Archery Talk

True story. My wife an I met in Sept of '81. Propose in the summer of '85. Start planning the wedding and such.... she comes and says "I have the perfect date, Oct. 3rd." Houston, we have a problem! I said, "Look that's the first day of archery, and while it's only one day of this season, our anniversary is going to fall in the beginning of archery season every year ad chances are, I'll be in the woods." Told her There's ten other months. Let me have October and November. The rest are yours. Got married on May 24, 1986. Still get the eye roll come mid September.

 

My wife yells at me if I’m not getting time in the stand. Earlier today she actually told me that I should be out putting holes in the bag by now.

I’m seriously getting excited this year though. After the straps I typically have my deer processed into stew chunks and ground meat and eat it almost exclusively in burgers, sausage, stew, chili, etc. I just smoked some on the grill for the 1st time tonight and wow! Completely amazed at how good it was. I took some chop cleaned all the membrane and extra fat off the edges, salted it up and scared it with a few other seasonings, cold smoked it for almost an hour then hit it at 275-300 for 15-20 minutes. Best venison I’ve ever had. Better than the pan for sure. Guess l’ll be grilling / smoking a lot more.

 

Another true story:
I told my wife I will not get married or have a child Oct - mid Jan.
We were married in September and our kid was born in April.
The child thing was just shithouse luck, but it worked out just right.

 

My wife didnt hunt at all, Id hunted a little but not a lot; we got married in 2007, In 2008 season I started hunting, I jumped in on bow hunting self taught. Had a lot of problems the first year and didnt bring anything home but the second and 3rd season I got 4 deer and by the 4th season she jumped in to hunting with crossbow and she got 2. one small doe and a nice spike. That was 2011 and shes been killing deer ever since. shes actually already sat out behind the house a couple times...this season shes trying to get the jump on killing a deer before me...LOL

 

Women cost too much money

 

also put up another ladder stand, for my bear bait...no pics yet...

 

Went over and put corn out yesterday. The buckwheat is showing some life and it hasn’t gotten rained on yet, it’s only been planted 4 days. Hopefully it does good.

 

Hung that tree stand on this spot Monday the 2nd, look who was in there the next day at perfect shooting time. Also another scrub buck I been getting pictures of.

 

That's a nice one.

 

Would love to shoot an nice velvet buck! Our PA season doesn't open until the end of September, beginning of Ocotber.

 

Anybody hear of the Field to Fork Program done by the QDMA (Quality Deer Management Association)?

I just listen to a Meateater podcast about it. It's an interesting program that is helping recruit new hunters.

Essentially they set up in local markets and offer free wild game samples, mostly venison. Then ask if they are interesting in learning to harvest their own local organic meat and I guess the program is working well.

It's getting people in urban areas interested in hunting that would normally be anti.

They assign them a mentor and train them to use a crossbow which takes about three hours and then take them on a hunt.

 

Our season starts Saturday, if you don't get one in velvet in the first week or so chances are slim. I've only ever shot one with velvet and it was many years ago. My wife got a decent 8 point a couple years ago in velvet.

 

ours season started already, but the little buck Ive seen is already worn its velvet off. the other bucks Ive been seeing on my cameras have disappeared as usual/typical this time of year. I did see one the other day but I didnt get a real good look at him, but looked like his velvet was gone also.

 

It looks like the second buck I posted a picture of his velvet is gone. What are y'alls temperatures out there now? We are 65/90 right now, average. I don't know if that has anything to do with when it comes off or not.

 

I think its just the time of year. We are actually a little warmer than normal, supposed to be getting some rain/showers etc next couple days. we should be in the 70's for highs but we've been in the 80's low 90's. Ive just never really seen too many in velvet after season starts. I think thats how Idaho fish and game plans it They are sneaky like that. Take for instance they have both deer and elk closed the first ten days of October...which is PEAK of the elk rut, they get super stupid that 10 days. You could fart loud and call in a bull...but thats why they closed it for those days...it slowly trickles down till the end of the month but that first ten days wow!

 

Sounds like a great program! The biggest obstacle to recruiting young or new hunters is, the cost of equipment and supplies. The next biggest obstacle is the lack of hunting ground availability. Here in West central Illinois, deer hunting takes priority and it’s a, dog eat dog, business. The cheapest hunting ground goes for about $3400 per acre and hunting leases go for $30-$50 per acre all day long. When outfitters lease ground they usually eliminate other game hunters such as squirrels, rabbits, Turkey and quail. For someone just starting out in this area...$$$$$$$ !!!

 

Wow, that would be very frustrating!

This program usually gets land donated to it by locale land owners, so I think that would keep the cost down, but you got Chicago right over you so I'm sure they have thought of trying the program there. Would be terrible if they couldn't find any land though.

 

Well, It’s been 8 days since I’ve checked cameras and food plots. The food plots are looking great, the urea is doing its job. As a bonus some of the chestnut trees that I planted are starting to produce some chestnuts. Won’t check camera cards till later.

 

here’s the best I have so far. Got him in velvet and hard bone. ​

 

Hes sure purty