Oct. 1st. I'll have to wait until then unless I can find a place to hunt here in MO.


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## lovedr79

our urban archery started two weeks ago. i will be hanging my stand tomorrow! and hunting it for a few hours. i cant wait!


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## fool4fish1226

I put a few hours in last Saturday and will again this coming Saturday morning.


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## Loggerhead Mike

We are one week in just to hot in the afternoons for me to get motivated yet.

Id crap my pants if a 150s buck walked under me


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## panFried

fool4fish1226 said:


> I put a few hours in last Saturday and will again this coming Saturday morning.


Likewise... I put in a few hours on Opening day, but didn't see much with heavy brush. Also could have been the fact, the wife, kids and dogs were goofing around the farm as loud as possible. Going out again sat/sun without them  !


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## JMichael

We've just got too much going against us. The season doesn't open until the 28th, brush is still super thick, temps are still running in the 90+ with not much relief in the foreseeable future. The massive number of mosquitoes we raise yearly will still be dracula mode until the first frost. I had my thermocell out in the carport a few days ago, and even it was being overwhelmed by them. I've got my fingers crossed that we'll start getting some morning temps at least down to the high 50's before long though.


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## fool4fish1226

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=329641#p329641 said:


> JMichael » Yesterday, 19:26[/url]"]We've just got too much going against us. The season doesn't open until the 28th, brush is still super thick, temps are still running in the 90+ with not much relief in the foreseeable future. The massive number of mosquitoes we raise yearly will still be dracula mode until the first frost. I had my thermocell out in the carport a few days ago, and even it was being overwhelmed by them. I've got my fingers crossed that we'll start getting some morning temps at least down to the high 50's before long though.




Sounds like a typical season for us south florida boys HOT and BUGGY :beer:


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## thudpucker

I always hunted on the Ground. Washington state and Alaska.
I miss it more than I can say. It's good to see you younguns out there like I did so many years ago.

I got stories~~~ :LOL2:


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## panFried

thudpucker said:


> I always hunted on the Ground. Washington state and Alaska.
> I miss it more than I can say. It's good to see you younguns out there like I did so many years ago.
> 
> I got stories~~~ :LOL2:


I bet! That's my favorite part about the hunt, the stories!


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## thudpucker

..there was the time a Black Bear Sow shot over to my tree and right up to my stand in less than 10 seconds.
You just had to be there.... :LOL2:


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## panFried

thudpucker said:


> ..there was the time a Black Bear Sow shot over to my tree and right up to my stand in less than 10 seconds.
> You just had to be there.... :LOL2:


Im glad I wasn't cuz I'd be changing my shorts.


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## thudpucker

Yes! Some time after the Bear left, when it was safe to make that kind of a move.


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## JMichael

That's one of the reasons I prefer hunting from my climbing stand. I was ground hunting one morning when I thought I heard a hog rooting around in a cane thicket about 20 yards in front of me. A few minutes later I found myself face to face with a decent sized black bear at about 15 yards. I sat there for what seemed like forever, as the 2 of us were frozen in place, just starring at each other. The bear finally broke and ran for the cane thicket and I decided it was time to go back to camp. I've had several occasions where a mother and cubs or a single bear will walk under me while I'm in my tree stand, but that doesn't have the same impact as one of those face to face meetings at close range. LoL


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## thudpucker

When that Bear is stopped and staring, even if it's standing upright, that's the time to raise that Bow over head, jump up n' down and make a loud noise. Let the Bear know he might be staring at something very large. :LOL2: 

That does not work over a Bear Kill or in the Mating season though. :roll: 

I'll put my Bear Stand story in here somewhere.


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## panFried

So I go out last night and I see a nice buck coming in with a few deer across the field. You get all amped up and for no reason they mill around and walk back in the woods. What the....

I hate when that happens!


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## thudpucker

You have to learn the "Pissed off" call for those Deer.

Long ago I had one out of range. I was sitting on a small stump, behind a larger stump. The Buck couldn't see me, but I'm sure he knew I was there.
Lordy he was suspicious!
Back and forth, head up and head down, take a step and look my way. A step at a time though, he was coming my way.

Finally I made the 'baby Deer' bleat.
He stopped, stood upright and really gave me the 'look'. I froze and watched it all happen. I couldn't move or he'd be gone.

When he turned away again, I made the "cough" and he whirled, took a few steps (stomps) toward me and Blew! Now he's only 30 yards or so.

I think he knew I wasn't a Deer of any kind, but he was gonna let Bambi know there was an ugly smelling interloper in the neighborhood.
He began to turn away and take those few trotting steps. I was sure he was headed off for other Timber.

