TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Thanks for the support. It's early enough in the season that there seems unlimited potential. I'll just keep trying to make the most of each of my opportunities. Same as all of you I'm sure.
TheBenHoyle's 2018 Fall hunts (Turkey, Deer, Waterfowl)
- Thread starter TheBenHoyle
- Start date
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Well I made contact with my dad's friend and I have a plan in place for Saturday. There's a chance for rain in the midday/evening, but I have high hopes for the morning and I am not against sitting in the rain if the deer are on their feet. Now all I have to do is sit through 6.5 hours of staring at spreadsheets. Anyone who thinks sitting out in the cold is tough should try sitting through a few staff meetings on the day before a hunt...
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Well, It is time for me to pick up the thread and add to it my Saturday adventures.
For sake of ease, I will refer to my Dad's Friend who invited me out as DF.
I was at DF's house well before sun up and had a nice little chat with him and his wife, great people who are always fun to talk with. DF asked me if I wanted to use his ozone machine up on the stand. I had never used one and I know they are expensive, I try to be aware of the wind and take care reducing my scent, but I figured getting to use one for free might be worthwhile, so I tucked it into my backpack. And after throwing my bow and gear into his truck we drove up the road to the stand he was going to put me in.
This is (or was) dairy country and the spot I was hunting was an old cow pasture. The farmer probably hasn't had cows in 20 years, and the pasture had been a draw that wasn't really fit for row cropping, so it is now just a grassy meadow with some large oak trees interspersed. I was in a gigantic Burr Oak right along the edge of the farm lane that ran along the edge of the pasture and then across the ag fields at the top of the hill. I was pretty close to the top of the draw and DF explained that in the grassy area I was overlooking there was a line of scrapes that the bucks checked regularly.
I get into the tree and he drives off and I start getting myself settled in. I put the ozone machine bracket in to the tree and pull out the machine to set it on the mount and Whoomp, the battery falls out of the bottom, into the dark. Then I dropped one of my hot hands packets... Then I realized I left my water bottle and coffee thermos in my truck. It was still well before shooting light so I got down from the tree and spent a few minutes crawling around with my flashlight but I couldn't find the battery or the hot hands anywhere.
So back up the tree I go, feeling like I am in idiot, but hoping that first light will bring deer to take my mind off of it.
Well, I did have some excitement but it wasn't until 8.
That's my view straight west. The Wind was coming from that direction so it was hard to look that way since it was cold and made my eyes very dry. But I looked over that direction and saw a buck running my way from over the top of the ridge from the left of the track. It looked like a 6 pointer but tall, It was moving fast so it might have been a better buck than I was giving it credit for, but since I have never harvested a deer, I was hoping I would get a shot. When it got to the track, it slowed down and walked directly at me somewhat slowly. But he wasn't looking up in the tree, his eyes were fixed on something down the track. I didn't want to move, because I was fairly hopeful that he would cross the track and head to my right to check the scrapes.
In the script, he would have walked around on the other side of that Red Oak, giving me time to get my bow. BUT INSTEAD, as soon as he stepped on the grass on this side of the track, ho lowered his head and darted straight down in front of the red oak and behind these red oaks.
I couldn't see him any more and in my mind he was running to the next county. I did hear some noises back there later and I was trying so hard to see through the trees, but I couldn't. When I finally did get down about 10:30 I found two sets of tracks running parallel just west of my Burr Oak and I think he saw another deer and ran to challenge or greet it. It was all very exciting and I did eventually find the battery and the hot hands at the bottom of the tree.
I was cold and DF came and picked me up telling me he had a different place for me to sit in the afternoon. So I headed into town to my parents' house. They split time between Illinois, where I grew up and South Dakota where they grew up and it just so happened that they were in town. I was able to catch up with them. Grab a nice nap and have some homemade chicken dumpling soup.
Not bad for an October Saturday morning.
For sake of ease, I will refer to my Dad's Friend who invited me out as DF.
I was at DF's house well before sun up and had a nice little chat with him and his wife, great people who are always fun to talk with. DF asked me if I wanted to use his ozone machine up on the stand. I had never used one and I know they are expensive, I try to be aware of the wind and take care reducing my scent, but I figured getting to use one for free might be worthwhile, so I tucked it into my backpack. And after throwing my bow and gear into his truck we drove up the road to the stand he was going to put me in.
