Trad Gang

Hello fellow tradgangers! I hope your past 12 months have been filled with trad adventures.

I am just about to start my 40th whitetail season all with the exception of 3 years back in the 1980's with trad gear.

Last year's journal was rather abbreviated and I intend to make up for that this year. Instead of journaling at the end of each day, I intend on writing at mid day filling you all in on the previous evening and that current mornings events.

I was thinking about this thread the other day!!
Looking forward to it!!

:thumbsup:

I'm all in.......   :campfire:

for those of you who haven't read my prior years journals, here is a little about myself and the farm I live on which we lovingly call 5 pines.

I am 61 years old and began hunting with a bear recurve in 1976. I did not grow up in a hunting family. It took me 4 years to kill my first whitetail. 3 years of stumbling around before an older friend and successful bowhunter took me by the hand and led me to my first success. That kill was unfortunately with a bear white tail compound. I used that bow for 2 more seasons before returning to the recurve.. Since 1984 I have shot nothing else but trad gear.

Nine years ago I found my dream farm. We sold an almost brand new home, cashed in our retirements, decided to delay retirement and begged the bank for a mortgage. We have never had a minute of regret!

here is a fly over of the farm. We are the center four bluffs.
  (https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8370/29573420315_52dae387c4.jpg)

and a view from on top of the center one.
  (https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7177/6964483595_2017051acd.jpg)

Things seem to be falling in place for an exciting season.

We have not had such a wet August and September in the nine years we have been here as we are having this year. My food plots are bulging with food and with deer each evening.

Between storms today I went on hike to look things over . Here are some of the photos I snapped.

Small kill plot with Rape Seed ( Canola)
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7779/29537651336_cb70e0fb4e.jpg)

A one acre sustenance plot made up of Beets and an alfalfa/clover crop mix
 (https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8119/29491294091_b750a37d1c.jpg)

Looking forward to it, Jim!   :thumbsup:

:campfire:     tuned in for another season!  Good Luck.

6 acres of tall grass prairie and bee pollinator prairie flanked by forage oats, Rape seed and clover at the far end. Another sustenance plot with a hale bale blind off the edge of the clover.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8306/29537809116_e60d539291.jpg)

on the biggest bluff top I have about 5 more acres of plots. This is another forage oats mixed with beets.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8767/29491227881_013336b7c2.jpg)

A killing plot with stand on each end of the field. One stand is visible in this photo.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8648/29571732485_6470e7694e.jpg)

Good luck Jim, I'm looking forward to following along!
-Jay

more clover, rape, and turnips.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8328/28946260264_da6cdb85b5.jpg)
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8500/29537737106_8b7ffe061f.jpg)
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8750/29571700665_d91fac01d8.jpg)

Jim,

I know everybody tells you how much they love this, but even then you may not realize how much we enjoy reading your posts and updates!

Thanks again and keep'em coming!

The place looks great as usual, looking forward to following along.

Good luck this year LITTLEBIGMAN!

I truly appreciate the effort you put into sharing this  each year, Jim. You make it about so much more than shooting deer.Best wishes for a fulfilling season!

Looking good Jim!! Much luck to you!!

I want a farm like that.  Keep em coming Jim.

I will be hunting with my Black Widow KBX that I named   El Uno in 2012. This bow have been very good to me.
   (https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7042/6848069178_da875c57f2.jpg)

I ended the season last year knowing a couple of my favorite up and comers and made it thru the gun season and we collected a few bits of great headgear in both early and in late winter.

one particular big buck that I last saw on 11/30 is on the farm again. Here is a photo of him on 11/30/15.
   (https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/728/23088327979_72738e3ccf.jpg)
and here is link to a video of him this year.
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/28890799273/in/dateposted-public/    

To say I am excited for next Saturday to come is an understatement for sure.

Lots of friends will again join me this year and it looks like I will have a few more trad guys. So if you wish ride along with me and hopefully I can share with you the sights, sounds and smells of another fall hunting season at 5 Pines farm.

See you all soon.

Alright! One of my favorite threads! Can't wait to follow your hunts!

Looking forward to sharing your season once again Jim!  Good luck in the morning!

Look forward to this every year!

Eric

Correction A week from tomorrow.

You got me hooked a couple years ago. Can't wait to go through another season with you.

And so it begins.....again. I look forward to this thread every year. Good luck this season.

Thank you for taking us along once again. Good luck in the upcoming season.

This thread is something I look forward to every day! Good luck on your season and thanks for sharing your slice of heaven with us.

Thanks for taking the time to share. Your farm is something dreams are made of.

Glad your back again this year, and that you're going to share more of the adventure.  One of my favorite threads of the year. Best of luck!

Good luck this year!  Always enjoy the stories and pictures!    :coffee:

:thumbsup:

Good luck, I have enjoyed these stories
for some time.

Glad your back at it this year, and them are so fine bucks on the video.

Good luck this year Jim!!

I look forward to this thread every year.  Thanks Jim

Thanks for taking the time to share. Your farm is something dreams are made of.

Very nice..

Awesome Jim I am so happy your doing this what a treat it is!!

I can't wait to follow along with you again this year Jim.  Good luck.

Burton

:thumbsup:

Let's gitrdone Jim! Always a good read.

This is one of my all time favorite threads, I can't wait. Thanks for taking the time to share with us Jim, and good luck.

David

Looks fantastic! I truly enjoy this every year.  Good luck and be safe.

Best of luck! I always enjoy your journaling.

What a great piece of property.

Ron
P.S. Let me know when you are done with that slice of heaven...I'd like to retire there next!

There is a chill in the air today. one week from today I'll be in a stand El Uno in hand. A cup of joe in hand I watched these 5 this am.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8072/28980208144_0ab6381f78.jpg)
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8416/29571497316_69f8229087.jpg)

Hey remember the pond we repaired 2 seasons ago? I took a walk last night to pull some camera cards and also wanted to see what it looked like after 6 inches of rain this past week.

Just after the repair
 (https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5607/15295381779_479b5e9955.jpg)

and what it looks like now.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8152/28946330584_e9194b2d6c.jpg)

I have a love/hate relationship with trail cameras. But here is a link to an exceptional 15 second video. its rare a trail camera ever captures the light like this . Enjoy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/28960704053/in/dateposted-public/

Thats a great video. Thanks for sharing.

You are truly blessed, sir!  Looking forward to reading more!!      :campfire:

Look forward to this each year...thanks!

Jim thanks for taking us along again this year.  Love this thread.  Good luck to you.  Jeff

I love following along with this every year.

Do you have any fields you fence off to save something in them for late season?  Or do you specifically plant food that will be only available in late season?

Oh goody, looking forward to this years thread.  Thanks for taking the time to share your farm with us.

Thanks for taking us along again this year, Jim! Always my favorite thread and the one I check in on first each day!  Best wishes for a safe and successful season!

You are very welcome every one.

To answer Steve's question, my largest plots are the ones that I don't hunt over. I do try to hunt the trails to and from but you will notice from the pictures the 4 largest are far from any tree lines.

In these pots I try to have 1/2 in spring , summer and early fall forage ( clover, chickory, alfalfa and canola) and in the other 1/2 late fall and early winter (mostly turnips and beets any sort of tuber).

I say early winter because I would need another 10 acres of plots to have enough food to carry the deer thru. Normally the wild crabs are full of fruit and they don't drop the apples till very late. Lots of past winters you will find me up in the hills with a 12 foot pole knocking the late winter fruit from the trees for the deer and the turkeys.

It's going to be a hard winter this year due to the fact we had a hard freeze on May 19th and it totally destroyed the apple crop.  I am sure I will be dropping trees for browsing come January. But even that is plus.

When I am forced to do that to feed the deer ( I don't follow the corn pile routine ) I select young oaks or hickory or cherries that need to be free of competition for sun and water. When there are aspens, willows or other weed trees around the good trees, down they come a few at a time.

It is mazing how fast the good trees will grow when they are not crowded in. It's also amazing how fast the deer eat what's edible on the downed trees.

Great to see you back with this thread, Jim. Same as the others, I really look forward to it.

Putting trees on the ground as feed is a very good food source and much welcomed by the deer up here as well. When I cut spruce in the winter the deer really gobble up the Old Man's Beard, a lichen growing on the older trees. I thin the hardwood around my stands about 2 weeks or so before the opener as an attractant.

Good luck with your season.

It's about to begin. What we live for.

I have decided that forage oats mixed with brassicas is an awesome plot for deer.

Tonight from my deck I watched 9 does and fawns and 2 bucks feed in the forage oats roughly 200 yards from my decks edge.

One buck was a little fork and the other a buck I have been watching for three years affectionately named short brows.

Last year he was super 8 and I wouldn't let any one shoot him because I just knew he had such great potential. Despite having a characteristic short brow gene we have in the valley, he exploded this  year to be in the 150 or better class. When I spotted him coming up out of the creek bottom I raced upstairs , grabbed the spotting scope and went to a north facing window.

This is short brows last year.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/29693298596/in/dateposted-public/


I don't have any pictures of him this year except for a fuzzy video from July. But rest assured he is a worthy adversary! I was impressed with the guts of the little forked buck. He actually attempted sparring with the big one. His entire head and rack fit well within the big 10s inside spread! He finally put one little antler in between 2 of the big bucks tines and gave a push or two before running off.

There is supposed to be a WSW wind in the am. I recently placed a stand down on my East fence line on the trail that I got footage of the big 10 with a very long brows.  (https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8171/29727995955_0d263d1f68.jpg)
I will need to leave the yurt early and drive the 4 wheeler 4 miles around to back side of the bluff and hike in from the bottom. This stand rests at the bottom of 40 acres I normally do not hunt or even go into. I have purposely tried to make this area a refuge. The gun hunting pressure on this side of the farm is intense and I firmly believe some of the bucks that live on the farm were able to make it thru a couple of gun seasons because they have it to go to. Since these neighbors do not bow hunt, I will risk a hunt or two here early in the season.

If your season starts in the morn best of luck to you!

Im pumped for this thread. A great one every year for sure!
  :campfire:

Good luck this am. Getting ready to head out myself.

Awesome thread   :thumbsup:  Great choice in bows...   :campfire:

First time reading this thread, very enjoyable.
Looking forward to reading more from your farm.
By the way, you've got a nice place there.

Jim,

I was thinking about you this week and am very happy to see you journaling your hunt online again.

I hope you had a nice hunt this morning and look forward to reading your thread this season.

Well other than almost getting my buck with the four wheeler in the fog this am , it was a rather uneventful first hunt.

About a mile from my place in the fog a buck jumped out of the corn and into my head lights! Heart in throat time!!!

It was a lovely morning, gentle  breeze in my face. Lots of bird waking up noises. Not a single alarm snort and leaves falling in the breeze. But despite sitting on a very worn and long term deer trail, I got skunked as far as deer sightings go. I stayed until the wind switched and when it was no longer in my favor I slipped back down the bluff to where I had parked the ranger.

The wind has switched to NW and will continue from that direction  for the rest of the day. It should be a good evening to sit on a food plot on the bluff top.

And so it begins.........   :coffee:    :coffee:

I love this thread. Can't wait to see the outcome of all your work.

This is always my favorite thread. Thanks Jim for your posting. Hope you get a big one!!!!!!!

I shall echo what so many have already said. I truly enjoy this thread and look forward to it every year. You've got a great place, thanks for taking us along.

Good luck this morning Jim, Raining here... Season isn't open and one branch is bothering my brain so I may go cut it in a  few minutes to have a  better shooting lane.

Last night and this am............

We had low rolling grey clouds yesterday afternoon with the winds out of the NW. if it weren't for the calendar you would have sworn it was November.

I left camp at 4pm.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8371/29768076785_ef9f36e1f6.jpg)

I decided to hunt the top bluff. this is the highest part of the farm elevation wise. there is about 10 acres or so of open ground on top. When I arrived 9 years ago it was an old hay field that had not been hayed for several years.

I am having some issues with google earth and am unable to draw in my lines of travel.

I hike an old tote road we graded and seeded last fall. it runs along the inside edge of the timber above the open field by my house. the gain in elevation is roughly 800 feet. The red arrow is wind direction and the blue ones deer travel to the food plots I have in.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8523/29708394326_06dbc4f6f1.jpg)

One of the best reads on the net! Looking forward to every entry Jim.

Best of luck

Nate

this stand is a 20 foot tall ladder in a giant oak right on the edge of the food plot. the food plot is on a rather steep hillside. If a deer is standing 25 yards directly in front of me he is at the top of the plot and is exactly eye level with me. at 30 yards, the hill tops out and goes down the other way, I have a good food plot on that side as well.

Here is the stand with views left and then right.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8648/29571732485_6470e7694e.jpg)
looking left.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8192/29475925460_1c39172619.jpg)
looking right.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8645/29768128905_7c207e9d34.jpg)

Awesome thread.

Good luck to you!

Bisch

About half way into my hike a spring fawn rose from it's bed along the road. It watched me the entire time and allowed me to get with 15 yards before deciding it had better move out!

I got to the stand with out bumping or spotting any additional deer.

Around 5:30 the first deer appeared. Two does and a spring fawn walked into the food plot from my left at about 75 yards. They walked on a trail that took them directly past the OTHER stand on this field! they fed off to the west and then headed to one of the other plots. I looked to my right and this fawn was feeding all by itself.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8030/29732356826_63df906cc8.jpg)
The fawn fed for quite a while and every time it jerked it's head up to look down into the woods I expected to see another deer arrive. after about a half hour it fed off to the east and out of my sight line.

I was enjoying the low rolling clouds and the sounds of cattle , coyotes, hawks, crows, owls. The sky began to darken and the frog noise rose. Funny how frogs make so much noise in the woods.

I was standing and I heard the familiar sounds of deer hooves in the leaves. One was coming up the ridge and it sounded like it was going to come out right under me. I turned to the right to take the bow in hand and when removing it form it's hanger I made a very slight noise. The deer stopped, blew and ran back down the hill! Hell it was about 12 yards behind me and I had not even seen it! Well at least it wasn't the big one!@

A moment later yet another doe appeared in the food plot to my left! I didn't think it was the deer that ran and yet there it was. It too fed off in westerly direction.

finally it was time to go. Halfway down the ladder, I glanced over my shoulder into the plot and the fawn I had watched earlier was walking past the front of the stand . I stood on the ladder and noticed it was being trailed by a big fat skunk! The fawn would stop and look back every few steps as if to say to the skunk, : are you coming or what"?

Today it was about 50 F and foggy again. Almost no wind what so ever. I decided I wanted to hunt the edge of another heavy bit of cover. This too is on the east edge of the property and roughly on the other side of a bluff from where I sat yesterday morning.

You hike up 700 feet and then hike down 700 feet in elevation to a little pond I repaired last September. With all the rain we have had this fall it is four or five feet deep now. A great little cooling off spot.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8435/29140681744_9babf8a37b.jpg)
One of the reasons I wanted to try here is that in the evenings of late, I have seen a large group of deer in a neighbor's alfalfa field East of this spot along the county road. You can see those fields in the google earth image above.

But the deer can approach from any direction. you really need to be on your toes. I have seen some really great bucks here in November. I have also gotten caught sleeping.

The cover is heavy with black berry bushes and really difficult to move thru. Luckily there is another old logging road that I use to  get to the stand. I have also cut in some deer trails years ago and every summer I go in with a big weed cutter with a metal cutting head and reopen them.  Lot's of sign on the road and trails, wind was good, hopes were high.

But yet I got skunked!  Here is a photo of the pond from the tree.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8490/29685855281_6ea215e780.jpg)

We have some heat moving back in starting today, which will hamper day time deer movement. But we will see what we can get done.

Really enjoy this thread every year.
  :campfire:

Good luck Jim, I hate hot weather this time of year. Today it was warm and humid, even worse than just hot.

Thanks for sharing,
David

:coffee:

:coffee:

hunts 4 and 5.

Yesterday afternoon the thermometer read 82! The wind was gusty out of the SW. I decided I would hunt over a small food plot up top on the southern border. red is wind , blue is anticipated deer movement. Star is a rape plot.

  (https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8168/29499098810_34b91a12d5.jpg)

As I am walking past the small rape plot, I thought to myself, wow this is getting hammered. But the light that should have said " hunt here" didn't go on.    :knothead:

I had hiked in gym shorts and a T shirt. About 50 yards from the stand , I found some shade and changed into my hunting garb.

This food plot is lush and appears to be un touched. Still the light bulb failed to go off.

Stand is beneath arrow.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8500/29537737106_fc6cb2d65a.jpg)
view from stand
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7471/29498638450_ea6d931856.jpg)

When I put this ladder up last May I was pumped! the foliage almost completely hid the stand. Even when I came back in July and pruned shooting lanes, the potential problem with it didn't register. All the trees screening it are Sumac! Sumac looses it's  leave early and most of the cover is already gone ! Its a killer spot , but a deer would have to be blind in one eye and have that eye pointed towards you if this stand is going to work .Back to the drawing board on this spot!. around 6 pm a single spring fawn appeared on the other side of the plot and walked north towards the other food .

I left just early enough to glass the rape field, and there were 7 deer in it! That's the plot I killed last years buck in!! A guy has to stay flexible in the hunt!!

Since it was Monday and a work day . I had to go somewhere close by, where it would happen early if at all.

So I chose a rape field up on my northern end.
The wind was almost straight out of the south and it was warm. The just past full moon allowed me to walk the county road with no light. I am always afraid of bumping deer out of a food plot in the dark like this, but I made it to the tree with out alarming any, at least to my knowledge anyway.

it was a quiet morning. at 7am, I spotted two deer across the valley walking in the mowed fire break above the tall grass prairie. They were both bucks. what got my attention was sun light on antlers! through the binos, one looked like a mature deer the other was a little forky.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7472/29678945272_eecd72a757.jpg)

deer on trail here.
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7467/29679044562_a68ef2fda5.jpg)

stand is in  the right hand corner over that little dirt spot in the rape field.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7779/29537651336_350b4ea0ec.jpg)
nothing appeared on my side of the valley and my next door neighbor began his day around 8 am. That usually is enough to keep the deer out of the plot or to push them out if they are in it.So I headed on back to home.

Great update   :thumbsup:

Keep her coming Jim, I always have to check on your progress daily.  Good Luck.

hunts 6 and 7

While it didn't reach the mid 80's as forecast I chose a spot that I knew would be cooler in temps than others.

This spot is a short walk out my back door and sits on the East side of the bluff over my garage
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8308/29779248666_490d293cb2.jpg)
The sun goes behind the bluff here at least 90 minutes before it sets and the temp drops considerable as soon as it does!

this picture shows where the stand is in relation to the food below.
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8119/29491294091_a1111e4575.jpg)

Because there is food on both sides of the bluff the deer split and can go both ways as they come off the bluff above me.

It was quite early roughly a little after 5 pm and the I was enjoying the shade and cool air moving downhill. Perfect for this spot.

here are views from the stand.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8370/29522182780_1f22d26a6f.jpg)
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8101/29187211594_cd221369dc.jpg)
I made a little road years ago that goes up to yet another hidden food plot above. you can see it below the stand. A lot of time the deer will come off the bluff to my left and then drop onto this road.

tonight I heard multiple steps coming and they were going to be catching me off guard and seated. I stood as the first fawn popped out into the open 8 yards to my left. because it is a steep hillside, my 15 foot ladder put me about 20 feet above their heads here. As the 2nd fawn popped out I turned to get ready for the 3rd deer I could see through the branches. A big nosed old doe stopped just at the edge of cover and was looking the situation over. the first fawn was all ready on its way down the mowed trail and the second stood below me at 10 yards. I am sure not having my face covered cost me this shot. But suddenly the doe threw her head up and looked right at me. Her eyes bulged in their sockets and she spun and went 20 yards back up hill under the cover of the trees. My wind was good but my bright white face surely told her to run. She stood and blew a couple of times then slowly worker her way back, but around me and stayed in the cover. She got on the road , collected her fawns and walked back up the trail away.

It wasn't 5 minutes later when a doe, a fawn, a fork, a small eight point and another doe came running into the field below me. The two bucks sparred on and off for the next hour. Up and down and across the field they pushed each other.

Occasionally I could hear the little clicking of their antlers. Eventually some of the deer fed out
and up the other side of the valley. When it was too dark to see them any more I climbed down, glad to have had such a close encounter.

This morning a cold heavy fog had settled into the bottom of the valley. Everything was soaked and I knew the woods would be very noisy with the dropping of water off of everything.

I chose a stand very near where those two bucks from yesterday entered the woods as they went to bed. Plus you cant beat a 5 minute walk to your stand!

I didn't enter any wind arrows today because there virtually wasn't any.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8231/29814842365_4bc37a0b64.jpg)

this is the picture from yesterday where I spotted the bucks. I added the star for the stands location.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7467/29679044562_48acaae46d.jpg)
I was spot on about how noisy it was going to be. You could hardly hear anything except the dripping of water.  At around 8 am I was facing north with my left shoulder against the tree trunk. I had just turned from watching to the south. I shifted my weight on the tree stand and a deer spooked from directly behind me. I have no idea how it got so close other than I probably need to get my hearing checked! Fortunately it was a very small doe  and not a big buck. That was all I saw today.

It's going to get really hot today. not sure what the game plan is going to be but I will be out some where.

Getting close!!! I got a feeling something is fixing to get shot at.

Great Update Jim.

Man this is a great thread.  I'm living vicariously through you until I get a chance to hunt.  Keep after it!

Good stuff Jim.

Great stuff Jim.  I expect I'll have some good reading to catch up on when I return from Canada.
Good luck!

