Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

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Peeps22
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Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Peeps22 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 2:10 pm

Man, where to even start...

With 2017 not going the exact way i had planned after hitting a pencil sized twig and missing a 140" 8pt on Oct 21st. Oct 29th i had a 160" buck come through following a doe but never offered a shot. Oct 31st a 135" 9pt stood up out of his bed and moved 40 yds and then stalled until it got dark. The first week of November a buddy and i went down to Indiana for a week only to get greeted by 4in of rain and tornadoes the last 4 days of the trip. My buddy ended up missing a nice buck the first morning and i ended up seeing 2 mature bucks the first day but couldnt move into the kill spot because they were bedding on private land. Long story short, I wasnt happy about eating a tag in WI and also eating an Indiana tag as well.

2018

I scouted more in the winter and spring of 2018, than any other year prior. And trust me, from 2013 after finding the beast ive put in some crazy hours and ALOT of miles scouting... but what i have been starting to realize (this year especially), is that all the scouting doesnt always equate to SHOOTING bucks. Ill talk more about that in a different post to keep this one on topic.

Summer of 2018 started out good as i was laying eyes on some good bucks shining, on trail cam, glassing, i felt i had a real good shot at tagging out in the first 2 weeks of the season. Particularly, i was seeing 2 good 8pt's that were hanging out with each other most of the summer. The high and tight buck on the left in the first picture ended up moving about a half mile away but the wider 8pt remained where he was all summer and that carried on through the first week of the season.
Image

Monday Sept. 17th, the third day of WI bow season, i ended up jumping him walking in. I was less than 5 yds from my kill tree and he was bedded only 30 yds from me when he jumped. Being so close and not sealing the deal really hurt my confidence but i had to keep telling myself that i had basically killed that deer and it was just a matter of time before an arrow got released. Here is a pic of him coming into his bedroom the morning of the day i bumped him.
Image

Wednesday Sept. 19th, I had his particular bedding area surrounded with trail cams and hadnt checked one camera because that cam was on the backside of his bedding and it wasnt easy to check that camera without risking bumping him but with a steady east wind, it was doable. Sure enough, he was now shifted to the backside of that bedding area and going out the backdoor from where he was all summer. I should also mention that this buck was bedding there on any wind and just shifted how he laid with the different wind directions. A pic of him with his new exit trail.
Image

Friday Sept. 21st, I had scouted the edge of where I thought the big 8 was now bedding after bumping him only a couple nights prior and found real good sign coming out of bedding. He was getting to my trail camera just before dark and I knew if I pushed into bedding that I would have a crack at him. Just before dark the buck stood up and did what most big bucks do… Stage until dark and then he swung around downwind of me and blew. Havent seen that buck since…

The next few weeks I kind of hit a rough patch with mature buck encounters.

Thursday Oct. 6th, I got setup along a newly scouted bedding area at the bottom of a sharp ridge that dropped off and dumped into a real thick cattail swamp.and right away had deer action. A doe and 2 fawns got up and milled around and went behind me up to the ag fields. 10 minutes later 2 smaller bucks came past and followed where the doe and 2 fawns went. Right behind them was a 6pt and a basket 8pt. Just before dark a 125” 9pt came through 20yds past me and gave me a broadside shot. I elected to pass him with hopes he would make until next year.
Image

That area up until that point wasnt being touched by other hunters but after that one sit, guys seemed to be getting back there and the deer sightings were getting less and less because of it. Time to move!

The second and third weeks of October I had a lot of buck encounters but nothing that I was interested in shooting. But during those two weeks of moving and staying mobile, all while being pretty aggressive with trail cams, I could tell I was starting to pushing into territory that was being stacked with deer by the surrounding pressure.

One buck in particular was catching my attention. Not just by his size, but by how small of a core area he was keeping to. I was getting numerous trail cam pics of him on different cameras and he was laying down a lot of sign. (This buck was eventually shot during the WI Gun Season)...
Image

Wednesday Oct. 23rd, I had a good feeling about how I could access what I was thinking was his bedding area and felt I was where I needed to be. About a half hour before dark and I was just standing up and happened to catch a doe about 75 yds off to my left and she was looking right at me. About 15 yds behind her was the buck I was after. The bad thing was, she had seen me stand up and she ended up going away from me and taking the buck with her. So close, but yet still not able to punch my tag.