This is (or was) dairy country and the spot I was hunting was an old cow pasture. The farmer probably hasn't had cows in 20 years, and the pasture had been a draw that wasn't really fit for row cropping, so it is now just a grassy meadow with some large oak trees interspersed. I was in a gigantic Burr Oak right along the edge of the farm lane that ran along the edge of the pasture and then across the ag fields at the top of the hill. I was pretty close to the top of the draw and DF explained that in the grassy area I was overlooking there was a line of scrapes that the bucks checked regularly.
I get into the tree and he drives off and I start getting myself settled in. I put the ozone machine bracket in to the tree and pull out the machine to set it on the mount and Whoomp, the battery falls out of the bottom, into the dark. Then I dropped one of my hot hands packets... Then I realized I left my water bottle and coffee thermos in my truck. It was still well before shooting light so I got down from the tree and spent a few minutes crawling around with my flashlight but I couldn't find the battery or the hot hands anywhere.
So back up the tree I go, feeling like I am in idiot, but hoping that first light will bring deer to take my mind off of it.
Well, I did have some excitement but it wasn't until 8.
That's my view straight west. The Wind was coming from that direction so it was hard to look that way since it was cold and made my eyes very dry. But I looked over that direction and saw a buck running my way from over the top of the ridge from the left of the track. It looked like a 6 pointer but tall, It was moving fast so it might have been a better buck than I was giving it credit for, but since I have never harvested a deer, I was hoping I would get a shot. When it got to the track, it slowed down and walked directly at me somewhat slowly. But he wasn't looking up in the tree, his eyes were fixed on something down the track. I didn't want to move, because I was fairly hopeful that he would cross the track and head to my right to check the scrapes.
In the script, he would have walked around on the other side of that Red Oak, giving me time to get my bow. BUT INSTEAD, as soon as he stepped on the grass on this side of the track, ho lowered his head and darted straight down in front of the red oak and behind these red oaks.
I couldn't see him any more and in my mind he was running to the next county. I did hear some noises back there later and I was trying so hard to see through the trees, but I couldn't. When I finally did get down about 10:30 I found two sets of tracks running parallel just west of my Burr Oak and I think he saw another deer and ran to challenge or greet it. It was all very exciting and I did eventually find the battery and the hot hands at the bottom of the tree.
I was cold and DF came and picked me up telling me he had a different place for me to sit in the afternoon. So I headed into town to my parents' house. They split time between Illinois, where I grew up and South Dakota where they grew up and it just so happened that they were in town. I was able to catch up with them. Grab a nice nap and have some homemade chicken dumpling soup.
Not bad for an October Saturday morning.
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
So on Saturday afternoon, I was back out about 3 hours before sunset. I was in a stand that DF's son in law (henceforth SIL) normally sits in. It is situated straight east of where I sat in the morning about 1/2 mile and I actually came in from the east along the edge of two corn fields that hadn't been picked.
You can just see the tops of the trees that I would be sitting in on the right edge of that pic poking above the corn.
As I am walking I see all sorts of deer tracks, I'm basically on the local deer super highway.
I was a little afraid of making all the noise of walking in along the corn and the wind was at my back, which made me worry that I was just scenting up the place where I would sit, but in the end I got to my spot without spot or bumping anything.
That's my view looking to the south. After I got settled in, I texted DF and he told me that SIL was in a stand in that tree you can just barely see on the other side of the field directly south.
That's my view just to the right, looking south west.
That's my view to the right of that, looking west.
I still had that ozone machine and so I put it up in the tree, being careful to keep the battery from falling out this time. And I settled in to wait for some action.
A quick note: This is the third season I am deer hunting. In the first season, I hunted a lot (at least once a week for 14 weeks) and I saw 5 deer. I shot at 3 of them, but for various reasons, I was unsuccessful. Each time I tried to learn form the failures and look forward to trying things differently but mostly I just sat outside a lot wondering where the deer were. In the second season I hunted a lot, maybe not as much as the year before, but I tried to shift my efforts to higher quality opportunities. I saw 11 deer, but only had 1 shot. It was an 11 yard straight broadside, but my arrow came of the 21 year old rest and I shot the buck in its hoof... It ran off and I never had another opportunity for a shot all season.
So here I am, desperate to see a deer (any deer) so that I can take a shot and harvest some venison. I was hopeful that I would be overrun with opportunities like you see in the hunting videos, but secretly afraid I would only see one deer and not get a shot. So you can imagine how I felt when I looked down to my left (west) and saw a little forky at the base of my tree. Part of me was thinking you're not going to get a shot because he's already here and you're not ready, but another part of me said you have to try.
