WI firearm season ended for me with nothing. Had a couple of doe and a buck within sight but there were a lot of branches between me and them. Good thing I filled my freezer from MN deer. Now I can spend the next year overthinking how I will hunt next year.

Taking a break from hunting for a couple of days since it is pouring down rain. The first day we were in the field an hour before daylight and stayed until sunset - only saw 4 deer and no antlers. Driving home we saw another deer standing in the middle of a country road. Of the four deer we saw, all came withing 25 yards (one little button buck was so close I thought it might grab something out of my lunch). Day two it poured most of the morning - we only stayed out for 6 hours and came home to dry out.

Hopefully back out Friday (my son feels a cold coming on so he will have to stay home from school. Since I don't want to leave him home alone he'll have to come hunting with me )

I was a dishonest parent during hunting season and called and said my son had a "fever"....also known as "Buck Fever"

Hey...it's his senior year and he has all A's and super easy classes!!

I continue to see 0. Thinking about it more, the new spot just doesn't have enough heavy woods in close proximity. My continued visits will hinge on what the game camera yields on Friday.

There is very little moving the deer in my area right now. The weather is not cold enough (it felt plenty cold to me, but the deer are fine) and there is no snow that forces them to move about searching for food. There is also a lack of hunter activity that typically will get them moving. I'm convinced that this rain has most of the deer bedded down waiting it out.

Since my son is a junior hunter, it is somewhat difficult to do anything but set up and wait for the deer to come to us. He has not yet developed the stealthy skills required to stalk deer on foot and I have to be within arms reach of him while he is hunting so I can't try to push deer to him. Hopefully we will have better luck this weekend.

A crummy day hunting .... compliance ... hmmm ...

I'll take the crummy day hunting.

Well back from hunting M-W. Nothing like hunting the pouring rain.

The son and I tag teamed on a doe. I missed 3 bucks Although they were running. (So wasn't the doe, but we got her)
Rain was so hard, it was difficult to hear anything until it was right on top of you.

While driving back to the house each night I saw two really nice bucks just standing in the road.

Everyday and twice on Mionday's.

I was walking with my wife back where I was hunting and she couldn't help but comment on how many deer tracks are directly underneath the stand ...

out of the back seat and into the bed with her!

My son put some meat in the freezer on Saturday, no horns on the wall though. After seeing 5 deer Monday, getting soaked for 6 hours on Tuesday and seeing nothing, and sitting all day Friday and seeing only two squirrels I was afraid his interest would fade. We went out Saturday morning and within about an hour about 15 deer exploded into the small patch of woods we were watching. There may have been a small buck in the bunch, but the rest were does. He didn't take a shot because they were moving too much and he didn't have a cleans shot. About 4 hours later two does busted into the woods and they too were running. I whistled loudly and they stopped about 50 yards from us. He was able to shoot one and thankfully it fell about a foot from going down a very steep hill.

I figured out as we were dragging the deer out that deer have been hiding and bedding down in a field that is right next to our little patch of woods. I never would have guessed they would hide in the field, but it is the perfect spot. There is no where that you can see the entire field from. The golden rod has grown up to nearly 5 feet in places and there is plenty of brush to hide in. There were trails and bedding areas in that field that I am sure have been concealing the deer we've been looking for.

I will be going out solo one day this week and for the last day this season with my son on Saturday. I need to come up with a strategy to get eyes on that field and hopefully find one of the big bucks that we have been after.

Good hunting story right there, Thomas. Was the doe a good size? We're used to "dog-deer" down here.

Can't eat horns. I wouldn't be adverse to a nice buck with a rocking chair rack on his head but don't completely understand the modern deer hunter's fixation on antlers. I was raised though with the notion that the meat was the trophy to be appreciated. That's the way it was in our extended family when I was a kid. If horns were the big deal then longhorn cattle would be the top breed. Good thing the longhorn isn't tops as I like good, tender steaks too well.

This has been an enjoyable thread this hunting season.

Good story, indeed.

I wonder how mad the wife is going to be when she realizes that I'm just going out to the field to sit by myself and read a book. I almost....slightly..... hope the deer don't show up so that I can continue to relax.

2 kids in the house, I can't remember the last time I was able to read a book. Wait, that was last season.

Way to go Little TJ jr!. Yeah, I told the son, the doe isn't as thrilling as the buck from last year, but you can't eat the antlers.

Very nice! Glad he was able to fill his tag and the freezer!

The doe he took was decent size, over 100 lbs before it was dressed out. I really don't like taking doe as it is 2 or possibly 3 deer we won't see next year; however, I remember being 13 and how important it was to me to get a deer. I want to keep him interested in the sport and he has shown incredible patience this past week sitting for hours in less than ideal conditions.

We both still have buck tags and I will be very selective before I take anything. I have a doe tag too, but that will likely remain unused unless I see a wounded or injured doe.

He now wants to take up trapping, which I have never had much interest in but will help him with. It is a huge time commitment and a lot of work so we will see how he sticks with it.

I told him that he is getting old enough to learn field dress his own deer and that he will be learning to skin what he catches when he starts trapping.

Good size up there. Few weigh that around these parts.

They'll still sure mess up a car at 75 mph on our long stretches of highway.

My dad always encouraged letting the big does go, since they knew how to survive and raise new babies.

Although, I will let the little ones go. Had three I let go this year, told them to grow up.

If we hadn't seen those 15 deer earlier in the day we would have likely passed on taking this one. Having witnessed that many in a herd and seeing how many we had on the game cameras it's pretty clear we have a good population. I have a great deal of respect for those mama deer having watched them raise and protect their young this past year on the game cameras. I can not even imagine those doe taking care of and keeping track of twin fawns from the time they are born. They are very protective of the little ones.

Saw this sign

Warning
Baiting Deer is Illegal!

This corn pile is intended for squirrels,
chipmunks, and other such animals.

Any deer eating this corn
Will Be Shot!

Yeap Rocky

Does anyone here hunt a private landowners land? If so, how did you go about getting permission?

I'm not sure if I'll have this spot next year or not, but even if I do, my new home will be two counties in the opposite direction by then.

I need to get to work finding a new spot in the new county.

One only has to ask, but this day and age most who own property in deer range in Texas know the value of the hunting all too well. We live in a county of some renown for deer hunting and the local chamber of commerce maintains all sorts of lists. Permission to hunt here is mostly bought.

Me? I either go two counties away and hunt free on the family place which, for quality of deer hunting, is about a "2" on a scale of one to ten, or go on hunts my brother-in-law cooks up. I've not paid for a deer lease in eight years. I have hunted right here in our county and have taken a few deer off fellow church members' or co-workers' properties. The hunting invites remain open for several places close by but I hate to abuse the privilege and take too much advantage.

Also hate to pay market prices for leases here which are too costly in my view.

we've had permission for three generations. so I'm not sure I can help answer the question. However when I ask permission for pheasant I usually bring a young kid (if we have one hunting with us, not one I found in town) and always offer something as a thank you (we offer a bird or two (processed, not still feathered) or some beer).

Check your state requirement. In Ohio the hunter must carry written permission from the land owner to be on their land.

The ODNR used to have a template that the land owner could use. I just take a 3x5 note card and have the landowner state that I have permission to hunt on their land.