Florida Bow Hunting Report #4 - Oct. 2, 2011

Florida Bow Hunting Report #4

Oct. 2, 11, Third Weekend

I got in a few hunts during the week but they were pretty uneventful until Friday morning. I had decided to run over to the club and put in a short hunt at the kill zone. About 7:15 I noticed a deer standing in a mow on the neighbor’s property. I put the glasses on it and to my surprise it turned out to be the smaller of the two 7pt’s that have been showing up on the trail camera regularly. I thought he was going to come my way but he turned and went towards the neighbors feeder. I could hear him moving through the bushes but couldn’t see him. After a few minutes and no deer I thought he was gone. About 30 minutes later he pops out of our pine plantation into the fire brake and walk away back across the mow, the direction he originally came from. It was encouraging to finally see a decent buck and things were looking up.


Saturday, Oct. 1,11, Steve-O my Hero shoots a double!

I went back to the kill zone stand for the morning hunt hoping the 7pt would show back up. The weather had made a welcome change and it was in the 50’s this morning. Steve and I made the 5 mile journey south on our atv’s and it was a chilly ride.
Later that morning I heard Steve on his atv and I figured he must have killed to be down that early. When I came out I found him sitting at the head of the road, about to pee his pants with a deer on the back of his machine. It was a nice 6” spike. Steve said “I need some help, I shot another buck but can’t find the arrow or the deer.”


Back at Steve’s stand he recounted how he had shot the deer and we looked over the crime scene…no blood, no bolt! We moved in the direction the deer had gone and after a few minutes Steve found a little blood. We were able to piece things together and after a short 50yd trail we found a nice 3pt.


Steve’s rage tipped bolt had hit the deer high on the ribs and only penetrated about 4-5”. It was enough to just penetrate the off lung. Not very impressive performance by the “Rage Head”.

We had our work cut out for us…..not one but two deer to quarter and get on ice.

The cross bow had really changed Steve’s harvest performance. If you can believe this…..He’s up on me by three! Never before in recorded history has this happened. I have had a black cloud following me that I just can’t shake and now it’s effecting my bow season. I just hope it’s gone before I get to Illinois!
Sunday, Oct. 2,11

Big buck in the rain!

I hunted the buck block stand after see a really nice buck on the trail cam there and seeing some does show up in the daylight for the first time. You guessed it….I saw exactly zero deer!
The bear has been here regularly as well, even in the daylight.

Here’s some pic’s from the camera’s  (note that the date/time on some of these are not correct, I forgot to set it when I put the camera out.)

Larry

Florida Bow Hunting Report #3 - Sept. 26, 2011

Florida Bow Hunting Report #3
Sept. 26, 11, Second Weekend


Friday, Sept. 23,11

Friday afternoon I usually knock off early, load the ATV, Lacy my blue tick and all the other necessary gear and head for the hunting club for the weekend but I got tied up and had to fall back on my back up plan and hunt at the house.
There was not much to report. The total deer sightings for the evening was zero! The corn had barely been touched and there was not to much for trail camera activity. This stand is really off this year. I think the bumper crop of palmetto berries is mostly to blame. The acorns had a pretty good year also and the deer just don’t need to move much to fill their paunch.

Saturday, Sept. 24,11
I headed for Cabbage creek this morning. My plan was to hunt the Kill zone Stand as it is my only stand with good deer activity. When I was settled in the stand I glassed over to the neighbors stand across the line and there he sat! This pretty much set the tone for how the rest of the weekend would play out. There was no activity at my stand but when I got down and checked the trail camera it had an astounding 1250 pictures in one week!

The old notch eared doe. She's been here for 2 years and I have

never laid eyes on her!

My hunting buddy Steve killed a small doe with his crossbow to break the ice for this year. He made a good shot on the deer but the blood trail provided by the two blade Rage head was weak. Tracking help was render by a couple other club members and a recovery was made in a hundred yards or so.

Another club member killed a 4 pt of some kind but I did not get to see it.
There had been a considerable amount of buck activity on the cameras this week including (3) different buck fights. As usual, most of the activity was under the cover of dark but there had been (4) different bucks at the kill zone stand during shooting light. Of course I was elsewhere.
Sunday, Sept. 25,11

This mornings hunt was also uneventful. However, when I reviewed the trail camera pictures there had been a great looking 9pt at one of my stands but that is the only deer that has been by there. I decided to stay and hunt the evening hunt after seeing the big 9. The weather however, was threatening and looked like it could develop into some severe storms. I ended up getting rained on (3) different times but only lightly and never really got wet. Once again the deer sightings were zero!
That’s pretty much the report for now.
Good Luck!

Larry S.