Finally, while that last ditch opportunity was happening, I got that string back to full draw, still down behind that stump.
I knew it had to happen quick.
I fastened my eye on his Heart/Lung area, and as soon as he turned his head I stood up and took my shot.
Went right under that Target and hit a burned out stump with one heckuva "KNOCK" and he was plumb gone before the Arrow stopped quivering.

I got my Arrow back, still straight, but that Broad head is still in that stump.
I'll bet Bambi snorts every time he passes that stump too.


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## MrSimon

Archery season for Doe opened in mid September where I'm at in southern PA, and archery buck just opened last Saturday.

I got a mid size doe the other day in my back yard while still wearing my dress shoes and pants ..... I was eating dinner with the family when 4 nice deer walked out of the woods and started milling around in the yard. I grabbed my bow and snuck as close as I could .... I shouldn't have, but I took a 50 yard shot. Hit her in the spine and she dropped right down. Talk about an easy hunt & recovery. Good meat in the freezer, that's for sure.

I'd like to get one more doe for the freezer here in the next couple days, then let things sit until the rut and try for a nice buck. I've never gotten a buck and I'm sure hoping this is the year.


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## Lowe 2070 CC

Boy brought this one in yesterday to show my neighbor in the office next door, he's a B&C/P&Y official scorer. It grossed green 171 and change (even with the kicker broken off the right side), won't net all that well, but nice deer none the less.


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## thudpucker

That Boy will never forget that hunt. Lot's photos for him. 
He can write the story up for his buddies.
It's a nice try at getting young boys to read! :LOL2:


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## JMichael

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=331632#p331632 said:


> Lowe 2070 CC » Yesterday, 14:50[/url]"]Boy brought this one in yesterday to show my neighbor in the office next door, he's a B&C/P&Y official scorer. It grossed green 171 and change (even with the kicker broken off the right side), won't net all that well, but nice deer none the less.


Nice looking deer, any idea on it's weight? I've got a cousin that lives and hunts in Mississippi but had no idea what the deer were like there. Because of their bag limits, I had always assumed the deer were way overpopulated and probably small because of that. I see now I was mistaken. LoL


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## Lowe 2070 CC

He was about 175, pretty light for the delta, but about on par for a hill deer. Mature bucks in the delta average 200+ lbs.


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## thudpucker

Lordy what marvelous Deer. 
Those Kids will be hooked for life.
My Grand Girls were raised on wild Game. They sitll encourage there SO's to get out and bring back something we can eat! 
Not to be outdone by a couple of great Kids shots, here's my most mmorable shot. You gotta be good to bring one down by shooting him in the Nose!


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## panFried

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=331695#p331695 said:


> thudpucker » Today, 12:58[/url]"]Lordy what marvelous Deer.
> Those Kids will be hooked for life.
> My Grand Girls were raised on wild Game. They sitll encourage there SO's to get out and bring back something we can eat!
> Not to be outdone by a couple of great Kids shots, here's my most mmorable shot. You gotta be good to bring one down by shooting him in the Nose!


Wholly smokes thudpucker is that a Moose? I dont think Ive ever seen an animal brought down by a nasal shot! =D> =D> =D>


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## thudpucker

Yes it was a Cow Moose.
She was only 20 Yards (about) and was looking at my Partner until I shot. Then, just as I released, she turned to me. The next one took her down quickly. It was my one Ugly shot in my whole career.

I needed to carry a movie camera on my hunts.
I tricked a young bull into rushing me.
He stopped just short of giving me the business. The first arrow hit a twig and stuck in his Antlers. It stuck in the far side. But the Fletching end was rattling in the Near side. He was so busy trying to get that thing outta his Rack, I walked up and took him down. 
He nearly Defoliated 30 Square feet of Forrest with his Rack. Slashing brush and goring the small trees, but the Arrow was still rattling up there.


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## Lowe 2070 CC

Friend of mine killed a doe like that. She was standing off about 60 yards blowing at him after a miss, so he lobbed an arrow at her just to run her off. She saw what was coming and turned to run, but the arrow caught her in the back of the skull.

Better to be lucky than good!


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## JMichael

Lowe 2070, those deer are much bigger than I would have ever guessed, and very nice. 

I had a similar thing to thudpuckers moose happen to me once but with a whitetail doe. I had this doe browsing on the vegetation about 60 yards away and facing straight toward me. After watching and waiting several minutes, I thought I had her pattern figured out. She would go down, take a bite, come up, look left, look right, then take another bite. I decided to make a chest shot on the next cycle. As soon as she came up, I started to squeeze the trigger, but rather than do her normal right/left look, she came up, paused, then went right back down for another bite. The bullet struck the top edge of her nose and cut a crease up her snout about 3 inches long, then it entered the top of the neck where it meets the shoulders and broke the spine. She dropped right there on the spot but I had to run out and put her down with a second shot as quick as I could. Like a line from the movie Shooter, "When you think you've got it figured, you're wrong". #-o


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## Lowe 2070 CC

I grew up in South Arkansas, pine plantation country. Deer in the south delta along the White, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Yazoo rivers are much bigger. Better soil = better nutrition.


