J-birds place

[j-bird]

Glad youre ok jbird. Great reminder to check our gear. Im sure we all know someone who has taken a nasty fall and thats just stupid nowadays. Kudos to you for buckling up.

Stay with the habitat program, but give yourself and the deer a breather summer thru fall. I enjoy keeping up with your habitat work. Everything looks great to me.

Thanks Fish - I just seem to always be running behind and there always seem to be something that needs to be done. I won't panic just yet, but maybe backing off a bit is a good idea. As far at the incident goes - it was bound to happen sooner or later and that is why we use the safety gear.

Looks like we got a front that passed and temps are going to drop......looks like lows near freezing for the opening weekend of gun season.....gonna be some nice deer dropped, with the weather and the rut lining up like it is. Good luck to you and be safe.

 

[MarkDarvin]

Is it possible your neighbor is baiting?

 

[j-bird]

Is it possible your neighbor is baiting?

Not likely - if they are baiting they don't do it until gun season ......because they are lazy and it's against the law here.

 

[j-bird]

Well wish me luck. I'll sort of be in technological "time out" as I will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks deer hunting our firearms season. My internet signal at the house is pretty poor. Woke up this morning to actual real frost on the windshield on the vehicle and morning temps are forecast to be near freezing so things ought to be real good for hunting. I'll post some pics if we have any luck along the way. My boy is home from college so he will be hunting and I will have my youngest daughter with me at least some of the time in our efforts to get her first deer. To all my fellow Hoosier hunters out there - good luck to you and be safe!

 

[Gator]

Good luck jbird. Glad you escaped the stand failure unscathed.


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[OkieKubota]

Good luck j-bird! Rifle season is still over a week away for us...

 

[lakngolf]

Best of luck to you and family! Looking forward to some good pictures.

 

[Weasel]

Good luck J!

 

[Triple C]

j-bird....Just catching up on some threads this morning. Glad you're ok and let it be a reminder for all of us to think safety first! I've gotten really cautious over the years. Climbed in a ladder stand Saturday afternoon and discovered it didn't have a tree strap to hook in. I sat for a while and then climbed down. I just can't sit even in a ladder stand without being hooked in now. Best of luck for the rest of the season and be safe!

 

[j-bird]

Well I had a great firearms opener weekend. Went hunting with my little girl and we shared some memories.....although they didn't result in a deer - she missed cleanly.....twice. But I ended up with a pick-up of deer all the same.

First morning of opening weekend I took my daughter to a shooting house because it was cold. I set up a decoy and about mid morning a pretty 2 year old buck comes trotting across the field. He stopped about 50 yards out and she shot. Missed cleanly and he trotted about 20 yards and turned back to look over the decoy again. Emma shot yet again - and again missed cleanly. Buck fever had not only showed up but had consumed her. She was in tears because of the miss but I used the moment as a learning experience. I explained that we all have missed and how I would prefer a clean miss vs a bad hit. She explained the emotions involved and I just smiled.....because we have all been there. I was still able to get a smile out of her on the walk back home. We still went out later and she chose not to shoot again because of the nerves but I talked to her about how to try to calm down and relax and how to breath and the like with the deer being close. Even without a gun in her hand she was physically shaking - so we just watched......I was tagged out in the antlerless deer department at that point.....more on that below.

The times she didn't hunt - I still went and had some success myself. I got a full freezer now ......now I need one for the wall!


As much as I was against the use of high powered rifle - I decided to give it a chance and my 30-30 was great. I didn't extend my range any more than I would have had with my slug gun, it delivered clean kills and was far easier to shoot on me than my 12 gauge. I'm still not sure we need to be able to kill deer at 200 or 300 yards (some other legal cartridges like 30-06, 308 & 300).

We had seen decent deer activity and now it's to get warm again - not real happy about that, but I have the next 2 weeks off for vacation so I got time. I want to get Emma a deer yet and I need to track down old mossy horns!

 

[OkieKubota]

Well I had a great firearms opener weekend. Went hunting with my little girl and we shared some memories.....although they didn't result in a deer - she missed cleanly.....twice. But I ended up with a pick-up of deer all the same.

