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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 
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.
 
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!