Wis gun opener

Good luck boys! Sitting here full of beer and beef stew anxiously awaiting the morning.

Good luck everyone. Sounds like it’s going to be a nice day for sitting in a tree stand.

Good luck everyone, it’s going to be a great day for a lot of people!

What a beautiful and peaceful time it is right now with the crisp air and full moon

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I’m still riding out the last weekend of my area in mn. Woods are beautiful right now. Great day to be in the lower river valley

Lotta deer are gonna die today with these good hunting conditions.

Well today turned out better than I would ever have imagined.

I hunted on the new 80 we just bought.

It has an island out in the middle of the swamp that I’ve intentionally left alone. If there was a big buck on the property, it would be there.

We named the island Little Italy, because it resembles just that.

I never stepped foot on it, never set a camera there, but earlier this fall I dragged a 200lb steel tripod into the swamp piece by piece in anticipation for what unfolded today.

Two does and a fawn walked through the swamp and went out onto the gnarly and secluded hardwood island. Soon after I could hear an old buck grunting and chasing them, but never caught a glimpse. The woods soon went silent again.

An hour later, after giving up on the does, he came in sight crossing the swamp. I put the binos on him and about crapped my pants as he started walking my way! It was just like a hunting show watching him close a 100 yards in my direction.

One bullet on the money at 50 yards and the rest is history. What a blast! 25+ years of hunting and I still love the adrenaline and shaking like a leaf 😆

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Well today turned out better than I would ever have imagined.

I hunted on the new 80 we just bought.

It has an island out in the middle of the swamp that I’ve intentionally left alone. If there was a big buck on the property, it would be there.

I never stepped foot on it, never set a camera there, but earlier this fall I dragged a 200lb steel tripod into the swamp piece by piece in anticipation for what unfolded today.

Two does and a fawn walked through the swamp and went out onto the gnarly and secluded hardwood island. Soon after I could hear an old buck grunting and chasing them, but never caught a glimpse. The woods soon went silent again.

An hour later, after giving up on the does, he came in sight crossing the swamp. I put the binos on him and about crapped my pants as he started walking my way! It was just like a hunting show watching him close a 100 yards in my direction.

One bullet on the money at 50 yards and the rest is history. What a blast! 25+ years of hunting and I still love the adrenaline and shaking like a leaf 😆

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Awesome!!

Beauty

Fantastic buck

That’s a GREAT buck B-man! A great plan and worked to perfection. Congrats!
I’m a little disappointed though, where are the twin side kicks?

Thanks for the kind words guys

mxskeeter wrote:

That’s a GREAT buck B-man! A great plan and worked to perfection. Congrats!
I’m a little disappointed though, where are the twin side kicks?

Mom brought them to camp this afternoon once the serious hunting was done

We hunted this evening at Hank and Ben Point (guess who named that? lol)

They both got bored and laid down, as they were snoring a buck they call Forky came by (had him on our camera a bunch). Ben woke up and saw him, Hank wouldn’t wake up

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Holy cow! Thats a dandy buck. Congrats!!

Nice work Brandon! Making that new property pay off!

Thanks guys

I let the kids sleep in this morning and hunted a stand right behind the ice castle. Shot a giant doe and the kids were up and heard the shot.

They opened the shack door and yelled “DAD! DID YOU GET IT!?!”

They helped me get it out of the woods, and said “Oh she’s going to be some gooood eating”

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I saw two Saturday but passed on doe with fawn. Talk about close encounter. They came up under my stand and sniffed a seat cushion I had thrown to the ground. Low stand so they were CLOSE! They smelled something wrong but wouldn’t leave. Kept looking at me for movement. I still have a Charley horse in my shoulder from staying motionless so long with gun in my hand. Had to be 15 min. They finally left but never spooked. My lone Doe came in wrong this morning so no shot. Wind ended my hunt for today. Wish I didn’t have to work this week. Back out on Thu.

Nice buck B-man congratulations.

Nice buck, I called it quits today about 12:30 when the wind started to get nasty.

