Friday, Sept. 17 It's been many year since I hunted the opening weekend of the archery deer season but this year I got a thermacell and the itch to hunt the opener. I have not harvested an antlerless deer with a bow since 2006 and since then I have only taken one other deer (a buck with my homemade bow). I set my goal as a nice fat doe and hopefully a buck. I drove up to my parents house on Friday night the 17th of Sept. Road construction delayed me a bit but I was in no real hurry. By the time I hit Stevens Point, it was raining. With all the rain they have had this summer, this is the last thing I wanted to see. Saturday Sept. 18 The alarm went off at 5:00 and after dressing, I was out the door. It was a windy morning but at least it wasn't raining. I was in the stand at 6:17. The morning only produced a few grey squirrels. At 8:30, a light rain started and by 9:15, I was on my way out of the woods. The rain didn’t last and after a late breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on my Dad’s pontoon boat and trolling motor. At 3:30 I got dressed in camo and headed back to the woods. Last year, I was contacted by a friend who is making and marketing an attractant scent for deer and bear. I was not able to use it last year because I got it when the rut was already on and I was using the can call and rattling instead of scents but I looked forward to using it in the early season of this year. I had taken a piece of cheese cloth and tied a string to it and saturated the pad with the scent and hung it from the rough bark of a tree about 15 yards from my stand. I left the ziploc bag to the right of the tree, under a fallen branch. At 4:00, I caught a bit of motion to my left which is surprising since the river is 30 yards to my left and in the evening, the deer tend to come from my right. The Movement was from a small fork horn buck. He passed under my stand at only 10 yards. He was not the buck I was looking for so I shot him with my video camera instead. He was walking along and nibbling on whatever greenery caught his eye. He was up wind of me so he did not catch my scent or the scent of the attractant. Click the picture below to start the video. Here is a perfect shot opportunity. He was looking away, broadside and upwind. Too bad he was not about 3 years older. Click the picture below to start the video. He was so interested in what was on the other side of the river, I was able to switch between video and still photography to snap this picture of his head gear. No brow times and small forks. It wasn't until I looked closely at the photos that I noticed the remnant of fawn spots on his back. I have seen this on other deer. It is very noticeable after skinning and with the hide laid flat. The whole time I was in my stand, there were 2 red squirrels throwing stuff at me or actually dropping things on me. My stand is in a big hemlock and there two hard workers spent their time nipping off parts of the tree and dropping them to the ground, then they would climb down to gather and bury their treasures. at about 5:15, I saw movement in the distance. I could see the legs of another deer approaching from straight down wind. I expected to hear the typical snort/blow sound of a deer that catches human scent. Instead, this deer would approach and stop and take a few more steps and stop. When it was about 70 yards away, I could see it was a lone doe. She would come forward a few steps and then turn and go back and come towards me and then turn and take a few steps back. It was like she was making a figure 6 pattern as she approached, each time getting a little closer. Each time, she would stick her nose high into the air. I was certain she was winding my but she kept approaching. I had my bow in hand because this was exactly the type of freezer trophy I was looking for. This is a complete hunch on my part but it seemed as though she was smelling me but was drawn to the attractant with more pull than my scent was deterring her. She was clearly cautious but drawn towards the scent pad between her and I. When she reached the scent pad, her head was briefly behind the small tree with the pad which gave me little time to come to full draw. she stepped out along side the tree and was standing over the ziploc bag I left on the ground after hanging the scent pad. She was 16 yards away and slightly quartering towards me. I settled the pin behind the shoulder and released. Because, she was alert, she dropped a bit so my arrow hit higher than I would have liked. I was using a Rage Broadhead and when the arrow struck her side, I made the distinctive sound of a good solid hit. Here is a poor quality rendering of where she stood. She bolted and as she ran, I could see her until she hit some very thick river bottom. When I lost sight of her, I could hear a great deal of crashing and brush breaking and then it was quiet. The total run time was about 10 seconds. I checked my watch and then gave her ten minutes before climbing down to find my arrow. It was still quite early and I would be nice to have daylight to track and drag and get her out of the woods. I carried the arrow out to the open grass to take a photo. The O-ring from the Rage head was slid back nearly to the fletching. This is the first deer I have taken with a rage head and I was curious to see what sort of blood trail I would get. I was pleased with the heavy blood trail through the tall grass and small brush. At times, I would walk parallel to the clearly visible trail to prevent being blood soaked. This was a blood trail that could be seen and followed