Hi guys. Well, I think this was by far the quietest deer season on this forum I can remember. Anyone willing to share how you did/how your season went?
I primarily bowhunt these days, often with primitive (long bow). I did get drawn for McAlester but family obligations kept me from being free to go, however I spent the following week at the ranch where I hunt, so I got about 9 days total of bowhunting in (over three trips). I saw some impressive deer and even more impressive deer on trailcams. I ended up only getting shots at bucks that were "average" in size. That's the way it goes sometimes, so I shot two bucks with my bow, both 10 pointers.
By the way, The most big buck activity I saw from trailcams was in late October, when the bucks were finding and marking out territory just prior to the rut. I'll hunt the rut next year, of course, but I'm going to focus more (than I did this year) on that last week of Oct (usually Muzzleloader season in OK) and first week in November.
I keep a hunting journal, and looking back over the past 35 years of bowhunting, I've shot more bucks aroung the week of Oct 17-25 than any other time. Not the biggest bucks, but I attribute it to the amount of action you see. The biggest bucks I've bagged have been during the rut, (though later in the rut, I see fewer bucks, as I think they keep hot does on lockdown until bred in areas we don't normally think to hunt, to avoid other bucks). Thoughts?