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Opening day in Ohio
pre6422hornet
Member Posts: 34 ✭✭
So I arrived down at the farm Friday at 6:30, just enough time to sneak into the hills and set up with the binos about 3/4 mile away. I was kind of disappointed because all the corn was still up ( found out later that night that the combine was down and supposed to be up on Sunday). When I went down three weeks ago I set my stands up for the corn to be cut. If you recall, last year I watched 6 different bucks fighting in the same cut corn field. I figured I would hunt from them in the morning and as I am always prepared for anything, use my climber in the afternoon to set up on the hay field where two good sized bucks have been seen nightly.
As I crested the hill to set up I was startled by a deer's hind end looking right at me from 40 yards away. A doe and some yearlings were feeding. It is amazing how they know when you are not hunting them. They trotted off about 100 yards and continued feeding. Anyway, across the road there were already 8 deer in the hay field, two of them bucks. One was pretty decent, the other a 1 1/2 6 point. I arrived too late to see where they came out of, but every one of them entered the woods at the same spot and were in the woods by 7pm. About that time 5 more deer came out from the opposite corner and all 5 were bucks. A nice little bachelor group. One was a 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 and the rest were 1 1/2. The bigger buck just fed along and eventually made his way to the trail the other 8 had already entered. The rest of the bucks were too busy fighting. I could hear the antlers crashing clearly and hay was being flung everywhere. Pretty cool.
Well I was fortunate to tag out at 7:15am yesterday morning. I was in my stand by 625 am and legal shooting time was 651am. I wasn't expecting much with the corn still up but I was out in the woods relaxed, watching the woods come to life, so it wasn't all bad. I noticed movement too my right and here he was coming. In the corn, but he was coming. I didn't have to second guess at all. He was right for the picking. My stand is really high so I can effectively shoot down into the corn if need be. I have been sitting in the same tree for 9 years and it is an excellent early season stand. I have been trimming it the same way so it has grown the way I want it to. I have a two natural shooting lanes with a mature limb right in the middle growing straight up and leafy , perfect concealment for drawing a bow. As he entered I drew back, but was too late. He stopped and fed for a while with no shot, too much corn in the way. I let down my draw. He then decided to keep walking and when he entered the concealment of the limb I drew and waited for him to reappear. He came out, stopped, put his head down and took a step forward with his left leg. That was all I needed. I watched my Easton Epic bury into his ribs, heard the liquid thud and he bounded off with his tail down. I hung my bow and watched. He ran around me, stopped and stared back out into the corn. He didn't know what happened.... He then walked off into the brush. As I waited 1/2 hour to follow, another 8pt ( 1 1/2 old) came up and shredded a tree about 10 yards away from mine. I decided to play with him so I gave him a good grunt from the tube. He did not like that. He tucked his tail and walked back the way he came. I couldn't help but chuckle. Well back to the big guy. I shot him about 18 rows into the corn field which was uncut. Luckily for me the deer have stripped about 20 rows of ears off. The muzzy 100gr 4 blade did its job after I did mine and he made it about 125 yards before piling up. The shot angle was so steep that I center punched the left lung and the arrow exited the off rib cage very low... missing the right lung. Amazing how far they can run on one lung. The blood trail was pretty easy as the entry wound was dropping gobs of frothy blood every 5 feet. I just wish wasn't so hot.
For anyone out there who owns land, QDM is the way to go. We started about 6 years ago by aggressively harvesting does on crop damage tags and letting the 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old bucks walk. In the last 4 years alone we have taken roughly 60-70 does alone. Every year the bucks are bigger and the rut is more intense. The past three opening days of Archery I have personally witnessed intense fighting ( not just pushing a little bit) . I mean mud flinging, grunting, rolling on the ground, stomping and running the other bucks off. Last year I watched a huge ten point fight anyone in the corn field for 3 weekends straight. I was at full draw on him twice while he had a big 8 pt pinned to the ground at 45 yards, but they didn't stop long enough for a shot.
Kind of stinks being tagged out already. But I am not complaining. Instead of hunting the rut in November I now will be going up North to the Upper Penninsula for opening day of Rifle in Michigan. I just hope there is snow.
