Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Gopher, get well. Bambi is calling for an appointment this deer season.

About 24 hours post-op now, and other than a little soreness in the shoulder, not feeling too bad. I took a Vicodin to get to sleep last night, but probably would have been fine without it. I'll try to sleep tonight without it, as I know that's pretty powerful stuff, and I'd rather not take it unless I really need it. Sitting there thinking about hunting. 'Can't wait for deer season. Special thanks to T-Zone for all he's done for me the last couple years. He has made plans to check out my tree stand and make sure it's going to be comfortable for me to use, and has even said he'll clear the shooting lanes at ground level just in case I can't climb the stand. Tom took me under his wing a few years back and has gone out of his way to make sure I had a good place to hunt, and a good friend to do it with.

Later today, I'm going up to the north end of the Twin Cities to watch his son, Jack play football. Jack's just a great kid, and I can't wait to see him fill his first tag. I am really lucky to have such good friends.

Gopher and his wife Cathy made the trip north to watch my little buddy play ball today. He was pretty excited because he got to start at linebacker, and people were coming to watch him. Well the coaches mad a good choice because on the first play of the game Jack knocked the ball loose and recovered the fumble. He also made two other tackles, and picked up another fumble recovery on the second to last series of the game and it led to the only touchdown of the game.

I got bit with the hunting bug pretty bad this weekend. Did any chickenbuckers make it to the woods today for some bow hunting or grouse swatting? Beer bottle or otherwise?

Good to hear gopher! Remember, red = positive, black = negative. You're gonna be a handy guy to have at camp if anybody leaves their truck lights on all night - just gotta remember the cables!

Tzone, 2 fumble recoveries in one game? That boy is going to be scholarship material!

My boy and I will be in the marsh at 5am....sheesh, 5 hours from now. Still getting last minute things together. Youth duck hunt this weekend and only kids 16 and younger can shoot. I'm pretty excited. I'll do the calling and set the dekes and of course, pouring the hot chocolate plus donuts. It'll be in the 30s at daybreak. Fall is here boys!

Special thanks to T Zone for having my wife and I up to watch Mini Man play football yesterday. Jackson's a great kid and Tom should be very proud. The slight chill in the air felt good. This was my first outing post-op, and I zonked out on the way home. Cathy and I were sitting at a freeway off ramp, when the sound of screeching brakes and the crunch of metal woke me up. Someone two cars in front of us was hit at the intersection. Not huge damage to either car, and both parties claiming they had the green light. Cathy had to fill out a statement. An interesting way to end the day.

don't know if I qualify as a chicken bucker, but I definitely have the hunting bug again. went out checking cameras yesterday and hung a stand about 50 yards up the fence line from where this video was taken.
this is a soybean field,but the acorns and apples, plums and blueberries are all in abundance this year. maybe this will be the year to get lucky on this property, but I don't think either of these two make the antler point restrictions in place for me in this zone,but my 17 YO can take any deer.
the other two cams out have does and fawns,but they may be the same few "sets"
http://vid82.photobucket.com/albums/j247/joelbrown_01/WGI_0015.mp4

anybody know how to get photobucket video to show?

I would say you qualify in this case fluffy... I think you post them the same way as a picture. If not, I don't know how.

Well, it's signed, sealed, and delivered. I reserved a unit for deer opener. Two fun filled nights of frivolity after two hard, memorable days of hunting. I feel some buck fever coming on...........

Oh I got the fever already!!

Drug hunting shacks out this weekend and planted two plots no trail cams out yet .

I actually am feeling pretty good today. The dull pain has subsided, and my shoulder just feels "tight" like a pulled muscle. I was just re-reading all the well-wishes and prayers given here, and just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone one more time. We have a really good bunch of folks here. Thanks again guys.

In typical Campfire fashion, T-Zone, who is my hunting partner, has committed to making sure I get in the woods no matter what. He is planning on setting up a blind under my tree stand in case I can't climb the ladder yet, and clearing ground level shooting lanes for me too. Tom's a great guy, and I can't say enough how much I appreciate all he's doing for me. It's nice to know there's folks around like him. Thanks again, buddy.

having shared a couple hunting seasons with tom you're right on the money. they don't come any better.

we got home from the wedding last night at 11:30 pm mountain time. wowsers was it a trip. spent some time with the grandparents that was irreplaceable and I'm glad we did. I stayed the night not too far from Dave one night, a little town called viking MN right by carpenters corner. got in at midnight and left at 8 am so no time to try and meet up unfortunately.
I did get to see two of our best friends get married and couldn't have been prouder to be there and part of it. Count down to SD archery opener begins here. T-minus 6 days and counting!

