Pardon me while I grouse

[shaman]

In ain't easy being a pro-staffer. Let me tell you. Sometimes being captain of the shamanic dream team, and the chief of R&D for the Blackhole Institute of Advanced Whitetail Research becomes a crushing responsibility. There are all those people depending on you. There are all those folks wanting you to succeed. Then you think of the children. The Children!

This is the longest I have ever gone into season without filling a tag. The Opener was a warm windy zilch for me. Same for the next weekend. SuperCore is the only one with meat on the pole. He bagged a doe on Opening Sunday. Overall, something has these deer perturbed over on our end of the county. It is something very local, because we're less than 1000 yards from the Pendleton County line and they are setting records over there. I have seen pictures of several monsters coming from the same area as the 2001 KY record buck.

I had a nice gimme shot at a 10-pointer back in ML season that I passed up, thinking that rifle season would be even better. It has not. On the Opener, I had doe and buck running hither and thither for about the first 15 minutes of season-- too dark and the deer too fast for me to get off a shot. I saw the bucks later that day-- nothing I would have shot anyway. From what I hear, the next Wednesday and Thursday were the big days. Sadly, I was sitting at my desk both of them. Oh well.

Anyhow, I just wanted y'all to know I'm still out there trying. May y'all have a good Thanksgiving and have lots of deer in your sights.

[Deebz]

Back at ya Sham...

[kellory]

Shaman, count your blessings. Over the last two years, My best hunting buddy lost his job, and once he found a new one his hours no longer allow us to hunt together. He had the truck. Other plans had to be made, and I have been trying to get my own vehicle, but that will be for next season, not this season. I have found another hunting partner, only he is very unreliable, forgets hunts, shows up late, and in the last two years, I think I have been able to get out to hunt only half a dozen times, and two of those were for squirrel. I'm seriously in need of some hunting! I will try again to get out Friday (unless something else goes wrong, ) for the first time this year for archery. But it will need to be a solo hunt, because I can't find a reliable hunter to share my hunting land with.
My Son is in his first year of College, and way too busy, My best friend is not a hunter, and the hunters I would trust on my land are on this board, and too far away. So count your blessings....I'm trying to count mine.

[shaman]

Yep! Count your blessings. That's for sure.

I'm back. I'm eating tag soup this year. This past weekend was one of the worst I've faced in a decade. We saw hardly any deer. I was cold and wretched for three days.

[JPH]

Times are tough all over, Shanman!

I don't know what cause is in your neck of the woods but things have been very, very lean Iowa too! The drought and the EHD outbreak seem to have had a tremendous impact on our herd and the hunting. I hunt the top two counties for confirmed EHD kills and my sightings are down as much as 90%. I have well over 30 hrs in the bow stand and have only had three deer in range. One yearling buck at 30 yards, one very nervous doe at 40ish and one mature buck at 30. Thankfully he's in the freezer, but I'm used to being spoiled. Not the case in 2012. It takes me back at least 15 years in terms of the herd and my ability to interact with them.

Oh and to top that off, I lost the best deer hunting property I've ever hunted. For 15 years I've kept the landowner happy and treated it as if it were my own. It's been the scene of some of my greatest hunts. The woman who owns it is starting to forget things and control has been taken from her. I learned of the loss in an unceremonious way and had to pull out two weeks before the gun opener.

Hey, as long as we can hobble outside and smell the autumn air, we're ahead of the game.