Didn't hunt last night or this am. The heat and humidity was going to keep deer in their beds anyway, so I took advantage of that and drove the tractor up into the bluffs and mowed clover, logging road and hiking trails one last time.  Would have been swatting skeeters anyway. Which by the way is not a normal issue here! But we have had so much rain, a little variety of them we call tree sketters ( eggs hatch in wet tree trunks where the branches connect to the tree trunk and hold a little water). They are nasty little buggers.

I also took al little target practice. As I expected deer movement was very late . sitting on the deck with the scope, these 3 were the only ones to hit the field in good light. Right at dark they started to pour in .
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8361/29751122131_8e7ff6b3f9.jpg)
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7562/29540992230_6ed97ce31d.jpg)

the heat broke last night with tremendous thunder , lighting and heavy rain. At dawn it was pouring. Bed felt good! Sure glad I got that mowing done. The forecast todays calls for rain on and off all day. Might be a book reading day. WE will have to wait and see I guess.

Glad to see you back Jim. Best of luck to you.

This is awsome, Good luck Jim!  :campfire:

Denny

hunt 8

Heavy thunderstorms rolled thru the region all morning and early afternoon. At 2:30 the skies seemed to be clearing and shortly after I was on my way up to that hidden clover field I mentioned the other day.

This is a spot just a little further up the hill from where I almost got the shot 2 nights ago.
There was a stiff wind out of the south, perfect .
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8403/29818390026_4271fe63f2.jpg)
This stand is at one of my favorite places just to sit on the farm. It is also the first food plot I carved into the hill sides. Normally there are lots of apples here in addition to my food plots, but not this year.  The clover is lush.
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5279/29226212754_1f3c0a51b4.jpg)
I had put my boy makeup on ( as my wife calls camo) and my mind was set to just spend an afternoon enjoying the sights and sounds. The wind couldn't have better and the Bigtooth Aspen leaves fluttering above my head made me imagine that I was truly in the high country. I expected to hear an elk bugle at any moment.

At 5 pm I decide to stand with the bow in hand as I expected to start seeing deer at any moment. There were more storms moving in , the sky was getting dark again and I hoped it would get the deer on the feet early.

I thought about life and a lot about death, as we had a family member pass this week. I thought about why I love the land so much and the creatures moving thru it. I am so glad I found archery as a young man.

At 7 pm after not having seen a single deer but hearing turkeys roosting on the ridge higher up, I returned to the farm and dinner.

Huge storms then rolled in and we got another 2.5 inches of rain on top of the 2 we got earlier in day. I stayed in bed this am listening to it pour outside. The forecast is calling for continual rain the next few days. Hope it clears by the weekend as I have a trad. friend coming down to hunt.

"I thought about life and a lot about death, as we had a family member pass this week. I thought about why I love the land so much and the creatures moving thru it. I am so glad I found archery as a young man."

Beautiful.  I'm sure this will impact all of your readers.

Joe

hunts 9 and 10

The wind yesterday was out of the ENE. A unusual direction here. When we have a wind like this we typically have rain or snow with wind. I wanted to hunt that little rape field that has been getting hammered by the deer. But when I got up there my scent was being carried out in the food plot like the wind was out of the NW. The bluffs play havoc with the wind.  Dependent upon how far up or down the slope you are from the top will determine what it does.

so I moved on to the next spot I wanted to hunt but when I got there the East component took over and it blew my scent in this plot as well.

So I backtracked and ended up back at opening night.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8076/29761951342_9ae092e816.jpg)
Here the wind felt perfect and I settled in for a three hour sit. I GOT SKUNKED.  That is until I climbed down at dark. Then I spotted the darken form of a doe at the other end of the food plot and two more in the next plot over. Here is the hard part about hunting food plots, timing your exit not to scare everything and teaching them you are hunting them. Even if you wait until complete black dark you still bump em when you leave.

This morning we still had the exact same wind , so I headed across the road up in the steep bluff to catch deer coming to bed.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5135/29248608633_a9a35869a3.jpg)
The wind was perfect here and the deer movement here is typically good all season. It's especially a great place to sit all day when the bucks are moving and using the steep contours to move along. There was a slight mist in the air, but the forecast was not calling for more rain.

just after 7am I heard deer run in from the neighbor's alfalfa field behind to the south. They blew past me at about 40 yards below. A doe and 2 fawns. Not sure what got their goats but something sure did.

By 8 am it was raining softly. I am not a proponent of hunting in the rain and climbed on down. Don't want to be tempted to start a blood trail I can't finish. I sure hope we break out of this wet weather pattern soon.

Jim, sorry to hear about your loss.

I am sure enjoying your thread! Thank You again.

hunts 11 and 12

Last night I finally sat over the little rape field up top. We had an  ENE wind and heavy skies. But the forecast did not call for it to rain. Still quite warm and very sticky to say the least.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8471/29270883574_240649067c.jpg)

After last night I am thinking of changing the name of this thread to 5 Pines Follies

I had stood in the stand from 5 to 6 pm. At 6 pm I decided to sit, for just a bit.  Murphy's law # 10 is, as soon as you sit, a deer will show up.

I hadn't been sitting for 5 minutes when I hear the slightest noise below and behind my location. Looking down I see that a spring buck fawn is almost directly beneath me. He had come up the ridge behind me and was going to walk past the foot of my ladder from about 5 feet. He stopped and smelled the ground where I had set my pack down and smelled around the stump where I stood and changed shirts. I expected to be busted at any second. But he walked out into the food plot and as he did so, he looked back over over his left shoulder.

I knew another deer must be behind me and sure enough mom was standing beneath the oaks about 20 yards back.  Now I have removed a lot of understory invasive brush here and she need not walk on the trail the fawn did to reach the food plot. She was going to pass to my left at about 15 yards. As she stepped onto the mowed trail I turned to my left to take the shot. But the bench seat on the ladder would not let me turn far enough to get my bow arm/ shoulder perpendicular to the target. I would have to stand to shoot.

(https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7479/29898096475_4df03e8983.jpg)
As she stepped into the open, beneath the tree limb above I rose to my feet. But she turned to her left and all I had was her butt to shoot at.

She went out into the rape and began to feed. The fawn had moved on up into the clover and was heading south to the beets. Eventually mom followed suit and if she stayed mid field I would  have 20 yarder. But instead she angled to the top of the plot and I let her walk on.

I watched them feeding and every once in awhile she would stare in one direction or another. Finally she had turned and was staring in my direction. I looked to my left just as a spike buck walked in to the Rape. He walked thru the plot, past me and on towards the doe in the beets. The doe and fawn began to walk back in my direction and were angling down towards the mowed trail that goes past the front of the stand.

At 30 yards away she stepped off the mowed trail and back into woods and started to feed on what few acorns were on the ground. It looked like she was going to end up right under me.

I wish google earth would let me draw in the route she has traveled thus far.

At 15 yards she turns to come back out on the mowed trail. It's going to be a perfect set up!
So she is broadside at 15 but not quite on the mowed trial and a small dead tree that fell along the field edge has a just a couple of small branches between us. No worries she is still going be on the mowed trail I tell myself . So I wait.

As she takes two steps further and is right where I want her, the fawn walks up.  They begin to groom one another. So now I have a totally unaware deer , standing at 12 yards, nurturing her baby and my heart softens. I can do it! Anyone who has domestic stock or dogs or cats knows that this type of behavior is more than just instinctive. Some thing clearly tender is going on between these two individuals.

Finally the buck steps away and I tell my self to harden my heart and to shoot. I drew the bow and the lighted red nock was a laser that flew harmlessly over the does back!

Now I not a great shot but I am not a bad one either. The was a slam dunk type of shot. I am not sure if my subconscious mind wouldn't let me kill her or what.

This brings up something I feel very strongly about. That what we do is killing versus harvesting. I am not trying to start an argument with any one . But to me, each deer is a unique and special individual. One that gets cold , hot, hungry, tired. It sleeps , eats, raises young ones and wants to survive just as much as any other species. To me one trivializes it's existence to say it was harvested.   Anyway I guess I just couldn't kill last night.

This morning we still had an Easterly wind and I headed around on the four wheeler, parked at the bottom and hiked to a stand we set this past summer.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8046/29272026223_0ba16e653a.jpg)
I had to walk right by the stand I sat on opening day. I would have loved to sat that spot today but the east wind would not allow it.

I hiked up the logging road in the dark and was in place well before first light. I was hoping to catch deer coming off the food up top and on their way down into the secure cover below.

By 9am it was clear that day was a stinker and I headed back down the road to the four wheeler. Just as I approached the lower stand I spotted a buck just as he spotted me. He was on the trail that went by the stand.!! Well now I know if I do get a good wind to be sure I am in that spot well after 9 am . I bumped three more does on the trail a bit further down the hill. When it rains it pours.

The mojo is getting better Jim, soon.

Thanks for sharing Jim, to me last night was a great hunt. I am with you on the kill vs harvest thing. I had just killed a small buck a couple of days ago, and said so to a friend. He replied, don't you mean harvest?  I told him it wasn't a plant, it was a living animal and I killed it.
Anyways, nice hunt and I look forward to this every day.

David

I will kill any deer I can......I would have passed that one also......I must be getting old. Your right, each one is special in it's own way.

I knew something was fixing to get shot at!!

When it is meant to be it will happen.

QuoteOriginally posted by ron w:
I will kill any deer I can......I would have passed that one also......I must be getting old. Your right, each one is special in it's own way.

Ya Ron. That would have been tough for me too. Love this post...

hunt#13

Last night was a very special night!

My wife returned home after a weeks absence and my good friend Jay ( old lodge skins here on TG) was here hunting with his Bob Lee. After cooking them a big early dinner, I hustled out the door to a close by stand.

I chose the stand where a shot almost happened last week.  But when I got the to the stand I could see the bluff was playing unfairly with the wind.  I was undecided what to do. If a deer came down the trail below I would be fine. But, if they dropped off the ridge like last week , I would most likely get winded.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7533/29295566753_5c293e439a.jpg)
Since it was nearly 5 pm I decided to risk it and stay . I had barely pulled my bow up and hung it on the bow hook when I could hear a deer running down the bluff directly behind me. A buck fawn ran out into the open from the same trail as last week. He stood below me looking for something. Replaying this in my mind , I think he was looking for me. Perhaps hearing me enter the stand and being alone and looking for company he rushed in. He went left on the trail below, circled around then caught my wind! Crap!

Thinking his loud snorting exit was going to be the last deer of the night, I settled in hoping at least to see deer on the opposite side of the valley with the binos.

By 6 15 I still had not seen a deer anywhere. Nothing seemed to be moving towards the food below. Turkeys began to roost somewhere on the ridge above. I counted what I thought were 6 different birds fly up to the roost. just then I heard foot steps behind me. I had been standing but not holding the bow. I took the bow off it's hanger and slowly turned to my left to prepare for a shot.

The buck was on the same trail that the doe was on last week. But at 15 yards above and behind me , he began to rub his antlers on an Aspen. For 15 minutes or more he put on quite a show for me. He was the 8 point from last week that I watched sparring in the food plot below with the smaller buck. I would guess him to be a 2.5 year old with about a 110 inch rack . Good width , even but short tines. A great buck someday.

I couldn't believe I was not getting winded.  But the steepness of the hill and the height of the stand must have been sending my scent stream over his head. It was so cool to see how focused he was on rubbing that tree!

He then turned to his left, came down the trail and I counted coup at 6 yards, at 10 yards and lastly at 15. Once he was past me, he trotted on down the mowed trail to the food plot and joined one lonely doe in the knee high beet leaves.

Just before dark I heard foot steps again behind and above me. I was hoping it would be a doe or one of my target bucks. But the deer seemed to just vanish and never got to see what it was.

We got rained out this am but as I write this the sky seems to be lightening up and the wind has shifted to the west. Perhaps we will come out of this very wet pattern we have been in .

Love it. We get to see things that happen in the woods that most of the world has no idea occurs. It is one of the things that makes what we do so special. I'm glad you saw the show Jim.

David

Great Updates Jim, Keep them coming..

Also I want to add I feel the same as you do over the Kill/Harvest debate.  For years I tried to be politically correct and use the term harvest.  A year or two after thinking about it, I went back to saying kill.  I felt like I was cheating the animal of his something by saying harvest.

My favorite thread!  Beautiful place you have there, Jim.  thank you for sharing.

hunts #14 and #15

By midafternoon the clouds were blown off by a solid and steady west wind. It would be perfect day to try out the small version twisted timber stand I hung in July .  I used to have a ladder near this spot , but the tree died and fell over. The Aspen this stand went in is the only viable tree for a stand to be placed.
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8054/29651219300_ebfb09d2e2.jpg)
this is on the opposite end of the plot with the ladder where all the sumac have lost their leaves and is no longer hidden.

this stand is only about 8 feet off the ground . the slant in the hill puts a deer at 15 yards at eye level.

The stand
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7789/29943979015_706a26c36a.jpg)
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8041/29909869436_3ee546d626.jpg)
the view from on stand.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8214/29829904572_ac643bfe7f.jpg)
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8788/29831418962_4ce9c37c90.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Ms6PxG)  20160925_172934 (https://flic.kr/p/Ms6PxG)  by  jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/) , on Flickr

You can see in the last 2 photos how close you are to the ground and also to a deer if they come from the right and near the bottom of the food plot.

I was afraid it was going to be too tight too move if a deer came from that way but wanted to give it a good test. The clouds started moving back in around 6 pm and the wind had really picked up! Because I was below the highest point up here the worst of the wind gusts were going over my head. But as a couple roared in and the tree tops spun a counter clockwise rotation I hung on with both hands! If I had been higher than 8 feet I would have gotten down.

I was looking to my left when I should have been looking to my right. I casually glanced that way and a big doe was standing right in between the two middle limbs ( top photo). this puts her at about 8 yards and height wise , I am barely higher than her head.
 
She walked towards me and that means she was walking down hill. Now I didn't trim the lower branches on purpose. They are stopping her from seeing me but also preventing a shot too! She is five yards from the base of my tree.

Why wasn't I more alert!!!

She then walked back up the hill in to the top of the food plot and I still had no shot. She fed for a few minutes and then a huge wind gust spooked her out of the field. It was then I heard the rain approaching. Seconds later it began to pour.  I headed home glad that I wasn't blood trailing a doe in the rain in chest high prairie.  Sometimes not getting a shot is a good thing.

This am it was 49 degrees and the wind still gusty out of the West. completely clear skies and bright gorgeous stars to walk under. I Headed north up the county road to a ladder above the food plots on the edge of cover.

The deer will head up into either bluff, so it's always a toss up as to which bluff side to hunt!
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8436/29318607034_a2ac8c3c01.jpg)
here is the ladder. BTW if you are thinking of a ladder purchase, I encourage you to take a look at X-Stands ladders.
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8029/29317550883_7db7e23079.jpg)
and the view from on stand.
 (https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8502/29943920915_9f1a5a28d1.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/MC3qsx)  DSCN0583 (https://flic.kr/p/MC3qsx)  by  jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/) , on Flickr

A mowed trial leads you up to the stand. The stand used to sit a little higher up. I am trying this slight relocation after last year's deer movement out here  on the edge.

Just after getting seated today, I could hear a deer walking in the leaf clutter. Then I could hear it stomping! finally I could just make out its shape in my left side shooting lane. Finally it blew one alarm and off it ran. I immediately  used my wind powder to check the wind and there is no way she should have winded me.  I am still trying to figure out what she saw, heard or smelt . She was the only deer I saw.

When you stop and think about it, it's amazing  all the things that have to happen for us to get a shot with stickbows. I suspect that's also why so many of us hunt this way. Keep at it Jim.......and keep it coming!

David

hunts #16 & #17

Yesterday the clouds were gone but the gusty wind almost straight out of the west was still here. I had scant time to hunt as I have been getting things ready for three brothers who arrive here to hunt with me tomorrow.

I chose the opposite side of the valley above the food plot behind the house.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8029/29969033825_ca6811c660.jpg)
I call this spot Squirrel's tail in honor of a squirrel who lost his to an archer guest of mine a few years back.

This stand has moved around a bit but never more then 50 yards from it's first tree. I moved it closer to the edge cover this summer. There is a contour trail that runs along the bottom of the ridge all the way around and it goes by 10 yards from the base of the ladder where it now sits. There are always big rubs right here.  With the west wind I was a little concerned that something directly behind me would pick up my scent, but the deer typically drop off the ridge to the right and left of this location and pass by the front as they go down to the food.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5077/29341386694_56aca09d71.jpg).

the wind started to lay down about 6 pm , just about the time I could see several deer in the food below me. I was not sure which part of the bluff they came off of, but it wasn't near me.

The night ended peacefully and my wife told me there had been 11 deer in the plot with an 8 and a 6 sparring. She likes my spotting scope! I am guessing from her description it was the same 8 I passed on two nights back.

Today it was clear , cold and still a little windy. I went to my personal favorite stand to hunt from. It's a long walk up the bluff and the up to the next, but fortunately all on the logging road.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5836/29675676700_a161764a97.jpg)
Once you get to the top of the 2nd bluff , you drop over it and onto the lee side and the wind generally goes over the top of you.  So you can hunt here even if it's too windy on the other side to do so.The deer come up into the bluff's from my food plots and the neighbors ag fields. There is also a small food plot about 75 yards distant from the stand. The stand sits over 4 trails that intersect just below me. A real hub of trails.

I had not seen a deer all morning but sometimes they are not in a hurry to get up there. Finally I hear a deer approaching from behind me. A spring fawn walks right under me and slightly spooks. It scoots out from under my tree and stands on the trail in front of me. Then it trots off down the ridge. Seconds later it sounded like a goat was loose in the woods. Up runs another fawn bleating so loud it almost sounded like an alarm cry. It ran around under me, scent trailing the previous fawn. Once it picked up it's scent it took off down hill after it. I think the earlier sibling had ditched him.

Home I went to coffee and work.

hunts #16 & #17

Yesterday the clouds were gone but the gusty wind almost straight out of the west was still here. I had scant time to hunt as I have been getting things ready for three brothers who arrive here to hunt with me tomorrow.

I chose the opposite side of the valley above the food plot behind the house.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8029/29969033825_ca6811c660.jpg)
I call this spot Squirrel's tail in honor of a squirrel who lost his to an archer guest of mine a few years back.

This stand has moved around a bit but never more then 50 yards from it's first tree. I moved it closer to the edge cover this summer. There is a contour trail that runs along the bottom of the ridge all the way around and it goes by 10 yards from the base of the ladder where it now sits. There are always big rubs right here.  With the west wind I was a little concerned that something directly behind me would pick up my scent, but the deer typically drop off the ridge to the right and left of this location and pass by the front as they go down to the food.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5077/29341386694_56aca09d71.jpg).

the wind started to lay down about 6 pm , just about the time I could see several deer in the food below me. I was not sure which part of the bluff they came off of, but it wasn't near me.

The night ended peacefully and my wife told me there had been 11 deer in the plot with an 8 and a 6 sparring. She likes my spotting scope! I am guessing from her description it was the same 8 I passed on two nights back.

Today it was clear , cold and still a little windy. I went to my personal favorite stand to hunt from. It's a long walk up the bluff and the up to the next, but fortunately all on the logging road.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5836/29675676700_a161764a97.jpg)
Once you get to the top of the 2nd bluff , you drop over it and onto the lee side and the wind generally goes over the top of you.  So you can hunt here even if it's too windy on the other side to do so.The deer come up into the bluff's from my food plots and the neighbors ag fields. There is also a small food plot about 75 yards distant from the stand. The stand sits over 4 trails that intersect just below me. A real hub of trails.

I had not seen a deer all morning but sometimes they are not in a hurry to get up there. Finally I hear a deer approaching from behind me. A spring fawn walks right under me and slightly spooks. It scoots out from under my tree and stands on the trail in front of me. Then it trots off down the ridge. Seconds later it sounded like a goat was loose in the woods. Up runs another fawn bleating so loud it almost sounded like an alarm cry. It ran around under me, scent trailing the previous fawn. Once it picked up it's scent it took off down hill after it. I think the earlier sibling had ditched him.

Home I went to coffee and work.

Good stuff Jim, I am still tuned in.

Good luck to you and your brothers this weekend this thread is amazing I find my self checking it everyday wondering if this will be the day

Enjoying every post, thanks for taking the time to post your hunts!

Eric

hunts 18 & 19

So if you recall my lovely wife watched 11 deer in the food plot behind the house the night before last. I wanted to continue hunting these deer but not over hunt a stand. So I went to the stand that sits in the saddle between the two bluffs overlooking the field.
 (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5509/29363529513_b11d93e69c.jpg)
I had to get creative with this stand and to make along story shorter , you must wear a safety line as you go up into this tree. But I had forgotten to fix the caribiner on my harness. I needed a vice grip to unlock the collar and get it to open up. So I decided to quickly head over to the tree where I passed on the buck the other night. Because I knew I could make the stuck fastener work there. Anyway as I was putting my stuff back in to my pack a huge coyote comes trotting down the logging road not 15 yards away. My bow is still hanging on the rope haul. As I try to unhook I am spotted and off he trots a little wiser and no worse for wear.

I got up into the stand and was a little concerned with the wind,it was not quite perfect but it was too late to go any where else. The deer started to arrive but they were all dropping off the alternate bluff. Once again I am on the wrong side of the valley!

By 6 pm there are a dozen deer feeding. 2 little bucks and the rest are does and fawns. The forecast called for rain beginning at 6:15. It was spot on and it started to rain lightly exactly at 6 15 on the dot!  I decided I would try to sneak down the ladder and stalk over the  lower portion of the bluff behind to get to a spot to watch the forage oat food plot along side the bee prairie . I wasn't able to get out undetected and all 12 deer moved out of the field and up into the hill sides.