far ahead of my position without having to search for blood. The word that best describes the blood trail is "Spectacular". The trail ended 60 yards from where I found my arrow. This image shows the exit wound side. I flipped her over to tag her and get a picture of the entrance wound. After gutting and washing, My Father helped me hang her to cool. The night was around 40 Degrees. On Sunday, I packed up and headed home to butcher and wrap her for the freezer (all expect the tenderlions. Those will be supper on Monday night). While processing, I took these photos. This is a photo of the skin side of the entrance hole The internal view shows a rib was completely severed by the blade. This is a photo of the skin side of the exit hole. The internal view shows another rib was completely severed by the blade. My bow is set at 61 pounds and shoots 275 FPS and develops 55 ft/Lbs of KE. I am impressed with the rage head. Upon inspection of the wound after we hung the deer, my Father said. "That's too much damage. You don't need that big of a head." P.S., the scent I was using is called Butternut and is a food based attractant that smells good enough to eat. Development of Butternut was based on a research study by the University of Michigan regarding the dietary selection process of the whitetail deer. Study results showed that the whitetails number one food source trigger was not affected by region but rather by the food source itself. The Food source which was rated #1 for the whitetail is the core essence of Butternut. Here is a link. http://www.butternutlures.com/
I took a 3 day trip up North do a little bowhunting. Friday Morning Oct. 1, I got to the swamp stand at 6:15. The sky was clear and what little was left of the moon gave me enough light to get ready. This stand is a mile from the nearest road. Its on the edge of what we call "Porcupine swamp" This is a huge, wet swamp of cedars and hemlock. At day break, I could hear splashing in the River. That's my early warning that deer are approaching. The river is 25 yards to my left (East). In short order I saw the source of the splashing. The River is only about 15 feet wide but there is a very wide section that is more of a pond. It covers about an acre and a half. All morning I could hear ducks and geese taking off and landing. The pond is 50 yards straight in front of my stand. I stayed on stand until 10:00 and saw only 4 squirrels and 8 wood ducks. While walking out, I spotted more wolf tracks. I saw plenty of tracks last year and it looks like they are here to stay. The tracks are slightly smaller than my wallet (about 3 inches wide) Last year was the first time I had seen wolf tracks in this area. When I got back to the Farm, I change out of my hunting clothes and enjoyed one of my Dad's breakfasts of bacon and homemade bread. After breakfast, we set about doing some chores. There was a forecast for rain in the afternoon and then frost on Sat and Sunday so we made due with the nice weather. When we hung my doe from opening day, the wooden pulley on our deer hoist spilt in two so I took it home with me and made a replacement on my lath. Job #1 was to install it. Then it was time to get the last bit of stuff out of the garden before the frost. We dug the last of the potatoes and picked all the squash. Then it was time to hitch the disc to the Farm-all and till everything under for the year. With chore #2 out of the way we headed to my brother's lease to take down a ladder stand so it could be re-located on a new parcel another of my brothers recently purchased. This will be my Dad's gun stand because it overlooks a large field of alfalfa and corn. My Father is 74 and uses a crossbow so he will also use this stand during the archer season. I left the camera at home so no pictures of the stand removal. With chore 3 done, (took far longer than I thought it would) we headed back for some lunch and to get ready for the afternoon hunt. Before I could get suited up, the rain came. It was not expected to last long so I headed out. The rain would come and go so I waited it out in my truck. When it lightened up, I made the long, wet walk back to a different stand long the same river. The last thing this area needed was more rain. Thank goodness for knee-high rubber boots. As I walked to my stand, the rains got harder. By the time I was in stand and ready to go, it was a steady rain. I was already wet so I stuck it out. Around 5:45, the rains stopped but the hemlock I was in continued to drip for the rest of the evening. Shortly before dark, a doe and fawn splashed across the river about 50 yards up stream and then walked straight away. They came and went faster than I could snap a photo. Right a closing time, three coon crossed the river about 25 yards downstream. The first two were normal colored but the last one was pitch black from nose to tail. I have not seen an all black raccoon in a long time. Saturday Oct. 2 In the morning I picked a different stand that is on higher ground and a little farther from the river. This stand had produced many deer for me in the past. The morning was clear and cold. I enjoyed a great sunrise and hardly a bit of wind. The morning came and went with only squirrels seen. I sat until 10:00 am and headed back to the farm. After another great breakfast and a visit with my brother, I headed to Rosholt to speak with my Uncle who owns the land I'm hunting. After that, I stayed because "Rippin through Rosholt" was about to begin. The main street was blocked off and tractors of every make and model and vintage were on hand to pull.
