What are you hunting this week?

Just a thread to shoot the breeze . . . whatchy'all got on tap for hunting this week and next?  
 
Anybody have to change your normal routine for the first day of rifle season with a Saturday start?  Still going 'mup camp or hunting local the first week, and waiting for concurrent seasons to hit camp?
 
Anyone doing anything other than deer hunting in the week ahead?
 
As for my boys and I, the 16 year old and I are gonna hit a new to us duck spot on Thanksgiving morning.  A T-Giving morning duck hunt was a tradition for me with my first lab Hank, that I put away for a few years till our new boy Rocky was ready to hunt last year.  BTDT hosted us last Thanksgiving morning on his little slice of Penns Woods but . . . stupid ducks.  And despite my begging him not to, he sold his place so he could hit the road in his new big rig.  Hope yer having a grand trip buddy!  
 
Got an invite from a guy I met recently to hunt a spot on his property in the Northwest Zone, which we're really looking forward to.  He showed me the spot a few weeks ago, and it looks promising.  Said he's been seeing lots of ducks around, although he doesn't hunt 'em and has no idea what species they are.  
 
Friday is up in the air.  My tradition for the last several years with both boys is to go steelhead feeshin, but a friend fished yesterday and this morning and said it is dismally slow.  So maybe we'll hunt ducks Friday morning too at a spot TBD, or see if we can find any left over game lands pheasants.  But knowing my boys, they'll wanna give steelhead a go no matter the conditions.  
 
No idea where we'll hunt deer Saturday.  Got 3 options - 2 local, one about 60 miles away, but haven't decided yet.  The oldest will be using his bow, which he's done in gun season for the past 2 years.  He's weird.  The 9 year old will be behind an old .243 Winchester my late uncle's wife gave me after he passed.  Sweet shooting gun that both boys have used to kill some deer.  
 
Our school district is still off Monday.  Probably do some local hunts Monday AM and then Monday evening, with a few things to do in between hunts.  
 
How bout all yinz?
 
 

 
Chasing turkeys Thursday & Friday.
 
PT2

Good luck to all and I hope all younz all have a safe & sucessful season.

Dave thanks for the well wishes and sorry about the duck hunting thingy. Tell your two boys I'll be rootin for em this season. Be they huntin or feeshin. Special pat-on-the-head for Rocky, he's a good doggy.

As for me, wife & I will finish this week visiting our daughter and son-in-law in Oklahoma. Then, God willing and the rivers don't rise arrive in Alabama this coming Sunday.

Monday will likely find me hunting in a Walmart cause, somebody forgot, to pack his stupid fishing pole.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and remember to heed the advice of a wise old bird🦃, Eat More Chicken. 🍻

pheasant tail 2
 
Chasing turkeys Thursday & Friday.
 
PT2

I‘d like to do the same as there have been 25+ hangin out in the yard for the last couple of weeks but this WMU doesn’t have a late season. Guess I’ll have to chase tree rats with the bow.
Mike

dpms, sounds like a great couple of days.  Hope ya whack a yote.  
 
John, I hope you and the Mrs enjoy your time in Oklahoma, and when the wind comes sweeping down the plains, it doesn't take your RV with it!  Seeing tons of reports on social media in Mississippi and Louisiana of some insanely good redfish and speckled trout fishing right now.  
 
dardys, my wife and I switched our normal vehicles a few weeks ago.  I drive the Honda Pilot and she drives the Honda Fit most days, cause she does a lot of driving for her work.  Happened to be a day I had planned to hunt pheasants, and I had strict orders to put some old blankets down so I didn't get dog hair all over her car.  But at least she let me do it.  
 
Mike, if I recall correctly, didn't you used to post some in the waterfowl forum back in the olden days?  Are you still into that?  Enjoyed reading your accounts of chasing deer with the old long bow.  Back when I archery hunted, I had a compound, but almost always hunted on the ground like you.  Probably a good reason why I only ever killed one deer in 16 years with a bow.  lol.  

CS, I love the Thanksgiving morning hunts!  My dad and I would always go out and chase small game when I was a kid on Thanksgiving morning, and do a little scouting for buck season.  That was about the extent of our scouting back then.  
 
When I was 15, we were on our Thanksgiving morning hunt, and jumped a buck from a fence row.  After a few hours of sitting on the first day of buck season, my dad had me post at the far end of the fence row where it entered the woods, and he went to the other end and drove that same buck right to me at about 15 yards.  That was my first one.  
 
Sounds like you've got a nice plan for Saturday too.  

Bucks on Saturday
Bucks and Bears next week
Bucks, Bears and Doe next Saturday.
 
BH

thunderpole, I envy you man.  For a couple of years, I had a great private lake to hunt mallards on during deer season where I never had to worry about getting mistaken for a deer, and that was the best time of the year to be out.  Lake got shut down to everyone a few years ago, and I'm too chicken to go hunt a swamp or lake on public land when people are hunting deer, especially when buck and doe are in together.  
 
Duck hunt Thanksgiving morning was pretty much a bust and then some.  Rocky was on his absolute worst behavior; I took the wrong trail on the way in and got turned around and sank in swamp muck up past my knees a couple times; and we didn't see any ducks.  Other than that it was awesome!  
 
Steelhead fishing was a bit of a grind.  We all got a couple, but it was not a great day of catching for us, nor the hordes of fishermen we saw and talked to on Elk.  Black Friday the past three years hasn't been too bad for crowds, but yesterday it was heavy pressure everywhere we went.  
 
Took the 9 year old out for a few hours this morning in a funnel area on a friend's property hoping to catch deer being bumped between bigger pieces of timber that usually gets hunted pretty hard.  By the looks and sounds of it, didn't appear to be too many people hunting around there today, and we didn't see any deer.  We were out for about 2.5 hours, and I only counted 12 shots, nothing real close. This was in 2D in Butler County.  
 
 

I hunted ducks for many years in the past, mostly along Hartstown swamp dike areas. Shot Woodies, Mallards , and Teals mostly even got Black ducks. I hunted in deer season many a day back then never an issue but I wore an orange hat out when done. We wading back into nice flooded brushy areas for best shooting. I'm hearing that they don't hold the water back along that area anymore mostly thick weeds now ....not sure .
 
Loved hunting the late season snowy days for migrating ducks, seen awesome flights of birds some evenings. Duck hunting teaches you the shooting kill distance of a shotgun and Wood Ducks are like shooting at jets when they are set winged coming down ! ....lol
 

 

 

My swamp birds and young days of doing self taught taxidermy.