I'm telling ya.....  closer  

Great stuff Jim


 

Thanks Kip!\\

here is the photo sequence of the bucks knocking down the camera

 
 

 
 

And after that last photo every picture was of the sky or this last one of deer walking over the fallen camera

having digital proof the bucks were getting frisky, I carried the rattling antlers with me this am. Sat up in the 90 degree corner stand. Every thirty minutes I do a light sparing session. Did it four times but today nothing answered my calling. Bumped one doe out of her bed on the way down. Going to hunt the Bwana stand tonight. i think tonight is going to b a good one.

after a quick cat nap and some practice arrows out of the ladder I decided to head up early and sit in the Bwana stand. It was such a beautiful day. Wind was steady out of the SW. A  perfect wind for this stand. I wasn't 50 yards from the rape field when I spot my first deer. It was in the center of plot feeding at 3:30 pm! The temp was a cool 48 . I brought along a second set of wool bibs and a good book. After reading and enjoying the fall colors for an hour I placed the book in my back pack. Time to get ready. Around 5 pm a small doe came from the NE crossed the ridge, stepped into the rape about 45 yards  from me and immediately winded me. Off she goes in the direction she had come from. The next deer didn't appear until well after 6 pm. She came from the south up the ridge behind me just like I had hoped. She  veered off the trail I wanted her on slightly and came out into the rape just out of range. She fed in the spot for about 15 minutes and then slowly started to make her way up to the top and I assumed would head in to the adjacent food plot. I tried to will her closer and a couple of times it looked she was going to turn but a good shot never materialized and I had to watch her go. That is what i love about bow hunting. The limitations we place upon our selves give the deer every chance to escape. Most of the time they do. Once in a while they don't.  I am going to sleep in tomorrow and recharge the batteries for lack of a better term .  Three full weeks of hunting have passed and I have hunted 19 out of those  21 days.

This thread is still the first and last thing I check on TG every day.  Great stuff Jim!  Enjoy your coffee this morning.

Well those are trail camera angles you don't see very often    


 

Great thread , look forward as the rut approaches!

rest hard Jim, I rely on your thread to get me through the week          

Thanks for letting us follow your hunt this year. You have done very well in telling your story.

I am hunting about 500 miles north of you.  Unfortunately, I am considerably further from my land than you are. But it is still great to be out there.  I spent Friday, Saturday out there but did not see much for deer. I am afraid my deer population is down considerably this year.  But things could change considerably in the next few weeks.

Good luck and keep those great posts coming.

Since it was a bank and postal holiday today I was able to slip away from the work desk early. I decided to go to the target butt at 2 pm. I grabbed the widow out of the moose rack and shot for about 1/2 hour. While I am really enjoying shooting the new bobcat, my widow El Uno is still my favorite one

Strapping on a quiver I threw caution to wind (literally)and decide to hunt a stand not yet hunted this year. Heck no one has even been to the stand since I hung it last August. It sits down the back bluff and it is the furthest stand from camp. I hunt this stand rarely since it sits on a side hill and the side hills do funny things to wind here, It is also just above an area of the farm I leave unhunted so as to provide some secure cover for the animals. both neighbors on this side of my property gun hunt pretty hard and I like knowing the deer move into this cover at that time.

the wind was howling out of the SW. Sustained winds of 20 mpr with 30 to 35 mpr gusts. I used the noise of the wind as cover as I slipped off the logging road and on to the deer trail . I hoped the sustained winds would carry my scent up hill in the direction I just came from and any deer down below wouldn't have a chance coming up to go to the food plots up above.

the stand is set in a medium sized hickory just off a little clearing in a circle of large oaks. Here are 2 shots taken from on stand looking down into the clearing and also on the trail that goes up and past me.
 
 
lots of shot opportunities here!

Love this thread, I look for it everyday. Thanks for sharing with us.


David

this is the third tree a stand has been in down here. I think i am finally happy with the tree it is   in. Tonight several times i had to hang on for dear life when a really ferocious gust of wind came roaring up the bluff. I have no idea whether I scared them all away or they just held tight in their beds as all I saw tonight were some squirrels and two ugly possums!

Buts it is a beautiful spot just to sit. Here is my view of the neighbors bluff line
 
I made arrangements to be picked up at dark down below on the highway. Its a 4 mile drive around the bluff by road from home but doing this saves a long walk back and I also avoid scaring all the deer off the upper food plots by not having to go back through them to go home.

forecast is calling for a 40% chance of rain tomorrow. I sure hope we get some!

What a great read, good stuff!!!!!    

Well I woke to a sound not heard here for quite awhile! It was the sound of water dripping off the tree branches onto the roof of the yurt! I stuck my head out the door to see whether I should stay in the sack or get up and go out. It was not raining just dripping from the trees. It had rained lightly during the night and the wind was absolutely still!

I decided to try and sneak up into apple alley and hunt the upper end over a hidden clover field. But half way  up I realized the absence of any wind would not work and the thermals in that spot would work against me. So being right beneath the badger stand I decided to climb it and hunt the point right over the turnip field .
 

This point of land lies at the bottom of Rattlesnake ridge a preferred bedding area. I had hopes to catch a deer coming up from the turnips. There are red cedars, twisted old apple trees , Sumac and some big old Birches here. A hub of deer trails goes through here and links up with another one of my mowed trails, I set a portable stand above the big old ladder for a father and daughter team that have hunted with me. When I hunt the stand I like the portable as the foot platform is wider and easier to turn on . In fact they are the ones who named this stand as the last time they sat here they had a badger walk by. That old badger is still here. He has a den about 60 yards from the stand and as luck would have I got to see him this am! It was still very early and I could just make out the forest floor when a squirrel gave an alarm bark! I hear leaves rustling and there below me was old Mr. B!

here are the views from the stand.

looking north

looking south

Before it started raining again at 8 am it was so quite that I could hear the drip , drip, drip of water in the rain spouts of the farm house! At first I thought i was imagining it and that it had to be some machinery at the farm down the road. But when I walked down to the house later i stood on the driveway and it was definitely the same exact sound I was hearing from my stand!

Just before it started to rain I had my self a beverage. WARNING BLATANT PRODUCT PLACEMENT.
i have mentioned these little treats before and if you are a coffee lover you really owe it to your self to check them out.

It started to rain just as I spotted 2 does to the north of me about 50 yards. The wind had picked and was blowing my scent right up towards them. The first doe all ready had me pegged and by her body language she wasn't coming any where near me! That's OK as the rain had picked up enough to cause one concerns about blood trailing.

So after they headed up into the bluff and woods, I lowered my gear and headed in. got a fire going and hung up clothes to dry. I love the way the rain mutes the colors of fall.