Seasons in the wind

There was a lot of weird winds this year.

Sounds like a culmination to a good season even without meat on the pole...
 
I used a couple of those scent sticks that you burn like incense sticks.
Had a couple deer come in but also had a doe spook when she saw the smoke in the sun.
I watched the smoke from the sticks and couldn't believe how many times the wind changed direction..
Hard to beat their nose when the wind blows in 3 different directions....
 
One of the smaller 8 points that made it through season now lies out in the ditch in front of my house.
A jeep hit him at 5am this morning..The horns were already kicked off and taken when I left for work at 7am.
The jeep still blocks my upper driveway...
 
Your buck on the last day got lucky you were a good hunter. Some would have tried to make the shot work and we know how that usually pans out...
I screwed up on mine..
It was so warm I didn't have my outer layer on and had it hanging in the tree.
At 4pm I stood up to put my coat on and slide my seat back and he was standing at 50 yrds..
Not sure how he got in that close but he did.. He busted me, two hops and gone,,,My own stupidity...
 
Hey only 3 weeks and we can start scouting for next year..
 
 
 

Here's my buddies half rack. 
 

 
Check this duud out !  Yep, that's a 1.5 year old buck.  Randy decided he didn't want him breeding any doe.
 

 
I suggested he get a euro mount.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Good report on your season Jon.

I know what you mean about changing winds. This year is the worst I can remember. The rains every Saturday in October didn't help either.

None of my close friends that bowhunt were successful this year. They all blame it on the rain and wind. I had this conversation with a good friend the other day over a few beers while he told me ge didn't kill anything because the wind was never right, and the rain kept him out of the stand....then, I find out from another friend that he missed TWICE! I can't wait to have this conversation with him again this weekend when we're having our after archery season get together.

well congrats to you noplacelikehome lol

bullshiiter.. I forgot to congratulate you on yer nice buck.  I've been away from a PC for a few weeks.  He's a nice one.

arghm i suppose you are referring to me? lol but thanks..

ORIGINAL: Noplacelikehome

SK, are we hunting wind or deer? I always hunt deer. I would rather sit in my stand and see nothing, than sit at home on my day off and WISH I were in my stand. I don't make excuses. You know if you hunt a game lands(like I did this year) I worried more about other hunters(grouse,etc..) than the wind. Besides you can't control the weather.

 
Noplace,
 
I have to agree with Silver on this one and that is a rarity on the subject of deer. LOL.
 
I have long contended that, for me at least, I hunt to kill things and I fish to catch things. Yes, I enjoy the outdoors for the outdoors, but I am too goal and results oriented to waste, yes, waste time hunting or fishing under conditions that are not conducive to me being successful. If I just want to commune with nature, I can do that without the added expense of guns, rods, reels, dogs, and all the thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of gear. 
 
What do I consider successful?  In most fishing, it is catching at least one of the targeted species per hour (of course with certain species, such as Tarpon, that changes to one per day).  In bird hunting, that is a limit per outing for each hunter working behind my pointers.  For deer, it is a deer per outing.  Anything less, in my mind, is a failure.
 
Am I always successful?  Of course not.  But I pick and choose carefully the days that I do what to ensure that what I am spending my time on has the greatest odds of a favorable outcome.
 
I guess this stems from my tournament fishng days when I had paid to fish at a certain event at a certain time and there was no choice if the conditions were bad -- pouring rain, snow, galeforce winds, hail, etc. -- I had to fish.  Now, that's not the case.
 
And yes, until May, I worked 50 -60 hours per week with an hour commute on each end of the trip, so I didn't have unlimited time.  I think that even drove me to be more selective in when to do what.  During the last 6 months, being laidoff, I have hunted/fished more that I did in the previous 6 year combined.  But it hasn't been an everyday thing.  It hasn't been even an every week thing.  But I have had more of an opportunity to pick the right days to ensure a favorable outcome.
 
Sometimes, not going during marginal to bad conditions allowed me the time to think about what, where, when, and how to be successful during my next trip.
 
I disagrre with the statement that "A bad day fishing/hunting is better than a good day at work."  Why?  Because if it was going to be a bad day fishing/hunting due to conditions, I would rather be at work and save that precious vacation day for when conditions dictated that if I did my part, the result would not be a bad day fishing/hunting, but rather a good day.
 
Are there marginal to bad condition days that could have turned out good?  Sure.  But more often than not, like cooking, if you start with lousy products, you get lousy results.
 
I know that my approach to fishing/hunting is not everyone's cup of tea.  Heck, I had a board member write on here a few years ago that he would never want to go with me because my trips sounded more like a military operation (I never was in the armed forces) than a fishing/hunting trip.  But, you know, 99% of the time, when asked about how my trip was, the answer is "It was great, I caught/bagged .... (fill in the blank)."  Not, the water was terrible, the wind was howling, the fish weren't biting, I didn see any deer, the dogs never had a point, etc.  Eore is not my hero.
 
And, if the games are played right, marginal or bad conditions for one thing are ideal for another.  I would be willing to bet that some of those days when the wind was playing hell with the deer hunting and the percentage for success was near zero, the condtions were ripe for a great fishing trip or a scouting trip or getting something done at work or home that would allow a time in the future when conditons are better suited to be had.
 
Silver,
 
On a side note, the hounds were fussing in the kennel since 4 AM.  When I let them out this moring at 7, I looked across the road and could see a deer in the goldenrod field near the far tree line.  The distance is about 650, but it was easy to tell by the square body shape and size that it was more than likely a buck.
 
I went into the house and got my crappy 8X binos and sure enough I could make out some good sized head gear, even at that distance.  He worked his way, nose to the ground, across the field and then started up the property line to an area that borders a thicket that contains a pond.
 
He looked up at the dogs a couple of times, but didn't really pay them any mind at all.  Typically, he would have spotted them and made some evasive move.  But he was far too interested in the doe he was trailing.
 
At about 175 yards, he stopped and gave me a good look at his rack.  The antlers were fairly white.  They were a little wider than the ears by about 2 - 3 inches on each side and the main beams were 4 - 5 inches taller that the ear before they started to curve.  The G2's were about 6 -8 inches long. 
 
And it was a four point.
 
There were no brush hooks on either side.  The mass was very good as well.  The deer was no youngster either.  I would say it was somewhere between a 2.5 and a 4.5 from the size, shape, and color.
 
I had seen another buck like this in the same area while training the dogs 6 or so years ago.  It jumped out of the goldenrod and blazed past me at about 10 yards, then turned and stopped at 25.  Same thing, decent sized rack, older deer, but only four points.
 
It obviously isn't the same deer, but probably related.  hopefully it wonders off the posted property that it likes to frequent long enough for a junior hunter to remove it from the gene pool.