Archery
Lakewood, Townsend, Mountain areas
How did everyone do opening weekend of firearms? Any action? We didn't hear too much shooting around us but my dad and I were lucky enough to make a little noise on Saturday. He shot a nice 2 yr old 8 point at 7:15 am and I knocked down a tall racked 10 at 11:15am. Good luck to everyone still hunting!
Hoping for a little help. My dad hit a decent 8 point in the boot lake area. Bolt hit the neck area. Shot Friday night spent most of Saturday morning searching for him lost blood. This would be my dads biggest buck with a bow/crossbow. Just hoping someone finds him or sees him walking yet. I know deer can survive a bow neck shot so hopeful he makes it. Just an FYI bucks were chasing Saturday yet saw 3 bucks chasing does just driving around. Good luck to all this gun season. Hopefully the bucks are moving still.
My father hit the woods yesterday and came across an area where two buck really got into it. There were two fresh scrapes, one on either side of of the ripped up area, assuming the bucks were posturing up and displaying dominance. He set up on a hot oak about 200 yards from there and had a little buck chasing two does. After a few mintues of chasing, the big guy stepped out and worked his way into my dad's grunt. within 25 yards but couldn't get a shot due to branches. Hoping he can get another opportunity tonight!! Here is the buck pictured under the oak where he was feeding last night.
Alright, time to fire up the old Lakewood area page!! Anybody been out hunting/ scouting? Finding any good bucks? Definitely some acorns around in woods this year and seems like bucks had a good growing season. I haven't been up archery hunting at all since I filled my tag Sept. 20 in SE WI but I've still got some cameras up in the northwoods. Here are a few of the prospects for gun season. The tall brow buck is the same one I posted last year and my mother picked up his matched set of sheds this past winter. Bucks are really hitting the mock scrapes hard the past week and a half.
lol i have property in Shawano county, Dude.. where it's supposedly the same with our 14 tags between gun and bow. My buddy i own it with and a few others hunted that property and saw some does opening morning and that was it. It was brutal down that way this year for gun from the sounds of it. No doubt I'll take the sightings for up in this area, i was very pleased. There's just some new form of excitement each year going from AG country in Shawano and Waupaca county where i spend loads of time bowhunting, and do see some really nice deer, and changing to the big woods challenge. It's a refreshing feeling when the season begins to become a real grind.
Lol oh no, SK... that's brutal!! I had a good year actually all things considered. Lost my uncle the weekend prior to opener so wasn't able to get out as much as i had originally planned both scouting and hunting. Anyway, made the best of it - saw 11 opening day, 2 small bucks i passed and 9 does. My buddy missed an 8 pointer as well so all in all i'd consider that a success. spent the rest of gun season hanging out with family and friends.
Did anyone have any luck over the firearms season? I ended up passing a young 8 opening day and saw 6 does so I was plenty happy. Checked a camera that was 100 yards from my gun stand while walking out on Opening evening to find that the big guy made an appearance the afternoon before the opener. Haha they know how to get a guy all fired up!!
Spent an hour yesterday making sure the stand was set and found someone's bow hunting honey hole about 200 yards from it... 6 scent wicks hanging from tree limbs... i wish guys would remove their trash after their sit . Hoping to catch one or two coming from some private fields into thicker bedding that I will be set up in between. Good luck everyone!
As I have a cabin in the Townsend area, I follow this thread. I love reading your guy's posts and it is humbling, realizing how little I really know about deer hunting. I hunt small parcels of private land, so it is literally setting up on the areas of those parcels where I see sign. If I had to find deer up in the National Forest, I wouldn't know where to start. Thanks for sharing and I with you gentlemen the best of luck this season!
My "A spot", where I have sat on Opening Day for the past 55 years, first with my Dad and Grandpa and then by myself, is a low escape route in the Cradle of Rivers. When folks start trampling around the woods, the deer funnel through those low areas on the way to the swamps. I've shot 35 deer out of that spot since 1965, not many of them were eye-bulging monsters, but I was fortunate to put a lot of nutritious, delicious venison in the freezer.
My "B spot" got destroyed by a tornado several years ago, and quite frankly I've never totally recovered from that. The B spot was a fragment of National Forest Land bordering private farm land. I never saw a whole lot of deer in that spot, but I shot my biggest buck and biggest doe (by far) from that spot. And there was a group of guys that used to drive private land to the north of this spot that drove several nice deer right to me.
The past few years, with very, very few antlerless tags and having only one spot I really trust, have been pretty tough for me. I shot an enormous doe off of public land in southern Oconto County three years ago by pure luck, and an average doe in the same general area two years ago. Last year I got shut out.
I'm always happy with a fat forkhorn or even a spike or spork, although these days I'm not quite as driven that I have to shoot SOMETHING. I'm going to sit on my A spot stump Opening Day and try to last all day.
That's my plan.
RR
Hope you aren't in the spot I had scouted SK... . Jk of course, I pre scouted some areas in the middle of October on transition lines. Swamp to High ground and swamp to Oak ridges etc.. I have a few islands marked in the middle of a fairly large swamp that i am hoping to venture out to on Sunday and take a look. Otherwise i have a few spots selected kind of off the the downwind side of some funnels on private, between fields/food that come onto the public that i would imagine are very near some bedding.. I typically sit all day on Saturday of gun and then do some scout hunting on Sunday / Monday.
