Author Topic: SLOW Hunting season  (Read 1736 times)

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline teamnelson

  • Trade Count: (30)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4487
  • Gender: Male
SLOW Hunting season
« on: December 08, 2020, 12:14:15 AM »
... at least here in RI.

Between DOD and mother Gina, I've been stuck at home since March. The Newport we moved to in 2019 is now a ghost town, and even the brief tourist season was pale in comparison to the summer before. And as much as we tried to support local restaurants, styrofoam makes even the best food cold and soggy by the time we walked home to eat it.

Upside is I've done more hunting this year than 20 years prior ... hunting though, not harvesting. Couple dozen trips to the woods, morning noon and night, archery, muzzleloader, shotgun, and have yet to fill a tag. Haven't seen a deer in over a month. Goose has been okay, and I'm going to do more of that now, but man did I want a deer this year.

How's the hunting in your area?

held fast

Offline Bob Riebe

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7476
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2020, 08:41:50 AM »
I have not been out pheasant hunting since the 90's but along a highway where you can tell people are out either pheasant or even deer hunting, I saw more cars parked along the rode this year than I have in quite a few.
One of the few non-posted areas still around.

Offline Land_Owner

  • Global Moderator
  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4538
    • Permission Granted - Land Owner
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2020, 10:06:34 PM »
Total hunt days in the woods 21, both morning and evening, and counting since Nov. 7th - opening day of modern gun season.  Two bearded turkeys were taken the first morning like fish in a barrel.  Some out of season deer were sighted the first week.  Now there are none.  There were lots of turkey to watch for two weeks.  Now they are scarce too.  I took a 160#, 5-pt. buck on the evening of day 13 - the first legal deer I saw.  Hogs have returned, sparingly, but I missed twice at 250 yards on different days, before replacing both the rifle scope and bullets this past weekend.  The rifle is back on target, ranged, and adjusted accordingly for a 200 yd. zero.  Confidence has been restored.  Monday evening, at 250 yards, I observed and for 20 minutes watched a FL black bear for the first time.  Later this morning, 35-degrees predicted at dawn, I'm going to sit and wait for some pork, or a buck, should either participate - provided I don't freeze to death first...aside from two misses, I agree, it's been slow.

Online Lloyd Smale

  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (32)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 18267
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2020, 10:38:30 PM »
was a slow season here too. Only two bucks shot at camp but then there was only 5 out there. Covid hit the family and most stayed home. The ones there didnt see many deer. I was surprised because in crop damage shooting this year we saw substantially more deer then last year. But ive heard many complain about not seeing many this year.
blue lives matter

Offline teamnelson

  • Trade Count: (30)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4487
  • Gender: Male
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2020, 04:27:45 AM »
Think I'm day 28 or 30 ... walked a new area this morning, went late so as not to disturb a bed down, but brought the shotgun JIC. Marked a few trees  to climb for tomorrow. 19 degrees today, but starting to snow, so should be 28 when I climb tomorrow. Because some of my students are anywhere from Italy to Guam, I work late evenings, so I can usually get out in the morning. No classes starting Monday for 3 weeks, so I'm going to book a blind a couple of days and call in some Canadians. My buddy took 3 this season and loaded me up with meat, so we're good there. And I've got goose in the freezer too. Just hoping to tag a fat doe ... don't care about buck at this point, but I'm happy to take a dumb one out of the gene pool.
held fast

Offline Doublebass73

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (46)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4579
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2020, 04:33:10 PM »
Glad to hear you've become a fellow New Englander for a while. I'm up to your north in NH and have had a pretty slow season. Our deer season ended last Sunday without filling my tag. I didn't deer hunt that much because I have two Labradors that like to hunt just as much as I do so I spent a lot more time in the duck blind and the uplands. I also have them trained for fall turkeys. I had a lot of waterfowl action in October with wood ducks but things slowed down once we got some ice. There's still some mallards around but the waterfowl season in my zone is ending in a couple days. The coastal zone stays open until the middle of January though. I did some partridge hunting in the mountains and missed a whole bunch, my dogs weren't happy with my shooting.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

---- William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783

Offline mcbammer

  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2249
  • Gender: Male
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2020, 05:11:31 PM »
Glad to hear you've become a fellow New Englander for a while. I'm up to your north in NH and have had a pretty slow season. Our deer season ended last Sunday without filling my tag. I didn't deer hunt that much because I have two Labradors that like to hunt just as much as I do so I spent a lot more time in the duck blind and the uplands. I also have them trained for fall turkeys. I had a lot of waterfowl action in October with wood ducks but things slowed down once we got some ice. There's still some mallards around but the waterfowl season in my zone is ending in a couple days. The coastal zone stays open until the middle of January though. I did some partridge hunting in the mountains and missed a whole bunch, my dogs weren't happy with my shooting.
Just wondering how do you train a dog to hunt turkeys ?  Down here its illegal to let dogs run during turkey season .