After visiting with a few friends, it was back to the farm. I found out my brother in-law was helping my dad erect the ladder stand we pulled out the woods the day before so I drove out to give them a hand. All that's left to do is hang the Camo burlap around the box. Then it was back to the farm to get ready for the afternoon sit. The deer seemed to be moving early. as I made the 3 mile drive to where I park my truck I spotted 5 deer mingling with a flock of turkey. I got to my stand around 3:30 pm. It was a breezy afternoon but at least it wasn't raining. I sat in the stand where I took the doe on opening day and where I saw the small forked buck. This stand is also on the river but in a dryer location about 400 yards downstream from the swamp stand. Around 4:30, I heard splashing in the river. I tried to take a video but it came out very blurry. (Click the picture to see the video) I sat until dark and never saw a deer. The temps dropped quite a bit by nightfall. The sky was clear and a forecast for frost. I headed back to the farm. I planned to hunt the swamp stand on Sunday morning and it takes extra time to make the trip back there and all the fresh air and running around made the bed seem very inviting. It could have also been the warm wood fire my dad had built and the hot supper but around 9:00, I couldn't keep my eye open any longer. Sunday, Oct. 3 The alarm went off at 5:00 am and it was hard to leave the warm bed. I dressed and headed to the truck. The temp was 29 and the windshield of my truck was covered in frost. The trucks heater barely had time to kick it by the time I made it to the hunting land. I was on stand at 6:30. At 7:30, I heard splashing in the river. I will spare you the pictures of the dozen or so wood ducks that swam by. A few geese took of at about 8:00 am. It was a picture perfect morning. A watched a grey squirrel making its way through the woods and when it climbed a distant tree I spotted movement in the distance. It was two deer making their way towards the river. They followed the river upstream and never got closer than 40 yards from my stand. They were safe either way as I am looking for a buck. At around 9:30 am I spotted what I am certain was a wolf cutting through the swamp. He was on the far side of the river and was nearly black in color and very big. He stopped only briefly but not long enough to get a photo. At 10:00, I climbed down and headed back to the truck. The sun had not yet made it to all parts of the swamp so the frost still lingered in the shadows. The fall colors are starting to kick in. As I headed back I spotted two fawns enjoying the morning sun. After breakfast, it was time to pack up for the long drive home. I enjoyed the Packer Game on the radio and the fall colors during the drive back home. No game was taken during this hunt but it was a great fall weekend. I hope to make the trip back in two weeks. By then, the pre-rut will be kicking in and most of the leaves will have fallen. I look forward to the next trip.
Here's a picture of the same kind of spots like in year picture but this buck is a 2.5 year old. I don't think they are fawn spots.
Thursday Oct. 28th I worked a half day and then headed up North for a 5 day Bowhunting trip. I have a lot of vacation and planned to work only 2 days a week during the month of November. Each year I save the bulk of my vacation for bow hunting. I got to my stand at 3:45. It was still very windy from the tail end of the big wind storm on Tuesday and Wednesday. There was a steady wind from the West. This was the first time I was hunting this ladder stand. I was facing due North. At 4:45, I spotted movement to the North. I could see two deer milling around one of my other ladder stands. I could see both were bucks working their way along the river. I rattled a bit and before I could give a grunt, both bucks (That were up wind of me) took off like I lit a firecracker under their feet. Both were small and I only hoped to draw them in closer to video. One was the fork I saw opening morning and the other was a small six. A few minutes later I rattled again and gave a couple blows on the grunt tube and then sat swaying in the wind. The hemlock I am in is only 10 inches across at my level but its the only good tree for the trails I was watching. At 5:10 I again saw movement in the same place the two small bucks were earlier. I could see this buck had a bigger rack. I gave a few loud grunts (because it was windy) and the buck headed my way. He stopped when he got to a scrape under a old apple tree that is more dead than alive. He gave 3 long raking scrapes with his front foot to clear the ground and then tangled with some overhead branches. I was hemming and hawing over taking him so I pulled out the camera and took a very brief video of him. Then I zoomed the camera a bit more to take another video.. I began the 2nd video but he started to walk up the trail in a direction that would put him in a opening exactly 35 yards from my ladder and at that point I decided that I was going to try and take this buck. I stitched the two videos together. You can see them below. I pocketed the camera and grabbed my bow and clipped on the release. He stopped mostly broadside (only slightly quartering towards) at 35 yards. I have never shot a deer further than 18 yards in all 34 years of bow hunting. Not because I can't make the longer shots but because I like to see how close I can get to deer because I find that challenging. I only have a 35 yard pin on my bow because of the WBH Ultimate Broadhead challenge novelty shoot where archers have to put a broadhead tipped arrow through a 3.5 inch hole in a plywood target at 35 yards. I have made that shot in the past at the