But I was able to get to a spot to watch the other plot and I was really glad I did.  I stood in the rain and watched the big 10 point I call short brows and vowed that If he gives me a chance I won't let it slip by. I would love to get a crack at the other 10 point in the video but I am not even sure he is still on the farm .

The first of 3 brothers arrived late last evening , and we talked way to long. 4:45 am came way to quickly.

I sent Bwana off to the pants down stand and I headed around on the four wheeler to where I started the season out at.

Nothing was moving and I headed to the yurt at 9 am. to see if Bwana had had any luck . Just as I stepped onto the logging road from my stand, A deer snorted up hill from me. I sure hope it wasn't the big one.

My friends are all here now and they all shoot Cpounds. The day has started out well.

I am showing you the following pictures so you can see how well the home made walk in cooler I built works. This is in a corner of my pole shed.

I control it with a device called a cool bot. It over rides a standard air conditioners controls.  Nothing like prime venison aged in a controlled temp. environment.
 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8533/29906651061_a9e74e2632.jpg)
  (https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7463/29363321353_fa7de3dea6.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/LJJGrg)  20160928_131751 (https://flic.kr/p/LJJGrg)  by  jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/) , on Flickr

Jim, I love your thread, and also appreciate your insights. Could not agree more about "kill" versus "harvest". "Harvest" was created by the hunting industry to make the killing of animals more palatable and marketable to the masses. But you don't harvest warm-blooded game animals any more than you kill tomatoes from the garden. We should call things what they are and use our heads to decide what is the good, honorable and right killing of creatures that breathe air, feel pain, and have inherent God-given value. What we should not do is liken killing animals to harvesting corn so as to lessen the seriousness of taking life and thus alleviate ourselves of the responsibility as hunters to do it well, honorably, and for the right reasons. When the weight of responsibility felt by the average hunter towards the game he pursues is similar to the responsibility he would feel towards an ear of corn he might pick from a field, you start to see a generation of "hunters" who withhold respect and reverence from the animals they hunt, and kill for woefully insufficient reasons. Thankfully there are still plenty that get it and so many of them hang out here on TG. Definitely not trying to hijack this awesome thread, just wanted to say that I hear you Jim! I've also done the exact same thing with missing lay-up shots because my heart really wasn't in it. It's happened to me on a little spike and a red fox. Just didn't really want to kill them deep down...

I hope your friends have a great visit!

hunt # 20 and  # 21

After drawing straws for stands ( just kidding) we all headed out in our various directions. Even on 300 acres trying to place three guys and put deer in front of them and not block or bump each other can be a challenge!

I was two thirds up the logging road when I spotted a doe on the logging road feeding in the clover I planted on it. She was 200 yards up above me. We'd had sun showers on and off and the road was super quiet to walk on.

I watched from below as she climbs up onto the bank above the road and began to feed on the face of the bluff. I have taken out all of the invasive brush here, by cutting, spraying and burning. The hill side is now coming back thick with blackberry, snake weed, plum and other lower growing brush that deer love to feed on.

need to go get guys on stand and will report further tonight I hope.......

She was feeding slowly up the hill. I moved as quickly as I could to catch up with her. The wind was in my face and I made good progress. There is an old fence line that crosses the hill and I was hoping she wasn't on the uphill side of it. But as I got within 40 yards of her I could see that she was just on the other side of it. There is no way I would try to shoot thru four lines of old barb wire, so I let her move off up the hill a bit before I moved ahead as well. I needed to get at least even with the first fence pole before I could start looking for a shooting lane in the brush.

Finally I moved again and I immediately stepped on an acorn! At the crack of the nut she bolted up hill about 30 yards and stopped. I used the cover of the cut in the bluff to move another 20 yards and stopped just behind a 20 inch thick  Burch. Imagine a clock with the deer at 12 o'clock and me at 6. She was a good 40 yards straight up from me. I realized that because of the cut left by the bulldozer my entire body was hidden and if she could see anything at all it would just be my head. I had my face paint on and a dark hat.

She started to come down the hill and headed towards 3 o'clock. At 18 yards she stood there with a hard quarter to me position staring at me. I was crouched, pack on my back. Arrow on the string. My head tilted back straining my neck.

She turned back up hill and moved again to 12 o'clock then started back down hill towards the 9 o'clock position. Again she stopped at about 18 yards, turned my way and stared. Back and forth we did this for a full 45 minutes. On her last trip I could see she was starting to relax. Every once and a while she would grab a leaf of something to eat, or stop and scratch an itch.

At 3 o'clock I started looking for a lane. At 4 o'clock she was still at 18 yards as I had to step to the left to find a clear lane to shoot thru. There were 2 tree she was going to pass thru. As her head went behind one, I drew, picked a spot , hit anchor and let the string slip. At the sound of the release, she spun to her left up hill. My arrow flew straight towards her heart but her heart had moved and the arrow sunk deep into a slightly rotten tree trunk. ( darn forgot my camera in the yurt) Edit coming in the am. I grabbed a second arrow but I started to laugh out loud and that sent her off over the hill.

This am I headed up and over the bluff then down into the hole . It was a pleasant morning, with clear skies and a light breeze. While on stand I heard a deer in it's bed, coughing or clearing it's throat occasionally but never laid eyes on it . I left at 10 am to see if any one needed a blood trailer. But no one did.

What a Great job you do jim and I am sure it's alot of work posting all of this everyday but I wanted to say how much I enjoy it and thanks for sharing
Keep at em!!

Don't you ever lose the ability to laugh out loud in those situations.  That is great.  Life is too short and too often we sweat the little stuff.

Keep the stories coming my friend.  And good luck.

The photo from my stalk. tree center punched!
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8680/29401039674_4e981f2eef.jpg)

hunts #22 & #23

Three of us headed up the hill together to hunt the plots on the upper bluff.

2 of my friends are the stars, I am in # 31. Wind a little iffy for me.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5618/29735043070_216696e73d.jpg)
I was ready to kill a deer last night. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one who didn't see a deer. ! Uffda!!

This morning I decided to hunt the top of Rattlesnake ridge.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8306/29537809116_9b3d0b47ca.jpg)
There is no easy way up to this spot. Hence it gets hunted lightly. You must have a N or NW or NE wind to hunt it. Once you get into the timber its a deer trail almost straight up for most of the way. You have to pick your way thru a rocky cliff and be very careful where you place your hand holds. This ridge isn't called Rattlesnake ridge for no reason.  

After doing some snake habitat improvement on the bluff last winter , the DNR and I determined the main snake den in the valley is on this bluff.

The eastern Timber Rattler is a threatened species but is in recovery.  The mornings are now cool enough that the snakes are close to the den site and no longer dispersed thru out the rocks.

The top of the ridge is only about 25 yards wide before you start going down the other side. So its a long bench that the deer love to bed upon. If you beat them up here it is a common occurrence to have them bed all around you.

The tree stand is 20 feet high but slightly down from the very top. So due to the steepness of the hill side 20 from the ground only puts you about 12 feet over the deer if they are on the very top.

Just after getting in the stand, A deer came up the ridge from behind in about the only spot I can get winded. I did not hear it until it had winded me and was running back down the ridge. Nothing was moving. I was about to throw in the  towel at 10 30 when I spotted one and then a second deer coming my way. They had come up the other side of the bluff. I picked up the bow but then exchanged it for the camera as I could see they were both fawns. I snapped a few photos as they came almost directly under me, then I began to watch for the adult. But they were on their own as no other deer followed.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5204/29734849640_89d45aaeb9.jpg)
I let them cross the ridge and waited another hour before heading to the yurt for laughter and coffee.
!

Good accounts of your days in the woods, enjoying them very much.
I'm not able to hunt this year so am "hunting" vicariously through you and many others here and on other sites.
It's killing me not being in the woods.

:thumbsup:

i love this thread.

hunt #24

Last night after getting everyone off to their respective spots, I headed to the stand I went to last week but couldn't sit the other night because of the harness failure.

This stand sits above what I call a buck contour trail. When the bucks start looking for does they will run these contour trails and stop and scent check every trail that crosses it for a hot doe. These trails can be low or high on the bluff and that's what makes it hard to find the right one to sit. If you are on the right one and are willing to sit all day, you can see numerous bucks. My best all day sit was three years ago when I saw eight different bucks in one day.

Contour trail is the pink arrows. these trail run all along the whole valley. A buck may take a day or more to make the circuit and then repeat it.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5279/29754498600_d73d8fd204.jpg)
I chose this spot for the steepness of the hill right behind the tree the stand is hung in. It keeps the deer low. The bluff also almost always forces the wind to go uphill and be in your face.

At six pm I spotted a buck coming from my left. He was on the contour trail and he walked right below me and stopped. he is 6 yards from the base of my tree.

He was trifle smaller than the last buck I counted coup on. A 2.5 year old 8 point. Short tines with about a 13 inch inside spread.

I smiled as he stood right under me without a clue that I was just above. Sorry but I kept my bow in hand and did not attempt to get a photo. I was hoping he wasn't a solo traveler.

But he was the only deer I saw while on stand. Climbing down I decided this stand had to be improved. It is tricky due to the shape and size of the three trunks on this oak. When cold and icy weather arrive , it could be a dangerous climb. So this am, rather than hunt, I put together a ladder I had ordered but not used.Then I took the portable down and hung the ladder in the next tree over. It is just a few yards further up the hill. Now the shot is not as steep and still inside of 20 yards.  

It's going to be an all day sitter when the bucks start cruising

Nice Jim, love the adjustments that you recognize and make.

David

hunts 25 & 26

Last evening one friend remained here and I sent him to a stand overlooking the food plots behind the old farm house. I hiked up the logging road to sit on the retaining pond we repaired 2 years ago. It was warm and we haven't had any substantial rain for a week. I thought it might just be time for a deer to need a drink.  The stand is set over the spillway of the pond. You can see the pond but not shoot to it. Trees were limited here for a stand to go into.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5671/29778819170_ab958ac7db.jpg)
It was really a pleasant evening. Early on I spotted a deer running down hill thru the tall grass below the food plots. It was a good buck!. I thought wow, he is really in a hurry to get to water!. But he blew right past the pond and into the woods below . I then decided that he must have been spooked by something from his body language. I could see as he ran out of sight that he was a BIG 8!!

Here is my view from the stand . The blue arrow is where the buck came down the hill.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5324/30073479785_874b0f4008.jpg)

90 minutes later, a deer snorted just below and two my left. It had made it to edge of the wood line with out me hearing it. I almost back flipped out of the stand at the sound of the snort I was caught so far off guard. I heard it crash off as it went down the steep ridge below. I am thinking it was him. Not sure how he caught me.  The wind was in my face and the big oak's branches provide lots of cover. But I certainly did something to give myself away. I saw no other deer.

Today I tried once again the stand I started the season out with . Still hoping to catch the big 10 with big brows, but I got skunked. I don't think I will hunt that spot any further. I have sat it three times and not had a single deer go by on it. Too many other good spots to sit, so that is what I am going to .

It's time to find a place to sit for hunt #27.

I like that decision, Jim. I often go back to a stand that doesn't live up to it's promise, thinking I have to keep at it because of the work that went into it.
You gotta go with what's in front of you. I like how this thread instructs me or shows me that I'm not alone in my thinking.
Keep at it, seeing the good bucks is a definite motivator.

Its only a matter of Time Jim. Along with Tom's post, i like that you keep things fresh and try new things where other things didn't work.

Good luck.

hunt #27

ruined by the neighbors dogs!  You can put every fiber of your being into a property to make it the best deer hunting place possible and have done it all for nothing due to an irresponsible neighbor.

I hiked back down the ridge, took off my camo , washed the face paint off my face and went and had a heart to heart talk with the woman next door. She has 4 dogs and two were running the deer trails. Now it makes sense why the big buck from the night before was running from something!

I am going to take the next 2 days off, catch up on neglected chores around the farm.

I be back at it WEds am................

Hard to deal with irresponsible folks that just don't care or get it.  Go get'em on Wed.

rained out this am, but the rain should end by noon. I need to go sit in a stand!

We really seem to be in a wet pattern. I am hoping for a better weekend.

Thanks again Jim.

It's now a tradition of hunting season to get to read about LITTLEBIGMAN's adventures.  I love this part of the year (as I know we all do) and this thread just adds to the joy of the Fall.

Even though I already had the short version from our phone call yesterday I had to read through every word of this thread to catch up.  It's filled with so much more than just a daily account of your deer sightings.  It is interspersed with knowledge of how to hunt, both tactically and philosophically. Knowledge of deer habits, use of wind and terrain, food and travel patterns - new and veteran deer hunters can all learn so much from what you share here.

Great stuff Jim!

:campfire:

Sorry to hear about the dog issue, hopefully your chat with the neighbor helped.  I think it was wise to remove your paint and camo before going over.

I hope this evening hunt was a good one.  

I echo Joe's comments.

hunt 27 (redo) & hunt 28.

Last night was one of those perfect nights to be perched in a tree. I felt extremely optimistic about the hunt as I made my way up thru the bluff on the old logging road.

I snapped this photo about 1/3 of the way up. We don't get the vibrant reds and oranges here since we have hardly have any maples. The red is usually from Sumac or a creeper vine.
  (https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8696/30142455465_db84aaccb4.jpg)

we had a steady west wind and temps in the 60's . I wanted to hunt the farthest south food plot on the top bluff. The Brassica's are actually better on the other end of the food plot and the stand I was going to. But the ladder there is the one now totally exposed and the wind was better for the little twisted timber stand. Plus this tree will soon lose it's leaves as well and it might not provide enough cover after they fall. The clover is still lush here as well.
  (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5180/30058149951_5ff670f80f.jpg)

I went extra early as last week, one of my buddies was hunting near here and there were deer in the food plot at 4:30 when he crested the hill!

The westerly wind rattle the big tooth Aspen's leaves making a lovely sort of music.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8680/30028070742_e08600e22e.jpg).
If a deer goes by here it is going to be an extremely close shot. But I felt confident of my camo and stand placement.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5457/29514060514_c0bd703e3d.jpg)
As dusk approached a pair of Bard owls very near began conversing. They really started yakking it up. Reminded me of two old guys laughing at their dirty stories. I had to smile and shake my head.

Near dark I was positive a deer was walking up hill towards me. I am sure I heard steps in the dry leaves.  It ever appeared though. When I left at dark , I did my best to avoid deer in the other plots but ended up scaring at least 4 !

Some days you are lucky and others you are not!

It was hard to leave the comfort of the yurt today. I could use a yurt house keeper.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8643/29524554444_14fd299f4c.jpg)

I went just across the road to the East facing bluff above my mail box.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5135/29248608633_a9a35869a3.jpg)
This stand produced a big doe 8 days ago for one of my guests. There was hardly any wind at all and what there was from the East. I was concerned about the downward thermals. About 30 minutes into legal shooting light, a doe 30 yards below me snorted. She had caught a molecule of man scent on the down ward thermal. But she did not run off. She simply turned and headed back south in the direction she had come from. Instead of crossing the fence , she walked along side it up hill. Then once she hit the next trail coming down , she turned and began walking my way a 2nd time. I thought she might be on  suicide mission. But 45 yards out she locked up.

I heard running above just as two mature coyotes came flying down the hill. The flew past and stopped at the bottom of the woods and began barking! I have no idea which way the doe fled. After the coyotes were gone., I sat down not expecting to see any other deer this am.

Not 5 minutes later I pick up movement below on the logging road I walked in on. A small buck was smelling where I walked. He didn't spook but again turned and reversed course. 2 soft grunts from my buck tube turned him right around and he came up looking for some one to hang with .

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/29524251463/in/dateposted-public/

After he passed on by , I spent another 30 minutes or so before heading in to work.  It was another day that paid to get out of bed early.

Hope you are having a great Morning Jim.

hunt 29

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5029/29877045410_a594ec8187.jpg)

As I headed up to the little hidden clover plot, I was worried about the evenings weather. Rain was forecast for after dark, but there was a light mist in the air all ready. It had been dark all day and the lack of sunlight made it seem much later than just 4pm.

here are some pictures from the walk into the stand. (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5636/30056817742_5b90dabd46.jpg)
great cover here for bedding bucks!
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8406/29875829690_a6e56717bf.jpg)

not a big rub but very very fresh.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5093/29875796120_068dcb45dc.jpg)
the hidden plot.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5756/29875808770_9fa661b696.jpg)
you will recall that I hunted this spot once before but I sat in the upper end that time. Tonight I would sit the lower and hope to catch a deer as it was exiting the plot heading down to the big one below.

:campfire:

The wind was pushing my scent up hill. I was worried that I might blow the deer off of the top of the bluff, but decided to risk it. The mist had stopped and the woods was very quiet.

After climbing up I noticed that some branches in one of my two shooting lanes were drooping down and partially closing the lane. Couldn't deal with it then, as I would need a pole saw to do so.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5821/29542542064_a61f5aea4e.jpg)
I was on high alert all afternoon as this place just oozes the thought of deer feeding early. Once again nothing seemed to be moving. It was approaching the witching hour and I just knew that at least one deer was with in ear shot. So I decided to do a little blind calling.

I gave three very soft , muffled grunts on my grunt tube,all in succession.  It wasn't 5 minutes when this little guy came looking for company. He was clearly searching for the buck he had heard. The tactic worked perfectly and he walked through my 2nd shooting lane at just 12 yards.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30136595166/in/dateposted-public/  
pretty good to call in 2 bucks in one day. in about a week I will start decoying and calling a little more aggressively.

After the little guy walked thru, I waited another 10 minutes and called once more. This time nothing came and the day ended. Soon it was time to go .Surprisingly not a single deer were in any of the plots as I came down off the hill.

A cold front blew in last night and along with it 20 mph gusty winds and rain.  I elected not to hunt this am but will go out early later today .

I'm heading to my stand at my ranch for my first hunt of the season.  It's cool and has been raining here...this thread has me busting to get out in the woods again.  It's the fall and life is good!

hunt #30 and #31

Yesterday cold front brought welcomed lower temps but also gusty winds out of the North. I needed to be out of the wind if I was going to enjoy the evening.

I headed up to the stand we swapped out last week for a ladder on the contour trail beneath the bluff we call Inspiration Point.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7482/30081075122_b733b8c7fd.jpg)
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8419/30081161652_bcf4e09e52.jpg)

I knew that despite a true North wind that on stand the bluff would still be forcing the wind up hill and into my face.

hunt #30 and #31

Yesterday's cold front brought welcomed lower temps but also gusty winds out of the North. I needed to be out of the wind if I was going to enjoy the evening.

I headed up to the stand we swapped out last week for a ladder on the contour trail beneath the bluff we call Inspiration Point.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7482/30081075122_b733b8c7fd.jpg)
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8419/30081161652_bcf4e09e52.jpg)

I knew that despite a true North wind that on stand the bluff would still be forcing the wind up hill and into my face.

On the way up I passed the blind I set under 2 apple trees just the other day. Darn close to the trail maybe too close. Hunting it will tell if it is. Saving it for later in the season.
[ (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5638/30080669462_c0e54366f8.jpg)
I also passed by another very fresh rub. 1/4 inch gouges in the tree trunk!
[ (https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8413/29899442670_c8162e571b.jpg)
The ladder sits just behind the three trunk oak the portable was in .
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5729/29566093603_9ee5008c6d.jpg)
So after last night I am wondering if I should have left well enough alone. In the portable the 8 point last week, walked right under me and never once looked up. Last night at 6 pm I spotted 4 deer ( blue arrow) coming down the bluff on a trail that intersects with the contour trail. At about 45 yards distant but at about the same height on the bluff, the lead doe stops in her tracks. She looks right at me. Not past me or under me but right at me. I had seen them coming, grabbed the bow and had turned long before she saw me. She came a few yards closed and starred at me. Then she stomped twice and turned to leave. She shot her head up and looked over her right shoulder , again right at me. The she turned to head back up the bluff and this time she looked over her left shoulder , again right at me. The other three deer ran up the bluff. I was head to toe cameo, including gloves and face paint under a balaclava. Wind was in my face and I had not moved a muscle. Heck she wasn't even that old of a doe. I guessed her at 2.5 or possible 3. Hoping it was just a fluke.

Jim, I've wondered about ladders showing too, maybe some gray primer to break the straight lines of the legs up a bit?

Good luck!  :thumbsup:

Cold morning, we had our first frost and Jayne told me later the thermometer read 33 degrees.

I went up to my stand. It's a long walk up and the challenge is not to over heat on a cold morning as it was today. For the most part I was successful by packing the majority of my layers. Still got a little wet with sweat.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5805/30081570022_ba461f7171.jpg)
Besides coming from my plots below the ridge the deer come in from the neighbors corn field. Wind was good. The Star is a cedar point the deer head to bed for the day.

It was the most perfect morning but the deer just were not arriving for the party.  At 9 :30 I hear branches breaking and see two twin 4 pointers running in from the neighbors. They cruised past just above me at about 40 yards. I expected to see a coyote or worse dogs chasing. But nothing until 15 minutes later when two loud shot gun blasts tore the air. Close!  no more then 100 yards. Trespassers?  I couldn't decide what to do. When the gun roared again I got down and took a few layers off. Stored my pack on the trail and headed towards the fence line 150 yards away. I was standing at an old gate that is no longer used in the shade when A cameo clad squirrel hunter rounded a tree on the adjacent property. He was stalking my fence line. I think he heard me approach and was going to try and sneak a peak at what ever made noise in the leaf little. When I said "morning" he just about Sh$T his pants. I guess I should not have done that to him but I couldn't resist .

Lol... I once had a couple of hunters on the neighbor's property try to stalk my turkey decoys!

