Nov 2nd 2008 I'm in a rut. I cant seem to cross a deer's path lately, to save my soul. I think the longer this funk goes, the more whacked out I get about it. I even slipped into one of our rifle stands this morning to break the streak and at least see somthing. daylight til 9:30....nothing. the wind has been almost perfect most days of this last week. I have been taking showers before every sit. clothes washed and contained. scent spray on everything including bow and stand. I'm beginning to think my summit goliath has a bit to do with my misfortune? it is a BIG stand, but then I'm a BIG guy and I want to feel secure in a tree 20 + feet off the ground. the stand seems to hit every twig I encounter, and the cables are a bit noisy, even when I'm trying my hardest to be silent. once the stand is hung, and I'm climbing, all is fine, but did I make enough noise to alert nearby deer? I mean it's not like I drag it through the woods, but right now, I'm starting to question almost every facet of my hunt approach. reading about the nice bucks that have been taken all around lately gets me more frustrated, I re assure myself knowing a lot of those deer are taken off of private land with plots or crops nearby, making the deer a bit easier to pattern. I think I'm going to go hunt blind this afternoon. last year at the end of rifle season, I found a fresh scrape as big as a table top. I have not been back to it yet. I'm thinking I will target that location and do some scouting and find the best spot to set up. dark at 5:30 now. I can't believe we are in november already. I keep telling myself "keep on keeping on" the odds have to be in my favor by now....
Nov 3rd 2008 ok, this morning was a bust, and my original plan to go hunt that spot from last season fell through, so I decided to push a little further around the perimmiter of the area I believe is holding the crazy horn buck and possibly the bruiser as well as a few other assorted basket eights I've gotten on camera. I pushed in from the north, taking the easiest route possible into the wind as to keep noise, effort(sweat) and scent invasion to a minimum. all went very well. I found a nice opening but a proper tree, left me quite in the open, so I hesitated to push farther, but I did. on my way to the next possible ambush location, I saw two more scrapes. I was really treading lightly now. again the trees available were less than desireable, but I found one I figured would work and ascended to 20 feet. two and a half hours later, I heard a crunch, thud then a moment later the little f'r blew. it came in in the thick balsam patch silent undetected and unfortunately , down wind. well, it's better than I've done in the last week. things are looking up. 20 minutes later, it was time to bunch it. I couldn't see good enough to pull off a shot if one were to present itself. I unstrapped my summit and a deer jumped right where I hoped one would come in, only maybe fifteen minutes earlier? all I saw was a big white ass. it bounded and made it's way around me, but never winded me. I clum down the tree and as I was taking the bottom section of the climber off the tree, another bounded away from the other side of this opening. I put the sections together and hoisted the stand onto my back and another bounded away. figures. as I stepped over the first log, another bounded away. put it this way, I lost track. I think I have found where they are. now, how to get in there and see movement during the daylight...
Nov 4th 2008 I've got a good feeling. things are about to swing my way. this afternoon, I went back to the spot where like 2 1/2 weeks ago, I saw a shooter buck but had no shot. it was not my intentions to hunt the same exact spot. rather, I would use that entrance to get further down wind and around the bedded deer I encountered yesterday. as soon as I left the truck, I saw the tracks. nice wide, 2 1/2 inches wide and long. no mistaking this one. I turned around and headed back to the same tree I clum when I saw that buck. I set out my golden estrus cover leaves to hide the fact that being 70 fricken degrees, I sweated more than I hoped I would. without disturbing the area more than I absolutely had to, I clum that beast of an aspen once again.with mature hardwoods, a mix of aspen, birch and balsam in front of me, I could easily see the forest floor out to fifty yards in most places. an aspen slash of pecker sized poplar lay out behind me and a tight ribbon of balsam created the transition between. 4:04..I was running a bit late, but not to bad. it was very nice out and I had a good feeling with my set up. about 5:00, I heard the crunch behind me that was definitely not a red squirrel. I strained to spy the first of two faces come out of the slash and through the balsams towards me. it appeared to be a spiker but I couldn't tell for sure. I knew it was no shooter buck. the second looked to be the same. I was hoping it was a flat top I could put in the freezer. they came closer and followed the way I came to my tree. I knew they were going to bust me. I could here every footstep in the dry crunchy leaves as the first one, a spindly little forkhorn came directly next to my tree. I waited for the alarm to sound and it never did. the second deer cleared the balsams and both offered me perfect ten yard shots. never even a question of should I came to mind. I knew i could relax and watch the deer. they hung around for about 20 minutes and slowly made their way south towards the area I saw the deer yesterday. nothing else stepped out and it was almost time to go home. I thought about it for a moment. you know, all the years I have hunted that piece of property, I have never seen a doe from stand there. many times I saw nothing, but I saw three eights or better, a stupid looking fork horn last year and these two. I thought that was rather remarkable. maybe I'll shoot one tomorrow
