The early days of October aren't exactly the time of year bowhunters circle on our calendars as anything to get excited about. Usually it's when we might try to sneak in a duck hunt, maybe wet a line with a big sucker for a musky, or just watch some football.

But I couldn't buy into the theory of the infamous "lull" and allow those first few cool days of fall to slip by. Instead, I figured that if I focused on scouting, stand location and wind direction, and sprinkled in a little luck, maybe something good could come of those earliest days of October.

On October 1, I'd had great activity at the stand, seeing a little year-and-half old six-pointer and a few does. My hunting partners and I decided to try our same sets the next morning.

On October 2, Mother Nature blew some unseasonably cool weather into southeastern Wisconsin. Yesssss!

A thin strip of transition hardwoods with rub lines galore is positioned between a large marsh and pocket bedding marsh. We figured the deer would be through the hardwoods right after light, coming in from the crop fields to bed for the day.

I got in my set 30 minutes before legal shooting. I sat enjoying the cool weather and watching the woods come alive. At about 6:40 I could see movement at 50 yards and closing; it was the same small six-pointer I had seen the night before. He came in from down wind, found his way to the base of my tree and looked right up at me. Busted!

He slowly snuck away, as if he wasn't quite sure what he had just smelled or seen. I pulled out my phone and sent a text to my hunting buds to let them in on the sighting.

Just as I put my phone away and sat down, I could see movement coming out of the big marsh right where the six-pointer had headed in.

Here he comes again, I thought.

I pulled up the binocs and gave a look. It turned out to be a nice eight rolling in, a deer worth taking.

There was an opening 15 yards ahead of the buck. I grunted to stop him there, but he didn't quite hold up where I'd hoped he would. I had no shot. After a very brief pause, the buck continued to cruise toward the bedding area.

Still at full draw, I saw movement behind the first buck. It was another buck, and it was bigger! Luckily, with a little grunt I was able to stop him in the same opening I'd hoped to take the smaller eight. I found my mark and released the arrow.

Little more than 100 yards later, my hunting partners, Nate and Jake, helped me find the buck!

It is the nicest deer of my 15-year bow hunting career … and it just goes to show that even during the infamous October "lull" a bowhunter can find success by hunting transition woods, trying to catch bucks coming in late off the fields to bed down for the day.

I thought I would start a thread on some of the funny moments you’ve had deer hunting..

I have to say the funniest I ever had was 2 seasons ago at Cesars Creek.. I was walking back to the truck around noon doing a slow stalk down a horse trail. I was like a mile back I the woods, hadn’t seen another person all morning.. It was a cold 30 something that day. 

I could hear the leaves crunching ahead in the trail and took a knee off to one side with my bow….. as my heart began to pound, and the unavoidable steam from my breath flowed into the crisp air. I noticed movement around the corner, Then there was this guy jogging, With nothing on but a pair of sneakers and a bright yellow banana hammock. I thought what the hell is this!! I watched in utter disbelief as he ran by,, Ohhh dear lord he’s wearing a thong!!!!!!!!

I don’t think I have been back out there since.

Read more: http://www.ohiosportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18988#ixzz1f0nnEb4a

A few years back my brother in law was whitetail deer hunting with a friend.He doesnt hunt anymore but this is a crazy deer hunting story! They met up at the edge of a field after trying to push some deer to some other hunters. They where standing there talking, when a buck busted out of the woods and was running full bore across the field.They both pulled up there rifles and unleashed the fury. They didnt see him fall, so they went to the other end of the field to see if they could find him.On the far side of the field is a steep inbankment, Ya' know it went strait down hill. There they found this 7 point buck tanngled up in a tree, dead ! They pulled him out of the tree, not one bullet hole in him! He jummped into the tree and broke his neck ! My brother in law tagged him ,and is one of his best hunting memmories!

