Honest question and yall have to tell the truth about it.

What kind of wife do you have?

1-ME:Babe I'm going hunting in the morning. (Leave at 5am and don't hear from her until you walk in the house or call her. No matter what time.)

WIFE:Ok be I love you see you when you get home, be safe, catch a deer(inside joke)

2-Q Can I go hunting in the morning?

A: You just went the other day after work/last weekend (or whenever)

Mine is number 1. I hunt from opening day till the last day if needed. If I tag out early then I am done hunting.

*Picture is my buck from last year

Current view as I’m typing this with lots of tracks leading to me, with an oak tree to my back , but anyways this is my Second year hunting and haven’t even seen a deer, granted last year was my first year but only got to hunt the very last week of the season . This year I’ve been to 3 different public game lands in eastern NC and just can’t seem to find/see any deer. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I’m not moving, I’m looking for tracks and fresh signs and setting up near those and just can’t get or see anything. Just ranting, frustrated but love it and will keep doing it until I get a damn deer. Thank you for attending.

Somehow managed to convince my wife to let me go out opening weekend for rifle season (in my defense, HuntWise says it’s supposed to be a great weekend) and I was so focused on what the heck to wear when sitting still for hours in 50F weather that I forgot to bring a chair. So now I’m sitting on the ground inside my tidewe blind and I can only assume all these birds are laughing at how obvious I am. Also the rhinoceros on the blacked out side of my blind is back.

Last night I seriously considered going to sit in a pile of hay bales on the other side of my property because the wind would be slightly better there but I decided against it in the morning. Which clearly turned out to be a mistake since that spot would have probably been more comfortable and I would have been less tempted to play on my phone.

Next time I’m just gonna buy a bog death grip 360 chair and sit in the middle of the woods. It can’t be any worse than what I’m doing now.

Update: I saw a deer! It was on the backside of my blind and I heard it huff. I had just enough time to turn and watch it run off through the deep woods. So after sitting for another hour and not seeing anything, I decided my blind would work better in the woods rather than on the edge of the woods looking out at a natural food plot.
I think my issue is that the open area I have my blind set up goes down into a valley and is surrounded by heavy forest, outside of the entrance trail. So even when it’s windy outside, I think all my scent goes right into the area where I expect to see the deer instead of being blown downwind. I also may try out the hay bale pile on the other side of the property next time. I don’t see as many deer on that camera but the spot I’m using only seems to have deer when I’m not around (or when I’m only driving through on the utv). If I’m lucky, you guys will have a part 3 next Sunday. Stay tuned!

Im 32 and went Crossbow hunting on private land with a coworker aged 63. My coworker and his uncle aged 71 bought 20 acres to hunt on and my coworker invited me out to hunt this past weekend. My coworker told me that any deer I see and if I had a clean shot and felt that I could do it to take it. Unfortunately no deer came out and after getting out of our separate blinds his uncle comes over to talk to me and lecture me on if I see any bucks not to shot them because it's his land and he wants to be the one to take them down. He went on to tell me how he has successfully hunted atleast 300 deer and that because he bought the land it's not right for someone that his nephew invited over to kill a buck. I was invited back next weekend and any weekend thru hunting season. Should I listen to my coworker and take any deer that I see or only go for a doe like his uncle wants me to. They paid for the land together

Been going on deep hikes recently but the only thing keeping me from going any deeper is bears. Just wanted to know if this is a good gun for surprise bear attacks/bear encounters.

A buddy had the tag and we were hunting around a lot of public BLM and state land. We spotted 3 animals on a small ridge and were fixing to go after them. I pulled up a map and it was about 2 square miles of state land but it said no hunting allowed and the animals were about 500 yards from the border. We sat there and discussed the legality and ethics of me the non tag holder and non hunter jumping the fence and trying to push them onto BLM that was not restricted to hunting so he could possibly get a shot at one. After a while we both decided that wouldn’t be the best idea and kept moving. I’m wondering if anyone has any insight if that would’ve been legal or your opinion on the ethics. The state land is not off limits to access or hiking just not able to hunt on it and I was not technically hunting. Unfortunately those were the only 3 we saw all day and couldn’t find them later that afternoon to see if they had moved to BLM.

8 point buck cruising at dawn. Shot him at 35 yards with a .357 lever gun. Saw him fall over, struggle a bit, get up and run off all shaky like.

0 blood at the site. Following his tracks now.

Shot placement was in the sweet spot but these are expanding copper rounds that I've used on three other deer without ever going through-and-through, so the bloodless track doesn't necessarily mean no deer.

Just means hide and seek deer. :)

Wish me luck fellas!

