Suburban hunting camp! (pics added)

[Skipmaster1]

Here is the log pile that was behind the doe when I shot 3 quick shots into her

 

 

And here she and I are!

 

[ishiwannabe]

Wow man, he is a stud! I hope he wears one of your tags! Or mine....lol.
Big doe. Im sure ya did the right thing shooting multiple times. Sometimes, that is what it takes. Better than to lose her...or have end up piled up on a non-hunter friendly owned property. Congrats!....again. Lol.

[hayslope]

Keep at em Bro'.......end of the season is a long way off!

BTW - let me know when you are going to be around...maybe at FAS....or when we can touch bases.....have some moose meat for you and yours!

[Big Ed]

Way to go Greg!!!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Good food here guys. I 'll be checking back.  Sounds to me like a well rounded success for everyone.      

[gobblegrunter]

Nice doe, and nice lookin bow too...what kind of bow is it?

[Skipmaster1]

Originally posted by gobblegrunter:
Nice doe, and nice lookin bow too...what kind of bow is it?

Thats my new Shrew classic hunter. I love it, it has carbon/foam limbs and the bow bolt take down system. It's only 56" long and 55# at 28"

[ishiwannabe]

OK where was I? Sorry it has taken so long to get back at this. Life is crazy.

With the deer headed towards Mikey, I began to smile. I know, I know. Mikey is from the city, and a gorund only hunter...but I have seen the man in the woods a few times, and I know he can get it done.

Fast forward to about nine am. Im still in the stand, and I am COLD. I was cursing myself for not bringing another layer. On one of my numerous right to left scans, I saw something that I didnt remember seeing before, off my left shoulder. Then it moved...ah. Binos. Black binos, and the only other thing I saw was a glint. It turned out to be Mikey, he had gotten to within about 45 yards without being noticed. Then, thanks to his predator camo, he was very hard to pick out. If he had camo binos, I probably would have missed him. I climbed down, we chatted a bit. Then I figured we should get ready in case out pick up man bumped something towards us. I found a root ball hole, and climbed in. I turned to look for Mike....gone. He is like a ninja! Im telling ya.
A few minutes later, I see a man skirting the property, heading towards us. I wait until he is about 50 yards away, coming right towards me, and begin to pack up. As I finish, he is five feet away. I stand....I wave....he doesnt see me and keeps walking! He turned out to be a landscaper....and went about forty yards passed the stand I was in to answer nature's call....number two.
Now, this happens to Mikey and I almost every time we hunt....I dont know why. Maybe a glitch in the universe or something...lol.
The landscaper finishes up, and returns to work, and out pick up man, Ray, showed up. Back to the lodge for story swapping and plans for the afternoon...

[ishiwannabe]

The rest of the days continued like this. It seems like there were deer spotted on every hunt. At one point, I had a very "close" encounter with a HUGE 8 or 10 point buck. After getting altitude sickness from one of Greg's stands  :D  I climbed down, and begand making my way uphill for a improvised ground blnd. I made it about twenty yards when I heard something. I looked up and watched this massive buck stand up at about 35-40 yards. Wind was in my favor, and I froze. He stood for maybe 30 seconds, unsure. He took a bound, then another, and was on top of the ridge. He stood there, looking back, but his gaze drifted past me each time. What a magnificent buck....and to be so close, but so far. It lasted about three minutes total, but I will always remember it. He nonchalantly walked away, into the wind, and out of my life forever...

[greyghost]

Great story and pic. Nice big doe, congrats.

[ishiwannabe]

I do have to admit, I messed up one time on a pre-dawn entry. I had found this hot spot, and with Greg's lonewolf packed on my back, I headed out. This was a nice saddle, with a couple of trail intersections and some decent rubs. I knew as soon as I found this spot, it would be hot.

With my gear on my back and my bow in my hand, I was off. Easy....up to the crest, bear left and follow the saddle down to the stone wall "t".

I remember thinking as I walked that I needed to tweak the way I set up the lone wolf. A nifty little stand, quiet as can be, but a bit uncomfortable to climb with, imo. Anyway, suddenly I saw a very large downed log that I did NOT remember from my earlier look around. Hmmmm...this doesnt look right, and because I was going slow and quiet, Im running out of time.
I find a few trails, and a break in the stone wall....I decide to set up, and not run the risk of messing up the spot....I can always readjust for the afternoon, right?

As I get up the tree and settled, I shoot a text off to Greg stating I am not where I was headed, and actually have no idea where I am. He suggested I find a spot and set up....told him I did. A few minutes later, with light coming quickly, I see......a cow? Almost the same time, I get a text from my host saying look right, the cow pasturer is 80 yards off your shoulder. He is right but how in the he...another text. "now turn around"....I do, he waves. Somehow I got completely turned around and set up within a hundred yards of Greg!! He laughed at me a lot, but told me to stay put as I was in a good spot. Mortified at my mistake, I pouted the morning away...

From where he sat, Greg could almost see Chris, and saw a deer bolt away, low and tucked. It didnt take much to convince eachother Chris may have gotten a shot. Greg and I met up, I apologized A LOT, and he laughed it off. What a great host...he actually said he didnt even hear me climb/set up. Being in such close proximity, with my second time with a lone wolf, I took that as a compliment. Atleast I can do something right....LOL.

The background here is that I taught land nav in the Army...and I always stressed terrain features!!! Now, I didnt have a map, but who can get turned around in Westchester, right?  

[mcgroundstalker]

I can hear that DEP land calling now! Nice pictures by the way.

... mike ...

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Funny Stuff Jamie.  

     

[ishiwannabe]

That sit passed with a few texts between Greg and I. And a few waves...   :rolleyes:   We had basically convinced ourselves that Chris had made a shot, but it turned out we were just having a case of wishful thinking.

