Back out sitting with daughter. Changed it up this evening, neighbor gave me permission to use his stand for muzzy, took him up on it. Nice box stand with a heater still in it, kind of nice!
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Decided for a Spur of the moment Wisconsin rifle hunt near Amery this weekend. An hour into stand and I missed a big 8 at 100yd on an off-hand, twisted body shot. Passed a small 8 yesterday and now eating tag soup. Oh well.
MN buck tag was filled at William O Brien a few weeks back and now onto Iowa end of December. Good luck to all still getting out.
Decided for a Spur of the moment Wisconsin rifle hunt near Amery this weekend. An hour into stand and I missed a big 8 at 100yd on an off-hand, twisted body shot. Passed a small 8 yesterday and now eating tag soup. Oh well.
MN buck tag was filled at William O Brien a few weeks back and now onto Iowa end of December. Good luck to all still getting out.
What size bucks are shot out of William o Brian? How many hunters do they give tags to ?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ganderpike wrote:</div>
Decided for a Spur of the moment Wisconsin rifle hunt near Amery this weekend. An hour into stand and I missed a big 8 at 100yd on an off-hand, twisted body shot. Passed a small 8 yesterday and now eating tag soup. Oh well.MN buck tag was filled at William O Brien a few weeks back and now onto Iowa end of December. Good luck to all still getting out.
What size bucks are shot out of William o Brian? How many hunters do they give tags to ?
It took me three years of applying to draw. 50 hunters allowed on the 1000 acres. Each hunter gets a buck and doe tag. I shot a nice 8, old buck. Others trophy hunted, three deer over 120″ were tagged from what I heard. The rangers and park staff encourage shooting the does and small bucks, and don’t necessarily want people applying for a management hunt to trophy hunt.
Scenery was incredible, barely saw another person, many deer. Can’t wait to draw again. The mile and a half drag up the Bluffs was an incredible workout too.
now onto Iowa end of December
So not only did you draw at William O Brian state park, you also drew in Iowa’s non-resident lottery as well the same season?
It took me three years of applying to draw. 50 hunters allowed on the 1000 acres. Each hunter gets a buck and doe tag. I shot a nice 8, old buck. Others trophy hunted, three deer over 120″ were tagged from what I heard. The rangers and park staff encourage shooting the does and small bucks, and don’t necessarily want people applying for a management hunt to trophy hunt.
Scenery was incredible, barely saw another person, many deer. Can’t wait to draw again. The mile and a half drag up the Bluffs was an incredible workout too.
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I hang out in that area and fish the area often. It’s a cool area. I wouldn’t drag a deer up that bluff lol I would be packing it out for sure. There are trophys in that area and I have seen them through out the years. Never thought about applying but unless I was trophy hunting I probably wouldn’t. Good job on the 2 tags filled. That feels good. Your not from this area right ?
I’ve been zigging when I should be zagging and vice versa. Starting to get down to crunch time, and I may regret focusing on one buck instead of a full freezer, but here we are and personally I feel challenged. 
It took me three years of applying to draw. 50 hunters allowed on the 1000 acres. Each hunter gets a buck and doe tag. I shot a nice 8, old buck. Others trophy hunted, three deer over 120″ were tagged from what I heard. The rangers and park staff encourage shooting the does and small bucks, and don’t necessarily want people applying for a management hunt to trophy hunt.
Scenery was incredible, barely saw another person, many deer. Can’t wait to draw again. The mile and a half drag up the Bluffs was an incredible workout too.
I hang out in that area and fish the area often. It’s a cool area. I wouldn’t drag a deer up that bluff lol I would be packing it out for sure. There are trophys in that area and I have seen them through out the years. Never thought about applying but unless I was trophy hunting I probably wouldn’t. Good job on the 2 tags filled. That feels good. Your not from this area right ?
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Thanks man, definitely happy with how it turned out. I grew up in the Hugo area and have been fortunate to hunt and fish that area most of my life. Im sure we’ve shared some similar hunting grounds.
Usually can draw Iowa every couple years if you hunt the northern half of the state and do late muzzleloader.
I haven’t seen any day time movement for a week or better. But at night has been nuts. I have 36 pictures from last night between 7pm and 5am.
This has been one of the weirdest Novembers I have ever went through.
Very little daylight movement both seen and on cameras.
It’s got me to the point of hanging it up for the year and switch to calling coyotes. Western SD is calling my name.
GanderPike, does Iowa have a separate draw for muzzleloader or is it lumped in with Gun? When you pull up draw stats the only thing I can find is Gun and Bow.
Gun tags are a lot easier to be had compared to Bow tags. 2 points can get you any gun tag and other then 4, 5 and 6 all zones have a chance to be drawn with zero.
That late muzzleloader hunt can be fun if you have a good food source. One year I hunted a 160 acre picked corn field that bordered a state park. That park was loaded with deer and the vast majority were hitting that corn field. Never did shoot a big buck off that field but it definitely had some good ones hitting it.
This has been one of the weirdest Novembers I have ever went through.
Very little daylight movement both seen and on cameras.
It’s got me to the point of hanging it up for the year and switch to calling coyotes. Western SD is calling my name.
I had my shooter wi buck walk under me Sunday morning a hour before shooting hours. That was my only movement I’ve seen with my eyes in a while. I’m about ready to call it a season as well. I still have a little drive in me but not very much. I think it’s time to bust out my ice stuff and go back to fishing. I have alot of time in the woods this season. As much as I love it, I am ready for it to be over.
I only have like two daytime buck picks in the last few weeks. Maybe longer. Both are small 8s. I have not had a single daytime picture of a mature buck since September.