My father, older brother and I were generously invited by our neighbors and good friends to hunt on their preserve the first day of buck season. In choosing where to stand that first morning, we were trying to stay away from where the owner and other hunters would be, so we positioned ourselves near a spot where my dad found a rub line and a big scrape which was above the fields where Rough Ridge food plots were planted. We got into position before daylight, just barely. It was a steep hike and the brush was thick, going over and under fallen trees. The wind was blowing, it was spitting rain, and hard to hear with the rustling leaves of the trees. The thick laurel made it difficult to see and it was hard to hear approaching wildlife because of the wet ground. At 9 a.m. Dad called us on the radio to check in since he hadn’t heard any shots. We weren’t very far apart so it was obvious none of us had seen anything. We agreed he would check in with us in 15 minutes to let us know where we were going to move to next. And this is when everything started to happen. Dad had just put his radio down, looked up, and saw a whitetail buck run down through the laurel. It stopped right in front of him – a little 3 point. The buck winded him and took off running. He looked up again and here comes another buck through the laurel. It was legal, a 5 point, and since he hadn’t had a shot at a buck in 3 years, he took it. Standing there, having heard Dad’s shot, it was now about 9:15 and I was waiting for Dad to call on the radio about his kill when I heard a deer coming through the laurel. I grabbed my gun, turned around and waited to see if anything was coming down to me. And there he was. A GIANT deer popped out of the laurel and stopped 9 yards from me and just stood there. He stared at me. I stared at him. I’m waiting for the right time to pull my gun up, all the while thinking… don’t screw this up, don’t’ screw this up. He raised his one leg like he was getting ready to run away but he just kind of turned real slow and trotted away to my left, quartering back up the mountain. I seized the opportunity and pulled up real fast- got on him- took a shot. It was a heart shot but I didn’t know that at the time. He started running off to the left, through the laurel and I pulled up again and took a second shot. I was pulling the trigger about the same time I was pumping the gun. I moved up the mountain real fast to see if I could see where he went. I saw him stop in the laurel and come back over himself and I shot again because I wasn’t sure how good my first 2 shots were and I knew I didn’t want him to go anywhere! From the first shot he only went about 30 yards to the fall spot. I went over to make sure this giant was down and called Dad on the radio. Dad was just putting his coat back on from field dressing his buck and tagging it, when he heard 2 shots in quick cessation. He later told me he never heard two shots that close together before! He knew the shot came from the direction I was at and quickly responded to the radio and asked, “Did you get anything?” I said, “Dad, you’re not going to believe what I shot! This thing is HUGE!”. “How big is it?” Dad asked. I quickly replied, “It’s a 10 point! It’s a 12 point! No, it’s a 14 or 15 point!” My father says he will never, ever forget that response as long as he lives! And I will never forget his reply, “Clearly you’ve lost your mind. I’ll be right over”. When I walked over to the buck, my Dad was right… I had clearly lost my mind when I saw the buck laying there. It was indeed a 14 point – would have been 15 but the one point was broken half off. Dad said it was not only the biggest rack he had ever seen on this mountain, it was also the biggest body whitetail deer as well. Field dressed, it weighed in at 160 lbs. It was a painful drag over and under logs, kicking through logs, Dad dragging his “small” deer while also helping me by pushing along the back end of my “big” buck. Thankfully the owner caught up to us with his mule and carried both deer down the rest of the mountain as we rode along with other hunters in the back. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity afforded me in being able to hunt on this land where Rough Ridge food plots and minerals were being used. I have the proof that it WORKS! I’ve never experienced an adrenalin rush equal to this one! My heart didn’t quit pounding for three days! Hunting trophy bucks of this size brings a whole new level of fun, anticipation and excitement to whitetail hunting season! 

Images of this whitetail deer have been floating around the Internet. The fence in the background tells only part of the story.

This buck is claimed to be worth a million bucks, or just $7500 per sperm straw. It begs the questions such as: what came first, megatron, super-deer or folks who would pay to shoot them; scientifically we have the know how, but why should we; is this buck domestic livestock, and if so is killing him still considered hunting; what does the 73% of those non-hunters who still support hunting think; and has the idea of trophy for some surpassed the satisfaction of the chase?

Whatever your answers are to these questions, or your feelings toward this growing trend of trophy at any cost, you will never see such animals listed in Boone and Crockett records.

On Oct.23,2010 the day started out like any other early morning whitetail deer bow hunt with my hunting partner Scott and his son Jeff who was a first year bow hunter. At 8:40 am I called Scott on the cell and asked if he had seen anything at all moving, and his response was not even a chickadee. I told him to hold tight and I would put a still hunt drive on to him and Jeff. The drive went on to no availe. 

As Scott and I walked toward Jeff's stand, I ask if they would go on a quick speed scout while I went and retrieved my possibles from my ground blind and I would meet them back at the truck.