The time spent there is still vivid, even now, weeks later. I need to review what has been written, and pick this back up in a bit...

[ishiwannabe]

Saturday found us sitting yet another location. Chris and I were on opposite sides of powerlines. A chilly clear morning, and we were in the stands with plenty of time to await first light.
The horizon had just began to lighten when I heard a deer. It sounded as if it was trotting, headed right for me. It got about forty yards driectly behind me and stopped. Still too dark to make out anything, I assumed it had walked off along the powerlines.
the predawn twilight began to" blue up", and vague shapes began to appear. Suddenly leaves were moving. And I mean leaves...imagine an inground swimming pool filled with nothing but dry leaves. Now imagine throwing your sibling/nephew/cousin/etc into the deep end. Something was swimming in the leaves....I could not bend my head around this noise.
I squinted....I stared. Still too dark to make out anything beyong 15 yards, I was baffled. Then silence. Light increased, squirrels woke up. Come on deer.
I have a habit of slowly panning my head, side to side, when in a stand. I have seen so many deer this way that I never heard, and it keeps me focused. On one such pan, the first actually, I caught movement behind me and to the left. I slowly turned to watch a buck meander across the powerline, headed for Chris's side. All my wishing and praying didn't turn him towards Chris, and I watched him angle up the hill away from Chris.
a while later is when Greg made the shot on the first doe pictured in this thread. Texts between Greg and I relived his shot, and he decided to back out and walk a loop to us.
the rest of the morning passed uneventfully....but even that is a blessing to those of us that live and breathe the hunt.
back at the lodge, Greg and Chris went on retrieval, and Mikey and I terrorized the squirrels. Randy stopped by, and the three of us awaited the sight of the first deer down. We didn't have to wait long...Greg and Chris returned in short order.
The afternoon was planned...

[ishiwannabe]

We were going to a public property. With our access passes printed, we stripped our gear down. No need for safety harnesses, ezhang bowhangers....light and mobile was the name of the game.
as we parked, we saw there was just a lone vehicle. We made ready. Threw together a quick plan, posed for a few pictures, and we were off.
I broke off from the group early to follow a stream as it wound it's way towards a promising saddle spied on google earth. Turns out Greg and I like hunting terrain features...I hadn't used GE until this trip, but I will now. I usually used topo maps and terraserver. No longer, I am converted.
anyway, as I slithered along the stream, I was amazed at the sign. It seemed that almost every sapling was rubbed, and walking was easy....just step from scrape to scrape. 60 yards in, I jumped a doe. She ran up and away from where Greg and Chris were headed, but right towards Mike. I continued on. After about a hundred yards more, I got up into a little draw to work my way in further. I noticed heavy tracks...the people kind. I passed it off as hikers, other hunters, etc. I crossed them and doglegged up to the general area I remembered from the map. Rubs, substantial rubs, were everywhere. Scrapes and heavy trails. I followed a stone wall, spied a break in it. I stopped and looked around....this was my spot. A deadfall against a stone wall. Trails to my front and right, wind in my face. I threw together a hasty blind, found a large flat rock for a chair, and began my vigil.
within minutes, squirrels were surrounding me. A few times I actually considered taking a shot....but I was in westchester...the bowhunting mecca of the entire northeast.
my evening passed too quickly. No other deer were spotted. My phone blinked at me...I had received my schedule(work) and would have to leave tomorrow afternoon...only one more hunt here in paradise before I had to return to life...
as dusk approached, I heard footsteps. Another hunter walked up to within 15 yards, unaware. I stood, waved. We chatted a bit about sightings and luck so far. He was blown away by my longbow. His exact words"  I have never seen anyone actually HUNT with a longbow!" I laughed, and said there are four of us here now, and thousands throughout the U.S. He seemed genuinely impressed...I ended up walking out with him, discussing the ability of a lb. As we parted ways, I offered him the website here, at Tradgang. I told him it was a place he could learn all he wanted about stickbows. He thanked me, and we bid eachother good luck on our future hunts.
as I got to the vehicles, I could sense an energy. It was intense....a life of it's own. It took one look at Greg to realize something had happened...

I will let Greg tell it from here, and then finish up with Sundays morning hunt. I hope you guys are enjoying this so far...it isn't easy to put into words how great this experience was.

[ishiwannabe]

[Chris O]

Sounds like a blast! Its similar hunting in a lot of the patches of woods out here on the island too!

[Stone Knife]

Hey Greg, when you gonna get that sawed off grounds keeper guy a deer  

[Skipmaster1]

Thanks so much Jaime for telling this story. I hope Chris can get around to jumping in soon. I really don't remember a lot from the week. For me it went by too fast and honestly I was more concerned about getting everyone to and from stands, making sure everyone was up and ready on time, Jaime's coffee was ready..... pretty much all the "behind the scenes" of hunting camp. Not to say I wasn't having fun, I was having a blast but I really wanted the guys to just relax and have fun. I'm lucky enough to pretty much do that all the time, so it was their turn.

Back to the evening Jaime just wrote about. I mentioned it in an earlier post but yes it was an amazing night. After breaking off from these guys and making sure they were set, I hoofed it to the very back side of the property. I had encounters with two different 8 pointers chasing different groups of does as I made my way to the area and then was able to call in a 130"+ buck, into range and miss him! I texted Jaime and told him about it, he thought I was kidding, but with deer like that I don't kid around. I'm sure I looked like a teenage boy who just got his first kiss from a crush when i got back to the truck. Big deer don't usually rattle me like this but I was on cloud nine. I Couldn't stop thinking( or talking) about it all night. It was just an awesome evening to be in the woods.