I am finished also.

I arrowed a small whitetail doe this evening. I passed on a guesstimated forty yd broadside shot as my maximum distance is thirty yards. I was at full draw but let down. There were two of them and they continued to feed up to thirty yds but were facing dead on. At twenty yds one turned broadside and I arrowed it and it never went 25 yds.
My Trophy Ridge sight worked vey well as did my newly purchased headband for holding the maglite.

[Canuck2]

Way to go John. Nothing like a bit of imposed patience to help you get close. Yup, those Trophy Ridges are great. I have a Petzl headlamp and it sure is nice to have your hands free to field dress when you recover your deer late.

[BCBairdo]

Congrats there walksalot. It is interesting with this bow hunting how much patience is required to wait for just the right shot. I know with my buck this year I drew down twice as it would turn just before I could take my shot.

I heard the white-tail hunting has been great this year up in the Rock Creek area....5 guys from our club went up last week and are coming home today all tagged out (buck and doe each). Should be some white-tail meat at the annual game dinner this year.

[treestandjunky]

I'm done too! Actually for a few weeks now. I finally arrowed my first whitetail back on the 12th of Nov (small 4X5 taken at 11 yards) and got an awesome mulie which grosses 193 with my rifle back in October.

Have to settle in for the long wait til next year although I might get out to do a little late season scouting over the holidays.

Just became a member of the site today - nice to see a site dedicated to the west!

TSJ

[BCBairdo]

TSJ...welcome to the site. Congrats on the whitey with the bow...was it actually out of your treestand? Post the pics of your two deer if you could....love to see the pic of your mulie especially.

BCB

Off come the broadheads, on go the field points and it's off to the club to fling arrows. I think I might switch to aluminum arrows inside as the carbons are hard to remove from the butts even after being lubed up. I still prefer the carbons for 3D and hunting. After havesting the doe I retrieved the arrow which could have been knocked and shot again.

[treestandjunky]

Hi BCB

Yes, I did take the whitetail from a treestand which was hung at about 14'. This was one of my most exciting hunts. I got into my tree in the dark at 6am - at about 6:10 I heard bucks grunting and wheezing at one another about 100 yards downhill of me. They then began a viscious fight which lasted to until roughly 6:25 when they stopped most likely due to my scent which was blowing directly at them. Still in the dark, I heard three animals coming up the hill - one circling to my right about 60 yards out, one downhill slightly to my right which held up at 40 yards and started grunting, and another deer slightly to my left at about 25 yards. They held tight for the longest time as it gradually got light enough (barely)to see my pins on my Trophy Ridge sight. The one downhill to the right grunted every few minutes. Finally the one to my left started approaching - I first saw him at 15 yards but behind too many trees to shoot. He then cut further to my left and I came to full draw as he was behind a pine tree. When he stepped out at 11 yards I put the pine behind his shoulder and released. My buck peeled out of there and I heard him crash about 100 yards off. After, the buck below and to the right of me grunted a couple times and snuck out of there - never did hear him leave. The other deer also left too quietly to hear. As my deer showed no signs of being in a fight I am thinking he was a by-stander in watching two other bucks go at it. The rubs in this area are about 4-6" in diameter and I have seen shed antlers that score in the 180's from the immediate area where this fighting episode happened. I can only wonder how big they were as I never did see the other deer. Mine was chunky in the body - maybe 150 lbs dressed.

My mule deer is my best to date and beats out last years which grossed 187. This one has a gross score of 193 and nets 187 green (only 2 - 1" non-typ. pts) . It has 18 1/2 + 19" G2's and 26 1/2" main beams. The mass measurements are decent at 19". I took this deer while I was walking (as I only do for mule deer) a pine stand at fairly high elevation. The deer was bedded down at 11 am and I made the 60 yards shot. The 800 m drag out was tiring as I was by myself.

Enjoy the pics and the story,

TSJ

[BCBairdo]

TSJ,

Great story and nice pics....that mulie sure has some nice symmetry....I like the basket on it too. Congrats on a great season. BTW, what kind of stand do you have or would you recommend as I'm thinking of picking one up this spring.

Ian

[treestandjunky]

Thanks Ian

I have two of the Gorilla - Baby Kong treestands that I believe Walmart stocks. This time of year they blow them out for about 50-60$ including the safety harness and I'll be picking up another one. The platform isn't huge but you get used to it - I also rarely go about 22' up a tree. They weigh about 16 lbs which is not overly awkward for packing and hanging.

I also have an API aluminum stand which is nice and light but probably goes for about $180.

I also have a few wooden stands that I put in locations which are proven and I don't need location adjustments. They are less safe than the metal or wood ones.

Definately get a full safety harness - would never go up a tree without one!

TSJ

[willyqbc]

Yup, unfortunately season finished here on the 10th. I had the 10 day archery only season off and hunted hard for the duration. Had a couple gimme's on the first morning but they were small so I passed them up figuring I had 10 days and could pick up a small one later in the week. Got to 100 yds on an absolute bruiser, but the wind was bad so I had to back off on him. Figured I would be able to find him again with 9 more days to hunt. Then the weather went for an absolute crap and the deer movement prettyy much died off completely as they were all tucked back deep in the timber. Only problem with that was that the fresh snow wasn't getting to the ground in the thick timber and what was there sounded like walking on bubble wrap. Weather cleared for the last 2 days of the hunt and I managed to get into range on a couple bucks, 1 was a really big 2 point, the other was a gimpy one horned freak, but alas neither would give me a good angle for a shot. Never did see the big boy again, but he'll be there waitin on me next year!! Probably shouldn't have looked a gift horse in the mouth the first day but OH WELL, spring bear is only a couple months away and I've got 2 deer and 1/2 a moose in the freezer to tide me over till next year! Hope all your seasons went well and were full of wonderful memories!

Chris

[MattB]

TSJ-Nice muley and whitetail! I love still hunting for mule deer, nothing can beat it! I still need to get whitetail hunting in my blood, never really have tried to hunt em. Congrats on the nice deer and welcome to the site, would love to see pics of last years mulie if you have it as well.

Matt

[treestandjunky]

Hi Matt

Congrats on your deer as well - hope the leg is doing well. My mulie hunting usually consists of a an early alpine trip and then walking timber through the rest of the season. I have to admit that hunting whitetails from treestands is pretty catchy - having a buck walk directly under your feet or come blasting in to respond to rattling can be hard on the heart. Easy to fall back to whities after the mulie tag is punched.

My 2003 mulie was taken in mid-September. My hunting partner and I actually saw in on the Aug long weekend during a scouting trip. He ended up grossing 187. Vaseaux did a great job of the taxidermy but because I got this deer done the boss lady is giving me the evil eye for thinking about getting this years buck done. I will probably get the cape tanned to keep my future options open ; ).

TSJ

[3kills]

nice bucks..nice moose rack on the wall too...

[MattB]

Nice buck TSJ, seeing those sheds on the wall makes me ask if you shed hunt as well?