I will probably muzzy hunt this weekend because I bought the tag but don’t have much hope as I will be hunting a Christmas tree farm that gets a lot of people walking through it during the day.
DT
All my pictures recently are between 10pm and 2am…thats it. Nothing during the other 22 hours
GanderPike, does Iowa have a separate draw for muzzleloader or is it lumped in with Gun? When you pull up draw stats the only thing I can find is Gun and Bow.
Gun tags are a lot easier to be had compared to Bow tags. 2 points can get you any gun tag and other then 4, 5 and 6 all zones have a chance to be drawn with zero.
That late muzzleloader hunt can be fun if you have a good food source. One year I hunted a 160 acre picked corn field that bordered a state park. That park was loaded with deer and the vast majority were hitting that corn field. Never did shoot a big buck off that field but it definitely had some good ones hitting it.
You are correct, muzzleloader is lumped in with gun 1 & 2, and the disabled hunt. Im sitting here looking at the long term forecast and wondering why I didn’t choose gun 1 or 2. Damn.
I will probably muzzy hunt this weekend because I bought the tag but don’t have much hope as I will be hunting a Christmas tree farm that gets a lot of people walking through it during the day.
DT
You will be surprised how used to people those deer get if they are not hunted. I would bet you will see some pretty good action.
I’m surprised by the lack of deer activity people are reporting on here, both hunting and from cameras.
Has it just been too warm, or are they in seclusion from heavy pressure during firearms season?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>deertracker wrote:</div>
I will probably muzzy hunt this weekend because I bought the tag but don’t have much hope as I will be hunting a Christmas tree farm that gets a lot of people walking through it during the day.
DTYou will be surprised how used to people those deer get if they are not hunted. I would bet you will see some pretty good action.
It’s actually a family owned farm. History shows that when the farm opens for the season, the deer move out to the neighboring farms. The good part is the tree farm is only open on weekends so if I hunt Saturday morning, I may get a few roaming.
DT
Im betting you will get a crack at a 150” 10 pointer
Im betting you will get a crack at a 150” 10 pointer
If we are betting, can we make it a 160″? When I hunt it, I focus on stands on the edges of the property. Thanks for your positivity. 
DT
If we are betting, can we make it a 160″? When I hunt it, I focus on stands on the edges of the property. Thanks for your positivity.
159 7/8” 
My season has been a frustrating one as it sounds like many others here…Wounded the biggest buck I have ever had in my sights on opening day…looked for him for basically both weekends of rifle season…passed on a few small bucks including a tempting 8pt last night…been trying to shoot a doe all weekend and they are all of a sudden the smartest things on the planet…threw up a Hail Mary tonight and setup an old popup blind next to a big lone cedar overlooking the only standing food on the land we hunt…told myself the first antlerless deer was going home with me…the first couple came in behind me and downwind (which they never enter the field this way, just my luck) and blew out fairly early in the evening…then with about 2 minutes of legal light 4 came blasting into the field…picked out the biggest doe and literally yanked the trigger like a 12 year old…scope smacked glasses, glasses bloodied nose…deer just stood there…after about 10 seconds they decided they should leave and the doe dropped after about a 10 yard run…what a relief! First doe I have ever taken in about 40 years of hunting…
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Well earned Jackfish.
Wisconsin gun was horrible for me. Our group of five guys saw nothing the first 3 days. Thats never happened before. I sat every day. Saw nothing until the eighth day, which was a spiker and I took him. My cameras only had pictures of nighttime deer. Weirdest season I can remember. Wisconsin gun deer harvest is down 20% from last year.
Daylight activity had been extremely limited. I believe it’s due to lots of high pressure and full moon movement. Cams show plenty of traveling in the night.
Not sure if anyone else uses the Drury DeerCast app. I’ve always just had the free version and it will give you just the day of. It’s been so accurate all year as far as mornings or evenings with level of activity. I’m not ready to proclaim it to be the deer Bible, but there was a 50% off black Friday sale and I jumped on it. Now I can look 14 days out and try to Cherry pick the better ones. Btw, it’s pretty bleak right now. 
I’ll still plan on hunting this weekend what I can regardless of DeerCast.
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I do not have deer cast but please post the next good day to hunt. I’m getting to the end of my run, starting to burn my self out. I am getting ice gear ready and going to try to get a few tip ups set this weekend. But I still want a little more tree time. Again I woke up with 20 deer pics, 2 bucks butting heads right in front of my camera, but again it was 130 am.
`I have Deer Cast. If you look back through the thread you will see different posts I have made with screen shots from it.
With that said it has been off this year at least from what I have seen for movement.
Last weekend Deer Cast was showing good deer movement and I didn’t see a deer.
Deer Cast is an app from the Drurys. A few things that affect their algorithm are barometric pressure. Mark Drury is a huge believer in high pressure will get deer moving. Hunting evenings with a rising moon. Hunting the first south wind after a bunch of north’s.
Free version of HuntWise gives you M-TH predictions although I have no idea how accurate it is as I haven’t paid too much attention to it.
It’s been the worst gun season I have ever had and I know there are plenty of deer around where I hunt. Daylight movement non existent. I’ve seen two deer during the gun season, which includes muzzleloader season so far. Both were opening morning. At least got a nice doe with bow to fill the freezer. Will keep on trying though!
Just remember when sharing DeerCast that it is area specific. Told my buddy it showed bad so he didn’t go out. Then I searched his zip code and showed great for him. Haha
DT
Btw, it’s pretty bleak right now.
How’s today look?
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