Legacy -The 2024 Deer Season-

[MeanMachine]

11 hours ago, Legacy said:

T minus 24 hours until I hit the road for the bow opener in Ohio. To say Im looking forward to spending time in the woods is a serious understatement. Ill be there to hunt 5 days total and all the sits are afternoon. For the most part it is the crew from 2023 returning to camp and we had a great time last year. Looks like the weather will be a bit better as they are forecasting a weather pattern similar to what we have had this week. Cooler temps with a chance of rain every day. Last year we saw temps in the damn 80s!!! Lots of bucks on cam there, so we should see a bunch of bucks get arrowed. If my cell signal allows I am hoping to do a play by play on the trip.

Can't wait!  Truck is just about packed!  See you there!

[whaler1]

Opening day of bow in the morning. 
Good luck to those heading out. 

[fisherman21]

5 small bucks this morning and one doe that was out of range. Felt good to be back in the stand 

Edited October 1 by fisherman21

[Legacy]

What's up guys? Anyone get out for the opener?

 

 

[machzrcr]

Sat a doe spot yesterday morning one saw one doe n fawn!   Had a few bucks in the food plots on camera.   Afternoon looked good ended up talking to a landowner for an hour and a half so  basically only watched a field with binos for last 10 minutes n nothing popped out there!   Quiet so far this morning.  

[Legacy]

Well I just got home from the Ohio opener. Not the outcome I had hoped to get the season started but that's hunting and the hurricane arriving on Friday certainly didnt help things for me. I spent my time sitting overlooking a clear cut. It seems pretty common to log medium size chunks of timber and then "chip" the remaining underbrush for paper in the region. The landscape seems to be littered with these clear cuts, agriculture, and hardwoods and It really creates some great ground for whitetail. 

I was lucky to get a shot on a unique buck while i was there. This buck had daylighting a bunch leading up to the season. From what I know he seemed to be leaving his bed in the clear cut and then hitting a corn pile before finally hitting a soy bean field at dusk. So the set was designed to catch him in between that final destination and his bed. He gave me a 22 yard shot from a ground blind. With his head down he jumped the string enough to result in a shot 4" higher then i had hoped. He was broadside (slight quartering away) and I hit him 1/3 down and perfectly inline with the back of the front leg. The shot was not a pass through and the arrow broke off with about 7" in the deer. It was raining/ misting most of the afternoon and by dark it was rain and fog. We made a hell of an attempt to find this deer with absolutely zero luck. We even attempted a thermal drone the night I shot him but the rain and fog made it impossible. We made a second attempt the morning after with the drone (and some blind searching) but zero luck. It really sucks because I felt even though the shot was not where i was aiming it was still a "deadly" shot. Shooting Lumenoks I no doubt saw the shot and i saw the deer run with the arrow in him.  I believe the deer is dead and it sucks!!! At this point I hope the crows show us where he is.

 

 

 

[Legacy]

The highlight of the Ohio camp was this crazy deer.... 186" It was shot Tuesday PM.

 

 

[whaler1]

Brutal. Hopefully you get a call and they are able to recover your buck. 

[Gator]

Game of inches, as Tommy always says. Any bowhunter who tells you they've never lost one is either a newbie or lying through their teeth. I'd guess it's actually much more common than most of us would like to admit. I went almost ten years without a loss, then had a couple in a row shooting a new bow (not that I should be blaming the equipment; it's a poor dancer who blames his partner). I do hope they find him, for closure at least.

[whaler1]

Will be out in the morning, didn’t hunt today. Looks like a nice morning to be out. 

[Gill-T]

Good luck finding him Rob. Look for vultures circling as well.  Found my bow doe last year that way. Single lung and no blood trail. 

[Smat64]

Nice to get out this afternoon.

 

Slow for deer but squirrels and birds were all over. 

[Legacy]

The past 18 hours my cameras have been on fire. no doubt the busiest period so far this year. bucks of all age classes.

[Legacy]

[dvdegeorge]

Edited October 3 by dvdegeorge

[fisherman21]

Great sit this morning. 7 does and 6 bucks. Had 3 2.5yo bucks 20 yards away sparing. Also had a 3.5 yo 10 at 50. 20 yards closer and I might have been fishing until November. Maybe tomorrow 

[Gill-T]

Eden NY. Saw this posted by a coworker of my niece (ie. I have no idea who the lucky hunter is). I would say by the body size, the deer was a regular at the Eden Corn Festival. 
 

 

Edited October 3 by Gill-T

[Legacy]

In the stand for the first time (in the NY season)... Where are all the big bucks at???

[machzrcr]

Starting to find a couple on permission properties!  All night time so far thou on the matures!   Got one really cool looking one if  he gets killed I will share some pics!   Put up a stand n camera on a new piece n got a solid 140s 8 on camera just after dark last night!   He may be killable soon!! 🤞 

[Legacy]

[Smat64]

Thats one way to build a mock scrape. 

[Legacy]

October 3 pm

L54 H72

Clear skies

High pressure building 

 

Great first night in the NY deer woods. Saw 30+ deer including 9 bucks. The only buck that didn't walk by me was a shooter 8pt. All the other bucks passed within 20 yards of me. Lots of fresh scrapes along the field edge and I watched one of the 2 year old bucks freshen a couple of them up. Saw some sparring also.

 

 

[Gator]

First the squatty potty, now the crap strap. I prefer to launch a soaring falcon straight off the tree stand myself. It makes a heck of a cover scent. 

[Legacy]

Deer are crushing acorns and green food sources.... if you got them hunt them!!!

[Legacy]

It has been a year since I bought an Ozonics unit, so I thought I would share my thoughts...

 

I'm a believer. Is it worth the money? I think so. I think the whole ozone thing seems like a game changer. Is it perfect? Nope. Its tough to beat a deer's nose. Especially a mature doe's nose. Making sure to play the right wind is everything however deer don't always do what we want them to do and I think that this stuff buys us an extra second or two. 

 

If you're not using an ozone locker/tote for your clothes then that's step one. https://www.feradyne.com/brands/scent-crusher/products/?product-page=1 First and foremost It's a great scent killer for your gear. I will say that deer seem to notice the ozone "odor" however they don't seem to act negatively towards it. 

 

Second step is ozonics. https://ozonicshunting.com/collections/scent-elimination-devices It works great on those days with winds under 10mph and gives you  a bit of protection on your down wind side. Both bucks I shot last year I had the Ozonics unit with me. My bow buck was 20 yards and my gun buck was 15 yards. The wind was in my favor for bow buck consistent 5-10 out of the west but for my gun buck it was a little suspect. 

Im certainly not encouraging anyone to hunt with the wind not in your favor. But Im just saying on those light wind days it gives you a little bit of help.

 

7 bucks (1 and 2 year olds) all passed within 10-20 yards, downwind of me last night and never acted like they had a clue i was there. Funny thing is they didnt wind me in the tree but 4 of them cut my walking trail in to my stand and investigated it. 2 of them actually back tracked my walking trail from the field edge all the way back to my ladder. Funny how they could smell my footprints but never winded me. Another testament to ozone and ozonics??? Do I think a 5 year doe would have acted differently? Absolutely!!! 

 

My methodology for being as scent free as possible in the woods then

bathing with scent killer soap

Washing clothes/pack with scent killer

Treating clothes/gear in an Ozone locker/tote/bag

spray gear with scent killer

hanging an ozonics unit in the tree

and #1 having the wind in my favor