WBH shoot and I practice out to 50 yards in my back yard so I felt very confident in my ability to make the shot on a calm deer. I placed the 35 yard pin half way up and right above the front leg. The deer was facing to my left and a strong wind was blowing in his face from my left. When I released, the deer was not at all aware of my shot and did not duck or move at all. The strong wind did however push my arrow back (to the right) a bit and I hit a few inches behind the point I was aiming at. The Rage head makes a very loud noise when it hits a deer and the blades deploy but by then its too late for the deer. At 35 yards I heard the loud crack of smashing through ribs. The arrow passed through both sides of the deer but did not exit the buck. As he turned and ran straight away from me I could see the bright white fletch and crest sticking out of his left side and the shiny Rage head and some shaft sticking out the other side. It was a good solid hit even if it was a few inches back from where I aimed. As the buck ran straight away his legs were wide and his rear end was low. He busted out of there on a dead run. I watched him cover about a 100 yards toward the river and then disappear into the tall river grass. I marked the time on my watch (5:15) During the time I videoed him and made the shot, I was cooler than the other side of the pillow but as soon as he was out of sight, the wind must have picked up because the tree started shaking and I needed to sit down. After 15 minutes I placed a call to my wife to let her know I had hit a good buck. Then I called a friend that was on his way up North on vacation for a few days and would be hunting a mile or so away from my location. I told him the tale and he wished me well and said to check back when I had the deer. I needed to kill time to keep me from taking up the track. At 5:45 I got down and very quietly walked to where the buck stood. I could see the deep track where he made his turn to run and a few feet from there I found a pile of hair shaved off by the Rage head. To keep from taking up the trail I inspected the scrape the buck worked. I had not brought a flashlight with me but I did have a small LED on my key chain. It was still light enough out to see but the little LED made the blood a bit easier to see. I had a steady blood trail to the tall river grass where I lost sight of him but the little light was not going to cut it anymore in the swampy hemlocks and cedars. Not wanting to rush it and jump the deer, I left a marker at the last blood and headed back to the farm house. My Sister, her husband and their 11 year old son had just came in from Bowhunting and the boy was eager to tag along and trail the buck. My friend arrived shortly after and we headed back to the woods to take up the trail. 2.5 hours had elapsed from when I had made the shot. I took them to where the deer stood so the youngling could take up the track. 4 good flashlights showed even more blood that I had seen with my little bulb. When we reached my marker, we put the youngling in the lead and began tracking. The yellow grass gave up the blood very well. Small saplings were coated red 3 feet high. Larger trees were splashed and the bloody leaves on the ground made it easy to follow. The buck took us out to the edge of the woods where he must have stood in a large mud puddle because the water was red. He was bleeding out both sides. A few feet ahead, I shined my light into the grass along the edge of the field road and picked up the sight of an antler tine. We let the young tracker take us to the downed deer. He was quite pleased with himself. This is what we found. The shot was not as far back as I had thought. The Rage head had done a great job. Live weight (estimated) 205 Lbs. Dressed weight almost 24 hours later was 175 Lbs. Organs hit, Lung, diaphragm, liver. I had planned most of the month of November off to bow hunt and tagged out in the first hour and a half of day one. Now I can start working on getting my dad a deer.
Friday Oct. 29. Having tagged out, I slept in but it would have been a great morning for Bowhunting. Dead Calm and 26 Degrees. My buck surely cooled down well in those temps. After Breakfast I help my dad with a few chores around the house. Once chore was to get his pontoon boat out of the water for the winter. With the aid of a tractor and a few planks, we got the boat out of the water. Because I had seen 4 bucks and a few does in the area where I killed my buck, I told my Father that we should put up a pop-up blind for him to use for the remainder of the season. My Father is 74 years old and uses a crossbow. We picked up the double bull blind from my brother's house and headed to the woods. The wind storm had done a lot of damage to the trees. As we approached the area we planned to place the blind, my usual path was blocked by the top of a live hemlock that was snapped off in the 60+ MPH winds a day or two earlier. You can see my ladder stand just a few feet behind the leaning tree top. I looked up to see which tree was missing it's top and discovered it came from the tree holding my ladder stand. With all the remolding of the woods done by the wind storm, I didn't feel too bad about placing the double bull and hunting it right away. After a bit of work, we had the blind ready for Saturday nights hunt. My Father went hunting in the afternoon and I took my buck to be registered and then visited an old friend I had not seen in some time. He used to own and operate an archery shop but sold out about 10 years ago. I heard he had reopened so I paid him a visit. When I got home, I listened to all the hunting stories of my Dad and Sister, Brother-in-law, nephew and a few others. No deer were taken.