Well he is on the move and headed to the field edge and there's too much brushy stuff to get a shot. and then he turns almost 180 and starts heading back the other way. He's about 10 yards out and going to be broadside so I decide I am going to try to stop him with a "meh." I have at this point never attempted this, but I have seen it on videos, and I figure if I don't try it, he's gone. So I try it and glory be, he stops dead in his tracks. Unfortunately, he is behind the "canopy" of a leafless sapling and I can see that there is no way I can shoot him and be sure it's not going to deflect off one of those braches. If I had waited one more second to stop him he would have been in the open... Well he decides to turn and walk straight west about 20-25 more yards before turning broadside again. So now he is about 30-35 yards from me and I decided I should take my shot. I probably shouldn't have since I am not as confident with my aim beyond 30 yards, but I was very worried that this was the only deer I would see and I felt he had gotten one over on me by sneaking in so close to me. So I let fly. And it went right over his back. I'm not sure if it deflected or if my form broke down and I pulled my shot or if I just didn't have him ranged correctly, but he disappeared straight away to the west.
About a half hour later, I looked back over my shoulder to the right and north of me there was a bit of a gully and a little doe was creeping up out of there. I shifted a little so I could observe. She was very skittish and didn't really come out in the open. As she was drifting west into the scrub a buck with one forky antler and nothing on the other side came up on her trail. For some reason, he spun off to the northwest and stood behind a group of tree trunks and just observed everything. He wasn't particularly well screened but I found it amazing that I could be looking right at him and if I lost my concentration, he disappeared to me until he would shift his nose or flick his ear. He eventually decided to circle back around closer to me, but still out of range. Then I noticed that the doe was still around. He followed her into some thick stuff to the west and then she popped out of it and headed south to the field edge. I kinda thought he might follow her, but SIL told me that he saw him pop out of the woods about 150 yards west of me.
Well that little doe was at the edge of the field and she came walking back to the east towards me. So I get my bow in hand, hoping that she will come by about 25 yards in an open shooting lane. Just before she got to the opening she went on alert and something she could see in the field made her run back into the woods right over by me, just to the south west of me about 15 yards. I pulled back and let fly, but I probably should have tried to stop her first because as soon as she heard my bow she shot forward about 10 yards. Another miss. But she was still there, just on the other side of a tree, now about 25 yards away. So I wait and watch, hoping she will come into the open when she calms down. About 10 minutes later, she slowly creeps out on the north side of that tree truck and stops. I pull back and let fly. It is headed right where I want it and wham, she pulls a 180 and I see her should disappear like magic and my arrow passes through empty air. All I can tell you is that it all happened so fast and I was picturing golfers who throw their clubs in the lake after missing a putt.
But I still had about an hour and a half before the end of the hunt, so I sat back and tried to keep my spirits up. I did notice that all of that action happened to the west in which my scent should have been a very big deal, but none of those animals seemed to have picked up my scent. I'm not sure if I will find the $300 I would need to get my own ozone machine, but it was interesting to see that it was working, I think.
About a half hour later, I hear a commotion on my left and look down and see a doe with a buck in hot pursuit. They are headed south and so quickly that by the time I was able to process what I saw they were halfway across the field. That doe ran to about 30 yards shy of the tree where SIL was sitting and just stopped. The buck stopped about 20 yards short of her and a bit further west. I was watching pretty closely thinking that SIL might get a shot, or maybe the buck would chase her back or lose interest and come trotting back. But it was just a stand off. About 10 minutes of them just standing there.
At this point I hear more of that same type of commotion from the same direction. This time it is a lone buck and instead of running to the field edge, he stops right even with my stand on my left. And he is presenting a broadside shot at 15 yards, and he looks like an 8 point with nice big shoulders. I grab my bow, and even though I don't really need to move I lean forward just a hair, at which point the carabiner on my harness slides into the metal ladder with an audible clunk. At which point the buck shoots forward like he was coming out of a cannon. But he only ran to the field edge. He stops there and starts working his way to the west. And I realize that in about 10 feet he is going to offer me another shot opportunity albeit at 30 yards instead of 15. So I pull back and wait for him to get into position. I tried to take my time, to get my form right. I felt good about everything right up until the point my arrow flew right over his back...
