Four tags

[db-2]

Got a mule deer buck tag after 7 years, a muzzle loader whitetail buck after 12 years and my bow tag. Three tags. Doubt at age 75 if i will ever see a mule deer or muzzle loader tag again. Have not applied for a rifle whitetail tag since 95 but maybe next year.

Since the start of the rifle season, being retire, i have spent about 90% of my time in the stand and prior to that also spent time in the stands.
Never have i spent so much time trying to fill those tags.

Mule deer nothing as was the case with the muzzle loader. Did not put a deer in the scope during mule deer and maybe two- or three-times during ml but did not pull the trigger.
With bow tag have practice putting site a few times on a whitetail but have not pulled the trigger yet.

Prior to last night have not harvested a deer.
But that all change via a sheriff tag and my Dodge Ram going home after a night in the stand. Did have one bull moose and about 20 white tails come up with three smaller bucks.
First vehicle harvest for me since i began hunting deer in 1959. A 2x2 young deer.

Went about one mile and was only going about 15 miles an hour on gravel as it is a relaxing time for me driving home to gather my thoughts. No damage to the vehicle except plastic license plate holder. Hard to believe i hit a deer at that speed but i did. db

 

[Kentucky Windage]

90% of your time in the stand and you haven’t filled a single tag?

 

[PrairieGhost]

db-2 Like you I have three tags this year. Also like you its been 12 years since my last MZ tag. It's been four years since my last rifle tag. I have had. up yo seven bucks at one time in my yard. but I dont think I will fill my bow tag this year. I'm 73 and if I keep applying for bucks I may never see an MZ tag again. Selling my inline and going back to my Hawken and applying for doe tags.
The strangest thing is this is only the second time in my life I have had three tags, and I have chosen not to fill all of them. Still people get ticked and think we get all the deer. One fellow has had a buck tag three years in a row while I went four years with nothing, not even a doe for three years, but he is ticked this year. I guess he is just mathematically challenged.

 

[JayKay]

The exact same thing happened to me once - well kinda. I wader-fished all night with nary a bite, and on the way home, I harvested a cat with my truck. I too, was going under 20 mph.

No damage at all. I mean, to my truck. The cat was pretty damaged.

 

[Rowdie]

90% of your time in the stand and you haven’t filled a single tag?

Probably asleep 90% of that time.

 

[savage270]

I think I'd move my stand if I spend 90% of my time in it and didn't see a deer to shoot. Definition of insanity and all . . .

 

[johnr]

Try lighting up a smoke in the stand, likely will change your results.

 

[PrairieGhost]

I have about a dozen bucks and a many does coming into my yard. An pk 4x4 comes any time of day. but the only one I like will not Coe in legal hours. I forgot to set date and time on this camera. I had to add another length to the legs so this guy coukd get his head under the feeder.


He didn't have much for brow tines last year.

Oh well maybe next year he will come late some morning when I am on my second mug of Caribou.

 

[db-2]

My side:

I am 75 and eat bacon and beef. I am a horn hunter and family eats the meat if i get one.

Other than hunting sparrows in the old horse barn upstairs with the Red Ryder, cats and a flashlight i have never enjoy the killing part of hunting. Got my mother's genes and not my dad's.

I came home on a Wednesday from Nam and on Saturday went to the one-horse town i grew up by to see some old buddies. Walk in, about 6 or 7 at a table but not one notice me. Went to bar next to a Nam vet who had his head on the bar. Order a beer, paid for it and in time he look up at me. Torn my stripe of my left arm on my jacket, as i turn to pick it up torn the right side off. You SOB but he look at me and said "forget it as nobody cares". Drank for two hours and bought all my own beers next to a pass out Vietnam vet.
I adjusted coming home at that moment and next morning made a goal to go to California and lose my virginity. In time, came back in same shape. Was with some ladies longing for it but something always got in the way.

Same with deer. The next day no one cares what deer i may have shot. Horns are in a room in basement with guns behind a door that blends in with the book shelf. It is a family thing, a private thing.

I have 7 enclosed sites and am hunting two of them. About a half mile walk both ways. Get up there at 3 and leave
by 5:30. Have two deer that i feel would score in the 160 and a handful of maybe 150 or at least high 140. Some of those have lost a point so they are out to harvest. But being selected does have an effect on harvesting or not.
Shed hunting will come soon so hopefully will find. One night i had 8 moose come up to me with two cows, a calf and 5 bulls.
More to hunting than killing in fact a lot more.

To each there own. A goal of being able to tell someone over a beer i shoot a deer too left me in my youth. I have a box full of tags including some metal ones and that is just fine with me. Might need them one day.

Enjoy bow hunting and in fact for the first few times of ML season brought the bow and not the ML. But since ML season began have only missed two nights.
Spend 1500 on two ML plus scopes and bullets. 15 holes in a piece of paper and now both are on the wall and in time the five kids will claim my weapons and that i am sure will happen soon. Half my rifles i have never shot but they will each get about 12 as it now stands and maybe they will use. Two sons and three daughters with two granddaughters and two offspring into hunting.

Life is indeed good and yes, to each their own db

And finally after all that time, i have a buck harvested with my Dodge.

 

[Kentucky Windage]

If you’re that picky and you don’t like the meat, why not just get a gratis tag and hunt all 3 seasons? When was the last time you killed a deer with a bow or gun? You have the right to do whatever you want, but getting 3 tags and struggling to fill one doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’ll admit that math was never my strong suit.

 

[db-2]

KENT:

do not have the land to get a grstis, like most part of the draw

three mule deer on four tags with rifle since 95.

last bow last year, gross in 160, net in 150.

since 98, 7 whitetail bucks with bow, found every one.

last whitetail with rifle in 95 and last time i applied for that.
I have enjoy the struggle. and 0 ML on three tags
db-2

 

[riverview]

Try lighting up a smoke in the stand, likely will change your results.

the key to smoking while deer hunting is to hang your stand really high