I ruined their morning.

Keep at it Jim, and thanks for sharing.

Good luck.

hunt #32.

How to begin?  Rarely do I hunt 2 stands close  together back to back. But the little food plot 100 yards from where I sat yesterday morning has a trail camera that showed deer in it every night for the past week, with lots of day light to spare. Heck there were deer in it yesterday at 7 30 am and I didn't see them from yesterday's perch. The stands are that close.

So I snuck up early and went real slow. The leaves were very crunchy. I repositioned the two stands on the plot this year. I can now hunt here in any wind except due East.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8413/29920048290_665d93686c.jpg)

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8280/29586317744_0571067cd8.jpg)
This shag bark hickory was lacking cover right at the shoulder height so here is my fix.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7549/30130578101_cc0252a8cd.jpg).

Two of these on your tree with some ever green and you have made it a lot harder for the deer to pick out your form.

There was a light breeze out of the NW. At 5 pm I spotted a deer and fawn feeding just off the west side of the plot inside the woods about 40 yards.

At 6 pm I heard a deer walking up behind me from the SE. I prepared to get winded and did. But the deer simply turned and trotted back to where it had come from. No alarm snort.

At 6 10 I spotted another doe this time with 2 fawns coming into the plot from the West. She fed past me and stopped at the edge of where I had set my distance limit for a shot to happen.
 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8623/29586785493_1946a5f00c.jpg)
She was standing ( star) slightly quartering away. I hoped she would turn a little and be more broadside. She reached for a blade of Chickory and was now broadside.

At the hit she spun hard to her left. I was not very happy with the amount of arrow hanging out as she ran off. But I have been fooled before by an arrow hitting the off shoulder or far rib and bouncing back thus giving the appearance of poor penetration. So I was not overly concerned yet.

100 yards into her run , she stopped in the woods. I actually got the bino's on her. She stood there flicking her tail, then dashed off. Her two fawns were still feeding the food pot.

After they walked off after her. I climbed down anxious to check for blood at the point of impact. There was zero. I walked over to the edge of woods and checked all along the outside edge. I knew where she went in as there is a deer trail there. But I wanted confirmation of a good hit.

I decided not to push it and made myself wait 1/2 hour. I went back and for on the deer trail I know she ran down without finding blood. Each time I went a little further down the trail. At 50 yards I finally find a sprinkle of blood in the leaves. This puts first blood at 100 yards from the hit at a minimum. One hour later I finally find a bit more 50 yards further down the trail. Then nothing for 70 yards. One more drop of blood the size of the end of your baby finger.

She never got off the deer trial. So I continued back and forth from the last blood until 10 pm. While doing this a big raccoon walked over to investigate. It sat no more the 25 yards away while I searched just watching me. I have never had a coon do that before.

Dejected I headed home. 1/4 mile from the stand I was walking quietly down the logging road with my head lamp on. A doe was laying 15 yards off of the road looking at me. I stood there looking at her wondering if there was a wound on her right side.

She was laying there her left side to me. She never moved. I actually verbalized the thought and still she didn't move. No way I thought. There are two many deer here and you are too far from the shot , plus headed in the wrong direction.

So I turned away and placed a ribbon on a tree limb so that in the am, I could check out her bed on my way back to the track.

First light found me checking the does bed and as I suspected , nothing. Different doe, but wasn't it strange she didn't get up?

Retracing last night steps, I was amazed I found what blood I did. I don't think that there was more than two tablespoons of blood long the entire path. I crisscrossed the bluff looking for sign. Never found anything nor did I find my arrow.

On the positive side there were no crows, vultures ,or eagles anywhere in sight. I am confident the three blade vpa stuck in her shoulder and that if she can shake loose the arrow she will be fine. At least I hope so. Nothing worse than causing needless pain to the creatures we hunt.

My confidence in my shooting is little shook today though. I am going to be even pickier than normal on my shot selection after last night.

Sorry to hear Jim. Nothing to do but get back in the saddle and go again. I have read enough of your hunts to have full confidence in your abilities. Have at it!

David

Jim, sorry to hear about the misfortune.

I am still enjoying your thread!

Hey Jim...hang in there.  This kind of stuff- you never get used to (and shouldn't) but it DOES happen to all of us.  It's disheartening but it is part of our sport.  Regroup and make it happen on the next one..have a great week.

hunts #33 and #34.

So after a little practice out of the tree stand set up behind the yurt, I took David's advice and headed out to hunt.

I wanted to be as far as possible from the center of the farm which I felt was now pretty mucked up.

With a NE wind I headed up top to hunt a newly revised old spot.  
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5792/29943229610_6be834eac6.jpg)
in 2013 I killed a really good buck here on the 3rd night of the season. He now graces one wall in the farm house.
 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10657519365_950dd4f472.jpg)
But since then I have not had a really good shot opportunity at anything here. I had noticed the deer really preferred to move along the mowed fire break on the edge of the field. So last spring when we were setting up some new ladders, I moved one the older ones here just off the edge of the mowed trail and took down the portable which was set deeper in .

I took one section of ladder out and set it against a skinny Aspen. But there is a giant Cedar tree next to the Aspen on the side facing the direction the deer should come from. I wanted a tight close shot to follow up my 18 yards screw up. This spot provides that if a shot is to occur at all. I spaced out and forgot all my camera gear last night. So the next time I sit this spot I'll get some pictures.

The Cedar provides excellent cover. You sort of peak thru openings on the branches. You will have plenty of notice as long as you are paying attention here. Unfortunately no deer came from the bedding area I had hoped on. The day ended with no deer being seen while on stand.

This am it was not quite as cold and I chose to hunt just up the county road to a stand on the edge of cover. Hoping to catch deer coming up from my biggest plot to bed on the side of Rattlesnake ridge. conditions were perfect to hunt here.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8754/29610612933_dda200656d.jpg)

But as I left the road I just started bumping deer. Four different sets of eyes staring back at me in my head lamp. Several others shorting as they ran off. I think I scared every deer there was away. Lovely morning but I saw zip from the stand.

hunt #35

With scant time to hunt and 20 mph winds blowing out of the south, I sprinted the 300 yards to the hay bale blind at 5 pm.

 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8267/30176165311_cd87e287e9.jpg)
This hide sits where a little clover and chickory field meets a Rape field and also the edge of my bee prairie. A thin strip of woods on the bank of looney creek runs all behind it. then the county gravel road and the bedding area I call the 23 above the road.

I used this blind for a number of years and it's starting to sort of melt into its surroundings.
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8131/29628372914_1eb22f647f.jpg)
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8415/30224199956_5c66efd938.jpg)

One of 3 decoys I have acquired over the years is hidden in the blind. I decided I had nothing to lose by starting my decoying season. I had set the stake a number of days ago. So I put on a pair of rubber gloves and placed the decoy on its stake. This is one of the bobble head units. At first the wind made it look like he was constantly shaking his head. But as the wind started to lay down, it's occasional head movement really added to the decoys appeal.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5498/29628406044_d128f77874.jpg)
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5744/30259041885_193e28ac42.jpg)
The decoy is set up exactly 20 yards from the blind. I like this spot for decoying for it's visibility. Any buck above the field or entering the field will see it.  It would be better if it was backed up to something behind it to prevent a deer from approaching from that direction, but in an open field that is impossible. So I work with what I got.

The idea is to have a buck circle the decoy and end up ten yards or so in front of me.

At 6 pm suddenly a deer appeared form my left. One of the things I don't like about blinds are the blind spots. Also since this blind is plywood and rain proofed card board it's like an echo chamber. Any noise I make is multiplied 10 fold. So I normally sit in my shooting position and don't turn to look out the side peek holes very often. Anyway this little buck fawn followed the script perfectly and ended up in front of me art a scant seven yards.  Suddenly I had two decoys in the clover field PERFECT!  A few minutes later a big doe approached from the north. But she was on the back side of the decoy and  was very cautious. She was unsure of what she should do. The little buck trotted over to her right by the decoy as if to reassure her it was ok. Another deer was off to my left making noise in the woods along the creek.  Twice the doe stared to circle the decoy , but each time changed her mind and reversed course. I ended the day with all three deer near me. Now of course exiting was going to be an issue. So when I felt it dark enough I gave a few loud bucks grunts followed by a wheeze snort. The does ran out of the plot and up into the woods. I headed for home.  You are going to see a lot more decoying from me this year. It is so much fun.

This morning a warm front brought gusty winds and lots of rain , I stayed buried in the sleeping bag in the yurt and will hunt again this afternoon.

"...It would be better if it was backed up to something behind it to prevent a deer from approaching from that direction, but in an open field that is impossible..."

Christmas trees. Use Christmas trees.  They work great.  Easy to configure and move AND I have even used them without a decoy.  The trees recent appearance in a field seems to work on deers' curiosity and they come over to investigate in a relaxed manner.  It must be a contradiction for them or something...something natural yet not so let's go check it out.

Great stories my friend.  Really enjoying it as usual.

Great idea Dave! Thanks!

hunt #36.

after not hunting yesterday in the am I was anxious to get out!

we had gusty southern winds and a temp of 72 at 3 pm. I headed up the county gravel road to the little rape field adjacent to my northern neighbor's prairie.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8545/29281593830_894c7b0bef.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7779/29537651336_350b4ea0ec.jpg)

As I climbed up the tree stick I noticed a fresh rub almost directly under the stand. Then while sitting there I picked out several more all within 40 yards of the tree stand!

I had not been here since opening weekend. The neighbor was in Canada duck hunting so I knew I would have an undisturbed evening on stand.

The wind started to lie down about an hour before last light. I was really thinking tonight would be a good night to kill a deer . But not a single deer showed up!  Didn't even bump one on the walk back.

This am I climbed on to stand knowing full well rain was in the forecast. After 15 minutes on stand I could hear it in the trees.  I hung it up after  15 minutes more of constant and steady rain fall. It is still raining as I type, hoping it will lift at 3 pm as forecast!

Keep after it Jim.  Good luck.

hunts 37 and 38

The rain stopped and the skies lightened up a little. Just enough for me to think it won't rain any more today! It was 49 F at 3 pm. 24 hours earlier it was 72 F!

I took my time as I headed up the logging road , hoping to catch another unaware doe on the road. But I made it to Saturday's scene of the crime with out seeing any deer. I thought with two full days of rain, my scent up here would be gone. I climbed in to the same stand as before as well. When I entered the plot , I grabbed the chip card out of the trail camera.  It was encouraging to see that deer had been in the plot both of the last two evenings and in it with daylight left to burn.

I sat with anticipation hoping to redeem myself. But the evening passed with nothing in sight. A few turkeys roosted near by, but that was it for critter action.

This morning, was another frost covered day. 31 F at 6 30 am . I went to a spot that I have not hunted this year. One of my friend's sat the stand 2 weeks ago and said he don't like the way it was set up.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5666/30270483386_ea743aa5dc.jpg)
The stand is set up on the very same contour trail as the other two stands further north and east that I have sat on earlier in this report.

The deer travel the trail and also come up from the corn fields below belonging to the neighbor. Lot's or real estate to keep an eye on! After sitting in the stand I agreed the stand needed to be rotated about 90 degrees to face due south.

At 7 30 I spotted movement below me at about 50 yards. A forky was headed up from the fields and coming into bed somewhere. I watch him thru the bino's ,a nice little buck.  He was the only deer I saw in the two hours I sat on stand.

Climbing down I loosened the stand and rotated it around the tree. That is the nice thing about these xstand ladders. You can loosen or tighten the jaws around the tree from the ground.  Stand should be ready to rock the next time out.

hunts #39 & #40

One of the problems I am sure I share with you all is how to dress for this time of year. We keep going from hot to cold to hot again.

Walking up the hill above the food plot behind the house yesterday, I was certain I was over dressed. But on stand, darn glad for the extra layers!

It had been about 10 days since I last sat this spot. (https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8258/29934575376_d9b2c547aa.jpg)
I carried my rattle antlers and over the course of two hours did some very light sparring.

Nothing answered my calls, nor did any deer come near my hide. I did watch a doe and two fawns enter the plot below. They came down the opposite hill side. Later two small bucks arrived . One constantly tried to get the other buck to spar with him. The other seemed more interested in eating.

Friends numbering three arrived ( different group from the last three) once again the talking went later than it should have. They were still snoring away when I entered the yurt at 5 am .

After sending them in different directions, I took up the watch on a stand midway up the logging road behind camp. This is where I killed last December's doe. I had added a portable hang on to the spot and was just using the short ladder to access the platform.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5454/30207117222_f2f7df930b.jpg)
The wind due to the bluff nearly always pushes your scent down hill. The deer come up out of the plot I hunted last night. Then walk down the road and pivot in front of the stand onto a deer trail that takes them up in the cover of the hill.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8664/30026285510_5cfe11ba37.jpg)
For only being in the tree two hours before heading in to work, I was well rewarded!  It is a shame I zoned out and forgot the cell phone on the dresser table top. I missed making some great videos.

At 7 30 I spotted deer legs coming down the logging road. A heavily bodied forked buck came down the road, hit the licking branch and then made a scrape on the road. When he hit the pivot point , he turned up onto the deer trail and went slowly by me at 15 yards. At 8:05 another set of legs comes into sight. This time a small 8 point follows the first bucks lead. But at the pivot point, he found a mushroom he liked. Then he found three more up in my direction. He then walked up and stood 6 feet below me happily munching mushrooms for 15 minutes or more. I was waiting for him to fall over dead, as the morsels looked pretty toxic to me!

After he walked off. I decided to make a slight adjustment on this stand. The stand was squeaking and I had another one down in the shed I knew was quieter.  Over lunch time one of my buds and I moved the ladder one tree closer to the deer trail. We rehung the alternate stand here. Now my shot to the deer trail is just ten yards and only 15 yards to the log road. Here is the after photo of the change.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8279/30288202906_d13c6a2e50.jpg)
One of these days it's going to be a big buck that makes the mistake of coming that close to me.

Nice Jim. I love when deer do what you expect them to do, that alone makes the hunt worthwhile.


David

Keep at it Jim, I'm tagged out so I'm hunting through you!

Still loving every submission Jim. I hope your friends have a great visit.

hunt #41

Yesterday afternoon we had very high winds out of the south. It was really hard to send everyone off to spots that were both safe and hopefully would produce a seer sighting at the very least.

I went up to the ladder where the doe picked me out of the tree several days ago. the temps seemed to be rising all day with the warm south wind.

Out of the four of us, I was the only one skunked.

There were 11 deer in the food plot behind the house at dark. I howled like a wolf to push them out of the field so my one hunter could come down out of his ladder. I met him at the bottom of the hill. When I asked him if any of the deer came close to him, he said they all came down the opposite side of the valley. When he pointed outwhere they exited the woods, it was clear they went right by the stand I sat in the very night before.   :knothead:  

This morning it was 62 degrees at 5am with 25 mph winds. That is 31 degrees higher than dawn the prior morning! None of us felt like risking our necks to sit in tree stands and we all went back to bed. It is 67 F right now and the forecast for the next two days calls for temps in the high 70's! Not what I call ideal deer hunting weather.

I really dislike this warm weather as well.  But the cooler forecast coming mid week should be the front that really kicks things off.   We're getting SO close to some great days!

hunts 42,43 & 44

Saturday evening I headed to the ladder on the contour above the yurt. The wind was warm and gusty out of the South.
   (https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8549/29752712644_7cb0160847.jpg)
In the afternoon deer usually come off the bluff and head down into the corn fields.  I usually hunt here in the am.  Since deer can be bedded anywhere, I stalked the entire way to my stand. I was happy making it to the ladder without seeing any white flags bounding away. I hooked my harness to the safety climbing rope and went up the ladder. Once on top I made some noise taking my pack off. It scraped against the ladder and then the tree when I hung it on it's hook. As I turned around to hoist the bow, there stood an 8 point buck not 40 yards away looking at me!     :confused:  
There is a little fold in the hill side 30 yards in front of the stand.    That was one of the reasons I chose the site to set the stand. Anyway he must have been bedded right in it and thus below my sight line when I got the ladder. He quickly headed out.

Towards evening as the wind began to lay down it started to swirl. I knew I should have called it a day but stupidly stayed on stand. First one deer blew and then a few minutes later another and yet another. I never saw any of them due to the cover, but they were all within 50 yards. I quietly headed home.

Sunday morning found me down at the small waterhole well before first light.
  (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5343/29751783473_2875de3085.jpg)
it was still very warm and my  guest Dave and I had marched up the bluff together in our underwear carrying all of our outer wear on our packs. I hoped the hot temps would bring some thirsty customers in.

I saw one deer in 5 hours on stand . At 10 am a button buck came in to drink. Back at the yurt at noon I heard stories of bucks sparring and one of a missed  big 9 point. Good to hear someone was seeing bucks!.

Finally after company had hit the road and I did some cleaning, I headed to the beet field behind the house . It was 71 F.
  (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5644/29751798433_ed1982e24b.jpg)
Despite being warm, the wind was perfect and I really felt it could happen. But the warm weather kept the deer in the their beds. I saw one lonely doe come down the opposite hill side and she didn't hit the plot till 5 minutes before dark!

This morning as I type , it is still 71 F . I decided today would be a rest and clean gear day, the high is supposed to be near 80! too hot to hunt for me!

We are getting the hot weather this week Jim. mid 60s right now and supposed to be near 80 the next couple of days. I won't be hunting those days, maybe later in the week.
Hope it cools for you soon!

David

Supposed to be 85 today - possible records broke - good grief where is Fall.

The good news Jim is you have that beautiful Meat locker if you have good fortune.

drink lots of water lol

hunts #45 and 46.

Yesterday the pm temps were still near 70F. But I was anxious to get out and sit a food plot. I headed up to one of my personal favorites. This stand has been hunted only once by a friend this year. It would be my first time in it and certainly not the last.

(https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5444/30136488420_993d5d4075.jpg)

These upper plots got hunted hard last week by my company. Not much success was had. In fact very few deer were even seen. I was really scratching my head as to why a previously fantastic hunting spot had so few deer in it this season. plots lush with food and  void of deer!

I am not scratching my head any longer. It was the witching hour. I had two deer on the logging road below me . They were feeding on the clover in the road as they worked their way up. Suddenly they turned tail, flagged and ran back down the hill. I then heard an animal running my way thru the timber. I expected to see coyotes . Instead it was the dog I ran into three weeks ago. He was wearing his shock color for the invisible fence the neighbor installed. Little good that does if no one does the training to go with it .

I am very ery depressed over this situation. It's clear this problem isn't going to be solved easily . I am sure it's going to end badly for the dog. I texted the owner from the tree stand and called and left a voice message today. So far no reply............

This am I sat on the stand we revised last weekend on the log road above the yurt.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5618/30237227681_9cc828b431.jpg)
Today both deer I saw from the stand were above me on the ridge. the first one winded me and the other saw me try to get to a standing position. Other than that it was a darn quiet morning.

I've never had the chance to do it, but my neighbour says it's "shoot, shovel and shut up" in those situations. There is no place in the woods for a dog running unattended.
I have a dog and do not let that happen, owners must be responsible.
I once called the Conservation Officer responsible for the area on one of our lots about a big Greman Shepard running deer. I was told that's who should look into the thing. He said "shoot the dog, I'll never find it." It's a very sad situation, but does call for desperate measures.
Good luck on resolving the issue.

Sorry to hear of the continued issues with the neighbor's dogs Jim.

I hope resolution will be found as peacefully as possible for all parties.

hunts 47 and 48

A steady westerly wind and mid 60 temps helped me decide that I would head back up to the food plot where I hit the doe.
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5836/29675676700_a161764a97.jpg)
After turning off the logging road onto the 4 wheeler trail, the hog back was littered with fresh scrapes.

The community scrape in the plot under the big oak had been widened. These two gave me 89 photos mid day goofing around it.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8675/30154737280_38ef024ee9.jpg)
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5589/30366003011_4abacb3fce.jpg)

So I was really encouraged until I scrolled thru the photos and dogs started to appear. Multiple dogs!

I decided to hunt and deal with it later.
this year I purchased a DSD deer decoy. I know, they are outrageously expensive. but spread the cost out over 10 years and I dont' feel so bad! At least that's what I keep telling my self.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5722/30154761130_82ac85490a.jpg)

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5677/30415924926_9757d85f03.jpg)

the realism is really great. however , you won't be carrying it around at a minutes notice. It's very heavy

I set the decoy facing me. 20 yards from my stand. Wind is in my face. Scrape is over the buck's left shoulder. I also freshened up all the licking branches on all 4 sides of the plot.

But other than one little buck I spotted through the trees with the bino's north of me. I got skunked. The beauty of the evening and the spot helped lift the depressing dog situation.

:dunno:

Man the decoy looks great!!

I am a firm believer in using decoys. You just can't put a price on that kind of fun    :thumbsup:

This morning was the start of a 4 day early gun season we have here. Who in their infinite wisdom has a gun season now? Total Bs in my mind.

Anyway, I headed up to the top of Rattlesnake ridge extra early hoping that the neighbor's may push a deer to me.

it's changed a lot since I was last up here. Visibility has vastly improved and the colors still nice.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8642/30365993301_12dd41d85c.jpg)
the bluff top is 40 yards wide max. The wind was out of the north and felt cold! I listened to the guns ring out for about 3 hours. Zero deer were spotted, so I decided to call it a day. I will not be hunting much over the 4 day gun season. No point in driving deer off my farm in the arms of some one dressed in orange.

Don't blame you for taking a break.......   :thumbsup:   With a weather change things will pick up.