Offline Land_Owner

  • Global Moderator
  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4538
    • Permission Granted - Land Owner
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2020, 01:54:10 AM »
Update to Reply #2:

Yesterday, just after O'Dark-30 in the waning twilight prior to dawn's 37-degrees, the silhouette of Mr. Pig filled the scope and the Black & White below went down.  Ten minutes later, the Calico went down.  The Death Mobile and I had our work cut out for us.  There will be Cajun sausage for breakfast next week!  It was a two (2) Advil night to relieve the pain of aching knees and back that rejected this measure of success and its related effort.

     






Offline Doublebass73

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (46)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4579
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2020, 02:00:33 AM »
Glad to hear you've become a fellow New Englander for a while. I'm up to your north in NH and have had a pretty slow season. Our deer season ended last Sunday without filling my tag. I didn't deer hunt that much because I have two Labradors that like to hunt just as much as I do so I spent a lot more time in the duck blind and the uplands. I also have them trained for fall turkeys. I had a lot of waterfowl action in October with wood ducks but things slowed down once we got some ice. There's still some mallards around but the waterfowl season in my zone is ending in a couple days. The coastal zone stays open until the middle of January though. I did some partridge hunting in the mountains and missed a whole bunch, my dogs weren't happy with my shooting.
Just wondering how do you train a dog to hunt turkeys ?  Down here its illegal to let dogs run during turkey season .

We're not allowed to run dogs in the spring turkey season but for our fall season it's legal. I train my labs for waterfowl hunting so early on in their training they get trained on the "line" command. The dog is heeled by your side, you give the line command and put your hand out in front of his face to give him the direction of the line then on the "back" command he takes off in a straight line in the direction you gave him. This is used to send the dog on a "blind" retrieve if he didn't see the bird fall. You line him to the area of the fall then stop him with the whistle and give him hand signals called "casts" to tell him which direction to go to get the bird.

Because my dogs know the line command it was easy to train them for turkey hunting. If there's a flock of turkeys somewhere we'll quietly stalk through the woods until we get as close as we can without getting busted. Then I'll give the dogs the line command in the direction of the flock. They are fast enough to catch the flock on the ground so the birds usually don't fly until the dogs are right next to them. The dogs will chase every bird on the ground. The goal is for the dogs to push birds in every direction. Once they've all flown, I'll put a decoy out where the flock was broken up, set up behind cover within range and wait about 15 minutes before I start calling. I'll do assembly yelps and kee kees which will hopefully bring the flock back to the spot where they were broken up. Like any hunting it doesn't always work out but that's the strategy. If they do come back then you just pick out the biggest bird in the flock and shoot. If it's a huge bird my 85 pound male will get the command to retrieve it. If it's a smaller bird his 55 pound sister will get the call. They LOVE to hunt turkeys.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

---- William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783

Offline mcbammer

  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2249
  • Gender: Male
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2020, 02:03:17 PM »
Update to Reply #2:

Yesterday, just after O'Dark-30 in the waning twilight prior to dawn's 37-degrees, the silhouette of Mr. Pig filled the scope and the Black & White below went down.  Ten minutes later, the Calico went down.  The Death Mobile and I had our work cut out for us.  There will be Cajun sausage for breakfast next week!  It was a two (2) Advil night to relieve the pain of aching knees and back that rejected this measure of success and its related effort.

     
   That poland china looks like some  my old grandpap use to raise . Both look like their straight off a hog farm .




Offline Ranger99

  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9581
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2020, 07:27:05 PM »
Only got to hunt on the
opening day of general for
about 4 days. I didn't see or
hear any deer.  There's predator
issues in the area, and the blankety
blanking bears that are coming
back from Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Oklahoma are starting to make it
down there. Of course, with big
predators that eat larger game
roaming around, the game animals
are going to be scarce. Going to
try some more before Christmas
if I can get things handled.
You can't get one if you don't
go to their house.
18 MINUTES.  . . . . . .

Offline Land_Owner

  • Global Moderator
  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4538
    • Permission Granted - Land Owner
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2020, 11:03:03 PM »
That poland china looks like some my old grandpap use to raise. Both look like their straight off a hog farm.

FWC - Wild Hog (sus scrofa)

Just as they came from the Everlasting Wildlife Pump and local "Deep Swamp" of the 100,000+ acres of St. Johns River flood plain that adjoins my land.  Remnants of the herd "that got away" (or as speculated were released) by Spanish explorer, Hernando DeSoto in 1539.


A Brief History of the Pig in the United States
Quote
By the time De Soto began exploring Florida...he carried with him 13 pigs across the Atlantic. Within 3 years these 13 pigs had ballooned to a population of over 700, giving birth both to the American pork industry and the feral pig problem.


I took yesterday "off" in a requested "shopping" excursion with my beautiful spouse.  Instead, I wanted to be in the woods.  My knees ache MORE from walking the Malls in Orlando than dragging those two dead hogs out of the "mine field" they create when foraging for grubs, snakes, acorns, and worms.  If you have ever seen the damage they do, you know what I mean.

