mathews4life84

Pretty dang good weekend of bowhunting!!I woke up saturday morning to a good hard frost and 30 degrees. What more could a bowhunter ask for. Well as i started my pusuit to my stand in the dead silence, i blew out so many deer that were feeding in the beans. By the time i got to my stand i was quite frustrated. Finally cracks light as i stare out in to the standing corn. Big buck!! All i see is a big rack. Give a few soft grunts and here he comes. After looking him over real good i elected to pass as he made a scrape at 14 yards! He was a very nice mid 130's 10 point. Sunday morning same thing but no big bucks. I had a big ol' camel head come in to 22 yards and that was the end of her. One of the best blood trails yet. And to find out my dad had a few trail cam pics of a few good bucks, things are looking up for us!!

this is one that came strolling by last night!

Finally seeing some movement!! I went out last evening in the light rain and brisk wind. I was up there in the tree thinking to myself " when am i going to start seeing those bucks i had pics of all summer". Finally got some movement in the beans around 5:30. Then just before dark the bucks started showing themselves. I ended up seeing 3 bucks and 8 does. None of the bucks were shooters, but still good to finally start seeing some boneheads materialize. I am looking forward to this weekend!! Good luck fellas.

Thanks Brian. My dad and I take a lot of pride in our deer that we take. So what better way to show them off than with great pictures. We have had lots of comments of our photos over the years. I agree with you, I cant stand seeing those pickup truck pics with all the blood and tongues hanging out. It doesnt take that long to do it right.

then you might wanna change your profile picture.

so much truth to that! im not sure if many people know this but michael waddell killed the biggest buck of his life in indiana last season. Thats saying a lot considering the places he has been. I will shut up now because i dont want the press. I like being a sleeper state.

thats what i thought. For your sake, i hope you never have to deal with the problems i have encountered. Good luck. Im not here to bash rage, i am here to tell others the problems that i have encountered and to be as helpful as possible. It is a horrible feeling loosing the biggest buck of your life.

how was it not helpful? I shoot 76#s and have not had good success with the rage. Isnt that what the question was pertaining too on this thread? Oh i see your from pa, that explains a lot right there.

Finally! Someone is in the same mindset as me. I agree with toddybowman 100%. If anyone knows much about deer hunting, they know that the moon phases are what kickstarts the rut. It was very weird this year having that full moon a week and a half early. I havent seen crap for buck activity due to it. But with the cold weather being here all season so far and that 2nd full moon dropping on the 1st week of november, we are in for an early rut for sure. Oh and has anyone noticed that the corn and beans are going to be coming out toghether this year? I find that indiana is going to have a record breaking season! Good luck to all, and be ready for some early rut activity!!!!

I wanted to start up a thread for all indiana hunters to use as a bragging board. Basically if you have some good trail cam pics or kill pics, share them with your fellow hunters here. I always find it interesting to look at the bragging boards at all the outdoor sports shops i go to. Here are a few pics of my own.

I hate rage!!!!!!!!! I am 25 yrs old now and have been bowhunting since i was 9 years old, thats 16 years of it. Up until last season i had never wounded a deer with archery tackle. Just last year i decided to give in to all the hype over rage and what a mistake that was. I killed a few deer with them last year before the rut. But on nov. 1st of last season i had an opportunity at 15 yards at a 180"+ booner 11 point and i got a whole whopping 5 inches of penetration on him. Needless to say i lost him. Oh and by the way, i shoot a mathews outback at 76pounds. This isnt the only issue i have had with them. Just this past monday night i had a perfect quartering away shot at 25yards on a nice doe. I hit her exactly where i was aiming, 3"max of penetration, didnt find her either. I am just disgusted at the performance of these heads. I went back to my tried and true nap scorpion xp heads. I have also heard a lot of stories of other great bowhunters loosing deer while shooting rage. Good luck and i hope you all find this helpful.

yup same block of woods.

as far as i know the big 8 is still out there.

A buddy of mine shot this 11 point that i had several photos of. It netted low 140's. I passed up this big 8 point 3 times last season. I hope he made it cause he was 4.5 yrs. Old last year. I havent killed a buck with a 20+" spread yet and this guy is well over that. I would guess him to be 22-24".

Neat growth process pics!!These are pretty neat to get the 3 stages of his growth through the summer.

Ready!!Here are a few good ones i have. Not on my hitlist but damn close. What do you guys think the wide 8 will score? I say low 130's.