Just think how sleeping in will feel.... Personally, I would wake up and wonder what it was like in the woods and try like heck to sleep a little longer. lol

hunt 49

heading home after a dinner with the Mrs. I noticed the neighbors all in their orange gear. Guns in one hand and beers in the other ( I am not kidding )

I thought that perhaps after a night of drinking and since bucks were not legal targets for them today they might sleep late, that I would venture forth.

It was very cold today with a hard freeze. I headed just across the county road to the hill side called the 23. ( stands for 23 acres).

Shortly after dawn I watched a nice doe on the contour trail below me. From the way she walked I would have thought it was Mid November.

20 minutes later along came this 3 year old.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30437159896/in/dateposted-public/  
I had no intentions of shooting him, but I wanted a better look. He was 40 yards or so down hill from me and headed away after that doe. I grunted at him twice loud. He stopped and changed directions. As he angled up the hill behind me, he would stop every few steps and scan the hill side. When he was directly behind me he gave out two loud grunts!  Then he circled above me and got on the old logging road. There is a big scrape up there, which he went to and reworked both the ground and the licking branch. When he was finished with the scrape , he turned back to his original direction and headed over to the property next door.

A few minutes later I was looking at the video trying see how clear it was, when I heard foot steps behind me , close. Shoot a doe had snuck in and had come from the direction the buck had just gone. I was caught flat footed. I tried turning to get the bow and got busted immediately.

Shame on me for not being focused on hunting!.

I am done hunting now until late Sunday if not Monday am. I expect there will be lots of gun hunters out this weekend with the nice forecast.

I sure feel for you on the dog situation.  I had that problem on a piece of mine 20 years ago and it was very frustrating.  The dogs are just doing what dogs will do when left to their own devices.  The owner is ultimately responsible.  Sounds like they are at least trying by installing the electric fence,  but for some dogs,  especially those that already know the allure of roaming,  that isn't likely going to do it.  

I'll be very curious think we how that decoy works out for you.  I wonder if those antlers will intimidate lesser bucks?  He looks darn close to a shooter!

hunts 50 and 51.

After not being in the woods for a few days, I felt like throwing a dart at a picture of the farm and hunting where ever the dart landed.

But I ended up choosing a ladder on the edge of the timber up above the hay bale blind. I have only sat this stand once all year. But the last time one of my guests hunted it, he got to watch two nice bucks sparring in the moonlight just below it.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5771/30249741200_ff9b2696f3.jpg)
It was cool but not cold with a light breeze out of the NW. Just after dawn I spotted two does across the valley . They were walking along the fire break on the edge of the tall grass prairie.

My neighbor was on his 4 wheeler early, checking his coyote traps. The good news is that he has been able to take 6 coyotes off of his property in the last 7 days. I had hoped as he drove down the county road that he might push a deer up my way from the creek or my food plots. No such luck. I ended the morning hunt early since it was obvious there were no deer moving my way.

This afternoon I headed up early to the retention pond on the top of the ridge.
  (https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8645/30249993880_7a95fb5b61.jpg)
I enlarged this photo quite a bit.  The hill up from the pond is very steep. Just after sunset deer started being sky lined up above me. Five deer in total walked along the edge of the food plot. 3 bucks and 2 does. One of the bucks was a nice 8 or 10 point buck. He started down toward the pond. I had grunted at him a number of times. Not sure if he was coming to the call or just coming down to drink.

But 1/2 way down he started to snort. I didn't think he would wind me. But looking at this diagram , I can see now how he did.

Once the buck went back up the hill I saw no more deer on top either.
But it was a really nice night and it was great to see deer on the side of the farm that the dogs were running on. It has been almost a week and I am hoping the no dog trend continues.

Was unable to hunt yesterday. professional life got in the way and today it rained all day. I knew a camera needed batteries bad, so I just snuck up and remedied that.

The bucks are starting to expand their ranges. Here is a buck I have not seen before. Anxious to get out over a decoy in the am .

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30499592571/in/dateposted-public/

He looks interesting........   :thumbsup:

I like the look of him!  
The rain hit us last night and most of today.  But I was able to get out this afternoon as it let up to drizzle and the deer were definitely moving.

Tomorrow morning should be prime!  I'm thinking this is going to be the start of a fun few weeks!

Great stuff Jim! Finally getting caught up on your season. Looks like some good stuff starting to happen. I'll be checking in regularity and anxiously awaiting a hero shot of you and a big ol Minnesota whiskey pig!

Nate

Good Stuff Jim.... I will be landing in WI in one week from today.  I will be at the farm, so Hopefully you have good rutting action soon, because that will mean I am in for a treat lol.

Nice looking buckaroo you have there on camera.

Neat vid- thanks for sharing
Tim

hunt 52

Whip was right on the money! it was a great morning in the woods.

I went back up to the little hidden plot where I have the decoy stashed.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5708/30565651446_67187ccb51.jpg)
there was almost no wind what so ever. But the forecast called for it to be out of the NE.

I sat in the stand where I hit the doe two weeks back. The decoy was sitting 20 yards from me on the Eastern side of the opening.  5 yards off of a scrape. The scrape the buck in the video was working is on the western side of the opening.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8599/30565309606_11b2f73503.jpg)

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5723/30301893810_a4e59fea78.jpg)

I was into my 2nd rattling sequence of the day. It was just a few seconds past 8 am. The sound of my antlers was reaching down into all three valleys. I was looking East when I should have been looking West. A good buck came sprinting in only to veer back into the woods when he caught my movement in the tree, Shoot I was still banging the horns together when he came running in.    :banghead:    

I quickly hung the horns up and grabbed the bow. It was clear he was not going to stick around. I gave him two deep grunts. He stopped in his tracks and stood there looking at the decoy.  He then turned and stepped into the food plot. He was 30 yards from. But from his body language I could tell he was not fooled. He spun on his heel and trotted off.  Snorting an alarm as he went.

30 minutes later, as I was just about to rattle again, a snort alarm from directly behind me went off. I turned and looked down hill only to see the rear end of another buck saying bye bye.

Not too bad , two bucks in 30 minutes. Then at 9 30 A handsome forked buck who has been on my trail camera a lot up here walked in right under me. I tried to get video of him, but it turned out too blurry to post. At 10 am it was time to go.

looking forward to tonight's hunt! The real fun is about to begin.

Things are heating up Jim.... Looking forward to more.

hunts 53 and 54.

Charlie, your timing to be in Wisc is right on the $$ I think.

Yesterday after noon I stalked up into the upper end of Apple valley and hunted over the clover there.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5585/29988823454_8043bbde1d.jpg)
The 2 inches of rain we had the other night has kept the clover lush. While standing at the base of the ladder getting ready a buck fawn walked into the clover and began feeding. I stood stock still hoping to see momma but he was alone. I finished dressing as I went up the ladder the little guy ran off.

I rattled every half hour or so, with zero results. Late in the day another buck fawn wandered in and fed through the plot. It is always interesting to me the difference in coat colors at this time of year. The first fawn was gun metal grey and the second red as he still had his late summer colors on.

Friends arrived late last night and three of us went up the trail in the dark in long john and packs on our backs. What a photo essay that would make!

I chose to hunt the contour trail above the yurt.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5827/30584962606_96d134f8a0.jpg)
The forecast called for a SSE wind, But here it was coming straight out of the North! I rattled as soon as it was light enough to shoot. Then again one half hour later. Almost instantly I heard a deer coming down hill fast. A spike buck ! He stopped almost right behind me. Funny how an animal can pinpoint where a sound is coming from! He disappeared down hill.

I was really worried about the stand's noise. I need to go back in here with a socket set, as there are a couple of loose bolts on the stand.

At 9 am I rattled and gave it all it was worth. I wanted it to sound like a serious fight. When I broke off I followed with a series a loud short deep grunts. Almost at once I picked up a deer's legs coming my way on the contour trail that passes by the stand on the upper side. I picked the bow up, but then saw it was buck I would not shoot. He walked by me at 15 and never knew I was there. Several nice shot opportunities were given. Here he is. He is the blue arrow in the same direction as the wind.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30584409606/in/dateposted-public/

Very cool I literally sat watching that video picking every spot I would have tried a shot, good for you passing him I don't think I could hahaha

Nice Jim!

David

Jim,

Thanks for sharing yours hunts with us!!!

Ya enjoying this thread!!
Tim

:thumbsup:

:campfire:

Nice video!  A couple more years and that boy just might find himself on the hit list.

Whew where did the last 36 hours go? Sorry for the lateness of this update. Having three hunters here is keeping me busy.

Hunts 55 , 56 and 57.

So yesterday morning one of my guests had a huge 11 point at 15 yards and couldn't get a shot. The buck was running on the ridge where I have my good decoy stashed.

I was on the trail up to the spot early in the afternoon. It was hot and very windy. But the bucks were moving so I was really pumped. About 200 yards below the hidden food plot another old logging road intersects with the one I hike in on. I spotted antlers just over the crest and coming up that road. I was in my skivvies and got down on my knees. I put an arrow on the string as the big 8 point was just about to step into my scent stream. I am pretty sure this was the buck I called in the day before. But I realized I hadn't turned my hat and the brim was going to stop me from being able to shoot. But it ended not mattering as the buck knew something was afoot, he spun and ran back down the bluff.  Exciting afternoon and I have not even made it to my stand yet!

One of the guys visiting is a machinist and he made a pair of sheds I picked in 2009 fit my new decoy. He is a stud now. I am hoping his equal or better will want to pick a fight soon.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5789/30563851271_7e4d247a9f.jpg)

The wind was really blowing and I knew nothing could hear my rattling. I was just hoping a good buck would show up in the plot to freshen the scrapes. But the day ended with no deer sightings at all.

This morning I headed to the ladder on the contour trail below the steep bluff.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5557/30563953601_f007c18fb8.jpg)

I had originally planned on just sitting quiet this am. I really could use putting a doe in the freezer before I fully commit my self to hunting bucks for the next few weeks. But it was so quiet. So the opposite of the prior night . I just could not sit there and not Rattle.

5 minutes after the first calling sequence I spotted a buck 80yards below me . It was like he read the script. Up the logging road he came. When he hit the contour trail he turned onto the trail and walked right by me. He is the blue arrows.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5336/30010224973_c8c6fe479d.jpg)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30555823651/in/dateposted-public/

30 minutes later I rattled again. 5 Minutes later I spotted another buck in the same place the first had first appeared.

But he turned west on the parallel contour below. I grunted at him and he did a 180. Walked 80 yards that way . I grunted at him, he did another 180. He then started up the logging road to me. This buck was a little bigger.
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5754/30526866412_bfbf70b004.jpg)

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30012054324/in/dateposted-public/  

When he got to where the contour trail I am on crosses the logging road , he turned on to the trail but in opposite direction from me. At this point I decided on letting him just continue on.

A half hour later I rattled again, but this time nothing responded. I ended the morning as it got hot and headed in to see how the others had done.

Tonight's hunt was one of the most fun filled hunts in years.  It was a prime example of the power of a decoy.

I headed to a food plot on the south end of the farm. But when I climbed up into the tree and tested the wind ,it was obvious it would not work to sit there. So I backtracked to another stand with a decoy stashed beneath it.

(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5663/30616006586_c40ed5596b.jpg)
It was hot when I walked up , but the wind was out of the north. As the day wore on, the wind increased, clouds moved in and the temp dropped like a rock. I had no choice but to rattle just to stay warm.

I have a hokey old decoy up here. It looks more like a donkey with big plastic antlers I took off of a target.

The very first time I rattled at 4 30 a forked buck ran in. He was immediately intimidated and ran back down into the woods below me. I grunted at him and he turned around and walked back up to the edge of the woods. He then turned and ran off.  10 minutes later I hear him sneaking back up the hill. He ended up right under me.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5547/30020255624_be961557c3.jpg)
I have never had a deer do this. But over the course of the next hour, He left and came back a total of 7 Times! Twice he was gone for over 15 minutes and then would show up in a different part of the field and then come by the decoy. Each time he went by me at about 8 yards. These videos are during just one on the times he came back.  He was running him self ragged.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30020238124/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30351641090/in/dateposted-public/

Finally he disappeared for good. Just at dark I heard deer coming up the hill two does and another small buck came into the food plot. The first doe ran at the sight of the decoy. The 2nd fed for a while and disappeared over the hill. The buck just walked off in the opposite direction. Either he didn't see the decoy or was afraid of it. What a great evening!  Hope a big one falls for the tom foolery soon.

Jim,
Have you tried the fishing line tied to the tail trick yet? I'm just wondering if this little buck was testing the decoy to get it to make a move?
With the wind you had did the head bobble some?
Glad you are getting some action in the field and I am certain it will get better for you in a few more days as the Rut approach's!
Thank you for sharing your time in the field with us.

Good stuff Jim, Bucks are starting to Dog Does here pretty good.  deer are showing up all over the sides of the highway which is usually a good sign things are heating up.

Good luck

hey Keefer, haven't tried the string trick. This decoy's tail moves freely in the wind. I think the little buck just did not know what to do.

hunts 58,59 and 60.

So Sun am I hiked to the top of Rattlesnake ridge.
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8306/29537809116_9b3d0b47ca.jpg)
We had a wind straight out of the N at about 7 mph. That doesn't seem windy but up on top of the bluff it was almost too much.

It was barely light enough to make out shapes at 50 yards when I heard deer running up from the other side of the bluff. I made out three shapes. A big doe and twin fawns. Then a 4th deer appeared, a small buck . He chased after the doe and all four deer ran down my side of the bluff. Then buck #2 followed a few minutes later followed by buck # 3. Both of these bucks were larger but still only 2 year olds . None of the deer gave me a shot.

An hour later 2 more 2 year olds crossed the bluff on basically the same trail as all of the previous deer. Where they all after that one doe?

I rattled a few times over the next two hours. Nothing answered my calls. But I did spot another buck chasing a doe north of me along the property line. It could have been one of the same bucks.

Finally at 11 am I spotted a BIG buck headed my way. Instantly a shot of adrenalin hit my heart!  The big heavy 12 point was headed right for me. I had the bow in hand. But as he neared my hide, he broke to his left to head down the hill behind my tree .   :knothead:   This eliminated all chances for a shot. I grunted at him, hoping to turn him back up hill. He stopped and stood below me on a little shelf on steep bluff side. But he had some where he wanted to be and took off down the hill.

I waited for another 1/2 half before calling it a morning. Before heading back I checked out that little shelf on the bluff side to move my stand to. All of the bucks had ended up on that shelf. Next year that is where this tree stand will sit. I wont hunt this stand again. As the gun season starts here next Saturday and the neighbor has a tree stand right on the fence line.

Gettin good.....your day is comming....
Tim

After my friends all departed I packed my bag and headed back up to decoy. I placed the decoy just off of the scrapes on the East side of plot. We still had the same N wind.

I was really encouraged when at 4 pm another forky answered my calling and gave me the perfect shot sequences.

At first he was afraid to walk out in to the plot and he came and stood right under me.
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5668/30654908066_fce76e96f4.jpg)
he stood under me looking at the decoy. Finally he put his nose to the ground and jumps a foot high when he smelled where I had stood 1/2 hour before.

But the holding power of the decoy was too much and he slowly walked back and out into the field.  For some reason my video on my phone wouldn't work so I took these still photos

at this point I had all ready passed one shot opportunity.
 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5713/30691619055_e02c5ef498.jpg)
Here he had walked past, turned around and walked back.
 (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5448/30603495521_f102a17cb1.jpg)
at most he is 10 yards from me.
 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5664/30691604175_89bde27a26.jpg)

now if I can just get a big one to do this!! The day wore on and no other deer were even spotted. But this was just another classic example as to what a decoy can do. It was also interesting that he wasn't freaked out by the size of the antler on the decoy.

This morning we had sort of a gusty wind, I headed just across the road hoping to catch a buck cruising the contours. At 8 am I spot a 2.5 year  8 point on the contour above me about 50 yards. He dropped down on to the logging road above. When I grunted at him,he stopped for just a few seconds and then headed off his nose to the ground. That was the only deer I saw.

I can tell its starting to heat up there.  I hope I get to experience some of this this year.  Sad to say, but i've never seen many bucks chasing does.

I bet its puts a fire inside to see a buck chase a doe all around!  

I feel that something good is a bout to happen for you!

Stay after them Jim!!

hunts 61 and 62

Incredibly windy yesterday afternoon. at 1pm 4 bucks chased a doe across my driveway. With the wind I had no idea where to go. So I headed to the nearest contour trail and hoped it would die down near dark. Several times I was tempted to get down just from a safety aspect. But I hung in there till dark, but saw no deer.

This morning it was the exact opposite. No wind what ever and heavy ground fog. I decided to try the popup blind I put up 2 weeks ago. The day after I put this up, I did move it 15 yards. It was just too close to the trail originally.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5533/30414164960_a60ae0b961.jpg)
what I consider the lowest contour trail passes above the popup about 45 yards up hill.

Last Saturday when I sat where I did last night, the two bucks I rattled in had been on this trail.

 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5325/30082519214_4a74a91a19.jpg)
The Montana whitetail decoy looks good in the fog.
 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5823/30080214453_63b0b52abb.jpg)
my shooting lane view.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5504/30082576654_7bc89ceb09.jpg)

I like part of this set up. Any deer traveling the woods edge contour crosses the mowed trail above me. Hopefully my calling and then the decoy will pull a good buck down the mowed trail and past the hidden popup 12 yards off of the mowed trail.

 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5341/30080254063_878cf6f4ec.jpg)

I may have left the blind too early today. There was no deer movement that I could see, sense is more like it. Visibility is so diminished in the blind!  At 9 am I thought I heard a distant grunt up some where behind me. I grunted back and heard nothing. So I rattled one last time and waited 1/2 hour. It is supposed to get to 70 F today and it was all ready in the high 50's. At 9 30, I stepped from the blind and as I was taking the decoy down I heard a buck give a single buck roar some where above me . I would say it was within a 100 yards. I had no ideas other than to sneak out and not spook it. When I got back to house my Jayne told me that at 8 30, a really big buck crossed the driveway 50 yards from the house and had been headed in the direction of the bluff behind me.

:campfire:

Jim I am waiting to see that decoy get a spanking by a dandy soon!    :)       :campfire:

Good luck Jim, I fly out in the morning and wont be checking in as frequently.

Safe Journeys Charlie!

hunts 63 and 64.

Sometimes hunts that start out crappy end amazingly!

Yesterday afternoon we had temps just shy of 70 F and westerly winds of 15 mpr gusting to 25!

So I decided water might be the key to a successful sit. But I knew hiking up that a westerly wind would not work at either water hole!

So I headed to the little twisted timber stand that I tried to hunt last week.
 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5483/30737721415_b37f2a9e80.jpg)
what made this a crappy start was the hot tempts, the wind, I forgot my rattle antlers, forgot my smart phone, forgot a decent hat     :knothead:    UUFFTA!

So the first deer appeared in the food plot early. I am slightly downhill from the plot and therefore early in the afternoon if I look to the West I am starring into the setting sun.! I turned my base ball cap around so the visor wouldn't interfere with the bow string. As soon as I did that I couldn't see the deer due to the sun!! To make matters worse , the wind swirled and instantly the doe was gone!   :mad:  

I almost hit the road for home! But, as the sun started to set , the wind became more constant and it started to cool off. my attitude  was completely renewed.

I looked again to the west and with sun gone I could see three deer  moving my way with the wind at their backs.

1st was  a doe , followed closely by a six point. They rounded the corner and went right past the front of the stand headed to the other end of the food plot. The 3rd deer was an 8 point. Medium sized. He stopped at the corner and nosed the ground where I had put my pack down and got dressed to hunt. Then he walked towards me and stopped at 10 yards watching in the direction the other 2 deer had gone. After a few minutes he turned to my right and headed onto the mowed trail. There are a series of scrapes along this trail. He went to the first one and freshened it both with urine and with scraping it with his hooves. He worked the over hanging branches . All within 25 yards of me! Then he walked off in the direction of the other scrapes.

About 10 minutes later when he was far enough away not to hear me. I gave two short deep and not overly loud grunts.

Almost instantly I hear a deer coming from the other end of the food plot. I expected it to me the little 6 point that went by 30 minutes earlier.

But instead a tank of a buck was walking to me his entire body puffed up , ears back and dragging his feet. One whole side of his rack was gone broken off just above the base. I was thrilled to have this buck at 8 yards. His intact antler carried 4 large points and extended out well beyond his  ear.

it's a rotten shame I had no camera in my pocket. Here is a photo from the stand 4 weeks ago. I placed the star where he stood looking for the other buck!
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5562/30105546674_3f1b0e40d7.jpg)
As he stood there, I thought seriously about shooting him!

As he walked off I regretted letting him go for about 1 minute. It was so exciting to see him so amped up at that distance.

As I left the tree, I decided to break 2 branches off and open up my shooting window if I hunt here again. I made quite a bit of noise. When I had gone about 40 yards, I could see a very big deer in the clover field 100 yards to the north. He was standing there looking my way. I got down on all fours and dug out the bino's from my pack. IT WAS SHORT BROWS!!!! the big 10 I want so badly to kill.  There were no regrets anymore on a passed shot!!


This morning I hunted again over Derek the Decoy.
     (https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5579/30736808995_aa20c56400.jpg)
It was not quite light enough to shoot when I heard grunting and leaf shuffling behind me. A spike walked by . He never came into the food plot and never saw Derek. 5 minutes later I hear more grunts from the other side of the plot. In walked the forky I decoyed here the other night. The guy has guts!! He walked by the decoy keeping his eyes on him and went right over to the big scrape. He scraped the leaves and worked the over head branches. What guts!! Then he  just walked off.

One hour later I rattled in about a 130 class 10 point. When he saw Derek, he ducked down and snuck off. He wanted no trouble from the big guy!  