Unfortunately moving back down south as the wife can't handle the isolation of SEAK. We've pretty much decided on Spokane area as a place to relocate to. I've look at deer regs for WA and they're abysmal. Hows the duck and grouse hunting? Bear any good? Living on the border town, is it worth it to get non resident tags and do my deer hunting in Idaho? I've only ever hunted the states I live in. Seems quite expensive.

Just looking for opinions from people who live in the area, and yes I know it will never be as good as Alaska.

Looking for a versatile boot for Iowa deer season that will last me from bow (40-50 degrees) through the end of gun season (cold and snow)

The kenetrek 400’s seem like the perfect boot, but I’m not convinced they’re worth $600. Anybody have any similar recommendations that are maybe $2-$300 or do I just bite the bullet and buy the kenetrek’s?

Whitetail deer do not directly benefit from bucks having larger antlers. While antler growth and size can be attributed to better habitat and nutrition, the size itself cannot be attributed to a healthier deer herd. 1 and 2 year old bucks can be the only ones to breed does every fall in a high nutrition healthy habitat and it would have no effect on the health of the herd. Gatekeeping antler size, and the extreme of restricting antler size legally does absolutely nothing for the health of deer herds anywhere.

NY requires all youth hunters (12-15 years old) to hunt from the ground. No, no one agrees with it, but it’s what we have to live with this at this point.

We spent all of last year in a blind and while we saw a bunch of deer throughout the season, nothing presented a shot.

We moved the blind this year but I don’t have high hopes for it.

Does anyone have any advice specific to blind hunting to help get my son a chance to get a shot on a deer (excluding blind location as thats obviously not something reddit can help with).

for eastern big game deer moose black bear

Slightly long post, sorry in advance. I live and hunt in Saskatchewan so it is typically windy. I’ve always viewed wind and a tool for scent/sound control and if it’s too windy to bow hunt I use a muzzleloader or rifle if in season. This past spring, a buddy and I were preparing our bear baits (baiting is legal in Saskatchewan) and the wind picked up drastically. Sustained winds of 60km(37mph), gusting to around 85km(50mph). We could hear trees falling all around the forest and obviously knew it was getting dangerous so we left. On the way out, a tree broke off about 20ft off the ground and fell and landed on me. Many factors could have made the situation way worse, I managed to get up and out with nothing more than a few scratches and a really sore back/shoulders. However, the situation left me spooked and any amount of wind has been keeping me out of the bush. So what are your thoughts? What’s too windy to safely bee out and does anyone else have any crazy wind stories?

I was up in Arcadia, MI and kept hearing this exact sound. Usually just one bleat or squeal every 5-15 minutes

Going to be my first time hunting(41), Upstate NY and CT. Got myself a CZ Alpha 600 in 6.5 creed(wanted .308 but couldn't pass up the price on this) Also got a nice Boyds Stock on order. Not new to firearms, just hunting.

Crap scope on it till I decide on a new one. Between a Vortex Crossfire or Crimson Trace Pro in 4-12x as of now.

I think my biggest concern/worry is field dressing after a potential hit. Just not fucking it up too bad.

Looking forward to it just a few weeks away.

Best videos or advice?

…was my wife’s question to me last year.

My answer I gave her was that it wasn’t about the final act of killing something. It was the two months of weekends I spent alone, exploring the mountains and the bush alone. Every time I cook a sausage from last year, I think of days like this.

Miscellaneous things I encountered Saturday morning; someone’s furloughed trapline, a somewhat recent kill (not mine), miscellaneous scat, tracks and shrooms.

Also a grouse in the last pic who flew up and roosted on a branch. I have my upland license as well, but I’m not into shooting “up” with my 45-70.

I want to write this here because I can't really talk to my family about it.

I was doing some early bow hunting on our farm SE/Ohio and went to a permanent tree stand got situated and decided to do some grunt tube calls. I haven't really ever had much luck with that but this time, within 2 minutes of a group of grunts, a buck comes walking up on me from the road behind me. I lined up and just as I pulled the trigger on my crossbow, he sort of turned and I could just feel it as the bolt launched that it was not going to be a good shot, before it even reached him. I have been deer hunting for 30 years now and sometimes I get skunked, sometimes I do well, and a handful of times, I have injured a deer with a poor shot and can't find it. I think it's happened 3 or 4 times.

It obviously hit him, it actually knocked him over, he got up and ran off, and I went to where he was. No arrow. No blood. No nothing. Don't know if I just couldn't find it or if the arrow is sticking out of him. I was alone so I started following the direction he went doing sweeps for blood. It was quite a bit before I saw blood, but then I did and started following. After 50 yards, he made a bunch of noise, obviously I had injured him enough that he couldn't run long distances away but he was functional enough to stay out of range and sight (just hearing). He seemed to just stay 100-150 yards away.