Here are a few pictures, they are not the best as I was by myself and forgot the tripod. I also forgot my digital, so I took them with my 35mm and then scanned them in after developing the film.
Good luck to everyone for the rest of the season.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f95/hoagp/10pt20071.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f95/hoagp/10pt20073.jpg
As I crested the hill to set up I was startled by a deer's hind end looking right at me from 40 yards away. A doe and some yearlings were feeding. It is amazing how they know when you are not hunting them. They trotted off about 100 yards and continued feeding. Anyway, across the road there were already 8 deer in the hay field, two of them bucks. One was pretty decent, the other a 1 1/2 6 point. I arrived too late to see where they came out of, but every one of them entered the woods at the same spot and were in the woods by 7pm. About that time 5 more deer came out from the opposite corner and all 5 were bucks. A nice little bachelor group. One was a 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 and the rest were 1 1/2. The bigger buck just fed along and eventually made his way to the trail the other 8 had already entered. The rest of the bucks were too busy fighting. I could hear the antlers crashing clearly and hay was being flung everywhere. Pretty cool.
Well I was fortunate to tag out at 7:15am yesterday morning. I was in my stand by 625 am and legal shooting time was 651am. I wasn't expecting much with the corn still up but I was out in the woods relaxed, watching the woods come to life, so it wasn't all bad. I noticed movement too my right and here he was coming. In the corn, but he was coming. I didn't have to second guess at all. He was right for the picking. My stand is really high so I can effectively shoot down into the corn if need be. I have been sitting in the same tree for 9 years and it is an excellent early season stand. I have been trimming it the same way so it has grown the way I want it to. I have a two natural shooting lanes with a mature limb right in the middle growing straight up and leafy , perfect concealment for drawing a bow. As he entered I drew back, but was too late. He stopped and fed for a while with no shot, too much corn in the way. I let down my draw. He then decided to keep walking and when he entered the concealment of the limb I drew and waited for him to reappear. He came out, stopped, put his head down and took a step forward with his left leg. That was all I needed. I watched my Easton Epic bury into his ribs, heard the liquid thud and he bounded off with his tail down. I hung my bow and watched. He ran around me, stopped and stared back out into the corn. He didn't know what happened.... He then walked off into the brush. As I waited 1/2 hour to follow, another 8pt ( 1 1/2 old) came up and shredded a tree about 10 yards away from mine. I decided to play with him so I gave him a good grunt from the tube. He did not like that. He tucked his tail and walked back the way he came. I couldn't help but chuckle. Well back to the big guy. I shot him about 18 rows into the corn field which was uncut. Luckily for me the deer have stripped about 20 rows of ears off. The muzzy 100gr 4 blade did its job after I did mine and he made it about 125 yards before piling up. The shot angle was so steep that I center punched the left lung and the arrow exited the off rib cage very low... missing the right lung. Amazing how far they can run on one lung. The blood trail was pretty easy as the entry wound was dropping gobs of frothy blood every 5 feet. I just wish wasn't so hot.
For anyone out there who owns land, QDM is the way to go. We started about 6 years ago by aggressively harvesting does on crop damage tags and letting the 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old bucks walk. In the last 4 years alone we have taken roughly 60-70 does alone. Every year the bucks are bigger and the rut is more intense. The past three opening days of Archery I have personally witnessed intense fighting ( not just pushing a little bit) . I mean mud flinging, grunting, rolling on the ground, stomping and running the other bucks off. Last year I watched a huge ten point fight anyone in the corn field for 3 weekends straight. I was at full draw on him twice while he had a big 8 pt pinned to the ground at 45 yards, but they didn't stop long enough for a shot.
Kind of stinks being tagged out already. But I am not complaining. Instead of hunting the rut in November I now will be going up North to the Upper Penninsula for opening day of Rifle in Michigan. I just hope there is snow.
Here are a few pictures, they are not the best as I was by myself and forgot the tripod. I also forgot my digital, so I took them with my 35mm and then scanned them in after developing the film.
Good luck to everyone for the rest of the season.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f95/hoagp/10pt20071.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f95/hoagp/10pt20073.jpg
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