I headed back to camp. Old lodge skins returned to camp last night. He spilled some blood this am.
     (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5707/30699743106_02b4e59c10.jpg)
one less fawn eater.

Awesome, keep at it!    :thumbsup:

Getting close to prime time!

Great hunts  Jim, and love that a coyote was killed,  hate those things!

David

hunts 65 and 66

If there was ever a nicer night to decoy than last night I have not seen it. Wind perfect. temps a little cooler. Bucks seemed to be moving.

I went to the stand with the hairy decoy where that little buck ran back and forth 2 nights ago.

SKUNKED!  didn't even see a deer walking home.

This am I took it easy and hunted just above the house. 5 minute walk at most.
   (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5618/30237227681_9cc828b431.jpg)
It was incredibly still and I was concerned about the downward thermal. at 8 am I rattled and instantly saw the blur of a deer running away below me in the tall prairie.

10 minutes later I hear a loud grunt/bleat below me followed by a 2nd louder one.

The 2nd sounded a little further away . I thought a buck must be walking the edge of the woods and prairie but in the direction away from me.

So I grunted back and waited. Nothing. Waited a bit longer and rattled. Nothing. Waited 30 minutes and did a few Estrus Bleats. Nothing. Waited 30 minutes and rattled. ZERO. Finally at 10 I left as I had a few business calls scheduled for 10:30.

at 11 am old lodge skins comes walking in. He says that he hated to tell me this, but he went by my stand at 10:35 and there was MR short Brows with 2 does standing on the logging road just under my stand!!!     :scared:        :confused:        :knothead:

Dang Jim! He is your nemesis...

That is what makes it great though! Enjoying the thread as always. I have 16 of the next 18 days off here in IL. I am going to decoy and film. I have my eye on a couple and like you will have a couple visitors (friends Monty and Jack) here for a week. Hope to find them one too!

Keep after it! It's prime time    :campfire:

It's just a matter of time now until MR short brows has an up close encounter with you. Make the most of it when it happens!

I'm picking up my buddy Tippit at the airport this morning and then we had to Iowa tomorrow for 9 days in the Land Of The Giants.  This is it!  I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve!

hey Mike and Whip best of luck to you all.  Whip you are going to be in big buck heaven!!

hunts 67 and 68.

So once again with temps well above the norm, I headed to the big pond. But the NNW wind was fickle and I moved another few hundred yards up hill to the corner stand where I last encountered the dogs.
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5532/30150960014_910b012b92.jpg)
The curve in the field has always helped pull deer past this stand. I killed my heaviest buck here in Nov 2012.

The wind was perfect. The evening wore on without much of anything happening. With just a few minutes of shooting light left 2 does come flying over the crest of the hill right at me and past and down the bluff. I got ready for what I hoped would be a bruiser buck on their tail. But nothing showed , or nothing that I could see anyway. Then just as dark I here foot steps below. A spike buck rounds the corner on the mowed trail and walks into the food plot. Easy shot had he been just a bit bigger.   :goldtooth:

Last night around 9 pm I stepped out of the yurt to grab a few sticks of fire wood. The yurt sits along a tall prairie I planted 6 years ago. It is very think and shoulder height tall. As soon as I closed the door I could thrashing in the tall grass followed by loud grunts and then antlers smacking.

Old lodge skins and I stood on the deck and listened as the two bucks went back and forth in the prairie for 20 minutes. We couldn't see them but the deepness of their voices and the noise they were making a mere 50 yards away made us both think they were good ones!

So today I pulled an all day sit. My feet never left the platform 20 feet up from dark to dark.
I went up and over the bluff down to the little water hole.
 (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5639/30782846735_e0a5a4c3dd.jpg)
The wind was supposedly out of the South. But down here I had it from all over through out the day. Since deer can come from any direction I didn't let it bother me.

And?    :coffee:

Having spent 5 full days sun up to sun down in a blind antelope hunting sure helps get a guy ready for all day deer hunts.

Today I was rewarded with a close 2nd to my best day ever in that I saw 7 different bucks.

During the first 90 minutes of the day I saw one 8 pt cruising up above me and I called in 2 bucks 15 minutes apart from one another. One was a great 8.  He had Dark horns and was very heavy. But he appeared from no where on the opposite side of the water hole and may have seen me moving in the tree. He left with out coming to my side of the pond. He was followed by a good 10 point who came with in 40 yards of me looking and looking for the bucks he had heard fighting.

The next 5 hours were very slow. The warm temps are really effecting the deer movement. I saw one fawn and it winded me. I saw one doe running through the woods above me.

I rattled at 4 pm. I am so deep down in this hole that the sun goes behind the bluff at 4 pm. At 4.15 I spot a rack pushing its way through the black berry tangles about 60 yards away. A really good 10 walks out starts attacking the nearest tree. After about 10 minutes he is walking towards the scrapes right in front of my stand. But at the last second he turns onto the trail that runs parallel to mine. He goes by me at 25 yards. while the distance was doable, I never cleared any shooting lanes to the distant trail! After he went by me I threw a few grunts at him . He just kept on walking. I wheeze and snort wheezed at him. He stopped and looked back. But from the wag in his tail I knew he was not interested in a fight.  Off he walked.

60 minutes later a 6 point and a forky arrived at the water hole at the same time but from different directions.  The 6 point caught me moving when I tried getting my smart phone out of my pocket. I became a rock statue for next 15 minutes while he stared holes in me. Finally he relaxed . The little guy assisted me by going over to him and tried to engage a sparring session. They both walked down and drank together. The video is after the 6 point left.
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30147086263/in/dateposted-public/  
Tomorrow the regular gun season starts here. The deer are not even breeding yet and the gun hunters will kill thousands of good bucks over the next two weeks. Makes no biological sense to me but you can't argue with the MN deer hunters assoc. Their membership refuses to even discuss asking the DNR to set the dates back. bucks should be breeding not hanging in trees in Nov.

So I will be hunting a contour trail that I think may also be an escape trail as well. Hoping to do another all dayer!

I am always curious as to what phase you are in there as opposed to us here. We are still chasing and seeking here. No breeding yet. I rattled a giant to me tonight but ran out of light...it is almost the tipping point here.

Good luck these next 2 weeks. Our guns don't go off for another 2 weeks, and it's only for 3 days. I don't feel so bad now  :)

A day you will always remember, great hunt!

Mike

1st we have a 9 day season, then 5 days off then a 7 day season followed by a 14 days muzzleloader. So basically guns straight through the middle of December. And people wonder why I am so anti gun hunters!!

My all day hunt got shortened to just 60 minutes.

Old lodge skins spilled blood!!

here are the hero photo's. he will have to get on and tell his tale.
    (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5744/30758462366_1aa02a45f2.jpg)

    (https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5635/30706618621_599edb6098.jpg)

    (https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5324/30706597421_18493ecd02.jpg)

Very nice...atta'boy
Tim

Cool......nice looking buck and the smile says it all........   :thumbsup:    :clapper:

That buck was battling a big one to break off the end of his beam! Congrats!   :thumbsup:

Cool, congrats!!

Nice I wonder what he weighs???

Well done!

165 lbs dressed.

That's a good one!    :thumbsup:      :clapper:

Finally one on the board congrats

Beautiful buck, congratulations!
-Jay

:clapper:     :clapper:

:thumbsup:    :thumbsup:    :thumbsup:

All the deer I see in your pics are incredibly healthy!  That says a lot about your efforts!  Good job!

Really good looking buck! CONGRATS!

Wow! Congrats to you what a buck! Once again thanks for taking us along with you! Every year I check in twice a day to follow this thread! Thanks again and great buck!

Congrats "Lodge Skins"! Nice buck, and I would love to here the story,.
Your turn now Jim!

David

hunts 69 , 70  & 71

70 degrees F on November 4th for a high!   :banghead:  

I needed to find a shady place yesterday afternoon. So I headed just behind the house and sat in the ladder on the East facing bluff. Needless to say deer movement was nill. Just before dark I noticed a big deer down in the food plot. I got the bino's on him and was impressed with what I saw. A big white rack with 10 even points!. I had  been watching the trails behind me and above me and I don't know where he came from. He exited the opposite side of the plot and headed up the other bluff. Soon he saw something he liked and off he went in a rush.

This morning I hunted again over Derek the decoy. Derek  was sporting a new set of Tarsal Glands!

Despite lots of gunfire, deer movement was pathetic. One spike buck for 6 hours on stand.

After Old lodge skins hit the trail for home I headed back up the bluff. It was 68 F at 3 pm.  We had a south wind and I wanted to try a spot I have not hunted for weeks on end.
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5572/30828150875_6333de414b.jpg)
The deer come out of the property next door and walk down my mowed trails to my food plots. There is also a trail that comes up the ridge and intersects the mowed trail right on the other side of three big cedar trees next to my spot. The cedars provide great cover but I can see any deer approaching on either trail.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5727/30791613336_5814d1fd5a.jpg)
When I was walking to the stand I spotted a big buck ( the red heart) in the food plot across on the east side of the ridge. He was walking to the south. I rushed to a spot where I could get low (star) and get the bino's on him . It was the one antlered giant from last Thursday in the very same plot! He glanced over his shoulder and spotted me . I am sure. I was somewhat in compliance with the orange clothing rules. I had on an orange hat/ I am sure he picked up on that with the sun hitting me. Anyway he turned around and starred in my direction for a long time. Then he resumed his original course and crossed onto the neighbors. Thankfully there was no gun blasts from that direction all the rest of the day.

After getting on stand I had just one single lonely fawn come up the trail that goes along the side of the cedars. It hung around browsing for a good 30 minutes until an errant breeze sent a stink it's way. Off it went.

Very warm temps are just killing day time rut movement. But it is also reducing the shot gun hunters kills greatly. The gun fire is greatly less then normal.

hunts 72 & 73

I started my day in a place called sure thing.
   (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5683/30733685422_66b275293b.jpg)
The wind was out of the south but it was cold enough for frost on lowest part of the bluff side and along the road I walked to the stand upon.

Today the sure thing lived up to it's name. Over a 2 hour period 7 does and one small buck came up from my food plots to bed on the bluff behind and above the stand. Most of the deer passed 25 yards below in the numerous apple trees on the hill side. One doe searched me out as I had been doing some Estrus bleating on and off. She didn't like it and was really searching hard. Finally she reversed directions and just disappeared.

When I got into the house at 9 am to work my wife told me that she had heard a rather loud buck fight just above the yurt at 7 am while she was having coffee out on the deck!

So at 2:30 I hurried down to the yurt to change clothes and get out hunting. As I got to the yurt I thought I heard deer vocalizations up above in the tall prairie. I got changed and quickly threw a pack together.  Stepping out side I confirmed there was definitely something going straight above the yurt. I had planned on hunting the lower contour trail and headed that way.

As I got to the house and stopped to tell Jayne where I would be, we both spotted 6 deer running along the fire break on the top of the field above the house.

I was trying to get to stand # 32.
  (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5667/30734093912_9145b47a05.jpg)
The stars are the satellite bucks. The crown a giant 8 point trying to keep the satellites away from the doe ( heart).

The largest 8 point I have ever seen was charging the little bucks and I ( circle) was crawling on all fours along the ditch of the old field road. The  prairie along the road is about 4 feet tall so none of the deer noticed me.

When I ran out of cover the largest of the satellites a shooter himself spotted me and headed up in to the timber. The big 8 went into the thicket with the doe. I could care less about the little ones seeing me now and I grunt called and wheezed at the big buck. He came out of the thicket and stood starring down the hill at me.

The little ones headed up into the timber. The big buck wouldn't budge and headed back into the thicket. I backed down on the road and sprinted to the mowed trail and stopped and listened for running deer. Not hearing anything I sprinted up the mowed trail to just below the stand. Then I slowly stalked in to the stand.  But the deer were all ready 40 yards past the stand standing there waiting for me. As soon as they saw me they all headed up the ridge.

I lay down the bow, and sprinted back to road as I had left my pack there. Getting back on stand, I tried to make sense of what I should have done.
Instead of trying to call that buck out I should have just sprinted and then crawled into the stand. I had the wind and the distraction of the doe working for me and I blew it.

After calming down. I did some very loud Estrus bleating and after 20 minutes one of the satellite bucks , a small 8 came looking for me.

Some times when you least expect the rut lays a giant in the mix.

So tomorrow I will be out all day except to come in at noon and go to town to vote. Sort of wish I had taken advantage of the early voting option now.   :knothead:

:campfire:  On the edge of my seat.....

Stay after'em
This is a great thread
Tim

This morning I walked the fire break along the prairie instead of the logging road to the stand above where the bucks were fighting yesterday. That ended up costing me a shot.

at first light a small buck went by me on my upper left. Then at 8 am this buck went by on the same trail.
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30753115832/in/dateposted-public/    

He winded me and headed up the bluff.

Then at 9 am I spotted a big white rack coming up the hill below me thru the tall prairie. He came out onto the fire break, hit my scent trail and blew back down the hill. Damn!  It was the big 10 that was harassing the big 8 yesterday.

I took a break late morning and went in to town to vote.
By 1 pm I was in the contour stand below the middle bluff. At 2 30 a really good buck came down the bluff but crossed over to the dry gulch West of me and went up in to the clover food plot. There he began chasing a doe.  A 2nd smaller buck appeared but the first buck ran him off. Later a spike buck showed up but I didn't see it until I spooked it by rattling.

I was unable to call the buck out and no other deer appeared all day. It was a perfect day in the woods despite still overly warm temps. WE are stuck in this higher temp than normal for a couple more days before it is supposed to cool down this weekend.

76 & 77

Cold this am. 29 F heavy coating of frost on everything. I sat in the pop up blind and set out the 2 d decoy. Despite me not seeing a deer the neighbors claimed they were running around every where! Kinda cements the right place right time thing.

Tonight I sat for the 2nd night in a row on the contour trail just above the pop up. I normally never sit a spot two nights or mornings back to back. But during the rut all rules go out the window.

At 3 pm  I heard running across the dry gulch between my hide and the clover food plot. A doe flys out followed by a good buck. He chased her around below me and finally got her corralled in some thick black berry bramble below. I grunted at him and when he turned his head the doe slipped out and ran for cover! Ha! off he went and I never saw them again.

Tomorrow I am going to try sitting over Derek again. Pulling out all of the tricks I know now!

:thumbsup:

Right place, right time Jim, sooooo true. Hopefully the two meet soon!

David

Keep at em jim it's gonna happen!!

This morning my nephew came to hunt.  We walked up the logging road together, wished each other luck and headed to our respective spots.

I was in the food plot on the top of the middle bluff hunting over Derek the decoy. Just after sunrise I gave a few soft grunts and with in 4 minutes that same little forky comes walking right in. He must live there and be lonely as hell right now.

at 8 am I gave a series of deep grunts. Seconds later I see legs coming my way.
  https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30271140104/in/dateposted-public/  
This buck walked by , just below me but wouldn't come into the food plot. He circled and eventually wandered off to the south. Five minutes later a little bigger buck came from the same basic direction. But this buck stopped right below me and caught of whiff of Jim . He spun and raced away. That was it for deer movement until I hit the trail at 11 am.

At 3 I hurried up into the lower ladder in Apple Alley.  it was 63F again. With these warm temps this clover plot looks better now than it did in July!  A tremendous amount of deer sign and buck sign. I may have blown it by not hunting here more this year.

the stand is just a little past the red arrow.
  (https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5477/30789353092_8502f9d39f.jpg)

I am no more than 150 yards from where I sat the two prior evening. On both of those sits , good bucks either crossed over to the food plot or in last nights case chased and corralled the doe in the general vicinity. But tonight I saw zero deer. Just at the end of the day one was walking  some where in the dry gulch between tonight's and last nights spot. But I never laid eyes on it.

I think we are in the lock down period on top of extremely unusual high temps and a nearly full moon to boot!

So I am going to take a mental health day tomorrow and rest up, do laundry and catch up on home stuff.

Keep the faith Jim....enjoying your posts (as usual)...Paul

hunt # 80

I couldn't do it! I just couldn't stay out of the woods for a whole day! Especially not when I sent my nephew to a stand this am and he had a 15 yard encounter with a 160 class 10 point!!

So at the end of my work day I hurried up to the Squirrel tail stand.
     (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5450/30837396871_86bcebe99b.jpg)
The stand is the star. #34 is where I sat 2 nights in a row this past week. The pink arrows are the contour trail. So I am on the same trail as stand # 34 just on the southern end of the bowl.

Just after rattling for the first time I hear a deer coming. It's a fork and he on the trail coming down from above. He goes by me without a clue that I am 15 yards below him.

At 4 30 I rattle the horns and then rattle again at 5 pm.  Shortly I hear a deer walking  and a good 3 year old appears on the contour trail approaching me from below. There is a dead apple tree between us and I can only make out part of his rack. He is on the trail and is only 20 yards from me. He stops and keeps looking up the bluff. Suddenly I see what he does.  Deer legs coming down the bluff steep side. (blue arrow not on trail) It is the giant 8 point from Tuesday night!!!!

The buck comes down to 35 yards and stands next to the tree the stand was in 2 years ago. It looked like the big guy had every intention of walking past me and out on to the mowed trail that meets the deer trail. But the younger buck reversed course and the big buck went down towards him which took him off course from me and a shot. He went around a fallen tree and stood there starring at the younger buck. The younger buck quickly walked away and the big guy followed.

I grabbed the horns and gave them a tickle. I could hear the buck stop. I grunted but I could hear the buck walking away. I pulled out my wheeze snort call and gave him a loud wheezeeeeeeee! Then I snort wheezed.

Suddenly I could see him trotting back my way. Some how he had all ready gone partially back up the bluff. He trotted past where he stood the first time but across rather than down the bluff. Now he stood at 40 yards above and I feared getting winded at any second. As he approached my scent steam I gave another long wheeze. He stopped then turned to come down hill. My heart was just about coming out of my chest at this point.  A life time 8 point 30 yards and coming my way. I start looking for where I would shoot him. I kept repeating  pick a spot, pick a spot. At 20 yards he put is nose to the ground turned 45 degrees away and trotted off like a hound dog!!!!       :banghead:            :banghead:            :banghead:  

I couldn't believe it! So close!

beginning tomorrow my work calendar is cleared for an entire 8 days. I will be doing some all day sits starting in the am.  I'll post in the evenings when I get in.

Just a matter of time............   :campfire:

:archer2:

hunt 81

Just got in from an all day sit. Strange day for deer movement. I decided since so many of my guests were either killing bucks, missing bucks and seeing bucks out of my personal stand, it was about time I sat in it!

 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5494/22767173818_9bb61c12a7.jpg)

The lower star is where I sat last night. #13 is where I decoy with Derek. The upper star is my stand. My stand sits just 80 yards below the  hidden food plot. It sits above one of two contour trails on the NE side of the middle bluff.

The lower trail actually gets more deer traffic but the wind  higher up is more dependable. Shooting light had arrived not five minutes earlier when the first buck of the day walked by me at 10 yards on the upper trail.  At first I thought I would shoot him by the size of his body. But then I recognized the rack. He is just a dandy 2.5 year old that I have all ready passed up once. He is in the video I posted a few days ago with statue head on the stump. Then bucks #2  and #3 went by on the lower trail. 5 minutes later buck # 4 walks by me on the upper contour trail . Wow 4 bucks in 10 minutes and the sun has not even broken the horizon yet!  By 11 30 I had seen a total of 9 different bucks. My best day in the stand with 1/2 a day to go!

this guy is buck #9
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30909497166/in/dateposted-public/

At noon I decided to move the 80 yards up hill and put out the decoy. Here is why I said to day was a weird day for deer movement. From noon to dark I saw ZERO deer. Nine bucks in the am and Nada in the afternoon. That makes for a long sit.

I pulled the card out of the camera that sits on the big scrap in this little plot where I decoy at. Yesterday the big 8 was in the scrape 15 minutes before he came down the bluff to me!

I sure would like to see his reaction to Derek. Now you know why I passing up nice three year olds.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/22766630098/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30644021920/in/dateposted-public/

Wow he's a stud!!!

hunt 82 and 83

So today it was 40 above rather than 25 as the day before. We have yet another warm front moving in for the next 5 to 6 days!! What I would give for those grey, cold , low clouds of Novembers past!!

I climbed into the ladder on the contour below the middle bluff with the intentions of sitting all day long.  But at 8 this little lady interfered with those plans.
   (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5461/25332972089_f003c20321.jpg)

A 12 yard shot on a moving coyote, my first coyote kill with a bow after 40 years!! Heck last year I missed them three different times!

Her hide will make a nice wall hanging in the yurt.

I was in my afternoon stand by noon.
   (https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5779/25333117759_01c4efd608.jpg)

The wind was roaring out of the SW. One of the reasons I chose this spot was to get low and be out of the wind. Hoping the deer would be doing the same. But if they were they stayed hunkered down till well after dark. I saw no deer this afternoon except for those I jumped in the dark on the walk home.

Congrats on the yote!!

Congrats on the Coyote Jim!

Just getting caught up after my trip.  I had a  lot of Bucks Chasing at the farm.  I choked on a 150 inch 8 point and passed up a 150 inch buck who passed me multiple times at warp speed hot on a  poor little doe.

Saw a 130 inch buck the next morning broadside at 20 but passed on him due to certain circumstances which I will not get into..

There were bucks seen 3-1 of does all week.  Good luck, they are still cruising out there.

Congrats on the song dog.   :thumbsup:

Glad you had a good hunt and good time with your family Charlie!

84 and 85

Sat in a stand that has not been hunted for several weeks. The first gun season ended yesterday and it was wonderful today not hearing gun blasts every few minutes.