I have a pretty long walk in on some nearby public land, but made it to my tree by 0530, sat on the ground for awhile to cool down, change socks and put my boots on, etc. Was up the tree and settled into my climber by 0600.
Something splashed across the creek below me at 0620 and passed through in the dark. Then at 0830 I hear a deer coming back out of the swamp from that direction, so bring up my rifle in time to see a very nice buck passing right into my shooting openings along the creek. I get ready, nice broadside shot at 50 yards, and fire…but nothing happens other than the buck walking out of sight into the thick brush. Turns out I only moved my safety to the bolt unlock position and not all the way to fire. 8.5 hours later I climb down without seeing another deer. Sigh.

Damn that suuuuuccccckkkkksssss! I did that with a rooster this year. Your situation is WAY worse.

looks like he made it through opening weekend, as i’m pretty sure this 10-pointer that showed up on camera last night is the deer i screwed up Saturday morning. hopefully he makes another mistake for me this coming weekend.

and he was followed a short while later by a pretty impressive 8-pointer…

dang public land.

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I never stepped foot on it, never set a camera there, but earlier this fall I dragged a 200lb steel tripod into the swamp piece by piece in anticipation for what unfolded today.

Nice buck bman. You wouldn’t care to share what location you chose to set up your tri-pod on your photo would you? Just curious how you picked where to set?

Red Eye wrote:

I never stepped foot on it, never set a camera there, but earlier this fall I dragged a 200lb steel tripod into the swamp piece by piece in anticipation for what unfolded today.

Nice buck bman. You wouldn’t care to share what location you chose to set up your tri-pod on your photo would you? Just curious how you picked where to set?

I picked a spot that borders thick black spruce swamp to the south, but within range of the funnel/swamp crossing to the right of the island. There’s also trails everywhere in the moss/grass going in and out of the spruces and hardwoods.

To the south out of the pic, is another hardwood point/island through 150 yards of the spruces.

As you can see, to the west of Little Italy would be an awesome spot too, but it would be twice as far to get to, bring a stand to, and drag a deer from (I come in from the hardwoods on the right)

The pic from the stand is looking towards the top of the satellite pic (don’t know why it showed up so many times…) Little Italy is on the left, the crossing straight ahead, and hardwoods/mainland to the right. It’s a nice view with 150-200 yards of wide open shooting for about 200 degrees of view. I thought about putting the tripod right in the middle of the wide open, but figured I would be to close and stick out as well.

I was pleasantly surprised how little pressure the neighbors put on the deer, but when pressured the first place most deer go is into a swamp for cover (like the black spruce thicket behind me)

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Michael C. Winther wrote:

Turns out I only moved my safety to the bolt unlock position and not all the way to fire. 8.5 hours later I climb down without seeing another deer. Sigh.

I’ve never done that myself but I have seen someone else do it. My uncle did that with his bolt action rifle when we made a deer drive to him. He put his rifle up against a tree for a good leaning shot and when he did that, it knocked the bolt up slightly. You can’t fire the gun unless the bolt is all the way down. Well of course he didn’t notice he did it and when some deer came through, he couldn’t figure out why his gun wouldn’t fire.

We later figured it out after the drive. But because of that incident, I always make sure my bolt is fully engaged in the correct position.

Put in quite a few hrs and many walking miles hunting MN successfully this year. Every morning I open the window and take a look around with a scoped .30-.30 to see if we’ve got any 4 legged trespassers on our property, but truth be told I wouldn’t pull the trigger. Just glassin’

https://www.wsaw.com/2021/11/23/opening-deer-gun-weekend-less-productive-than-last-year/

wirivereyes wrote:

https://www.wsaw.com/2021/11/23/opening-deer-gun-weekend-less-productive-than-last-year/

Hunters are scared of covid deer

Bearcat89 wrote:

Hunters are scared of covid deer

Fortunately all of the deer we harvested are now safe from contracting any diseases at all! We implemented our deer safety program consisting of 1 dose of a well-placed 1 oz slug. No passports necessary

I hunt with my in laws up on the family farm. Filled my tag 9:25 Saturday morning. Happy I did. This one was the biggest one that gave me a good shot. Already looking forward to next year!!

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