Since I haven't been able to shoot my bow yet, (tennis elbow) I spent quite a bit of time in the woods this weekend checking trail cams and putting out more. 1st camera I checked had 2409 pics on it since the end of July. The 2nd cam had like 2115 pics. I put them on my laptop and quickly realized that I need to set my delay to longer than 10 seconds. Out of the 2115 pics on the 2nd cam, I swear 900 of them were from the same doe who obviously is heroin addict level addicted to my mineral block.

She was there everyday at all times of the day licking that block and even bedding by it. I got pics of fork horns, spikes, does and spotted fawns, some basket racks and a few decent bucks that I had on camera last year that are now a year bigger. They are still nocturnal just like they were last year. Every pic of a shooter is between 10 pm and 4:00 am.

Guess I'm going to have to wait until rut to have any luck seeing them during shooting hours.

Anyone else seeing anything on the cameras worth getting excited about?

Glad you're on the mend Gopher!

Good on ya Tom for taking the time to help out!

I'm hoping to get some cams out soon but probably won't be until the first weekend of October. Which, I'm ok with. The day I go up will be a long one. I'll have a tree stand to fix, one to build, and LOTS of lanes to trim.

I also would like to build a blind in a spot I've been in and out of CIA about a year now. It's a walk in area and a funnel. There isn't a lot of sign there, but there isn't a lot of deer there either. If there is a buck working this particular spot, he'll either have to skirt me, which I can't do anything about, or go through that funnel. I'll be eating back straps then.

We are also in a "bucks only" area. One spot GG is thinking of sitting, may not be. We will have to look at some maps for that and see what's up and what we can pop. I'm going to try to get a doe with my bow early to get the pressure off for burger and back straps.

I haven't been on this thread in a while, but the weather has me thinking deer season, so I thought I'd read a bit on here.

GG, glad to hear you're feeling well after going under the knife.


I'm playing "beat the clock" the last couple weeks, trying to get myself and my son ready for our youth hunting season this coming weekend. He's been shooting my compact .223 and doing pretty well. He's loading the box magazine and operating the bolt and safety like a pro.

Got 50 cases sized, trimmed and primed and ready to be charged. Got 3 different bullets I'm going to try - 64 gr Winchester Power Points, 63 gr. Sierra and 60 gr Nosler partition. Being that this is going to be a short range hunt with a first time youngster, accuracy isn't critical. I'm going to load up a few of each bullet over the same powder charge and see which, if any, makes a cluster. Fingers crossed that this approach goes well, 'cause I don't have time for any other approach right now.

I've gotta admit that it's pretty darned cool looking forward to opening day on behalf or someone else. I saw a very nice 8 pointer a couple times earlier this summer. Nice, tall rack with about 20"+ spread. It'd be awesome to see him bag something like that.

Gophergunner,
I am glad you are doing so well. Keep up the good recovery.
Linda and I just returned from a hurried trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Her sister passed away from complications which arose after abdominal surgery. We had to go down to be with the family. We left Sunday and came back today. The service is 1PM Wednesday so we will leave here early early Wednesday morning. It is a four hour drive. We will return Wednesday evening. Lotsa windshield time.
On another note archery deer season opened here today,August 15th. I do not bow hunt. September 15th is the opening of muzzle loader season and October 11th. opens gun season. I am in a new lease this year. I hunted it several times as a guest last year and got a basket 8 point. Lotsa lotsa pigs there. I am looking forward to this.
Dave,progress report???

Stan in SC

Good to hear you're on the mend Gopher.

Colo, Carpenters Corner? Really? Holy carp......
I'm sure you ran into a number of my acquaintances there and a few of ND's as well. Glad to see you still posting after that adventure.
This tune runs through my head when I visit that area!
All in fun of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzae_SqbmDE

Stan, very sorry to hear of your sister in law's passing. My condolences, Stan.