Tuesday Oct. 30th, I got out of work later than I wanted to. As a result, I decided it was going to be a ground pound night and left the stand and sticks in the truck. With almost zero wind and a light fog I knew it would be tough to not get winded so I had to setup accordingly. With only an hour of daylight left I was setup on a pinchpoint with the suspected bedding area on the other side. 15 minutes later I caught a rack moving through the edge of the cedars not even 25 yds away. He needed to take 5 more steps and there was a window to shoot about the size of a beachball. He still hasnt taken another step when I see his nose go up and the tongue start working the nose and I knew the gig was up. He turned directly around and walked straight back where he came from. Yet another failed attempt… This was getting hard to swallow.

Thursday Nov. 1st, I decided to hit the hills about ¼ mile from where I was chasing that big 10pt a couple days earlier. Its a really cool setup actually, there are 2 long ridges that run East/West and theres a spot about 50yds wide that both ridges dump down into. Where those ridges meet, a Real thick pine tree edge T-bones them. Bucks like to cruise both those ridges and they also like to cruise the edge of the pines. About 5pm I was setup and at 5:05 I saw a rack coming at me from the ridge to my west. I didnt have a lot of time to decide what I wanted to do and decided if he gave me a shot, I would take it.
Long story short the next morning I recovered the buck and was pleased to have finally had something work out. A good 10pt with real good mass for a 3 1/2 yr old on the public.
Image

Image

Image


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Peeps22
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Peeps22 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 2:22 pm

If anybody can give me a link or any advice on how to upload pictures that would be awesome. Havent been on here much to upload any pics as of recently apparently :lol:
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Peeps22
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Peeps22 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:08 pm

Man, where to even start...

With 2017 not going the exact way i had planned after hitting a pencil sized twig and missing a 140" 8pt on Oct 21st. Oct 29th i had a 160" buck come through following a doe but never offered a shot. Oct 31st a 135" 9pt stood up out of his bed and moved 40 yds and then stalled until it got dark. The first week of November a buddy and i went down to Indiana for a week only to get greeted by 4in of rain and tornadoes the last 4 days of the trip. My buddy ended up missing a nice buck the first morning and i ended up seeing 2 mature bucks the first day but couldnt move into the kill spot because they were bedding on private land. Long story short, I wasnt happy about eating a tag in WI and also eating an Indiana tag as well.

2018

I scouted more in the winter and spring of 2018, than any other year prior. And trust me, from 2013 after finding the beast ive put in some crazy hours and ALOT of miles scouting... but what i have been starting to realize (this year especially), is that all the scouting doesnt always equate to SHOOTING bucks. Ill talk more about that in a different post to keep this one on topic.

Summer of 2018 started out good as i was laying eyes on some good bucks shining, on trail cam, glassing, i felt i had a real good shot at tagging out in the first 2 weeks of the season. Particularly, i was seeing 2 good 8pt's that were hanging out with each other most of the summer. The high and tight buck on the left in the first picture ended up moving about a half mile away but the wider 8pt remained where he was all summer and that carried on through the first week of the season.
Image

Monday Sept. 17th, the third day of WI bow season, i ended up jumping him walking in. I was less than 5 yds from my kill tree and he was bedded only 30 yds from me when he jumped. Being so close and not sealing the deal really hurt my confidence but i had to keep telling myself that i had basically killed that deer and it was just a matter of time before an arrow got released. Here is a pic of him coming into his bedroom the morning of the day i bumped him.
Image

Wednesday Sept. 19th, I had his particular bedding area surrounded with trail cams and hadnt checked one camera because that cam was on the backside of his bedding and it wasnt easy to check that camera without risking bumping him but with a steady east wind, it was doable. Sure enough, he was now shifted to the backside of that bedding area and going out the backdoor from where he was all summer. I should also mention that this buck was bedding there on any wind and just shifted how he laid with the different wind directions. A pic of him with his new exit trail.
Image

Friday Sept. 21st, I had scouted the edge of where I thought the big 8 was now bedding after bumping him only a couple nights prior and found real good sign coming out of bedding. He was getting to my trail camera just before dark and I knew if I pushed into bedding that I would have a crack at him. Just before dark the buck stood up and did what most big bucks do… Stage until dark and then he swung around downwind of me and blew. Havent seen that buck since…

The next few weeks I kind of hit a rough patch with mature buck encounters.