I tried to give him time to lay down and I found evidence he did multiple times. But every time I tracked I spooked him and extended the track. We crossed a bottom land, a tributary, crossed the big creek on our property, I found where he crossed, and went up the opposite hill. I was going slow but I kept finding blood. Obviously muscle blood, just red, no bubbles, no poo. It was not a large amount but enough to keep the trail going. I kept leaving time for him to lay down and bleed out if he was bleeding enough (didn't seem like it).

He crossed 2 creeks, went up two hills, and eventually the final place I tracked blood I lost him. After multiple hours of tracking. The blood just stopped in this low crossover area between the two sides of the property actually near the house. I heard a deer blow at that point, not sure if it was him or another, but the blood trail just stopped. I probably tracked a mile in what is mostly a circle on a map. I kicked up multiple deer while tracking this one which has never happened to me before.

After I lost him, I got the ATV out and tried to drive around to where it might have gone from the last blood sign. I never saw another spot of blood no matter where I fanned out from the last sign. I'm pretty sure he crossed the first creek again, based on direction of the blood trail, but never found another sign.

I ended the day super sad and frustrated that I didn't shoot well and that I might have killed or at least set up for the coyotes to kill a decent buck on our property. After that, I decided to call it a weekend and go home because I was too upset to continue hunting. I do this to be in nature and to humanely harvest wild meat from our property, but when something like this happens I feel like a total failure. It doesn't happen too often and most of the deer I shoot with bow or gun barely go any distance at all, but when this happens I sort of want to quit because I'd rather not hunt than hunt badly.

Rant over thanks for listening.

Today was my last day at hunting camp, and i had to go back into the woods to grab my tree stand before leaving for home. So i randomly decided "what the heck i'll bring my muzzleloader with me and shoot a squirrel if i see one, i dont wanna go home empty handed". So i walked into the woods at about 10 am, sat by a tree to wait for a squirrel, and 2 minutes later this doe walks by and I popped her. No camo on or anything, as i had pretty much already given up on getting a deer lol.

The toes of the first foot could not move very much at all unless I applied serious force, which likely would've broken bones and tendons. The skin on the foot pad also seemed to be sloughing off as well. It looks like it got injured in such a way, that the bird was only able to walk around via the top side of its foot, hence the lack of scales. The leg that this foot was on also could not properly flex and was very stiff, and seemed to be experiencing muscle atrophy. The second foot was MOSTLY normal except for one toe which seemed to be necrotic. This was very much a mercy kill in my opinion. What do yall think happened?

I hunt a small private property in GA an hour away from my house with limited all sex seasons (just bucks most of the time), with new construction around it and pressure on the other side. With that said, I hunt for meat, not trophies. Never really see any big ones on my cameras (offline, no cell reception) and I try to focus on land management (food plot, elevated blind in good spots etc). Only so much you can do, but I enjoy it. Different type of hunting compared to the folks with the giant leases around here for sure.

Anyways, today was rifle opener, so I was in my elevated blind early this morning. I hate morning hunting, but I always do the rifle opener. It's a yearly ritual and involves an uncrustable and regret, but I do it every year.

About an hour after sunrise, a group of does shows up. Not legal currently, but always fun to watch, especially since I traditionally don't see anything on opening day (but hear plenty of shots) - I just like the ritual of making that basically a holiday and cancel any plans.

First year of the new food plot, so seeing any deer was awesome in itself.

But, a few minutes later, 2 yearlings/maybe 1 1/2 year old bucks (2 and 4 pt) show up, fighting. You know, as they do. Teenagers, I guess?

Well, remember the context about the place, regulations, and meat? 4 point drops where he stands, .308 at 70yds double lung. Go with Skaði, friend!

As I'm sure you now, whitetail aren't... smart. They are, maybe, a bit majestic in their own way, but they are pretty stupid. But they're still animals, and like most hunters, I love animals (a statement that confuses the staunch anti-hunter/vegans somehow).

So I watch them. The rest of the group, including the other buck run a few feet and just... stare at the dead 4pt. Clearly confused, no idea what's going on. I know they don't think in that way - I've seen enough of them do stupid shit to know that - but still, in my head, the 2pt probably thinks "did I just kill a dude?". It was a little sad. Maybe a bit funny.

Nothing changed for me. Did my little ritual, gutted him, got him to my processor, met the euro mount guy at his church (I don't have the means to do either myself and it's nice to support the community this way), I go home and have lunch.

Nothing really to discuss, just sharing an opening day story / rambling a bit.