So that is four arrows in the dirt and zero deer on the dirt. It was very frustrating, especially since that last one was right on yardage wise and I know I didn't use the wrong pin. I can only surmise that it deflected off a little branch somewhere out there. But at the same time, I saw nearly as many deer on Saturday as I did the entire 1st season I was out. And I chose to view my failures in the same way that Edison looked at his work on inventing the light bulb. I just learned 4 new way to not harvest a deer. I just have to remember not to do those next time.
I do feel like this experience taught me a lot and I am looking forward to next weekend when I should be able to get back out there. I gotta keep hunting though, because my wife would be pretty upset with me if I took my bow and threw it in the lake.
You can just see the tops of the trees that I would be sitting in on the right edge of that pic poking above the corn.
As I am walking I see all sorts of deer tracks, I'm basically on the local deer super highway.
I was a little afraid of making all the noise of walking in along the corn and the wind was at my back, which made me worry that I was just scenting up the place where I would sit, but in the end I got to my spot without spot or bumping anything.
That's my view looking to the south. After I got settled in, I texted DF and he told me that SIL was in a stand in that tree you can just barely see on the other side of the field directly south.
That's my view just to the right, looking south west.
That's my view to the right of that, looking west.
I still had that ozone machine and so I put it up in the tree, being careful to keep the battery from falling out this time. And I settled in to wait for some action.
A quick note: This is the third season I am deer hunting. In the first season, I hunted a lot (at least once a week for 14 weeks) and I saw 5 deer. I shot at 3 of them, but for various reasons, I was unsuccessful. Each time I tried to learn form the failures and look forward to trying things differently but mostly I just sat outside a lot wondering where the deer were. In the second season I hunted a lot, maybe not as much as the year before, but I tried to shift my efforts to higher quality opportunities. I saw 11 deer, but only had 1 shot. It was an 11 yard straight broadside, but my arrow came of the 21 year old rest and I shot the buck in its hoof... It ran off and I never had another opportunity for a shot all season.
So here I am, desperate to see a deer (any deer) so that I can take a shot and harvest some venison. I was hopeful that I would be overrun with opportunities like you see in the hunting videos, but secretly afraid I would only see one deer and not get a shot. So you can imagine how I felt when I looked down to my left (west) and saw a little forky at the base of my tree. Part of me was thinking you're not going to get a shot because he's already here and you're not ready, but another part of me said you have to try.
Well he is on the move and headed to the field edge and there's too much brushy stuff to get a shot. and then he turns almost 180 and starts heading back the other way. He's about 10 yards out and going to be broadside so I decide I am going to try to stop him with a "meh." I have at this point never attempted this, but I have seen it on videos, and I figure if I don't try it, he's gone. So I try it and glory be, he stops dead in his tracks. Unfortunately, he is behind the "canopy" of a leafless sapling and I can see that there is no way I can shoot him and be sure it's not going to deflect off one of those braches. If I had waited one more second to stop him he would have been in the open... Well he decides to turn and walk straight west about 20-25 more yards before turning broadside again. So now he is about 30-35 yards from me and I decided I should take my shot. I probably shouldn't have since I am not as confident with my aim beyond 30 yards, but I was very worried that this was the only deer I would see and I felt he had gotten one over on me by sneaking in so close to me. So I let fly. And it went right over his back. I'm not sure if it deflected or if my form broke down and I pulled my shot or if I just didn't have him ranged correctly, but he disappeared straight away to the west.
About a half hour later, I looked back over my shoulder to the right and north of me there was a bit of a gully and a little doe was creeping up out of there. I shifted a little so I could observe. She was very skittish and didn't really come out in the open. As she was drifting west into the scrub a buck with one forky antler and nothing on the other side came up on her trail. For some reason, he spun off to the northwest and stood behind a group of tree trunks and just observed everything. He wasn't particularly well screened but I found it amazing that I could be looking right at him and if I lost my concentration, he disappeared to me until he would shift his nose or flick his ear. He eventually decided to circle back around closer to me, but still out of range. Then I noticed that the doe was still around. He followed her into some thick stuff to the west and then she popped out of it and headed south to the field edge. I kinda thought he might follow her, but SIL told me that he saw him pop out of the woods about 150 yards west of me.