First morning of opening weekend I took my daughter to a shooting house because it was cold. I set up a decoy and about mid morning a pretty 2 year old buck comes trotting across the field. He stopped about 50 yards out and she shot. Missed cleanly and he trotted about 20 yards and turned back to look over the decoy again. Emma shot yet again - and again missed cleanly. Buck fever had not only showed up but had consumed her. She was in tears because of the miss but I used the moment as a learning experience. I explained that we all have missed and how I would prefer a clean miss vs a bad hit. She explained the emotions involved and I just smiled.....because we have all been there. I was still able to get a smile out of her on the walk back home. View attachment 4517 We still went out later and she chose not to shoot again because of the nerves but I talked to her about how to try to calm down and relax and how to breath and the like with the deer being close. Even without a gun in her hand she was physically shaking - so we just watched......I was tagged out in the antlerless deer department at that point.....more on that below.

The times she didn't hunt - I still went and had some success myself. I got a full freezer now ......now I need one for the wall!
View attachment 4518

As much as I was against the use of high powered rifle - I decided to give it a chance and my 30-30 was great. I didn't extend my range any more than I would have had with my slug gun, it delivered clean kills and was far easier to shoot on me than my 12 gauge. I'm still not sure we need to be able to kill deer at 200 or 300 yards (some other legal cartridges like 30-06, 308 & 300).

We had seen decent deer activity and now it's to get warm again - not real happy about that, but I have the next 2 weeks off for vacation so I got time. I want to get Emma a deer yet and I need to track down old mossy horns!

Dang - That's what I call whackin and stackin deer!

 

[j-bird]

Dang - That's what I call whackin and stackin deer!

Funny you say that - the last one almost lived because of the internet! I wasn't sure how many I personally could kill so I had to quickly look it up on my phone ......and the deer was standing right there. Of course it was buried in the DNR web site and I'm frantically looking for the information that I KNEW was there. As soon as I saw the "3" for my county I stuffed the phone in my pocket, and took my shot. Technology killed that deer - I would have NEVER killed it without knowing I was legal!

 

[dogdoc]

Well I'm glad you are ok. That could have been bad. I have a couple stands that have been up many years. I'm going to have to double check them now.

Good luck next week.
Todd

 

[Fish]

Well, Jbird, you got some meat for the freezer. Evidently your habitat got a thumbs up from them!
This weekend's cool down should get things hoppin again.

 

[dgallow]

Congrats...that will keep you busy!

It is a good thing for a young hunter to have nerves! Tell her to keep at it and breathe!

 

[j-bird]

Well this week has been a roller coaster. Last weekend I tagged 3 antlerless deer but then the weather got hot - I was weari g flip flops about mid week. Then it got cold and windy 20+ mph over Saturday with rain as well. Tonight I shot and hit a buck but have a weak blood trail so I backed out and will search in the am. Hopefully I will have a pic of some success tomorrow.

 

[catscratch]

Good luck! Hopefully he's one of those that don't bleed much for the first sprint after the shot but crashes soon after.

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[Native Hunter]

Congrats on the does J and best wishes on finding your buck.

 

[Fish]

Well this week has been a roller coaster. Last weekend I tagged 3 antlerless deer but then the weather got hot - I was weari g flip flops about mid week. Then it got cold and windy 20+ mph over Saturday with rain as well. Tonight I shot and hit a buck but have a weak blood trail so I backed out and will search in the am. Hopefully I will have a pic of some success tomorrow.

Any idea on the hit? Can we be of any help?

 

[j-bird]

To be honest I had what appeared to be a clean miss on the first shot - which to be honest, shocks the hell out of me. The deer didn't even flinch, but just sort of stood there. He then trotted off another 10 yards further and I sent round #2 his way and that time he bucked and bounded away. I have no idea of where he is hit but I did find bright red blood. No sign of dark blood or a gut shot from what I was able to find. The "hit" was made in tall CRP weeds so evidence is a bit tough to see in the fading light. I tend to not have a significant yote issue to I will look in the am instead of potentially pushing him. My dogs are not trained to recover deer but they may come in handy as well. I hope to find the buck dead in a bed in a small wood lot that wasn't far away in the am. Normally I would push on but I have the week off so I have time so better safe to back out. I have made the mistake of going in too soon and making things much worse in the past. How I had what seemed to be a clean miss at 50 yards with a scoped rifle is beyond me! I hope to update with good news tomorrow.