Thursday Oct. 6th, I got setup along a newly scouted bedding area at the bottom of a sharp ridge that dropped off and dumped into a real thick cattail swamp.and right away had deer action. A doe and 2 fawns got up and milled around and went behind me up to the ag fields. 10 minutes later 2 smaller bucks came past and followed where the doe and 2 fawns went. Right behind them was a 6pt and a basket 8pt. Just before dark a 125” 9pt came through 20yds past me and gave me a broadside shot. I elected to pass him with hopes he would make until next year.
Image

That area up until that point wasnt being touched by other hunters but after that one sit, guys seemed to be getting back there and the deer sightings were getting less and less because of it. Time to move!

The second and third weeks of October I had a lot of buck encounters but nothing that I was interested in shooting. But during those two weeks of moving and staying mobile, all while being pretty aggressive with trail cams, I could tell I was starting to pushing into territory that was being stacked with deer by the surrounding pressure.

One buck in particular was catching my attention. Not just by his size, but by how small of a core area he was keeping to. I was getting numerous trail cam pics of him on different cameras and he was laying down a lot of sign. (This buck was eventually shot during the WI Gun Season)...
Image

Wednesday Oct. 23rd, I had a good feeling about how I could access what I was thinking was his bedding area and felt I was where I needed to be. About a half hour before dark and I was just standing up and happened to catch a doe about 75 yds off to my left and she was looking right at me. About 15 yds behind her was the buck I was after. The bad thing was, she had seen me stand up and she ended up going away from me and taking the buck with her. So close, but yet still not able to punch my tag.

Tuesday Oct. 30th, I got out of work later than I wanted to. As a result, I decided it was going to be a ground pound night and left the stand and sticks in the truck. With almost zero wind and a light fog I knew it would be tough to not get winded so I had to setup accordingly. With only an hour of daylight left I was setup on a pinchpoint with the suspected bedding area on the other side. 15 minutes later I caught a rack moving through the edge of the cedars not even 25 yds away. He needed to take 5 more steps and there was a window to shoot about the size of a beachball. He still hasnt taken another step when I see his nose go up and the tongue start working the nose and I knew the gig was up. He turned directly around and walked straight back where he came from. Yet another failed attempt… This was getting hard to swallow.

Thursday Nov. 1st, I decided to hit the hills about ¼ mile from where I was chasing that big 10pt a couple days earlier. Its a really cool setup actually, there are 2 long ridges that run East/West and theres a spot about 50yds wide that both ridges dump down into. Where those ridges meet, a Real thick pine tree edge T-bones them. Bucks like to cruise both those ridges and they also like to cruise the edge of the pines. About 5pm I was setup and at 5:05 I saw a rack coming at me from the ridge to my west. I didnt have a lot of time to decide what I wanted to do and decided if he gave me a shot, I would take it.
Long story short the next morning I recovered the buck and was pleased to have finally had something work out. A good 10pt with real good mass for a 3 1/2 yr old on the public.
Image

Image

Image
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Jackson Marsh
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:23 pm

Congrats on a dandy buck! ! :clap: :clap:

All your scouting really paid off. Well done.
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby wolfie729 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:50 pm

Good read man! Congrats your a beast!
Earn what’s never given.
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john1984
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby john1984 » Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:21 am

Dandy buck peeps :clap:
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Hawthorne » Mon Nov 26, 2018 5:59 am

Congrats! That’s a nice buck.Good write up
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Mossyhorns » Mon Nov 26, 2018 1:16 pm

Good job way to stay after it
Yeah, well....sometimes nothin can be a real cool hand.
-Cool Hand Luke
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Re: Peeps 2017/2018 Bow Season

Unread postby Arrowbender » Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:59 pm

Congrats
Sounds like a great set-up


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