Saturday Oct. 30th “I SHOT A DEER!!!! That was my wake-up call this morning. At 8:15 am my Father hollered up the stairs where I was sleeping (Being tagged out means you get to sleep in) I shouted back “I’ll be right down” I got dressed and went downstairs to see the excited 74 year old dressed in his camo jacket. I asked “Where did you hit it?” He said “it’s a good hit but I can't find any blood.” He then told me the tale over some pancakes my Mother made. It seems he got to his pop-up blind at day break and unzipped the front window after taking his seat and propped his crossbow on the shooting rail. As soon as he did that a deer appeared 8 yards in front of the window. He raised it, fired and the deer was gone in a flash. He looked for blood but found none but he did find his bolt with the Wasp Series II wedged into the base of a cedar about 10 yards beyond where the deer stood. After breakfast I walked the 200 yards to his blind in the swamp. It would appear the recent wind storm nearly took out the Menards pop-up blind I had bought for him to use. Then he showed me the bolt in the tree just as he described. We came prepared with a hatchet and a hammer to free the head. I followed the kicked up leaves in the direction the deer left as instructed by my father and immediately found blood. I grabbed a long stick to point out the blood spots on the leaves to his aging eyes. After 30 yards the trail got quite heavy and every leave was covered with bright red and foamy blood. Another 60 yards later and I spotted his buck on the edge of a water hole but didn’t let on that I found the deer. I pointed at the water hole and commented on how the recent rains had filled it higher than I had ever seen. I pointed at the water hoping he would look and see the buck but his eyes never picked up on the deer laying partially in the water. The edge around the water is a bit steep and the buck stumbled or rolled into the water, then got out and tried to make it up the rise but then slid back down about 5 yards further along the edge. The old duffer had a hard time making the grade and commented on how steep it was and I told him he didn’t have to go any further. He asked why and I pointed out the deer to him. He smiled and his first words “I thought he was bigger” and then said, Well, I don’t have too many hunts left in me so I’ll be happy with that.” I moved it away from the water so he could inspect it and tag it. Then I walked back to the farm to get the pickup truck to haul the six pointer home for gutting, washing and hanging. He center punched both lungs right above the heart with his 8 yard shot. Then we hung it and took what will certainly be one of the few remaining hero shots I will get with him. So much for using my vacation to help my dad get a deer. We spent the rest of the morning shooting the bull with a few family and friends that stopped by to see the deer. On Saturday afternoon, I took my Father to the double bull blind we had put up the day prior. We weren’t there long and a deer showed up. He was tempted to shoot it but when I let him know it was a nub buck, we just watched at 15 yards for about 20 minutes. I told him that shooting the small deer would mean he would be tagged out for the year and I told him that based on my experience, its too soon for that. This nub buck was very curious and hung around at 1 yards for nearly 20 minutes. He would stare in our direction and test the wind. It gave me an opportunity to shot a brief video. Click the link below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc8aCOe0YAY We sat until dark and did not see another deer. It was a great evening.
Sunday Oct. 31 Slept in again and packed for the trip home. After breakfast I had promised my Mother that I would sharpen here knives. I brought along my knife sharpening kit knowing this chore needed to be done. When finished, 30 blades were honed and ready to go. Some would certainly be used by my dad to butcher his buck. Then I packed and hit the road for the 3 hour drive home. I enjoyed the Packer game on the radio and listened to them beat the Jets. It was a bluebird day as I traveled down the road with a buck in the back of my Dodge Ram. It was a great trip. I look forward to the next trip North. I plan to hunt in an adjoining unit that I have a doe tag for.
Here are the entrance and exit holes on this buck as made by a Rage Broadhead. Again, I am not shooting a high power bow (by today's standards). I am set at 60 pounds and only producing 53 foot pounds of KE at 265 FPS. I severed a rib dead center going in and went between two ribs going out. All this at 35 yards so my KE and speed were a bit less than straight off the bow. I cut away the meat on the ribs from the entrance hole. The tip of the broadhead smashed away part of the bone (above the cut) and you can see the blade cut on the right side. The blade on the left cut through the rest of the rib rather cleanly. I estimate this buck at 3. 5 years so his ribs are heavy and strong but they did not stand up to the broadhead. Entrance Exit
With all the meat cut, wrapped and in the freezer (except the tenderloins) I cleaned up the skull. It came out very bright. 14 inch inside spread.