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## JMichael

I know what you mean. My one "big" hunt that I hope to make in AR each year is the 3 day hunt on the White River Refuge. Of course a lot of that depends on whether or not my name gets drawn or not. Then there are always the other possible problems, like the refuge flood stage or since it's a federal refuge, the federal government being shut down. #-o 
With the exception of a few years, I've made this yearly hunt most years since 1970. It's not uncommon to see 1-2 buck break 300 lbs but I've never gotten one of the really big ones myself. From the looks of things right now, unless the nimrods in Washington do something soon, I'll have to chalk up another years missed hunt this year.


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## thudpucker

My Gran-daughter told me I should document all my hunts.
Can you imagine how long this thread would be?

The Time I got a Raccoon and had to dive to retrieve him...
The Moose I missed. I was talking to myself and the Moose turned toward me and Charged...
The Black Bear that came up the tree after me...
The funniest one was a Caribou that withstood a Loose arrow rattling in his rack. He ran off, then turned around and stomped that arrow to death.
Another White tail that ran from the shot, right out onto a dirt road and attacked a 51 Chevvy Pickup.
And all those blood trails we followed...and cold camps...and all the other fun we had on hunting trips.
Always take somebody with you. There's just no point in leaving a Mystery about the missing hunter. Always take somebody with you to tell the tale.
And the most important part is: "You just cant have this kind of fun unless you get out and do it!"


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## Lowe 2070 CC

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=331807#p331807 said:


> JMichael » Yesterday, 19:50[/url]"]I know what you mean. My one "big" hunt that I hope to make in AR each year is the 3 day hunt on the White River Refuge. Of course a lot of that depends on whether or not my name gets drawn or not. Then there are always the other possible problems, like the refuge flood stage or since it's a federal refuge, the federal government being shut down. #-o
> With the exception of a few years, I've made this yearly hunt most years since 1970. It's not uncommon to see 1-2 buck break 300 lbs but I've never gotten one of the really big ones myself. From the looks of things right now, unless the nimrods in Washington do something soon, I'll have to chalk up another years missed hunt this year.




My company owns about 70,000 Ac bordering White River NWR to the South. All of Big Island, Deep Lake etc... Desha County has produced some bruisers the last few years. I looked at one that was 296 lbs and a couple in the 280's.


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## JMichael

Some of the friends I grew up with talk about hunting big island years ago. I've never hunted it myself. My friends and I hunt the southern tip of the refuge in Desha co. I'd love to be on good terms with the owner of your co and try to get permission to hunt some of that land. LoL


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## thudpucker

Jeemeny....70,000 acres? :? 640 Acres is a Square mile. That's possibly a 10 Mile walk to get out. You would have a Map with some key features marked so you could find a Cold one back home.
What do they do with all that land?

That kind of acreage with no Houses or roads has to be pretty much like Daniel Boone left it.

In AK, I recall looking at the Map of the Denali Range where we were going to hunt.
If the plane never came back, we had three choices of Walking out. All of them were miles Long.

There were times the Guide crashed and died. Unless he told his wife or other guides, and people didn't know where his hunters were or how many he had out, the Hunters had to know how to signal distress.


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## Lowe 2070 CC

Timber Company. Total ownings of about 500,000 Acres in AR, LA, MS all along the river, much of it accessible only by boat.

In the attached Pic WRNWR would be at the top, the AR river is coming down from Top left to middle, the MS river is coming down from top right and the White river is coming from the NWR. we own all of the cross hatched area below the NWR. Big Island being the block in the center (25,000 Ac) cut off by the three rivers.


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## thudpucker

WOW!

That's a bunch of 'good to great' hunting area.
I like slowly cruising down the Rivers looking for Crossing signs.
Do you have Black Bears in there? 
Does the Timber Company want you hunting the Bears?
Porkys?

Imagine the Catfish in those Rivers? :LOL2:


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## Lowe 2070 CC

Arkansas has a bear season, MS and LA do not. Lots of bears on Big Island.

Pigs are a problem and becoming worse. Can't kill them fast enough to control them.


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## thudpucker

Hey, Pigs would be good for shooting and eating. Another animal too big and heavy to carry far. Need wheels of some kind.
They tell me we'll have Pigs to deal with here soon enough. I don't want them getting my grand kids.
He's 15, has some Deer to his credit. He should be able to handle a Pig.


