Well I've had a hell of a time this week. I'll give you the skinny on it Tues I slept in and decided to get a late start for my drive to where I hunt. It's about 90 minutes away, and I'm ready for the woods! I get down and my mom already has some lunch ready for me (thanks mom!) and I decide to hang out for a bit and stretch on the couch for a while. Around 1630 I decide it's time to give the evening a shot. I never go out too early because I sit on a field edge during my evening hunts, we'll get to this in a bit, and they only come out 30min before dark. So, I head out to this field that has this huge oak tree right between two fields, one of which is alfalfa. I saw my three does (more about this) there last week just past shooting hours, and had a buck jump out to chase them. As I'm sitting there, wind perfect, I glance to my left to see my three does. They're about 200 yards upwind of me, they had just come out of the woods. I grunt a couple times, trying to get them to come, and it works! Here they come, they get to about 130 yards and cut straight up the field (I was sitting at the bottom!). All I could do was watch them slip through my grasp once again. I wait til dark and head out, enough for one day. Wed Wake up about 0500 and decide to head to the donut shop, hometown bakery has the BEST donuts. Get my 3 assorted donuts and cup of coffee and head to the farm. Get to my stand about 0615 and it's a beautiful morning. Wind barely moving and it's cold for once. Can't help but to think to myself, "This is the morning I get my first deer of the season". I have had opportunities but something was always wrong, from equipment malfunctions to not big enough horns. I can feel my luck about to change. I've seen about 10 deer I can verify that are different deer (saw them all at the same time), plus a couple bucks I've seen over the past couple weeks.. I'd been hunting that group of three does, it's the same three every time, mom and two fawns and I just can't seem to get one. They always come to my common morning stand. This time I'd be ready for them. Have my stand turned so I could see, and cleared a path in their direction when I had left last week. The stage was set! At 0800 a group of about 25 turkeys came through, just far enough that I couldn't get a clean shot at one. Then I hear it, the familiar sounds, they keep getting closer and closer, stopping here and there to look about. Here come my...... Pair of gray squirrels chasing each other through the forest. I think they've learned to mimic deer walking patterns now. I've never heard a squirrel make such perfect timed "foot step" sounds. 1130 I decide to call it a morning, my stomach is growling and mom's chili is calling. Let me be the first to say, while when you hear "chili" you instantly think, "oh yeah, that'll keep me warm", but when you get into your stand later that evening you'll be changing your tune, literally. 1600 I head back to the woods. My cousin is hunting tonight, and where he goes in it's likely to push some deer right to me. Here it is, it's decision time. Do I sit up near where my three does came out last night, or do I go for the oak tree again??? Well, wind had changed and I guessed they'd come out near the oak tree again tonight. I sat at the oak tree staring where they enter that alpha field. About 30 minutes before dark they emerge.... where they did the night before.... So here I am, thinking tonight is pretty shot unless I start seeing other deer come into the field. When here comes the little 4 point I passed on a couple weeks before, chasing my three does right towards me!!! Finally, here comes the break in my luck! At about 100 yards they made way straight for... the top of the field again... So I sit until dark, see no other deer, and head home. Thurs 0500 Wake up, donut shop, farm.... same story except.. Today has winds of 20mph. I decided I wasn't going to sit in my usual stand and chose another stand that was a little better for the wind. Before I went though, I was going to go "prepare" a spot where those three does keep running each night. They go in the woods about 20 yards from a fallen tree. I take up my tripod seat and my blind material and set up camp. Clear out the ground so I can be like a ninja, level my chair, and set up the blind material. Then I head to the other stand, get there a bit late though. I sit in the wind tunnel for about 2 hours before I just can't take it anymore. Even the squirrels weren't moving.... Pack up, go to town, take a nap... 1500 Head out to the field, wind seems to have changed directions slightly giving me a nice dead zone. I get out to the blind to make my final touches and not take any chances of spooking the deer. Every night this week where I saw the three does in the evening I saw a single turkey cross the field going down at the same place just about 20 minutes before I saw the 3ds. Right as the sun is starting to head down I look behind me to see the turkey making it's way down the field. We're on schedule!!! About 25 minutes goes by and I see 7 deer, and there are my three with them. Only problem??? They're in the alfalfa field now. So I put a stalk on them, I ran across the field at blazing speed, got to the tree line and worked my way up to the gate. I see them, they're all about 90 yards away. I grunt a few times hoping they respond, when "they're off!", out comes a small 8 chasing after them... great! So I head back to my blind to pack up, and what do I see? Nothing... but when I get there I jumped a deer, I'll guess it was the 4pt, but couldn't see him. So, as you see, the deer have won, again... Next week we'll play another game of cat and mouse, or in this case human and deer. Here are some pics of the "tree blind".. I'm going to coin that term.. lol.. and some photos of the "other stand". The other stand front (field is where I hunt in the evenings), this is a good section of land for deer crossing. They walk 15 yards right in front of me and through that gulley you can kinda see. Looking left from "other stand" They either come from in the distance or down the hill right where the shooting lane ends. They crossed down below the hill you can see here then made their way up. This is behind me, I figured I'd break some sticks in case they decided to go that way. This is the front, you can see the oak tree I spoke of in the middle, it doesn't look so big this far away.. but it's a monster. Awesome view later in the evening.... posted on another thread, but deserves double post.