Ready!! i hunt up here in steuben county and it is a killer county at that. i lost a gross boone last year, probably would have leaked in to the low 180s and ended up killing his twin son during muzzleloader. scored exactly 150" as a 13 point. i hope his dad made it through the season. i havent heard of anyone finding him. but, i do have some dandys on my trail cams from this summer. for today i will be going out this evening to slide a " rage in the cage " on a big ol camel head! GOOD LUCK FELLAS!!!!!

Are you serious right now with the weather changes us bowhunters are seeing up here in n.e. Indiana? This whole summer has been cool, but not like what they are calling for tomorrow. A low of 32 degrees tonight for angola, in which i hunt. I will not be taking the morning off to hunt, but you can guarantee i will be in the tree for the evening hunt. I am saving my last 3 vacation days for the last week of bowseason. How about any of you other indiana boys out there? You got your bucks all picked for tomorrow? I am excited to see all the monsters that they are killing up there in wisconsin. It is a promising sign that the big boys are moving around in daylight hours. Hopefully it will be like that come tomorrow evening. Share your thoughts on what you think this year has in store for you.

If possible, i round up a couple buddies and walk about 40 to 50 yds apart down and back until we have reached the end of the woods. Then we will also do the same in the fields. It increases your chances greatly. Plus you have someone there to talk to so you dont get board so quickly. You also can cover alot of ground quicker. I also take my dog with me. All dogs are attracted to blood. They have better noses than us humans as well, you may be suprised what they will find. Plus they may be able to find any dead deer that may have been wounded from the past season. Add this info along with all the other info provided in this forum and you should have greater success. Good luck and post your finds!

found one little spike shed this last sunday is all. still getting trail cam pics of small bucks with at least one side.

HERE IS THE STORY THAT MY DAD WROTE ABOUT IT: Hey guys I normally don’t tell anyone about my misses however I thought that you would find this story interesting. It involves a very rare animal. The outfitter makes mention of this buck being missed by two different archers. Well, I was the first one. I started my eastern Colorado archery hunt on November 5th. We had spotted this buck in a large CRP field with a hot doe. I watched until they bedded and then lined them up with a landmark. I crawled approx. 600 yards and thought that I had another 80 or so to go. The CRP was so thick that I had to kind of bust through it as I crawled forward with my bow. As I busted through a patch I looked to my right and this big buck and doe had jumped up and were looking at me. I was laying face down with my bow under me! I was able to get an arrow nocked as the doe took off. The buck was still facing me trying to figure out what I was. He turned broadside and I came to my knees while drawing my bow at the same time. There was no time to range him. I shot him for 40 yards and at first thought that my shot was going to be a good one. However at the last moment the arrow arched down just under him. He ran off about twenty yards and then stopped to look at me again for a moment and then he was off. In hind sight he must have been 45 -46 yards from me when I took the shot.I was on this buck three other times during my six day hunt but could not close the deal. At one point I was within 35 yards of him in a 50 mph wind but could not get a shot.The tumbleweeds had stacked up over 6’ tall in a tree line and became a barrier between me and him. I was able to get some pretty good video. Overall it was a very exciting hunt with many encounters but that was my only shot. This time the buck won as the big ones often times do.However, finding out after the fact that he was a true hybrid does sting a little bit. HERE IS THE STORY FROM THE OUTFITTER:A few years ago I donated a hunt to Grand Slam Cluc/Ovis which was bought by Scott Jesseman. Scott has hunted with me once before as well.Scott killed this awesome hybrid deer on opening day of the December 2008 rifle season. Two of my previous archers missed this deer inNovember. Too me, this is a trophy of a lifetime and Scott is going to mount this deer lifesize. He is 29" wide with 28" mainbeams and 7" browtines. He had a monster body - 68 inches from nose to base of tail and 8 1/2 inches from corner of the eye to nose. Must have weighed 300#+. Scores 187. I see a couple hybrids every year but this is by far the largest true hybrid I have seen or heard of. Note the tail, hide, face, glands, and antler hybrid characteristics. This is NOT a mule deer with a white-tail looking rack.

Very nicew buck! I will say that buck will score 134" net. It takes a huge 8 point to crack the 140" mark. Regardless of the score he is a **** of a buck! Congrats.

Parke co. Indiana bruiserthis monster was taken in parke co. indiana and is said to net around 200"!

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Got him!!!!!!I shot htis 13-point sunday morning @ 11:15 a.m. He gross scored 150" even. The funny thing is that i thought he was the one i hit with my bow until i walked up to him and he shrunk 30"s. Still my best buck yet. He is the identical twin to the one i hit with my bow, but the other buck would gross in the 180's. BOTH OF THE BUCKS LIVED ON THE SAME PROPERTY IN STUEBEN CO. INDIANA.