In just a few minutes I will depart for the woods again.  No telling what sunrise may bring...and inspired by:

Quote from: Ranger99
You can't get one if you don't go to their house.



Offline DEACONLLB

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (149)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2458
  • Gender: Male
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2020, 06:57:34 AM »
This has been a bad year for me but my son has taken 5, Oklahoma raised the limit this year, on what they call our holiday hunt we can now take 2 but Does only, it opens again the 18th of the month. Wish me luck. I rebuilt my box blind this year and have seen nothing from it but it is nice any way with a small heater.

Deaconllb
Korean war vet. NRA Member
Fourth fighter wing K14 Kimpo Korea 1952 Fourth but first, the mig killers.
533rd material ,air defense Oxnard AFB 1953-1955
Pastor of the  CBCG-Fellowship group Tulsa Oklahoma.

Offline nw_hunter

  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (4)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5208
  • Gender: Male
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2020, 03:56:27 AM »
If you killed 5 deer here in Oregon, you would wipe out half the deer in the county.Next year I will put in for a Fir tree hunt. That's about all they allow to grow here in the land of Liberalism.
Freedom Of Speech.....Once we lose it, every other freedom will follow.

Offline Land_Owner

  • Global Moderator
  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4538
    • Permission Granted - Land Owner
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2020, 12:20:58 AM »
On December 9 I had had 21 days of sitting on stand, had seen a LOT of turkey, a few deer and a few hogs, missed two hogs (on different days) at 250+yards, and put 2 gobblers (the first day) and one deer (the 13th day) in the freezer.  On Dec. 10 I shot 2 hogs.  Five game animals in the freezer in 22 days.  Maybe that isn't slow.  To me, it is slow.

Since then I have taken one day and one weekend off making my total 29 days of SITTING (which is why its called hunting and not killing).  My butt is officially TIRED of sitting. 

In the last 7 days I have seen no legal bucks, no hogs, one doe, one screw horned spike whose right antler extended to 4", but at a right angle to his other normal 6" spike (I saw no leg abnormality and surmise the antler broke at its base, which then grew sideways), and more hen and Tom turkey than I care to count at distances of 10 and 20 yards from the stand! 

The deer know where I sit.  They knew from day one as my "postage stamp" sized property "is nothing" to them in comparison to the 100+thousand acres of riverine flood plain they can wander, some 14-thousand acres of it immediately adjacent to me that is NO HUNTING.  I plant food plots (rye grain, wheat, sorghum, that are gorgeous to hunt over) to make my property different - so they will wander through in daylight.  They don't.  There are sighting by trail camera of nocturnal activity there and the woods this year are FULL of white oak trees raining acorns.  They do not have to travel far to get a full belly.

Regardless of my scent, after a MONTH of my sitting there observing day in and day out, SOME deer should be seen in daylight on their random meanderings (if they were there and they were there earlier).  The Law of Averages suggests that to be so.  Zero, zilch, nada on sighting more than one legal deer in 30-days. Seeing no more hogs in daylight is difficult to understand.  The 6 hogs that were sighted can't be the last hogs on the flood plain and there are still white acorns on the ground, which the turkey are thankful for.  My deer and hog Processor says his business is "off" this year and that hunting is slow...so it isn't just me noticing. 

My Sis and BIL come for the day today and offer some pre-holiday relief.  I am taking this weekend off from hunting.  I don't know about hunting next week, but with nothing more to do, being retired, I might as well "go insane" doing the same thing and expecting a different result though

I'm not certain how much more sitting in the woods my rear end can take.  There have been countless measures tried to ease the pain of sitting on plywood.  In the end, no pun intended, the pain of just sitting still (absorbing the 38-degree cold) is taking a toll on knees, derrière, and attitude.

Offline Ranger99

  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9581
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #15 on: December 20, 2020, 10:42:34 AM »


I'm not certain how much more sitting in the woods my rear end can take.  There have been countless measures tried to ease the pain of sitting on plywood.  In the end, no pun intended, the pain of just sitting still (absorbing the 38-degree cold) is taking a toll on knees, derrière, and attitude.

You might try different cushions.
I have a couple of cushions I got at
wally world in the housewares for
about $5 each. They are the kind
meant to use for wood bottom
chairs and have the ties to attach
with. I just tie them together for a
carrying handle of sorts.
I haven't seen any animals myself
although I know that's not much
consolation. The other people around
here don't understand that when
you start tear a$$ing through the
woods and running around all over
in your carts and atvs when there
hasn't been any activity for many
months, it makes the animals very
wary, and they go nocturnal
because it gets quiet after dark.
We'll have some late season time
to try here, and maybe the others
will have lost interest by then and
things will settle back down.

Good Luck
18 MINUTES.  . . . . . .

Offline Doublebass73

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (46)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4579
Re: SLOW Hunting season
« Reply #16 on: December 20, 2020, 02:15:46 PM »
I use one of those Cabelas low rider hunting chairs. I can sit on one of those for quite a while with no pain.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

---- William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783