1 deer in the frig is worth 2 in the bush
 

Our season starts on the first Sat. of Oct. deer, turkey and bear.
This year the temps. have stayed above 85 F days and 69 F nights
with like 98% humidity on most days. Havn't seen any rain in like 3+ weeks.


I was out a couple times for turkey, had 3 hens come in to my decoys
but hung up at like 45 yards or more where shy about the decoys, I never
called.

Was out a 2nd time this time I didn't put out any decoys only called once
in a while. After a while I step out of the blind to pee and spook the same
3 hens just 40 yards away and where comin' in.
That was last Sun. on the 8th.

Until today it was maybe 64 F for a high today.

Set up the blind about 10:30am in a different spot for those birds, waited,
called, until about 2:00Pm then headed back home to plan a stand for an
afternoon deer hunt with the climber.

About 4:30pm I had 3 deer come by (thought they were all does).
1 walked under my stand, I drew and held on one of the others that were
standing broadside about 20 yards.
Turned out to be a button buck.

Went about 40 - 45 yards and dropped.
First pic is the deer second pic is in the cooler.
My butcher has cut back his hours during bow season this year so..
I had to improvise.

Nice work !
I had a doe come to 23 yards but I passed on her because of a buck following her, long story short, he never got any closer and now all I have is regret and an empty freezer.

"1 deer is the frig is worth 2 in the bush" is my new mantra.

Good job! Dang those are small in the body! Whereabouts are you located again?

I was about to say his bow almost dwarfs the deer lol

It's smaller than any other deer I've ever shot, I joined the fall archery contest
on Archery Talk and so far I bet at half the pics. of deer taken so far mostly
in southern or south western states are deer as small as this one.

2 things very odd about this summer and early fall are no does with fawns
were seen in the pasture. When any deer did show up (once every 2 weeks or so) it was only 1 doe with 1 spike. Normally we see up to 3 herds of 4 to 5 does
with paired spotted fawns and a buck or two. Didn't happen this year.

The other thing was I never even saw any does with spotted fawns in the fields going to work or coming home.

When I got back home with the button buck I joked to my wife saying
"What the hell? Do these fawns loose their spots soon as their bigger than a football."

A very large part of Virginia is vast acerage of planted pine not corn or soybean so many deer here don't put weight on like they do from northern
Maryland on up or out in the western corn and wheat states.

But yea this deer and many of the others I've seen taken in the south this year are smaller than I've seen before.

Button buck = good eating

I'll try to word this as best I can.
I'm not proud of shooting this deer it was young.
I would not have even drawn on him it I saw spots or even faded spots.
But fact as it is he was one of the 2 out of 3 that were standing broadside
against 1 that was walking at a fast pace under my stand.
Shooting almost strieght down means most likely a one lung hit and if and
most likely hitting the briscket on the way out, you will not get a bleeder
hole on the bottom (pass through). NOT good.
Also a moving target with a bow is against all odds.

So. size up the situation and make your best decidion on which shot to
take. Most important make a clean and quick kill. Very simple.

You have 35 seconds to decide.

Yes you can always call a draw and not shoot at all, back down.
I've done that. This time I didn't.

I don’t think any ones bashing you man? I knew deer down in states are smaller bodied then up here. All that matters is you made good shot and filled freezer don’t get better then that

no shame in that at all, going to be tender eating. Id be glad to get that, I just want to get something with my bow. Hoping this is my week.

I didn't feel anyone was bashing at all, just the opposite.
I appreciate the support.
Guess I was kind of bashing myself and just needed to talk it out.
Thank you all.

I put up the "All seeing eye" a few days ago where I was hunting turkey down
by the river.

Will be setting up for "Hollywood" in the last picture who took the selfie this
morning. :-)

Hollywood did cooperate this morning but she did this afternoon.

Congrats, whats the story?

The storey is well..
Theirs a couple of things I should say first.

1 the contest I'm in on AT offers no money, reward or other form of gain
other than having fellow bowhunters share in the experiance.
I felt no pressure to simply kill any deer just to add to the points total.
AT is not a friendly place to be, but I found some good people who are there.

2 I've shot so many deer and turkey over the years that I know better on
how to tell just how big a deer is (look at the length of the tail to the hocks).

3 I couldn't post on AT what I posted above because, I didn't want to belittle
someone's first deer with a bow, no matter how small.

For some reason I could post it here, and no-one seems offended.
Thank you, that was not my intent.

4 I live in the state of VA in the US, it's divided from north to south on the
route 29 highway. East of route 29 dogs are allowed to hunt deer, on the
west side of route 29 they are not.

I live on the east side, it's also leagle to "train dogs" from Jan. - Nov 1st.
(first day of muzzel loader season) then no dogs until Dec 1st (rifle shotgun)

Makes bowhunting in Oct. very challenging.

I don't want to change things the way they are down here never did, I just
try to work with these people as best I can.

I don't "use" the dogs for bowhunting, I don't put out feeders for deer or use
scents or plant food plots. This is the first time I used my trail cam since I
bought it 3 years ago for deer. It's used mostly to watch the chicken coop.

I woke up a bit late this morning, drove back down to about 1/4 mile of the
river, parked the truck first thing I heard was like 4 hounds howling away.
As I walked from my truck down toward the river 2 of the dogs came up
out of the valley and I waved them off.

All went silent.
So I contineued on and set up with my climbling stand at the river bottom
from 8:00am to 11:00am and saw and heard nothing.
Came home, ate a venisen burger, took some practice shots at the target
then took the climber out back past the pasture about 1500 feet picked
out a pine and took a stand. It was the same tree I shot the button buck
from but this doe is not of the same heard.

:-) I don't know where she came from,
I don't know where she's been.
I really don't think it matters much,
She's in the frig and I can't wait to do it again.

It's was a good, fast clean kill.

Frig deer where hard to get this week...this species is elusive and seem to be showing up at night...come on November!!!!!!