Nov 5th well today is yesterday's tomorrow, but I did not shoot one. it's not over yet either. I went to the same tree being the wind was about exactly the same and the overnight rain should have freshened up anything I tainted. again, I clum the big aspen tree. I hate this tree, but it is in about the right location, surrounded by balsams and very straight. the thing I dont like is the bark is very heavy and it has a couple of growth splits making it a little hair raising when climbing up or coming down. the bark sometimes allows the cables under pressure to jump down to a more suitable spot. this causes the stand to drop instantly like a half inch to an inch which in turn sends my heart out of time which makes me contemplate life and all the good things that surround me. I like ash trees much better, they don't seem to find me pondering my situation quite so deeply. the rain looked (by radar) to be hit or miss. I always say go when it's hit or miss. sometimes I go no matter the weather, but today looked like a fair chance to stay relatively dry. about an hour into the sit, something told me to look left into an area I had thought to thick to seen into and instantly I caught movement. maybe the doe I've never seen here before? no...a buck..not a large one either. what looked like a fork horn actually turned out to be a six point with a decent rack. I held judgement until it would offer up a decent shot. again, like the two from last night it came in right on my tracks. directly underneath me and again, no alarm. I must be doing something right. it paused and moved back into the safety of the balsams and munched it's way south like the others had done the evening before, offering no chance for a shot. I had three calls while I was in my stand. I usually turn it off, but I left it on vibrate this morning. the third call found me half way down the tree...yes dear, no deer...be home soon.
Nov 6th 2008 well lets just say, after 31 years, with the hard work, help and encouragement of guys and gals like yourselves, I got it done! as the saga unfolds, I have been hunting an area of public land that has been harboring at least three nice bucks that I know of including one booner...eh. I almost spelled boner. anyhow as some of you have been reading, I past on a marginal opportunity on an eight that had some junk, I thought after the pictures it may have been the crazy horn buck...not sure. then two afternoons I had a fork and spiker come underneath me, then yesterday morning a 6 come right directly under me. I had a good feeling about this morning. when I woke up it was pouring rain, but with just two mornings left before all hell breaks loose with the rifles and city slickers, there was no question I would go out and sit as long as I could until I got soaked to the bone and couldn't stand it any more. I woke my ever so understanding wife and told her this was the day. honest to god. I told her to get ready with the camera. I headed out to the same strip of balsams as I had seen the three other bucks the last couple of days. my game plan had evolved from using the balsam as cover, to sitting out from the balsam as I figured the deer were using it as cover, like a travel corridor. I would choose a tree outside 15 - 20 yards as to have better shooting opportunities into the balsam. as it turned out, I got to the balsams right on time. these balsams as I stated before are the transition of mature hardwoods to harvested aspen of 16 year growth. I will never under-estimate the value of a transitional area again. I looked now for the perfect tree away from the strip of balsams. the first choice had a widdow maker leaning against it and without considerable effort, it was going to remain there, in the way. I looked for my second choice. it was a nice straight aspen and I made my way to it, over and around deadfalls and other natural obstacles, I strapped my climber to it, and started up. after my second ratchet, I decided this was not the tree for today. the tree had an awful lean to it, causing the climber to be way out of whack, and feeling completely unsafe, I clum my way back down. now time was ticking away. looking and not finding another suitable tree in which to observe the protective balsam barrier, I opted to pick another tree inside the protection of the balsams. I clum that aspen tree and settled in for what turned out to be a rather short sit. I had only caught my breath from the climb when I noticed a deer coming my way through the openness of the hardwoods. A doe. what? she must die. so, as she came nearer, I raised my self, then reflex buckskin. she went behind some balsam boughs and I came to full draw. when she stepped into my pin, I should have stopped her with a bark, but instead I let fly. I could have sworn I hit her, but a little back I thought. she bounded forward about 25 feet and stopped in the safety of the conifers, looking back at the spot I just shot at her from. I could see her looking, sniffing, and she even licked her nose. How could I have missed her? I couldn't see my arrow. she simply wandered off and I just stood there stunned. I never miss when target practicing. heck, I even practiced this very shot yesterday with every hit in the kill zone. I even took one in the neck for good practice. I told myself, sit down. if you missed her, you missed her. if you hit her, your going to have to leave her anyway. at least a half hour. who knows, maybe a buck will follow her in. so there I sat. all these hours in the stand, all these showers. the scent free laundry routine. all comes down to this. I took a deep breath trying to relax. Then I saw movement. coming in the same way as the doe, I knew it had to be, and it was, a mature buck with his nose to the ground! he was coming in just as she had, and I knew exactly what he was going to do. 31 years of deer hunting and never a decent buck. granted, for many of those years I didn't care if had spi
Great Job and great stories. That's what archery deer hunting is all about. Perseverance, decision making, and finally a little luck. Very good job, enjoy the feeling!