Well that little doe was at the edge of the field and she came walking back to the east towards me. So I get my bow in hand, hoping that she will come by about 25 yards in an open shooting lane. Just before she got to the opening she went on alert and something she could see in the field made her run back into the woods right over by me, just to the south west of me about 15 yards. I pulled back and let fly, but I probably should have tried to stop her first because as soon as she heard my bow she shot forward about 10 yards. Another miss. But she was still there, just on the other side of a tree, now about 25 yards away. So I wait and watch, hoping she will come into the open when she calms down. About 10 minutes later, she slowly creeps out on the north side of that tree truck and stops. I pull back and let fly. It is headed right where I want it and wham, she pulls a 180 and I see her should disappear like magic and my arrow passes through empty air. All I can tell you is that it all happened so fast and I was picturing golfers who throw their clubs in the lake after missing a putt.
But I still had about an hour and a half before the end of the hunt, so I sat back and tried to keep my spirits up. I did notice that all of that action happened to the west in which my scent should have been a very big deal, but none of those animals seemed to have picked up my scent. I'm not sure if I will find the $300 I would need to get my own ozone machine, but it was interesting to see that it was working, I think.
About a half hour later, I hear a commotion on my left and look down and see a doe with a buck in hot pursuit. They are headed south and so quickly that by the time I was able to process what I saw they were halfway across the field. That doe ran to about 30 yards shy of the tree where SIL was sitting and just stopped. The buck stopped about 20 yards short of her and a bit further west. I was watching pretty closely thinking that SIL might get a shot, or maybe the buck would chase her back or lose interest and come trotting back. But it was just a stand off. About 10 minutes of them just standing there.
At this point I hear more of that same type of commotion from the same direction. This time it is a lone buck and instead of running to the field edge, he stops right even with my stand on my left. And he is presenting a broadside shot at 15 yards, and he looks like an 8 point with nice big shoulders. I grab my bow, and even though I don't really need to move I lean forward just a hair, at which point the carabiner on my harness slides into the metal ladder with an audible clunk. At which point the buck shoots forward like he was coming out of a cannon. But he only ran to the field edge. He stops there and starts working his way to the west. And I realize that in about 10 feet he is going to offer me another shot opportunity albeit at 30 yards instead of 15. So I pull back and wait for him to get into position. I tried to take my time, to get my form right. I felt good about everything right up until the point my arrow flew right over his back...
So that is four arrows in the dirt and zero deer on the dirt. It was very frustrating, especially since that last one was right on yardage wise and I know I didn't use the wrong pin. I can only surmise that it deflected off a little branch somewhere out there. But at the same time, I saw nearly as many deer on Saturday as I did the entire 1st season I was out. And I chose to view my failures in the same way that Edison looked at his work on inventing the light bulb. I just learned 4 new way to not harvest a deer. I just have to remember not to do those next time.
I do feel like this experience taught me a lot and I am looking forward to next weekend when I should be able to get back out there. I gotta keep hunting though, because my wife would be pretty upset with me if I took my bow and threw it in the lake.
duckhunt
Well-known member
Sounds like buck fever to me. We all get it. Stick with it and it will happen.
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
You always hear NFL commentators talking about rookie quarterbacks and how the game is so fast, but eventually the game slows down for them and they become more effective. I feel like that right now. A deer shows up and it is all happening so fast and there are so many little things to do. I worry about having enough time and then I rush my shot. But if anything, I have seen that there is likely to be plenty of time and if there isn't, I didn't really have a shot anyway. I'll get there. Thanks for the encouragement.
Crossbowguy
Well-known member
I've been hunting deer since I was 14 years old and I'm 42 now, I still get excited, taking the time to calm down is key in being successful. I had a small window to shoot this year and rushed a shot and missed this year, it happens.... Even with someone with almost 30 years experience. I'm just glad I didn't wound the animal and have another chance to get after him. Keep trying and it will happen!!!!
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Well there is snow on the ground and a nice little cold front in Northern Illinois. I'll be outside all day tomorrow looking to make a good shot.
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Long Story Short: Success!!!!
Long Story Long: I'm exhausted after a weekend full of hunting, I'll upload more pictures and tell the whole story of how I got my first deer tomorrow. Stay tuned, I think it is a pretty good story.
Long Story Long: I'm exhausted after a weekend full of hunting, I'll upload more pictures and tell the whole story of how I got my first deer tomorrow. Stay tuned, I think it is a pretty good story.
duckhunt
Well-known member
Good job
dirtclod Az.
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2018
- Messages
- 2,776
Good ob Ben,waiting on story.
Crossbowguy
Well-known member
Awesome Buck Congrats!
rmyoung1
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
- Messages
- 2,409
Nice work! Congratulations
LCH
Well-known member
Pretty buck!