Just before good light I could see a deer standing below me on the fire break I walk up to the stand on. I knew it was a buck but had to put the bino's on him to see how good. A really pretty 8 point. The buck was hesitating coming up into the woods. I am pretty sure he picked up my scent from my boots. He eventually came up but skirted to the side of the normal deer trail. I had not planned on shooting him any way.

He was followed a few minutes later by the first doe I have seen in days. She too picked up my trail and skirted an even wider path around me.

There was hardly any wind and the day was perfect for rattling. right after I rattled for the third time I saw a buck come out of the creek bottom , cross the gravel and head up hill in my direction. A very young 8 point soon stood beneath my stand anxiously looking for the bucks it has heard. He was too close for me to move and try to get the smart phone out of a coat pocket.

I had gotten bad news last night . The neighbor to my north ( who is a real outlaw type) had shot a huge framed ten point at mid day and lost the blood trail just below the rock faced cliff on his land just south my fence line. From the description he gave my nephew it sounded like he had shot short brows.

At 10 am I left my stand and hiked over the fence line and then up to the deer crossing just below this cliff. I once had a deer stand just down from this crossing. I immediately picked up the blood trail. There wasn't much to  follow and over the course of the next two hours I followed it all the way across my 23 acres on this bluff, down to the road and eventually the creek.  The blood trail is the black line in the photo.
  (https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5529/22812213348_b60854f646.jpg)

The buck must have stopped and stood at the edge of the creek or perhaps stopped and gotten a drink. This was the only part of the entire blood trail that looked like a lethal hit. But then the trail simply vanished. I am really hoping that it wasn't short brows and that it was just grazed somehow.

After tracking till 1 30 I didn't have a lot of time. so I got a bite to eat and headed out the door to a stand close to the house.  The clouds had rolled in and we finally had what looked like a real November day. Grey!

Just after rattling again for the third or forth time, I saw a white rack headed my way. It looked like a real good buck and I got ready. But then I saw the rack down below me headed to the flat part on the edge of the food plot. All at once there was a very loud and deep grunting and running. There must have been another buck down there that I couldn't see. A hell of a fight broke out and the bucks fought their way back up into the bowl across from me and then disappeared .
   (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5717/22812576048_0588d59139.jpg)( red line). Dark came with no other deer being sighted.

You are having a great hunt there my friend whether it feels like it or not!  :-)

I'd bet on a brisket hit on that 10 they bleed like crazy then just stop I'd keep your hopes up on him for sure

You are having an exciting season if anything else Jim.

Hey Kopper I sure hope you are right!!

Yes sir Charlie I'd say that it's been pretty great!


hunt 86.  We'll just call the entire day to day # 86.

I started out the day in the ladder up behind the yurt.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5539/22835348098_60b30f0a50.jpg)
The wind was out of the S and the only deer I saw all morning was just at first light. A buck on a trail up above me was going north to south. He was a good 8 point with a dark rack. I gave him a grunt to try and get a better look at him. He stopped, looked my way for a second, then wagged his tail and resumed his prior direction of travel. I saw nothing more for four hours and decided a change in stands was in order.

so after a bite and cup of coffee I headed up to the farthest south stand I have. Since gun season was on hold for the week , I felt it would be safe to hunt here.

The red line is the property boundary.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5335/31013962095_dc9433cce3.jpg)

I think I made a mistake by not hunting this food plot harder. Just below the stand on the north end of the plot were these new rubs . They are about 6 yards below the stand. stand is in the upper middle of photo. There several more like them along with scrapes all along the edge of the plot.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5747/25377648249_cf7d6fc477.jpg)
I had not hunted the ladder on the south end because I was not happy once I discovered all the cover was gone. But Old Lodge Skins hunted it when he was here. He drew on a small buck just to test a theory and got away with it.

So today was over cast and I decidee I would stand all after noon and face to the south . I felt if I had plenty of time to be in position to draw and then moved very carefully I can do it too.

An hour before sunset a single doe fawn came into the plot from the property next door. She fed in front of me for 45 minutes without busting me.

When she got far enough down field I did my first series of grunts. She turned and looked back and never busted me then either! So I did a few more series of calls but no rattling tonight. No other deer came into sight . I am hoping the after peak breeding movement starts up soon!

hunts 87 and 88

A cold and icy frost hung in the air today.  Zero wind. I took this photo just after sunrise

 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5749/30896333802_f58d809f6a.jpg)

I spent 5 hours over Derek the decoy on the upper middle bluff and saw zero deer. A long and cold sit.

We have a front moving this way and got a rare SE wind. This is the very best wind for the upper water hole. I was perched in the big old oak by 3 pm.

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5740/29915051303_1ba052fe67.jpg)

I was ready for a deer to give me a shot. Finally at the close of the day I could make out the horizontal lines of several deer's backs in the food plot up hill. It's about 150 yards away. I knew that there would be no chance tonight for one of them but it was good to see deer on their feet, even if they were that far away. A total of 7 antlerless deer were there. Nothing came to water and homeward I went.

hunt 89.

Warm again , t shirt weather. it's killing all day time movement! Sat for 3 hours this am, saw zero deer.

I have to leave town for 24 hours and will be back at it hopefully tomorrow evening.

:thumbsup:

:campfire:

A huge blizzard blew into MN yesterday. North me there was any where from 14 to 20 inches on the ground with hurricane winds. WE  just got a little rain but all of the wind and I did not get out until this am. But just at dark last night despite the wind there were 4 does and a solid 8 point in the food plot near the hay bale.

hunt 90 .  Hay bale blind.

The wind was howling out of the North. gusts of 25 + mpr.

 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5831/30747992190_066952fbc5.jpg)

Before leaving town last week, I relocated Derek down to this spot.

my view
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5584/30294687814_b7f650e66d.jpg)
hopefully a big buck's view.
 (https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5468/30294712084_5dd2106248.jpg)
The decoy is only 15 yards out. I want the target close since I am using the shoot thru screen mesh to  help hide me. After 4 hours in the blind with temps at 20F I headed in without seeing a deer .

But I am going to sit here again this afternoon.

I really like this set up .

Jim, in the hay bale blind set where do the deer come from.......off the hill behind Derek or do they come from across the road behind the blind. Curious as here in NH we would very seldom have deer travel across open country in daylight  like it is behind the decoy.
Still loving this thread by the way.

David

hey David

What you cant see is how the creek behind me breaks up the land and allows a travel path from my left up and into the food plot. Also does here have no problem dropping down from the timber and moving thru the shoulder high grasses. Bucks will use the numerous apple trees as cover as well as they come down to feed or to check out the does.

I drew in the creek on the photo below.
 (https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5329/30769766930_9287b28269.jpg)
I had a trad friend arrive yesterday after noon. After getting him situated I headed back to the hay bale and reset Derek. It was cold compared to what we have been experiencing. 40 degrees colder that is.  There was no deer movement until the very last 20 minutes when 5 does came down from the timber thru the tall grasses and dropped into the food plot to far right. They eyed the decoy nervously from a distance. I stayed in the blind until well after dark. Placed Derek back in the blind and snuck my way back to the yurt.

I really like the options you have for yourself on your property. The "wheels" must always be turning.

Way to keep at it, your perseverance is inspiring.

Got it, thanks Jim. The grasses being shoulder high certainly helps, as does the creek bottom.
Hope to see something on the ground soon!

David

hunts 91 and 92

Trying to figure out what's going on!

I have been expecting the day time buck movement to really pick up. I keep thinking the peak breeding and lock down period to end.

So today I went back to the stand where I killed the coyote last Sunday am.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5543/29899752010_4aaaa1d8df.jpg)
I am hoping to catch a buck roaming. Mark had seen a good 8 point near here last night and that's what he appeared to be doing. There were several does in the food plot all ready and he paid them no mind what so ever.

Today was the polar opposite of the prior day. In stead of hurricane winds we had zero. It was so very still. The cold temps seemed to accentuate the stillness. About one hour after first light, I gave series of doe bleats. Within five minutes I caught movement below. A red coated fawn came looking for me. Not finding the doe it had it heard it wandered off. An hour later I did the doe bleats again. The sound carried through out the entire bowl. Movement again below me. Same fawn followed by a second one! However, this time the first one kept searching and searching. Finally she ended up above me and caught my scent. Fawns can blow alarms as loud as any adult!

After she left I lasted another hour before my feet felt like rocks and I headed to the yurt to check on my guest hunter.
This after noon I had scant time to hunt and did not climb the ladder till well after 3 pm.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8258/29934575376_d9b2c547aa.jpg)
Mark had been on the opposite side last night and saw half a dozen does come down the hill side I sat tonight. But nothing came down past me or moved across the hill side below me.

At sunset I noticed there were 5 antlerless deer in the food plot. I have no idea from which end they had entered from. Suddenly they were just there. I waited until well after dark before coming down the hill hoping to get well away from the stand before the deer picked up my exit.

hunt 93

Details shortly once I catch my breath........

(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5756/30352703503_c6fff998c8.jpg)

WAY TO GO, Jim!!!

God bless you brother theres what all the hard work and preparation is all about..WELL DONE JIM!!!!!  :clapper:  :clapper:

Well done Jim, can't wait to read how it unfolded!
Thank you again for doing what you do,
Big Ed

Congrats Jim-- I am new to this Great Site but was at your place once with my older brother.  Planning on getting a Trad Bow Soon..

Awesome.....

ok! I have been doing some deep breathing and still don't believe this mornings hunt.

It was really cold this morning.18 F in fact.

Mark and I were discussing our options. It really was a coin flip sort of decision. I sent him to where Jay shot the coyote and I headed way up to the top middle bluff to my stand.

Across my property line on the East is a very heavy Red Cedar thicket on a very steep pointed bluff. ( Red line is fence line  . red blob is the thicket.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8549/29934576046_c8bb59bac5.jpg)

Not sure if that's the one you had been looking for but he is a real beauty......   :notworthy:    :clapper:    :clapper:

That's what I'm talking about!!
Congrats

It was all ready beginning to show pink light in the East when I arrived at my stand.. There was just the slightest East wind this am. Hardly anything at all.

I was dressed to the max and had been in the stand for a little over an hour with out seeing a single deer.

Standing with the bow on a hook I was very carefully scanning in all directions from the stand. Suddenly I heard a deer running towards me from the East. A mature doe was trotting towards me on the trail that goes directly in front of the stand. She stopped 40 yards away and I grabbed the bow. I was set on shooting her. But then I noticed her tail position and that she seemed to be waiting for some one.

Suddenly there was one continuous deep guttural grunts and another deer running up. Instantly I recognized that dark forehead and wide rack!

As they blew past the front of me I picked a spot and let the arrow go. The arrow struck the buck 2/3 of the way back and high. He stopped in his tracks and hunched his back. I grabbed another arrow and with all the excitement did not come to full draw. I shot between his legs. He spun and moved 15 yards down hill and stopped. I grabbed another arrow, short drew yet again and sent another arrow below his chest into the leaves and dirt. He crashed thru some brush and went another 25 yards down the steep hill and stopped. His tail was flipping wildly and his legs went out from under him.

I sat down and then kept an eye on him to make sure he was not getting up. It took a few minutes for what just happened to sink in. I had just killed the great 8 point I had called in twice last week!!!

Where he died
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5629/31124174486_42d6aff55b.jpg)

21.5 wide
(https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5733/30792485630_d6246e7b55.jpg)
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5707/31045879631_bab81a1d62.jpg)

It was difficult but I was able to drive the 4 wheeler to where Jay's buck died. His buck was also shot out of this stand.

We then dragged the buck on the middle contour trail to the 4 wheeler and carefully pulled him up hill so as to not ruin the cape or dislodge the bark and lichen in his rack from rubbing.

Mark and I.  Great to share this kill with another trad guy!
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5604/30792508130_c83cbec4d1.jpg)

The buck's front feet are both white and he has way more white below his chest than normal.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5766/30793234050_e11cdbbf49.jpg)

I am so glad it took 93 trips out to kill a buck like this. I wouldn't want it any easier!!

Got to give thanks to my Wife of 25 years who is never less than 100 % supportive and the to the animal spirits, we say thank you for sacrificing your lives so that we may thrive.

Congratulations Jim,  Great buck and well earned.

Congrats Jim.  You worked hard for him.  Thanks for taking us along.  Ken

Congrats! Great Buck! I always enjoy reading your
hunt reports.

Wow what a great deer Thant you so much for this thread I look forward to checking it everyday to see your adventures that is a well deserved deer!!

It simply does not get any better than that!  All the time on land management,  stand placement,  scouting,  playing host,  not to mention 93 hunts over the course of the fall.  Perfection!
Congratulations again Jim!

All I can say is.......YES! I am so happy for you Jim, as Joe said, "It simply does not get any better than that!"

Thanks for all of the extra work you have done in order to share this with us too.

David

Great buck. Great tenacity. Great hunt.

Congratulations!

:saywhat:  93 hunts.....your amazing...   :notworthy:    :notworthy:    I wish I had your desire.

This is by far my favorite thread.  I selfishly hope you have another tag to use so your journal continues!  
Thanks, and congrats on a fine buck!!

Nothing but smiles here.  Well deserved for a great guy!

Congrats...

Congratulations Jim I knew you would connect soon.
A very happy ending to a really great story from start to finish.
You do your homework very well and it all paid off.
Thanks for taking us along and feel like we were right there the entire time.
Take a deep breath and a long stare into the wood fire reflecting back on today's hunt.   :campfire:

Congrats on an awesome well deserved buck!    :archer2:

Congrats to you! Way to go! Great buck!

:clapper:    :clapper:    :clapper:  
I'm glad to see someone who puts in so much time and graciously hosts so many guests rewarded with such a fine animal.
Thank you for taking us along on your journey this year.
Congrats!!!

Congratulations Jim on another great buck! You've definitely earned him with all the time and land management you've put it.  Congratulations and well done on another year in the woods!
-Jay

Congrats Jim!!    :clapper:    :clapper:

That's awesome! I admire your tenacity.
Been a great thread

Eric

Congrats on a great buck.  I haven't been able to get out much this season so your daily log has been a nice substitute.  Thanks for taking us along.

Congrats on your hard earned and well deserved buck! Thanks for taking us along on all your hunts!

Good job! I live my weekdays vicariously through you waiting for the weekend! Awesome buck

Digging deep and then a Buck like that!!! Way to go my friend. Toughness and love produces a buck like that. Long live the Big 8    :notworthy:

Happy for you, Jim. Way to go!

Excellent! Congrats on a BEAUTIFUL buck, Jim!

Congrats Jim!  Great Buck and have loved the ride along with you, Was beginning to get tired   :biglaugh:

ATTA'BOY....really have enjoyed this - thanks for the share
Tim

Congratulations!  And thanks for taking us along for another season!

:thumbsup:     :thumbsup:

Congratulations.  Great Buck.

Thank you Every one for your wonderful comments. All the effort to blog is worth it when you have such a great audience.

For those who want to know, the buck weighed 183 lbs hanging. I had guessed 185! I also scored him at 139 Pope and Young.

Now it's time to get after some does..............

Congratulations on the great buck, Jim. You certainly earned him through all of your efforts to improve your farm, plus the time spent on stand. Glad he survived the gun season for you.

Always love reading your thread about your hunts.  Big congrats on a great buck.

Jim,

I appreciate you taking the time to write and allow us to follow along with your adventures... Many thanks, many times over!

Jonathan

Way to go Jim, love this thread!!!!  Thanks for taking us along on all 93 of em.

I knew when this post jumped 3 pages so quickly that you had gotten a buck! Congratulations to you on your success and thank you for sharing your journey with us. He's a beautiful buck! I can't wait to hear the story.

Ok, somehow I totally missed page 21 with all the details on it the first time I read this! Lol! Thanks Jim for pointing me in the right direction.

What a nice buck Jim!  I follow your hunts daily and have really enjoyed your tenacity and hard wok.  Congratulations, and good luck with the does!

Bernie

Just getting caught up Jim. I no longer have internet access so my visits are far between.  

Congratulations sir, beautiful buck. I am happy when your hard work and perseverance pays off.

Congrats again.

Sometimes you have to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time!  He puts in the work so he definitely earns the rewards. Was fun to be there and share the experience even if it required a few ibuprofen the next day!

Congrats JIm!

You definitely put in the hours to earn it.

Thanks as always for sharing your hunts with us!

Good job Jim!!  Sweet success!!

Jim, I think of you often and tell folks about your diligence in the field (and funny habits in camp like the espresso pot in the wilderness). You give trad a good name by demonstrating what is good and right. Thanks for sharing and well deserved nice buck brother!

Jim,
This is the best entertainment and I look forward to catching up every time I open Tradgang ....thanks for putting so much effort to take us along for the ride.  You are truly what traditional hunting is all about.
Come see me in Texas when you can.
Paul

Great buck, Jim! Another year of fantastic hunting  knowledge and this year produced two really nice bucks. Enjoy a warm fire while you clean up all your gear and start planning for next fall.

Congrats Jim!!! I would say well deserved but none of us deserve these fantastic experiences like the one you just had. What an awesome thing!! Good luck on the does!

Congratulations Jim. That was quite a hunt. As always I enjoyed following a long. Thanks for taking us.

I was just checking and realized that there's no room for this thread on page 2.
So, here we are at the top again, as Jim may have fallen asleep in the yurt...

This is my first time reading this thread and I just wanted to say thank you for putting it all together! What a great read with it being so detailed. I took more then one thing from it. Congratulations on an excellent animal!

hey guys.

I had to take a few days off. I slipped on the deck of the yurt and sprained my string hand wrist badly last Sunday. Got out yesterday am for the first time since it happened. Got rained out last night. Planning on hunting the upper food plots tonight.

Sorry to hear about your wrist Jim, glad it's to the point you can hunt again. Go get 'em!

David

I hope everyone had a very happy thanks giving!

I have bad news to share tonight. Last week the DNR announced that CWD was discovered in 2 deer killed in the first shot gun season in the hunting unit adjacent to the one I am in. They were testing deer in this unit because directly south of it in Iowa, CWD had been discovered the prior year. Right now the DNR is waiting for further results to come in from deer tested in unit 347  during the 2nd deer season which just ended. Then they will tell us what they are going to do.

The infected deer were killed one mile apart from each other, roughly 35 miles from my house as the crow flies. The DNR has announced that beginning 1/1/17 an all out effort will be made to reduce the deer herd in a yet to be announced quarantine area.

So I am very saddened but not surprised by this development. It's been knocking at our doors now for quite a while. I hate to think that the best hunting of my life is now past tense. I guess I will just have to wait and see what develops next.

Tonight I hiked up to the food plots in the old upper hay field. There was a good and steady breeze out of the NW.
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5518/31363063185_09a0549711.jpg)
It's been wet and warm here. Too bad it has not been cold, as we would surely have a half a foot of snow on the ground if it was. The scenery looks just like it has for the last 2 months.
[ (https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5710/31362955235_0b8822639c.jpg)
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5472/31362971245_6f31d0b5d6.jpg)

I have been seeing deer early in the food plots down by the house while I was resting the wrist these last few days and was hopeful there would be some early deer movement up top as well.

But it was nearly dark when a solitary yearling walked past me into the food plot in front and over the crest of the hill from me. I passed on about a 20 yarder. Just too far of a shot in the dim light for me. Then as I was climbing down a snort rang out from below and behind me. I never got to see what it was, only heard it run off.

Hoping for a cold snap and some white stuff soon.

Glad your wrist is feeling better.  Bummer about the cwd.  Hunting will be tough for a couple years but the herd will bounce back relatively quickly. We went through it at our farm. Good luck

Glad your wrist is feeling better.  Bummer about the cwd.  Hunting will be tough for a couple years but the herd will bounce back relatively quickly. We went through it at our farm. Good luck

Sorry to hear the news Jim hope it works out

Glad to see you back at it.

ok so not a lot to report from the last 2 mornings sits. Zero deer movement, at least at the 2 places I sat. This morning I went back up to where I killed my buck. More to relive the moment and to look for one of my missed follow up shots! From the tree stand it didn't take long to locate the arrow by using my bino's. I was surprised where I found it. I don't recall the buck being that far to my left. I also noted that I attempted to shoot thru some branches that I do not recall being there. Funny how that happens in the heat of the moment.  I think it safe to say my first follow up may have actually been deflected downward. At least that's my new story.

I was unable to hunt last night but was able to watch deer with the spotting scope from the house. A very big 10 point that I have not seen before was in the back food plot well before dark. He has a heavy dark rack and the tips of his points are all Ivory looking. He fits the description of a buck a neighbor down the road was watching in his bean field in late October.  Let's hope he makes it another 7 days past the final muzzle loader season.  His antler's will surely be worth searching hard for come late January.

I can also confirm that the buck I posted a night time video of back on 10/21 is definitely the same buck I killed. I also found another video of him on 11/9 that I didn't know I had. Fun to have video of that buck!!

The deer now are bedding close to the food plots. It will be very hard to slip into stands with out blowing deer out of their bedding cover going forward. While deer tend to group up and hang around food sources in December, it sure doesn't make then any easier to kill.

Good luck with the rest of your season. You have a beautiful piece of property and it looks and sounds like you are a true steward to the land and a holistic thinker.

Sorry to hear about CWD and the upcoming overreaction by state authorities. It's absurd they treat CWD the way they do and try to completely wipe out populations... but that is for another thread!

Love the stories Jim.  Hope the wrist is healing quickly and the snow comes.

My fears about getting to a stand with out busting deer were well founded. Last night I was inside of 50 yards below the stand when I spotted at least 3 whitetails bounding away above me. They had been bedded just above the stand.   :banghead:  

This morning , same thing. I was just arriving to my ladder when snorts rang out just above me!!

