MUDRUNNER

My thoughts exactly. Gun season harvest numbers are up about 5,000 from last year, but my counties and surrounding counties are all down about 50-100 per county. I can't really complain much though. The season has been a real struggle, but I had one good week where I tagged a nice buck and two does. We just have seen a steady decline in deer numbers over the last three or four years.

I picked one up last year. I actually went in to buy the Kindle Fire, but got a Lenovo from Best Buy for the same price and more features. It's a 7", but works great for games, movies, and internet. I like the wi fi tablets, so you don't need a data plan for it. The Google Nexus is supposed to pretty good to. If you want to stay around $200 there are some pretty good 7 inchers out now.

Congrats to your Grandpa! A couple of dandy bucks there. Time with Grandpa is time well spent. I've been hunting with my Grandpa since I was 11. (36 now) My Dad passed away when he was only 40, and Grandpa was right there to fill the void. He's 85 now, and I know the day will come when he won't be sitting with us at deer camp, but until then we sure do have us some fun.

I am always in the minority with this question...I see probably twice as many deer in the mornings. It could be due to the fact that we only have timber to hunt, and no row crops.

Dang Ruth....you couldn't ask for a much better season than that. You're dropping them like flies this year. Congrats on the doe!

Heck of a nice buck! Congrats! Little of the white stuff coming down, eh.

He's a great buck! Congrats!

I got a call from the wife this morning that the Suburban was acting up. I went to pick her up and we swapped vehicles so I could try and limp it home. For some reason out of the blue, the thing decides it doesn't have a third gear. First and second work fine, when it goes into third there is nothing. It just revs, but no go, just like I threw it into neutral. I was hoping it would just be a solenoid, but every place I've called has said clutches are probably shot. I've never had tranny go out all of the sudden like that, but from the way it sounds it is pretty common on the 4L60E trans. Best price so far is $1600. Still seems high, but not much I can do about it.

Sounds like a great time! That's a big ol' squirrel. I need to get my kids out for a little squirrel hunting. I grew up doing it, but the last few years have just been focusing on deer hunting.

Nice buck! Congrats!

I didn't get any more points for the team over the weekend. I did manage to put an arrow through a nice fat doe Saturday morning, so the weekend wasn't a total bust. My year went from aweful to pretty darn good all in a weeks time. Next weekend is our second shotgun season, and since I'm tagged out on shotgun permits it will be at least two weeks before I get out with the bow again.

My wife went once and all she did was make noise and sleep lol. She's afraid of heights and doesn't like to get up early. She did say she wouldn't mind learning how to shoot a bow though. Good luck on the hunt!

Some pics aren't showing up for me either. RTF has a thread with pictures in the taxidermy room but they aren't showing up for me.

Absolutely! It tears me up just to think about kids having to deal with these kind of issues so young. Your a special guy Steve. I don't know if i could ever do what you do.

Dang boys! A couple of nice bucks. Congrats C_Lou and Ilhnter! After a slow start, we're putting a pretty big push in the points this week.

Not sure about his age, but he's a stud. Congrats on another dandy!

Man, that makes for a long weekend. Really our group didn't see a lot of action or hear much shooting. Evenings were a complete waste of time. No one even seen a deer after about 9 a.m. I seen deer twice over the three days and was fortunate enough to put one down each time.

A couple of nice bucks there! Looks like you had some pretty good action over the weekend.

He's a great buck! Congrats!

Jees, he's got some serious mass. Congrats!

Holy moly! That's a trunk full of deer right there.

Man o man..those are a couple of dandies. Congrats to her!

After a slow, hard season, I finally hammered a nice buck. Bowhunting has been tough for our group this season. The rut seems to have never really fired up the way it has in the past. After strugglin through almost 7 weeks of bow season, it's nice to put one down with the shotgun. I was making my way to my stand at the usual time, about an hour before sunrise. No sooner than I get to the base of the tree and I hear running on the ridge coming my way. It was too dark to see them, but I heard some grunting, so figured it was a buck dogging a doe. I slid up my 20' climbing stick, climbed on the stand, and got settled in hoping they would come back by when the sun came up. Sure enough, about 7:30 I hear them running my way again. They came in behind me and I wasn't able to get a shot, but finally got to see the buck and could tell he was a dandy. I watched them till they disappeared, and figured they moved on to the neighbors ground. About 8:30 I hear a twig snap behind me. I look over my right shoulder and see a doe walking straight towards me, with the buck trailing about 30 yards behind. To keep from getting busted all I could do was look straight ahead and wait to see if they would come around the left or right of me. Every step in the frosty leaves was closer and closer, and with every step my heart beat faster. The doe came to my left and was only about 4 yards from my tree. I don't know how she didn't see the steam from my breath....I had to look like a chimney up there I was breathing so hard. Finally he gets to where I can see him. I raise my gun about as slowly as I can to keep the doe from spooking. I put the red dot on him at about 35 yards and let the 12 gauge bark. He went about 30 yards and piled up. He's not my biggest, but I'm more than pleased with him after hunting so hard this season and coming up empty. To top of the weekend I bagged a big fat slick head yesterday morning at 9. We're down to our last two pounds of burger, so I'm getting the freezer filled up just in time. He's a main frame 8 with a busted up G3 and a 1 1/2" kicker on his right side.

Congrats Jeramie! Nice buck!

Jeees! That deer is unbelievable! Congrats! They don't come much nicer than that.