Around 6, the landowner came rolling down the logging road on a tractor, toddler grandson on his lap, and stopped 30 yards from my stand. I gave him the death stare and he just shrugged it off. They started doing laps around the woodlot, so I've relocated to a stump in a wide open section. No chance of seeing deer today!
Back in the same spot again. No deer last night which was weird. Hopefully they will come in tonight. Want to put one on the ground to get my buddy's dog some tracking practice
Last weekend, I put up a cam on the new property. A little 8 point showed up instantly in daylight and has been back almost every day since. I have a stand tree picked out about 80 yards behind the cam, but I'm waiting for a rainy day to set it up. Should be a fun spot...
Went out this morning for the last day of youth season. Buck down! He has a tendency to to talk my ear off when he's excited, but this was a whole new level for him. "Why can I quite shaking?"
I'm on the stand I put up yesterday. Not feeling too good about it now. I checked the camera on my way in and there was someone out here last night on a side by side at 10pm and 1:15am. Anything can happen I guess
So after a rough day yesterday with lots of rain and only one deer sighting, my expectations for this morning were pretty low. I hadn't been to this elevated box blind in a few years, but have had success there in the past. My son had hunted there Saturday morning with my best friend (and hunting buddy) while I coached pee wee football. My son warned me that there was a large bull in the pasture and was quite nervous about trekking across it. We didn't make great time as he was doing a lot of looking over his shoulder on the way in. We got setup about 10 minute prior to shooting hours. About 15 min later, I see a deer crest the hill in front of us and walk into our shooting lane at 20 yrds. I attempt to point it out to him, but it was pretty foggy/dark and he had a hard time locating the buck. Luckily something down the hill had the bucks attention and I finally was able to point him out. Instantly, he was shaking and breathing deeply. But was able to get settled in and take what looked like a good shot as the buck gave a big mule kick. The buck took off down hill and i thought I heard it crash near the bottom. After a 15 min wait and a bunch of hugs and celebrating, we snuck out to check for blood. From the point of impact, we could see 3 good blood sprays going down the hill. However, there was corn in the blood. Unlike anything I had seen before, so I began polling some friends and decided to give him an hour before pursuing. A friend and his son showed up around 8 to help take up the trail. Lots of blood through the first 20 yrds had me pretty convinced we were going to find him. Turns out he had gone about 50 yrds before crashing into a washout. The shot was a quartering to heart shot that exited below the liver through the guts (hence the corn i guess). He had received clearance from his orthopedic doctor to hunt on Wednesday despite needing a cast for at least 2 more weeks. He had taken ~60 shots Wednesday-Friday and was operating with a 50 max range. I think he's hooked.
Congrats man! Great story! One you and your son will always remember. I vividly remember my sons first. Now I'm working on my grandsons first.
Red moon this week. Anyone a believer in that? Guys like Adam Hays swear by it and he's a proven 200 inch guy almost every year.
Didn't see a single deer......until I made it back to the field where my truck was parked. There were 6 within 100yds of my truck. Which was parked in the wide open by the way.
Just checked the weather and looks like almost 80 degrees this weekend! UGH! I have off this friday too. Either way, I might go up and sneak into my rut stand area that I have my mock scrape, It hasnt been refreshed since September 1st so I need to refresh it before the bucks really start moving around end of October. Plus I can pull my sd card and go through 8 weeks of pictures Love checking cams after a long period of time. I'm like a kid during christmas
I may be getting out a good bit here the rest of the week. Here are possible times out. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, and Friday and Saturday mornings. I'm sure I won't do all those but I will update you all everytime I head out. Seems like most of us has had slow starts to our seasons. I've been encouraged by mine. I've seen deer every sit and even ones I wanted to shoot. Just haven't had the greatest shot opportunities yet. My day is coming soon. I am off work the last week of October and the first 2 weeks of November.
With all the warm temps, looks like most of my hunting is going to be the End of October and November.
It's killing me to stay out of my good spots right now, but I know it will be worth it come November. 69° and rained out of work...I'm home doing laundry and cutting the grass. I will be sitting some easy access stands this weekend though.
