My good feeling going into Sunday almost proved to be prophetic on Sunday morning. With the warm temps in WI right now, mornings have definitely been the time to be in the tree vs evenings. So yesterday morning, got into my stand about a half hour before light and got settled. Had a doe move past me about 10 minutes later before shooting time, but was encouraged by the early movement. A fog was rising over my marsh/CRP so it took a while for that to burn off. Visibility was not the greatest so didn't see much in the first hour, but it was a gorgeous calm morning. A little after 7:00 AM, I had a doe fawn come into my food plot from the woods behind me at about 35 yards and another adult doe working along the cattail edge 125 yards west of me and between them walked out a pretty nice 9 pt at about 60 yards. He was tracking the doe working along the cattails at a distance just kind of quartering behind her. He was locked on her pretty good and walked out about 125 yards away from me and stopped. I couldn't see the doe anymore so I think she might have bedded down. Meanwhile, I still have a doe fawn working through my plot and suddenly there were 3 doe to the southeast of me and directly east of the buck about 150 yards. The buck was just standing and looking so I was going to try grunt him in, but my pack did not have my grunt call in it. Turns out my 16 month old daughter had been in my pack and taken it out. So I grabbed my rattle bag and rattled a few times. That got his attention, but didn't get him to move. The other doe just ignored the rattling. I rattled a bit more and got him to look and turn toward me, but he didn't move far. I didn't think he was going to leave the doe so I thought I'd try a snort wheeze. Just did the call with my mouth and his head snapped around and he immediately took about 10 steps in my direction. All of the doe were still just going about their business and milling about. The doe fawn from my plot had moved out into the grass to the south of me. I waited until he turned his head away and I snort wheezed again. This time, he started coming on a steady walk in my direction. He got out about 50 yards directly SW of me and started rubbing on a little popple tree. He then came a bit further, but abruptly turned toward the doe to the east and started walking on one of my mown trails away from me. I turned my head facing away and snort wheezed again. He jerked around and started walking toward me on my other mown trail. 50 yards, 40, 35 coming right at me on the trail. Right before the food plot at about 30 yards, he stopped and looked up and pegged me. He stared for a few seconds and then abruptly trotted back toward the doe. Busted. He didn't spook badly and just chased the doe around a bit before going away into the CRP, but he definitely knew I wasn't something that was normally there. It was a very exciting encounter and the first time I had a deer react to a snort wheeze so it was pretty cool. He wasn't huge, probably 130" 9 give or take a couple inches, but the excitement and adrenaline had me shaking for a bit afterwards. Hopefully the cooler weather toward the end of this week gets the deer moving more. I don't think the rut has really got going full swing yet by me from what I've observed so should be a good weekend. Hope to sneak out a time or two in the evening this week, but tougher with daylight savings now. Good luck to everyone else!
PGC will issue a new tag due to what happened - which is common for them - wish it outlined that in the book better. On the prowl again...
Ok guys im really thinking about giving filming a shot next year. What camera would you recommend I get? Im on a strict budget as im a college student, so im looking for something basic but still able to get decent footage. I know I wont be able to get bowhunt or die quality footage with out dropping some real change, but im okay with that.
I bought a cheap little gopro knock off for 50 bucks. It's not bad. It gets the job done but that's about it. If you are looking to make a good filmed hunt you are going to need multiple cameras to catch everything. You could really start at 50 bucks and take it as high as you want to go. I'd keep your eyes open for somebody on here selling a used set up. That would be a good option.
I don't want to go the go pro route because of the fish eye lens that makes everything past 20 yards look like 100 yards. Maybe I'll go with a shot cam first (forgot the name, but BHOD uses them), but I'm leaning towards a regular camera. I won't be self filming so I don't have to worry about that. The used set up sounds pretty good though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I bought my husband a GoPro and he self filmed his buck he shot two years ago. It didn't appear "fish-eyed" so not sure what that means. He uses it on goose hunts, too. It's pretty cool. I also bought a knock-off version off of Amazon for the racecar (didn't want to throw a $200 GoPro on a car doing 80+MPH) - for being a $40 it filmed racing well.
Well things have been pretty slow in my world. I was able to get out on 4 hunts between Thurs and Sunday of last week. 2 of them produced no deer sightings, the other two just a few does and young bucks. I still haven't laid eyes on anything bigger than 100 inches or so this year. I'm thinking about a quick morning hunt tomorrow before work so we'll see how that goes. As for the filming question, finding a decent used setup is a good option. Otherwise let me know what your max budget is and I can make some recommendations. Tactacam is great if you just want to capture the shot on film. If you want to do more with interviews and storytelling you'll need a true camcorder and a camera arm.
Starting my last sits of the season this afternoon. I am leaving work at 130 - by the time I run home and toss the horses some hay and get myself together - I should be to my spot by 3 at the latest. I seen all the deer start moving this past Saturday at 5 - so with time change puts it at 4. Here's to hoping a good luck. Is it likely deer will follow the same path that one was shot on? We have had rain (last night to this morning) that should wash out any scent.
So....scorecard has been posted and we fell way off the top. A lot of bucks are dropping. Wisco, yours will need the scorecard to count. Hopefully you can get that. Justin, well, your new product needs released, LOL.
Hoping I'll get it done on Saturday. I've been hearing that it's really popping of here in NY. I'll be cutting my class tomorrow and going to the shooting range to sight my rifle in and check my spot for Saturday's hunt. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well guys.....I'm off tomorrow and will probably hunt as much the last two days here in Pa as I have all season so far. Sorry for being a ****ty teammate....but life happened this year. Here's hoping for luck this weekend
Congrats, BEJ, you'll have a freezer full. Good luck, dsauer. I'll go out Saturday, last day. Not expecting much. But, maybe something will sneak by.
Thanx yeah I'm tagged out on does now lol now that I shot my trophy doe. This is all public land to this season for me