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## JMichael

That 70,000 acre number didn't surprise me at all. White River National Wildlife Refuge has 160,756 acres of mostly bottomland hardwood forest as of May 15th 2013. They have a healthy population of black bears but do not have a season on them. However there is a bear season for some of the lands bordering the refuge. 2 years ago they trapped 150 bears on WRNWR and transplanted them to another refuge in the southern part of the state. Lucky for me my brothers property is only 3 miles from the borders of that refuge and I fully intend to hunt me some black bear in the coming years. WRNWR has a growing wild hog problem. I almost removed one year before last but I couldn't get him to check up after someone jumped him and ran him by me. That area was too thick to try to shoot him on a run with a scoped rifle. Some friends and I are trying to organize a group hunt after the regular season deer hunt and see if we can catch up to some of those hogs.


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## panFried

You know I don't mind dangling from a tree in rain, snow, and ice, but something about thunderstorms and lightening just don't give me that warm fuzzy feeling. Shutting it down till evening hunt.


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## JMichael

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=331936#p331936 said:


> panFried » Today, 08:35[/url]"]You know I don't mind dangling from a tree in rain, snow, and ice, but something about thunderstorms and lightening just don't give me that warm fuzzy feeling. Shutting it down till evening hunt.


Yea, we're getting a much wider portion of that same storm system. I don't know if it's even gonna be clear by this afternoon here. Think I'm gonna just try to get some of my other rat killing done today.


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## thudpucker

I wondered about PanFried's post.
We have CAVU here. Nice and warm, breezy. Would have been a good day to get out.

Maybe 'ol man stormy' is trying to trick me into getting out, set up, and then he's gonna Storm all over me. :x


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## panFried

Ha thudpucker. Isn't that how it always happens! Nice now waiting on Mr Bucky to walk by! Saw big doe w/ 2 fawns this morning and I just couldn't do it. I know I know, everyone else will but the fawns were way to cute. I'll eat em next year


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## thudpucker

Working with F&G in Washington state. An area had too many Deer, and WAAY to many Doe & Fawn.
It's because people moved into the Habitat. And it's people who don't want us to take the excess out.
People don't know what a Horrible death there would be without the Hunters.
So take what you need, and leave the rest to multiply.


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## panFried

So I can almost guess what the majority of you will say based on the flack I got last night, not to mention from my wife.

I was sitting in my stand last night and a spike buck walks out in front of me milling around eating acorns and totally oblivious to me sitting 10yds away. Needless to say I let him pass for a potentially bigger deer and hopefully the 10pt. Nothing came within shooting range and I left empty handed. Would you have let him pass?


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## thudpucker

Years ago I'd have taken him. My hunting days a long gone by now.

But F&G says (and showed me) that the Forks n' Spikes are not gonna breed. Those bigger Racks are the Breeders.

I went up in the Mountains above 21 Mile Creek with a Great Bow Hunter from Oregon. We spent a week up there looking for just the right Full Curl Ram. 
I wore out a pair of Danner's clamoring up there with that guy.
We saw lot's of Rams, a few Bears too. But he was looking for a Full Curl. So we came down empty handed. 
F&G told me: "If you came across a Full curl, he would probably be by himself. Driven off by a younger Ram." He'd be OK to take too.

I always loved hunting in Washington State's Low lands. They have too many deer. Take what you can get.


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## Lowe 2070 CC

If I want meat I'll shoot a doe. Wait till that 1 year old spike is a 3 year old 8 point then shoot him.


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## panFried

Lowe 2070 CC said:


> If I want meat I'll shoot a doe. Wait till that 1 year old spike is a 3 year old 8 point then shoot him.


Thats what I prefer. Manage the herd by busting the biggin's. However I can't protect them from others. I love meat and filling the freezer but I know my odds will still be good in November for that. I am just being picky now, and catching a lot of flack for it which tends to bother me. Thanks for the opinions. 

In the future, my response to them will be - if you want meat, git out there and get them!


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## Lowe 2070 CC

He wouldn't be legal here anyway (except for a kid).


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## JMichael

I don't know how it is for you guys but here in AR the rules change yearly and by zone as to what is legal or not. So it can be legal to shoot either sex and any age in one zone, while in the adjacent zone may be a bucks only 3 point rule (3 points or more on one side), and something totally different in the rest of the zones of the state. Some of the rules they come up with at times are so bad that unless the deer stops in close visual range, you can't be absolutely sure if it's legal or not.


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## thudpucker

I could never tell a 28" Moose from a 30" Legal, or out in the Bush some times it was a 50" legal Bull.
I always thought there were two kinds of Moose. The one's I got, and the other ones.

How many times have you had a Shot at a few Rabbits, or Grouse while Hunting big game?
How many times did you come to full draw on a Rabbit, only to see a Deer suddenly Stomp and Blow as you moved. [-X :mrgreen: 

Hunting is a great experience. Go do it! Take a young guy with you!


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