2010 ohio hunting journal

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11/29 monday (first day of gun season)
Lake county N.E. Ohio:

Every year I go out the evening before gun season and I see a buck, yesterday eve was no different. I saw a ROAMING buck that wasn't on any of the trail cams. At 200 yrds and bow in hand I never got a shot off. I tried to rattle , grunt, and doe bleat- he looked twice and showed no interest in the decoy either. He just kept on walking.

Day 1 of gun season: Got out of the house late and had to set -up on the edge of an open field. I was late other hunters were already set-up in the woodline (my bad for being late). [:@] There was some shooting from the neighbor hood, but none from the 100 acre farm I was on. I tried a different property for the evening hunt - saw nothing and heard only one shot from the neighbors. The guy at the bow shop said it has been a goofy year, "Ya see one or two for a couple of days then nothing for the rest of the week." I told him its been kinda slow for me to and I have 3 properties to choose from. Its just slow this year. Last year was a mess from the heat I don't know what to make of this year. If you guys (or girls) have any tips or are having better luck with any tactics- let me know. I can't seem to get anything within 50yrds so far with a bow and nothing with a shot gun.[:(]

[muzzyswuirrel@gmail.]

read in paper near 40,000 deer harvested so far! still a long way to go til we reach last years benchmark of 54,000. may lenghten gun season i hear if we dont harvest enough. get to it!

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Lake County (N.E. Ohio)
The week of gun season(Dec. wk 1):

8 guys from work went to 8 different properties at different days of the week. Nobody saw a single deer and only a few guys found tracks to follow. All of them had to stop when the tracks left the property.

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12/19/10 Lake county (N.E. Ohio)

Went out Sat. morning, Sat. eve, & Sun. eve (gun weekend) - not even a sighting of deer. I even heard snow mobiles on the nieghbors properties at 4:45 pm. They didn't kick up a single deer. Very few tracks even. I thought maybe I was hunting the propertie(s) -3, to hard so I let them cool off a week to a week 1/2 before gun season and stayed out between gun week and gun week-end 2. No sightings by the farmers or me. I told the one farmer "well I guess I did my job this year, no more deer. Either that or he needs to give the coyotes a raise, because the deer are just GONE." I did see 2 deer with thier head down standing at a nieghboring farms long driveway on my way home at 6 pm. Could they be looking for rock salt already? I thought it was a little early to be mineral defficient. Let me know how the rest of you are doing.

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12/28/10 N.E. ohio (lake county)

I went out on sunday (12/26) eve. Went out and had a small group of bucks come into the field edge the last 1/2 hr. of the day. The biggest buck came within 15yrds., but the brush was to thick. They are coming to the field to dig up the left over brassica and clover.

The wife and I went out this evening (12/28). She had a tall tined 8pntr. walk in on her at 20yrds. behind her. She tried to wait him out , but he trotted off. No chance for a shot. He followed the wind looking for a doe strip. Some bucks are back together and some are still search'n for the last DOES. At least thier move'n again. [:D]

[Ohio farms]

I read in one of the hunting magazines that if you were only going to hunt one day during the rut make it Nov 11. I hunted Nov. 9, 10 and 11. On the 11th I shot an 8 point that weighed 233 lbs est. live wt. Seeing as Nov 11th was Veteran's day and I'm a vet, I thought it was pretty cool. I know where I'll be next 11/11