But boy what a difference 24 hours can make in the scenery.

Here is my view last night.
 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5768/30616979093_d9639c9a99.jpg)

and the same field ( different angle) this afternoon on my way to my stand.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5578/31054939240_4cbcbd92ea.jpg)

Good luck Jim.  I hope you are able to slip in undetected one morning.

I tried sneaking in to apple alley this am in the wet heavy snow. As I stated above , I didn't bust deer till I got to the stand! It was snowing pretty good all day. Nothing moved near me in the am and I took a break long enough to plow the driveway.

This after noon I was back in the stand early. I went to the contour stand where I killed the coyote. Not a deer went by me. But they just poured off of the west facing hillside in to the food plot just at dark. 16 deer in all came down where I placed the blue arrow.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5773/31055087040_ae3bb8f515.jpg)
I bumped a deer or two on the way home.

Here is a view walking up to the stand.
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5682/31309525731_550e1c29b9.jpg)
and the view from up in the ladder.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5706/31054931610_9d36d147e9.jpg)
I was going to take a breather tomorrow am but after seeing all those deer tonight there is no way .

Amazing what seeing deer will do to a guys resolve! Now just need to get them within range.........keep it up Jim!


David

Have you ever tried blowing back at the "fleeing blowers"? If you've been winded or seen, the jig is up, but they will often come right back to investigate.
Of course, they're "somewhat on edge", but coming nonetheless. And super quietly as well.

Hey Tom, I have not tried that yet. I may the next time I get the chance.

With temps above freezing all night and all day we lost a lot of the new snow we just got yesterday.

I chose spots to sit where I thought I could intercept one of the many deer from last night. But both attempts were failures as far as getting close goes. I watched deer in the food plot from a distance during both sits. But just chose  the wrong trail. I did jump a nice 3 year old buck going into my stand this afternoon. He was bedded about 30 yards from it and didn't hear me coming until I was right at the stand. I sat tonight where last night's herd came out of . Zero went by .

 Here is the view from tonight's sit.
  (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5808/31449442345_36f1e6a80a.jpg)

A cold front was rushing in and the temps were dropping all day long. Windy too.  The real challenge now, in addition to choosing the right spot is not to  get there too early or too late.

Too early and you freeze out. Too late and the deer are already in the food plots. I was worried about being too late as there was already a doe in the lower food plot as I made my way up the logging road. The higher I got the windier it was. For awhile I was regretting my decision. But once I was over the  crest , the wind was calmer and the spot I was going to would be perfect with todays wind.

No one had been here for at least two full weeks.
(https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8038/29790961375_97a10e7a31.jpg)
I was encouraged by the number of tracks heading in both directions right in front of the stand and on the trail to my immediate left.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5500/31436859826_f18f332b80.jpg)
(https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5538/31474271035_977c0f6567.jpg)
I was on high alert starting the moment I got in the ladder till the end of the day. Never saw a single deer! Was totally amazed by that. On the way back it was just light enough to see a number of deer in both food plots near the house. Guess I should stayed low.

Didn't hunt today due to the weather. Single digit temps with high winds. But I am happy to report that this am I watched Short brows my number 1 target buck sparring with a lesser 9 point. They pushed each other around in the food plot behind the house for over 30 minutes. When they split up SB bedded above the food plot at about 100 yards. He lay there until 10 30 and then got up and browsed his way up the ridge until I lost sight of him.

I was very disappointed when at noon I went to retrieve the trail camera card from the trail camera in the food plot. The bucks had been sparring directly in front of the camera. Despite brand new batteries in the camera, the cold temps caused the camera to fail. Not a single picture!

I did capture a few shoddy photos by placing my smart phone up against the spotting scopes lens, here is the best one.
 (https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5540/31351447672_b876e529bf.jpg)
Gun season ends on this Sunday. The forecast is for cold and snow. I will hunt but very lightly. So glad he is alive and doing apparently very well. His antlers will be a prize worth searching for.

That's great news Jim glad he wasn't wasted and is/has spread those genes on your hill

With temps in the teens and winds out of the NW 12 to 15 mpr I did not want to spend 3 hours in a tree ! So I chose to hunt in the pop up blind just up the hill from the main food plot I have been hunting.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5617/30712090493_6515c3742b.jpg)
But this cold weather had the deer up on their feet in the middle of the day feeding. At 12 30 the was all ready 4 does and one small buck in the food plot. Getting to the blind would be difficult if not impossible with out blowing them out of it.

Just as I was getting ready to go at 2 pm the mail man came down the drive and solved the problem for me. The noise of his truck cleared the field.

I took advantage of the window and hurried up to the pop up .

(https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/410/31521039245_59a57de400.jpg)

There is a hub of trails all around the blind as well as the mowed 4 wheeler trail just off to one side. With all of the deer around I was hoping just one might pass by.

By 4 pm the food plot was full of visitors but not a single deer had gone by me any where that I could see.  I hate hunting pop ups due to their reduced visibility. I could have easily not seen them if they were 30 yards or more passing by.

Finally at last light I heard a familiar thumping sound. I had a side window opened just a hair. Through the opening I could see a small doe at 20 yards stomping her foot. She had me. The blind has been here for two months. I have not sat in it for at least a month, and she had me. She had to have scented me for I was not making any noise.

She swung wide around me and headed on down to the food. When I left I took a circular route home but still was unable not to spook them out of the field. The sounds I made in the noisy snow sent them running.

:thumbsup:

Was unable to hunt Friday, long drive to and from a biz meeting......

This am it was 5 F when I left the yurt at 6 am. Fortunately there was no wind. I walked up the county road and then up the old pasture hill sides to the sure thing stand.(route in red)
      (https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/610/31414001642_2ddd383599.jpg)
For the first hour rather than quiet I would say there was just an absence of sound. Finally there was some bird noises began to occur and also the popping of trees around me. I was surprised at that as it normally needs to be much colder for that to happen. I could hear the metal on the neighbor's barn roof contracting as well.

Don't ask me how but the only deer I saw the whole time on stand I managed to spook some how. Suddenly it was just there and instantly it was running away. But that's late season. Really, really hard to kill a deer with trad equipment now.

I put up anew stand right on the south western corner of the lower food plot a week ago. Mostly for my newphew who sometimes can hunt for just a few minutes at the end of the day. This stand allows him that opportunity since it just 100 yards walk from the house. The shots are longer but he still uses training wheels despite my threats to not him hunt with it here. He has killed 2 PY bucks here. I tell him #3 and its trad only for him from then on.        :bigsmyl:        

My wife was also in on this afternoons hunt as we planned to try the annual One Woman Push if there were deer in the food plot.

At the designated time providing she could see deer in the food plot, she would walk to the yurt and then up the fire break and along the top of the hill side. the hopeful result is deer leaving the food plot and heading North on one of the many trails that goes by the popup. Yesterday when my nephew sat over this field there were 16 deer in it. But tonight just five. 4 of the 5 headed out of the plot but ran to the East. Only one a buck went North but I didn't even see it. They also didn't move until Jayne was already on the downward path back towards the plot. So when they saw her they moved out fast. I t was a miserable failure, but fun to try .

 (https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/527/31561012005_60d46f8790.jpg)

Good luck Jim. This late season stuff is tough. I had a buck and 2 does bust me yesterday. My ha warmers quit a few hours earlier and holding my bow had me shivering violently.  I don't envy the conditions you speak of. Not only are you dealing with cold temps but super spooky deer.  I hope you get a crack at a doe as the season winds down.

We had a wonderful snow fall all last night. I awoke to over 8 inches of new snow. I knew deer would be coming in to the food plots all morning, but choosing the right place to sit is seeming nearly impossible.  I am surely playing a game of cat and mouse.

I decided to try some thing different. So just before first light I snuck in the stand I set up for my nephew. BW is  the black walnut the stand is in.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/629/31472161821_eb85832fbe.jpg)
There were 3 or 4 dark shapes out in the food plot as I crept to the tree in the semi darkness. I was unable to make it up into the stand undetected.

But within 30 minutes a buck had come down to eat followed an hour later by 4 big does. The deer seemed to know I was in the walnut and fed nervously on the North end of the plot. When they exited they went up past stand #7.

So at 1.30 pm I returned to stand 7 hoping I might catch one of them on her way back down. Walking in to the stand I spotted 3 different does up in the bowl opposite the stand.

By days end 21 deer were feeding below me. The closest one had gone by at 40 yards or so. Most of the deer had come down out of the cedars on the point across from me. A few including one big buck I couldn't identify other (than he was a dandy) came down the prairie hill side above my house. Here is just a few of them about an hour before dark.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/593/30746513044_db696fec54.jpg)
See the doe in the middle of the front 3 deer?  She stood there and stared up at me the whole time she was there.  She spooked twice taking half the deer with her out of the plot . Only to return 30 minutes later and stand in the same spot starring up at me!! She is going to die of old age for sure.

Here is a larger picture of the evenings view before the deer began to show.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/448/31550415176_43a3779887.jpg)

Late season hunting is like a whole new sport isn't it Jim?  I often see more deer now than during the best days of the rut, but they are tough!  They seem to always know which trail to take,  and if I do get close, remaining undetected, let alone actually getting a shot seems nearly impossible.  Especially on the does!  But oh what fun it is!

Seeing so many deer from your stand is really fun. But getting close enough to just one is what I want. So tonight I headed up to the upper food plots. As much to scout them as to hunt them I trudged the 1/2 mile through shin deep new snow.
(https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5269/29943217260_8e3741f96c.jpg)
Deer had been digging in the clover and beet plots with lots of track criss-crossing the top of the ridge. About 100 yards from the stand I was headed to , I was encouraged when looking thru my binos and seeing a really good looking trail going right past the stand.

I was on alert all afternoon and got skunked. Walking back down I spied only one single deer in the top plots. You guessed it , there were at least 20 in the 2 plots below.

Work and then two days of severely cold temps will keep me out of the deer woods. The temps are to moderate back into the teens Friday. I'll be in a stand somewhere then .

I feel for you Jim. It's great to see deer, but ultimately seeing deer isn't your goal, killing one is. I filmed 2 does yesterday at 7 yards, one a really nice one. It was great having deer that close, but I only have a buck tag left. 2 days to go here and I am done, I'll be hunting through you after Wednesday.

David

TTT

Not much to add here. Three sits and three skunks as far as deer being close. Seeing lots of deer but always at a distance. They know exactly where I am going and make the loop to avoid me upon their return. Lots of new snow and really cold here now. The deer are on their feet and feeding hard at mid day .  Forecast is for 5 to 10 inches of new snow tonight and thru out the day tomorrow.
Then a new wave of extreme cold for Sunday.

Filmed short brows on my drive way this am at 9 o'clock. Having trouble up loading the video hope to have it up yet tonight.

This late season stuff is tough!   Between the weather and super cautious deer it is a whole different challenge than we faced a month ago. It sounds like you are dealing with the same thing.

I don't know if I'm right or wrong,  but I'm trying to be extremely picky about when and where I sit this late season.   I'm thinking more along the lines of less is more, and haven't been out unless things are in my favor.

Perfect wind,  undetectable approach.  Not to close to bedding,  and far enough from the food plots that the deer should be well past me when is time to get down.  I've not been hunting mornings at all because it's much harder to know for sure that I won't bump anything on the way in.
 
My property is so much smaller and I have few options to choose from each day, so that makes it tough.  Hard to say if this will work - still a couple of weeks to go yet.  I'm just hoping that one good sit might pay off better than half a dozen borderline ones.

I think that is wise Joe. Perhaps I have been pushing it too hard.  Here is short brows from this am ... it takes a few seconds for the video to load.

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30880465743/in/dateposted-public/

Wow what a stud!! Can't wait will your encounters with him next year

Right in the yard.
My son sent a pic of a similar buck in a friends yard two nights ago. As my wife says "he's mocking you."
Tha last laugh is always best, unfortunately maybe it's his... Good to know he's made it this far.

Nice video! Do you still have a buck tag or are you just salivating over what he will do next year?

Wow, that's a nice buck!  He'll definitely be on your short list for next year!

Bernie

He sure is a great buck . No MN only allows one buck per year regardless of how it is taken. So yes I am hoping to be chasing old Short Brows again in 2017.

I thought hard about Joe's comments and decided I needed to stop hunting spots I cant get out of with out spooking multiples of deer. So this am I waited until well after first light and then made the short walk up to where I killed last December's doe.

 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5454/30207117222_f2f7df930b.jpg)
I got into the tree at about 7 30 and could see deer in the food below. So I was very hopeful that last December would repeat it self and I would catch a deer coming up to bed above me.

At 8 30 A deer came running down the hill from above and behind me. By the time I got turned around to see it, it had made it past me. I heard more animals running in the snow and got ready for a shot. But instead of deer it was the same two stinking dogs that I have had trouble with three times this year!!!. I was preparing to shoot the 2nd one when I thought better of it and yelled at them both instead.

About 30 minutes later after I headed home and called the game warden.

:mad:     :mad:    :mad:
Enough is enough.  Hope the game warden will take if seriously.

Tell the neighbor next time they won't come home and good luck with the cops trying to find them...I'm a huge dog lover and couldn't do it myself but maybe the threat will intice them to take better care???  
Or grab them and take them to the pound

Hey Jim,
I figured I would get on here to check how your season has been going bc our phone call got cut short! Congrats on a dandy of a buck!! Your dedication and efforts sure paid off for you! Couldn't be happier for you!

Happy to report the warden seems to be taking the dog issue very seriously. WE shall see how it turns out.

not much to report except one interesting interaction between bucks last night.

I believe short brows has shed his antlers. I was above the food plot last night and watching thru my bino's a very large bodied deer come into the food plot followed by a spike buck.

I knew that there was no way the big antlerless deer was a doe. Sure enough I could make out the still bloody circles where the bucks antlers had been. He must have shed those antlers within the last few hours.

The spike approached the larger deer who laid his ears back and began to posture his body very aggressively. The spike did the same. They then reared back and head butted. The larger buck clearly forgot he didn't have any head gear and his legs visibly buckled! I was thinking that spikes antlers may have caused great damage as the bigger buck turned and fled up the hill. He ran about 50 yards and stopped and stood in one spot for a very long time. Then he made a wide circle around all the other deer in the field and entered where he was the only deer. He was feeding there alone as the darkness ended the days sit.

Hopefully, that will help you narrow the search for his antlers. Ken

They are making a fool out of me............yesterday they ran circles around me

So today we decided to try another one woman drive. At 8 15 am Jayne left the house and her route is in red.
 (https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/560/30991417414_c14e066237.jpg)
We really were not trying to push deer from the food plot but rather just nudge any on the hill side or in the timber below me up on to the main deer trail .

We failed miserably! But it was a beautiful morning.

Here I am accepting defeat!
 (https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/589/31831803075_73fc656964.jpg)

During the day today , we got another 3 to 5 inches of wet heavy snow. I decided to try the hay bale.

(https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/282/31794309446_18585906ac.jpg)
I almost got a shot at an unsuspecting doe as I inched my way along the trail to the blind. A doe and a fawn stepped out I front of me onto the trail but they were at least 50 yards ahead of me. I was in white head to toe and only made it another 15 yards before they busted me.

When I got to the blind I had to cut out the netting in the window. It was caked with frozen ice and snow.

I got closer tonight to getting a shot than I have all month.

These were the first deer to show up and they are roughly 50 yards out.
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/496/30991329354_9748edf41c.jpg)

At once point late in the day I had 6 does and fawns at 30 yards. But it was just too far. I really wanted them at 15 yards. Once it looked like one doe was going to chase another in my direction. But she really only came 5 yards closer before running back to where she had been chased from.

Eight days remain in our season and I hope to be out there at once each day .

You look too happy to be accepting defeat, Jim.

Those one person pushes are a blast, work or no. You are lucky to have such a supportive partner, I have one as well.

Looks like a white Christmas for you folks, have a good one.

Thanks for your efforts to share your experiences with us.  I could still get out yet, but..doesn't look good . The last couple of weeks have included, funeral, food poisoning, and now some kind of upper respiratory thing.

I really enjoy your postings!
Regards and Merry Christmas,
Gary

Mr. Gilmer, thanks for showing us your efforts, both the success and the frustrations. Have a great holiday season ...........   :notworthy:

Ron you are too formal!   :biglaugh:   Best wishes everyone for a Merry Christmas. May Santa bring lots of new bows and arrows to you all.

Walking down the county road this am after the road grader went thru during the night , I might has well have been in the Yukon or the NW territories. Everyone in the valley except us have gone to see relatives. I had at least a 1000 acres to myself. The only noise was the soft crunch of my boots on the gravel and some where up above an eagle was chattering as it soared the morning sky.

I chose this spot hoping to catch a deer coming up from the food plots and also we had planned another little push.

We have had lots of success moving bedded deer on this little one woman nudge.
  (https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/577/31009335684_cd0bbced29.jpg)
Jayne was to let me sit until 9:30 am and then do the little 15 minute walk from the house. I was a little suspect this morning because there seemed to be an awful lot of coyote tracks on the side of the road and the trail I walked to the stand on.

Not a deer went by. I don't think there were any on this side of the ridge to move today. Bet the coyotes moved em last night.

Me awaiting the bush beater.
  (https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/633/31729344351_ea46d48b2f.jpg)

I spent the rest of the day on the tractor seat moving snow. The forecast for tomorrow is for up to an inch of rain and wind.  Not good with over a foot of snow on the ground.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Still time Jim. Merry Christmas, hope it is a great one!


David

Jim, I want to thank you again for this thread.  Your dedication and persistence is insurmountable.   I enjoy your trials and tribulations.   I learn some along the way.  

Kill or no kill the rest of the season, you certainly have worked hard for it (year round).
I am very appreciative of you taking the time to share your hunts.

One thing I do take away from it all is that even though you are in an area with better than average deer hunting, you still have many days (many times consecutive) without seeing deer or having anything close.  It certainly puts things into perspective on how difficult this is and gives hopes to guys like me who may only see 6 or 8 deer a season in 10 or 12 sits.

Thanks again and good luck as the season winds down to a close.

Thank you Charlie!

I have not been on stand since my last post.

Between the horrible weather and the holidays,it seems the last week has slipped by.

I have been watching thru the spotting scope and I have noticed that most of the bucks I see from the house, have one if not both antlers missing.

We found these today .
(https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/774/31909193106_c3fecfa2b6.jpg)
Jayne found the two bigger ones. Truth be told, the reality of dealing with a dead deer properly in this cold has dampened my enthusiasm to kill. I might just look for sheds the next few days in stead. If I find any of the good ones that I know are on the ground now, I will post some pictures.

Thank you everyone for following along this season. It was a fantastic one for sure. Hunting nearly every day was simply a dream come true.

I have a five day late season hunt in Illinois starting 1/5/17. Hopefully there will be a story in that hunt somewhere and if there is I will post it.

Have a healthy and happy new year everyone.

Thanks for the effort of taking us along!

Littlebigman thanks for your posts this season! I enjoy following them and look forward to this thread each year! Good luck in Illinois!

This has been a great thread, I have really enjoyed your efforts both in the field and on the website. Thanks

Wow, I guess I'm surprised that many of your bucks have already started dropping.  Seems a little early to me,  and I've still been seeing the occasional buck around here within the past week.   Is this the normal time you start to see drops for you?  

Thanks again for taking us all along again this year!

Joe

I usually pick up one or two before years end. I think the extremely cold weather we had earlier this month has something to do with it . When even the little guys are dropping them this early some thing is different this year for sure.

Great journal again Jim, really appreciated the stories and the detailed hunt information.  A lot to be learned here, thanks.

Spent the last day of the season hiking instead of sitting. Next years scouting starts now. One can never be too familiar with the woods you hunt in . Was rewarded with one side of a perfect 10. Cant wait to see this buck in 2 years. Happy New Year every one.
(https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/782/31896155221_2184133dae.jpg)

:notworthy:    :notworthy:    :notworthy:    :clapper:    :clapper:    :clapper:    :clapper:  Can't wait till next year,

Congrats Jim. Great sheds so far.  Thank you for your dedication to hunting and sharing. Best of luck in Illinois.

Thanks for taking us all along!!  :clapper:    :clapper:     :clapper:

How'd it go in Illinois?

1/20/17

When not hunting I am in the woods scouting , planning, scheming and shed hunting!!

it is so rewarding to pick up a matched set of what I think to be the best buck not only on the farm but in the valley as well.

I found him  on the edge of the pond over flow today , roughly 3 feet apart!!
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/639/32446855585_dea27180a8.jpg)

the 3rd one was only 50 yards away and 15 yards from my tree stand!!
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/661/32068768480_5df8b624f9.jpg)

left side scores 67.75 right side 68.50. using a conservative spread of 18 gives him a gross of  154.25!
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/313/31635186413_8d42246408.jpg)

That'll keep the fire stoked till the season starts!! Nice find Jim.

:thumbsup:

:thumbsup:     :thumbsup:

Wow

He's a hoss for sure, Jim. You'll lose plenty of sleep pondering and planning on how to outwit that one.

That's a fine pair to draw to in 2017!
Great find Jim!

Nice! Thanks for sharing again and congrats on your season.

Great buck Jim hope you cross paths this year with him and looking forward to your yearly 5 pines thread

Great find! He'll be a monster next year.

Maybe you could rattle him in with his own sheds. That might be kind of cool.

I never would have thought of that Trenton! That would be something for sure

QuoteOriginally posted by Trenton G.:
Great find! He'll be a monster next year.

Maybe you could rattle him in with his own sheds. That might be kind of cool.

That would be really neat........