Deerthirty...
 

I was over in the race section and Mike Leech posted up about it being almost "Deerthirty". Seems he is as avid a deer hunter as I am and my friends say I just race to pass the time between deer seasons... Just wondering how many others are out there that just basically live for the fall deer season like Mike and I do?

October 1 is coming up and my wife learned to hunt just so she could be around me for the next couple of months because I basically don't exist other than for the hunt or just go back and forth to work when I have to work in this time frame...

It's going to be a LOUSY deer season here in S. Indiana. Blue tongue three years ago and the drought this year.

We had the most amazing drought this yr I can ever remember. Fires took hundreds of homes from grass fires here in NE oklahoma. Whole towns evacuated. The boat ramps at the lakes shut down due to low lake levels, Have not had to start my mower since June and lost hundreds of trees due to the drought and heat wave...

But - the deer seem to have come through it and the fawn survival rate looks great. I am seeing more deer on my deer lease than I have in about 4 yrs and trail cam pics of fawns is at an all time high... We had blue tongue in 1998 and it was terrible...

Lets see some deer porn.

I used to up until last year :(.

I hunted with a good friend in GA for 15 years straight. We made it through three divorces, two trailers, two dogs, 7 rifles and many girlfriends.

I love that guy like a brother.

LOL

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...inthanging.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...13andrifle.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...1/100_0361.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...1/100_0352.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...zleloader8.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...naw12point.jpg

Some trad bow kills...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...SelfbowDoe.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...oint-Peggs.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...ster8point.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...Rifle82004.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...eggs8point.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/69Goat1/Big6.jpg

This is my trail camera and the clock was not set for this run but is now. Bow started the 15th of this month and goes into the middle of January.
Wont bother sitting until things cool down a little more and with temps getting down into the low thirties tonight it wont be long.

One my bride killed...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...1/100_0356.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...ps62aafa4b.jpg

Bears have moved into Oklahoma too...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...psed923a1b.jpg

all them from oklahoma? I'll post mine and where they are from.

Nice looking bucks. I sure hope you skin em out when you get back to camp. Nothing worse than letting them hang with the hide on em for a few days. Skin em out and in the cooler the same day shot is what we always did. Same as you'd butcher beef. No gamey taste at all, and so tender..... ummm ummm good!

Until I moved to Delaware I was always out in the woods during deer season up on the Canadian border of NY. And I sure miss it today.

Spent Sunday evening at my uncle's farm. He's seen three deer so far this year. Ten years ago, he was begging all the nephews to hunt in order control the deer population.He was loosing 30% of his corn and soybean crop to them.

Yes all of these are from Northeastern Oklahoma... land of the little bodied deer. The biggest recurve buck was from McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. The rest are all off of just private land. I used to get to hunt some good areas with just asking but all the old landowners have died off and the bigger properties busted up and now nobody wants to let anyone hunt. I finally got on a lease in 1998 with about 10 other guys that was 1500 acres of hills, ridges, and hollows. Tough to hunt but over the years I have learned my area well.

This shouold be a good year in Oklahoma with Muzzleloader being tne 27th of October to the 4th of November and Rifle beginning the 17th of November to the 2nd of December. We have a 2 buck limit...

We take them straight to the deer processor and they are put straight into a refrigerated cooler until their turn to be skinned... If the processor is closed we skin them out immediately and either hang them if it is cold or quarter and put into coolers if it is warm...

I hate to hear about this. It happened where I hunt in 1998 and I saw 3 deer that whole season on our lease. I was able to go to family land further north and take a buck mid rifle season that yr...

We've had several good years, but the doe population was out of control. DNR estimated that there were 1.2-1.5 million deer statewide. The situation was so bad here that DNR hired hunters to take any deer, any where, any time. That reduced the herd, but didn't improve it any. The biggest buck I've seen in years makes his trail between our house and our neighbor's (about 150yrd.) He probably goes around 275lbs and has a spread of 42-46". In 2008, a friend filled my tag (back surgery kept me out of the field) with a small, young buck(4 points). It dressed out at 150lbs.

I used to hunt every chance I got. Then, out-of-staters started buying up all the hunting leases and I couldn't afford a place so I gave it up and sold most of my guns. I still enjoy a nice grilled backstrap when I am fortunate enough to have one given to me.
I really don't miss the harvesting as much as I miss getting out in the woods.
Anyway, now I have my GTO to take up my time.