I headed off and was almost back to the truck when I looked across the valley to the other side of the farm into the golden-rod and noticed something white sticking up in what should have been an all brown field. I pulled my binoculars out of my backpack and could not believe my eyes. There on the other mountian, laying in the golden-rod, was what I thought to be a 150 to 160 class whitetail trophy buck. I quickly called Scott on the cell but there was no answer. I opened my backpack seat and sat down to watch the buck.

Scott and Jeff showed up 10 minutes later and I told them I was going to harvest a slammer in about 10 minutes. The two of them looked at the buck as we devised a plan of attack.

Scott and Jeff would take positions above the buck about 150 yards in the woods and I would still hunt toward the buck for a shot. If the buck broke before I could get off a shot I would crow call if he was headed toward Jeff, or give a hawk whistle if toward Scott.

The plan worked to perfection. I stalked to within 17 yards of the buck (which was now laying in the bottom of a diversion ditch )in my gillie suit. I was duck walking and upon spotting him came to full draw.

The wind was blowing enough to move all the golden-rod so I stood and was looking into the whitetail bucks eyes. I did a doe bleat with my voice for about 3 seconds and the buck stood at a perfect broad side position. It was too late, my arrow was already on it's way when he realized that something was wrong.

The arrow hit what I thought was right behind the front shoulder and burried up to the fletching. The buck bolted toward Scott and I gave my hawk whistle. The buck ran about 130 yards and as I watched thru my binoculars he turned and stopped broad side. Blood was pouring out of his right side and I thought he was going to drop right there. He turned and dissapeared into the woods.

I stood there collecting my thoughts for a minute and decided to move towards where I had last seen him. When I got to the spot I could see Scott who motioned me forward.

When I got to Scott he told me he had taken a shot at the buck and had nocked a second arrow when he bolted toward his sons position. We slowly moved toward Jeff, but he never saw the buck. We followed the blood trail for 250 yards to a field where the buck crossed. The field was about 700 yards across and we lost the blood trail 3/4 of the way thru the field.

The buck had crossed onto another land owners property, so I went to get permission to continue the hunt. Scott had called his dad and brother-in-law to help in the tracking. Scott was in a swamp looking for sign while I checked along the dirt road.

I was headed toward Scott when he said he had found the trail. He was ready to come out of the woods when he was stepping across a swamp puddle and looked down to see a yellow leaf in the middle of the puddle with a single drop of blood in it.

Believe it or not, for the next 2 and 1/2 miles we followed the blood trail like following tracks in the snow. We came to a ridge and realized that we had come onto another land owners property. We followed the track a little further and decided to call the landowner to get permission to continue at 3:30pm. The land owner called me at dark and said we could continue the tracking, but asked that we not start until 10 am because a family member would be bow hunting in the am. I said we would wait until noon just to be safe.

Oct.24 couldn't come any sooner. I think I slept an hour. We started into the second swamp at noon and lost the blood trail 40 yards into it. It had rained overnite and now the trail was cold.

Matt, Jeff, Scott and myself decided to get 10 yards apart and move through the swamp looking for the buck. We had gotten about 45 yards into the swamp when I yelled that he was around a bush in front of me. I reached the rack only to find that it was a 120 class 8-point that had expired there the year before, my heart sank.

We made three passes through the swamp and were on our last pass when Scott noticed a lone apple tree on the edge of the swamp. As Matt and Scott commented about the tree, Matt asked what I would do if the buck was unedible. I told him that no matter what I would take him to the Binghamton Dick's sporting goods store to get him weighed.

Ten seconds later Matt said there he is. I asked if he was kidding but by the look on his face I knew he was telling the truth. Thank God the hunt was over.

The Golden-rod buck nets 150 3/8 , and field dressed 210lbs. I would like to thank Scott, Jeff, Paul, and Matt for there effort in helping retrieve the GOLDEN-ROD whitetail trophy buck.

 FULLY GUIDED WHITETAIL DEER HUNT: Our fully guided whitetail hunting trips are hunts wherein stands are hung by Staff prior to your arrival, guides walk you to the stands to assure you will find the treestand setups and ambush sites,  staff will transport you to the farm, field dressing of your deer is done by an Guide, your guide will drag out the animal you harvest, and prepare your animal for taxidermy and meat processing, hero photos, etc. On fully guided whitetail deer hunts, the guide doesn’t sit with you while you hunt but, he walks you to and from the stand and takes care of you during your stay to strategize on a trophy whitetail harvest. Thorough examinations of strategies and treestand assignments are performed on your behalf to assure you receive the highest quality service. Guides also scout trophy whitetail deer both prior, and during your hunt.