It was 38 degrees this morning when I left my truck, man that first cold sit as the sun wakes up is one of the best feelings.
Well this weekend I am going in after a four year old that most people would call me crazy for going in after. He is about a 100 inch 7 point that is a big ol' bully on my northern wisconsin property. Big ol body, but a turd rack for the past three years. He has been daylighting dang near every day at around 3:30PM and has been sparring with any buck that enters. This will be one of my very few last sits in Wisconsin prior to heading down to Iowa after some real mega giants, but there is just something about hunting an old buck.
17 degrees here this morning which was good for me. Yesterday afternoon Hit a doe and couldn't find her last night. Found her this morning she was frozen. Kinda weird I made a good shot on her and she went about 200 yards with zero bl;ood then last 100 yards great blood trail Snowstorm here now might get 4-5 inches.
This big fella came out this evening, 80 yards, right in front of my other spot on the creek. Stayed out there for about 40 min just mocking me. I have 3 pictures of him on the card I just checked this evening, never knew he was around until tonight.
Mid-morning tomorrow I should be finished processing the three does I brought home from Kentucky. The first doe was totally processed Monday. My wife had trail maintenance scheduled on the Ozark Trail yesterday and today so she's been gone from dawn to dusk so it's just been me and I've been taking my sweet time because I was totally worn out when I got home. All that's left of the other two does is the grinding, and all of that is in the fridge. The wife and I will get that done tomorrow morning. That'll go quickly since I switched to using HME wild game bags and invested in a 2" stuffing tube, a foot switch for my grinder and an HME bag taping tool. That bag taping tool is freakin' awesome. I plan to get back out after a buck starting tomorrow afternoon, but with rain in the forecast Friday and then Sunday and the next few days after that I'm not sure what will happen. I won't shoot another doe here at home until I've killed a buck or until the rut is long gone. My son, who is Air Force EOD will be heading this way from Virginia on the 1st and we will be heading to Mark Twain National Forest for around 2 1/2 weeks of hunting. At some point @cantexian and @Ridgerunner3 are planning to joint us for a few days each. I really hope they can make it. I've met Cantexian before. He's a really decent young man. I haven't met Ridgerunner yet, but he seems to be a great guy also. He actually lives very close to my son in law. The next few weeks should be a lot of fun regardless of how many deer fall.
Tell those Mark Twain deer I am coming for them. Actually, don't, I will probably warn them off just fine on my own. I hope they are stupider than Arkansas deer.
Illinois trip is booked, next Wednesday to Friday, maybe Saturday morning. Pretty excited to get up there, weather looks good, should be a good few days of hunting.
Things should be really heated up by then that far north. I haven't even seen the first scrape or fresh rub where I've been hunting.
Activity on my cell cameras has dropped off substantially. The cams are all on plots at the moment. I always see this pattern right before all heck breaks loose. The younger bucks start harassing the crap out of any doe that shows herself in the open and they seem to go into hiding for a bit before the more mature bucks start doing their thing. I think this weekend may be the start of some good hunting. My wife and I did have a great encounter with a slob of a buck a few evenings ago, but her guide cost her the shot. It would appear that he forgot to take the scope covers off and she had some difficulty when it came time to shoot. We are still married, but not a guarantee if she does not get another chance at a good buck.
Ha! She said that I was way more upset about it than she was. She thought it was exciting to see him and grab the gun, even if the shot opportunity did not work out. I was kicking myself for making such a rookie mistake on a hunt that I have been planning and working on for a full year. I guess even a seasoned veteran still makes stupid mistakes sometimes. One thing I can guarantee......if I end up killing that buck later, I will not let her know it is the same one! He was a good one for sure. At least a 5 1/2 year old with really heavy, dark antlers.
Have you ever been on stand hoping to kill a buck but you're so tired that you really hope one doesn't show up? That was me this afternoon. I'm not sure if I'm just run down or something is wrong. I say that because shortly after I got set up the wind finally settled into what seemed like a primary direction so I stood up and reached above my head (bending over backwards to avoid turning around) to adjust the angle of my Ozonics. I got very dizzy and sat down as fast as I could. For a second I thought I was going to pass out. Then it passed and I was fine, but I never felt quite right the rest of the sit. Anyway, I didn't see a thing until just before last light and had to spend an extra 30 minutes in the tree to let the does that poured out of the cutover at dark get clear. I'm pretty sure I made it out without bumping any of them.
Johnny with the wind was your tree moving? Maybe motion sickness? I wanted to get out this afternoon. Cold drizzle all day here, tv said ene wind which would be good for one stand. Stepped outside wind seemed more from the north which was no good for that stand. With the cold rain I thought heck no and stayed home. With snow on the ground deer are really in the corn fields.
Rick, don’t take this the wrong way but I had to laugh out loud at that. Don’t forget what career I retired from.
Well yesterday I got to wake up to this picture of a now 7.5 yr old monarch that we have been watching since the beginning. He is super nocturnal and in all of those years we have yet to get a daylight of him. Hoping to catch him slipping this weekend with some rattling. Last year we found his left side shed which scored on the mid 70s. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Finally back in the stand. The past 2 1/2 weeks have been rough. Pulled some muscles in my back lifting a generator when our power went out. Then had to make an unexpected trip to FL for my grandmother's funeral. But I'm back at it tonight. Have a south wind tonight, pretty unusual for this area, but it has allowed me to get up close to some bedding on a small ridge. I scouted a bit before setting up, didn't see any fresh rubs or scrapes around, but supposed to get cooler weather next week so hopefully things will begin to pick up. Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
