Good luck!! I'm still enjoying your season. Thanks for the updates and pics  

Did he show up this morning???????

Nope! I sat in the funnel just above the turnips but not a deer was in sight. Texting some of my fellow hunters in Iowa and Wisconsin I learned that basically everybody is experiencing lock down now.

So I revalued what I was doing and decided  to set up on one of the food plots up top. Hoping a buck will have spun off a doe and be cruising the food sources looking for a new love interest. I set the deek up too just in case he was ready to fight.

At 4 pm i noticed a deer in the rape field about 60 yards up from me. Apparently a young doe or fawn. Then two spring fawns crested the hill top and the larger of the two did not like the looks of the decoy! It started stomping and then hightailed it up the mowed trail spooking the other deer out of the rape field as well.

That was it for deer tonight. There were several late shotgun blasts somewhere in the valley. Never ceases to amaze me how you can shoot a shot gun at a deer when you can hardly see your hand in front of your face.

Tomorrow its back down to the water hole or perhaps the bowl in back where that slugger Crabclaw was last Saturday morn.

The new moon soon Jim...  the lock downs kind of late for you, right?

Still in lock down mode. Saw two does only this am and I managed to move at exactly the wrong time. I hadn't seen them till they spooked.

Gusty south wind this afternoon got to decide where to go.........

suppose to drop down to around 10 mph by 4! It is starting to pick up again over here! Chasing pretty hard right at dark last night and have had a bunch of deer/vehicle claims today from last night!

while doing some chores around the yurt at 12 :30 I looked down the picked and chopped corn field and saw a young buck running with his nose to the ground. he went up the side hill and zigzagged his way up to the timber his nose never more then 6 inches off the ground. Now that is what a deer hunter loves to see.!!

I decided to hunt the far SW corner of the farm in the cedar tree now affectionately known as the possum stand.  For awhile the wind was really switching back and forth. But finally around 4 pm it settled down and was perfect for this spot. If ever there was a night when I expected to see a buck , it was tonight. But it seems I have lost my mojo as there was nothing to watch but the birds in the cedars. walking out there were 1/2 a dozen deer in the food plot about midway down the field. Tomorrow if I go up top i will remember to get a photo of the food plot. its just amazing that about 1/3 of one field is nothing but stalks. The deer have stripped the leaves off clean!

Good Luck Jim.

While I didn't shoot a deer today it was an entertaining morning. I decided to hunt in the "sure thing" stand. Andy ivy was the last one to hunt out of it back on 10/30. I always question the best way to access this stand. Do I walk down the gravel road and then cut up the hillside or do I walk up in the old pasture and follow the edge of the timber all the way to the stand.? I am never sure which way may alert more bedded deer. Today I chose the road, it seemed like the quieter approach.

Once again I was very dismayed at the number of gun shots fired in the valley before it was legal to shoot. I counted seven. Hell the first four went off when it still so dark I couldn't see the forest floor from my stand!! There are some real SOBS out there.

Any way the first deer I spotted was right at first light. It was down below me about 100 yards walking on the mowed trail I walked on once i got off the road. It had its nose down and was either trailing a doe or me. Ended up being me. It finally got a nose fill and took off like a race horse in the other direction.

Shortly after turkeys roosted up above me on rattlesnake ridge started to talk. The hens were really vocal. A young tom tried his first gobble. Sounded like a gobble crossed with a yodel! I laughed out loud then  I remembered where I was!

They started bailing out and one soared all the way down to other side of the valley and into the timber above the prairie grass!

 

Listening to the turkeys talk I noticed three deer walking in the mowed fire break on the opposite side of the valley.  They were moving right to left and heading right for the stand over there!. Darn!@! But I should have paying attention over here in stead.
   

I heard the smallest noise and looked down past my arrow point and the torso of a deer was in that little gap beneath that first oak you see in the above photo. it had stopped and apparently was on to me. The thermals were still dropping my scent down hill and she had me all ready. She turned and then I saw a 2nd doe behind her as well. Darn They were coming right where I needed them!! A second later they went flagging down the hill, crossed the creek , then the road and up the other side of the valley. After a week of getting shot at by the gun hunters there is zero tolerance with scent or noise now.

9 am came and it was time to head in to work. I bumped one fawn from its bed and found this rub on the way in. Hope the dude who made it is still walking the earth.

Didn't hunt last night went to dinner with the Mrs. instead.

Jay Cornell (old lodge skins ) on trad gang came back to hunt. He has a story to tell and will share it upon his return home tomorrow. Until then here is a teaser.

Look at the body on that Brute!!!

Can't wait to hear the story  

To many deer at 5 pines ... somebody had to connect !!!! Congrats!!!!!


 

What a hog of a buck!  Looking forward to the full details on that one!

That is one fine buck!

Lookin' forward to the story.

Enjoy the feast!

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

That thing has a HUGE body, and the bone is not bad either. Congrats!!  

I can imagine how this one starts....

So Jim takes the night off, I decide to sit his favorite stand....   :rolleyes:        

What a nice Buck!  Looking forward to the story!!!

one more teaser

he made an excellent shot and had an excellent guide!

Way to go!!

"and had an excellent guide!"

No doubt