opening day of deer hunting in ct

My wife calls herself"the hunters widow" from september 15th to december31st,......and she pretty much stops talking to me if come november if I havent harvested one,....I have 2 boys one 3 and one 3 months,.. I hope and pray they want to hunt,.. I cant think of anything more perfect than sharing memories afield...

Anyone who eats meat should have to spend a day in the woods trying to get food. I'm not asking them to dress/cut/wrap, but I think we've gotten a little to comfortable with hunting in the supermarket.

You make a good point. Not for that reason, but for the reason that I want to know exactly what I am getting and how clean the processing has been, I personally field dress, skin, butcher, bone, cut, package and freeze all of my venison. No one else sets their hands or knives on my deer. Bon appetite!

Loon...is that you playing the guitar???

the fella with the arrow started the camp 30 some years ago and it is his son...

Well I started this rant here's where it stands - got a decent five pointer today offset by flipping my atv backing down out of my F-250 too old for those antics deer gods must be laughing their azz off.

Time to look at those two seater ATV's with the roll bar system....becareful out there....no white rags in the pockets

If you don't mind me asking . . . what part of the State were you guys at?

Gosh this post makes me miss deer camp.

We have a friend that has 500 acres in SE Ohio that is as bassackwards a place as you can get in Ohio. Camp was at the top of the hill. The road to the camp is treacherous as hell with a 100' drop into a canyon on one side and a small mountain threatening to slide on you on the other. At the top of the hill is an old 1820 something farmhouse with no electricity or running water. An old woodstove provided the heat. The house was full of mice and once we got the stove fired up all the wasps would wake up and attack. We would spend a day just fixing up what had decayed over the last year, splitting wood (yeah we burned a lot of green wood in that stove) and setting up stands, blinds etc. After the morning hunt and before the evening hunt we would go help the landowner split wood, cut trees, clear paths, whatever needed done. He had a large, grateful work crew for a week every year.

The most we ever had there at one time was 14 ppl. It was always a hoot, we brought enough food for 1 night and planned on eating deer every other night (a plan that more often than not ended up with us at the Bob Evans 20 miles away a couple nights during the week). We drank many beers and a few bottles of whiskey every trip.

Most of the time everyone who really came to kill deer got at least one. I don't remember our group ever being skunked. Some days we got 5 or 6 in the morning and a few more in the evening. We always made sure that at least one deer ended up in the freezer of the landowner.

Then 4 years ago some boys from Tennessee knocked on his door and offered him $250 each per day to hunt the weekend of the rut. he checked with us and we told him to take the money, it is his land afterall and we weren't going to pay him that

The next year they gave him $2000 for the whole week of the rut.

2 years ago they gave him $5000 for the entire season.

I still haven't gone out to get my ladder stand.

sounds like you had some great times there onion ;-) and unfortunately that is the way its going over here also as big city folks are forking over big dollars to farmers (who do need the money) and pushing out the good ol' boys :shut:

loon

Last Sunday morning about 7:25am, First buck on my own property!

Will let the next one get bigger. Butchered it today

Nothing better than cutting the silverskin off a tenderloin on Thanksgiving Day!

12ga. 3inch Magnum rifled slug, Mossberg 500, 4x scope

West Michigan

You baitin' them with them thair apples ???.....I thought that was illegal ???

Nice job! I shoot a Mossberg 500 w/ a red dot sight. I gave up punishing myself with 3"ers a long time ago. How many are you allowed in WV?

It depends on the state with baiting. In Ohio it's legal.


d r

Yep! Baiting with the apples. Baiting is legal again here this year in Michigan, you can have a small amount out.
Years ago people were using massive bait piles, then bovine tb and CWD showed up, so no baiting for a few years,
now we can have small amounts out again.

Dropped him right there in the bait pile.

I just bought one antlered license, but there is a combo tag available for 2 bucks
and here in Southern Michigan you can buy 5 does tags a day if you want. Yes FIVE!
I think they are trying to cull the herd. Lots of car/dear accidents around here.

I bought the Mossberg 500 years ago for $75.00 from a dear friend who has since passed on.
Every time I pick it up I think of him, like hunting with a good friend.

+1 Looks like the place to be!

Ray

Shot a big doe about 10:30 this morning, passed on about 3 yearlings before that. One of the young does was really starting to tick me off earlier just standing around blowing and snorting had to actually spook them off before they ruined the rest of the day. Went back out this evening and saw four more big does coming in but the light was fading way to fast for a clean shot so let them walk on by. Kind of bummed I couldn't get gun season off next week but will have to be content with getting to hunt next Saturday. Hopefully someone leaves me one more big doe for the freezer and I should be good to go.

Looks like there's one guy already in the rack for the night.

Its not all a bad thing. When the land is worth something people start protecting it. We had 12 acres in back of our last house that fell to developers. All meadow/grassland. I went camping with my infant daughter and the deer were thick as flies. A real oasis. Because they didn't farm it any longer or could afford to have someone hay it they lost their exemption status and come the next tax evaluation had no choice but to sell off. If someone would have offered them 5k/year they would've been able to justify keeping it.

Here is a Doe i shot yesterday morning at 7:00am under one of my Landowner Tags. She and a couple yearlings were at 10 yards for about 15 minutes , i let her get to 40 yards and took the shot. I was using my Rem 700 in .308 using Hornady's Superformance ammo with SST bullet. It was a perfect text book shot couldnt of touched a better spot. Went in behind left shoulder and took out both lungs then hit the opposite shoulder. She went about 5 feet the expired. This was my first rifle kill, everything else has been with a BOW.

Dan

Nice doe! I was about to ask why you waited until they got to 40 then read what you were shooting, nevermind (OH is a shotgun/muzzy state). I'm headed to "deer camp" Sunday afternoon (I put it in quote because we stay in a hotel). They are calling for rain Sunday through Wednesday which sucks but we'll make the best of it and hopefully put a few on the hanging pole.


f v

Yeah i usually have my bow but decided to try the new rifle out. I do love a good bow kill though.

you guys got some weird rules down there? ;-P

loon

Dan, it is nice to be able to get deer with different equipment. I've shot with recurve, compound, crossbow, shotgun and rifle. I have memorable hunts with all of them. If I had to pick a favorite it might be that fist buck with the recurve but there certainly have been others to compare.

Congratulations to you...btw, I just got a new 308 this year and have broke it in nicely. Ate tenderloin for Thanksgiving.

With that sort of fire power I'll be nicer to you from this point forward or I may be the next turkey you shoot!

:cheese:

Ray

First deer I killed was with my compound it was a spike. I still remember like it was yesterday.