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Hey thanks for all the compliments. Sorry to keep you waiting on the story. Here goes.
Saturday I was going to man up and spend all day outside in the belief that if you are out there you won't miss a single opportunity to see a deer. Despite the cold (high in the upper 20s I believe) I bundled up in hopes that the cold front would force them to be up on their feet. Now I usually try to get to my spot a half hour at least before legal shooting light, but thanks to the DayLight Savings folks, my two hour drive out to the hunting spot and my human need to sleep, I was walking in just a few minutes before legal shooting light. And as I am 30 yards from my stand at the field edge, I step on something that cracks loudly instead of crunching softly. Well that spooked a deer that must have been right near my stand cause I hear it run off and then start wheezing at me. Wind is coming my way and it is not very light yet so the deer is not sure what I am and is just not happy. I climb up the tree and get sat down and the whole time this deer is snorting a wheezing at me. It finally decided to head west but I could hear it snorting for a 1/4 mile.
And so I have my first moment of feeling like I should have gotten in earlier because then that deer might have walked right under my stand at first light instead of what happened. Oh well, the joys of hunting, but it is a long cold day to start by second guessing yourself.
At 7:45 I look up to see a buck cruising by me from right to left on the field edge. I don't know what to do, so I script out in my head what I want him to do and by the time I realize that he is not reading my script and I need to stop him, he has effectively passed all of my shooting lanes. I grunt and hang him up for a second or two but he crosses the fence line and I can't see him any more.
Around 10 I hear a snort and some crunching of leaves behind me (downwind) and I figure something must have been headed my way until it caught my scent.
Around 11 I get down to do a little bit of walking just to get my blood pumping. I found this turkey feather right at the field edge, which is nice. I always like to see turkey sign.
I also got a look at the terrain directly north of me and realized that there is a decent-sized gully that heads off to the west northwest. But I was afraid to go to far out and around since I didn't want to bump something that might decide to get up and head my way in the afternoon.
I did discover this freshly worked scrape about 50 yards west of me.
That was right near the field edge and in my field of vision from the stand but I hadn't been watching it and I wonder if that morning buck had been hanging out there before I saw him cruising by.
Anyway I go back up to sit and hope that something happens and about 1:30 I hear a chainsaw going. It sounds close and there are houses and farms all around me, so I figure it's just someone in their backyard. Then about 2:30 I see orange in the cornfield that I walked in through. And then I see pink. I get out my binos and discover that there are two little kids about 150 yards south of me right on the fenceline looking to the west into the picked corn field I am sitting along. Then i see their dad set down his chainsaw and join them. I can't see what they were looking at, but I am guessing it was deer and I'm pretty sure that the deer they saw also saw them and they decided not to continue their journey my way.
About 3:30, the woodcutters packed it in and headed away and I was getting pretty glum. But then at sunset 4:45 I see 5 deer enter the field about 1/4 south of me. I spent 5 minutes thinking they might come to me, but then I decided that I could get down and duck behind the fenceline and try to close the distance. At that point, any activity even foolhardy activity was welcome just to get the blood flowing. So down I went and stealthy as stumbling bear I slipped along the standing corn to get closer. Well it worked and I got pretty darn close with almost 10 minutes of legal shooting light, but thanks to the overcast nature of the day 10 minutes of legal shooting light meant the deer looked like black blobs on a dark gray background.
It was an exciting gambit and I wished I had decided to try it a little sooner, but I was happy I tried. I drove home kind of dejected thinking that I had just spent all of the light hours of the day freezing my ass off and hadn't much to show for it.
I got home and emptied my Pilot and started shucking all my layers and telling the story to my wife. I must have been pretty sorry sounding, because she suggested I go out the following day. I told her I was way too tired to try to get up in the morning and get back out there and she said, just go for the afternoon. Done deal. I love my wife guys, she smart and pretty and wonderful.
Sunday we all slept in and made bacon and eggs for breakfast. It was glorious. Although I was a little worried that even if I took a shower and hit myself with scent spray I was going to smell like bacon all day. As it was, due to the drive time an afternoon hunt means leaving in the mid morning, so it wasn't long before I was back on the road. When I got to the area, I drove around the neighborhood and I saw the chainsaw dad and his kids out in the field again, but this time they were in the Northeast corner down near the creek. That seemed ok to me since that would put them over a 1/4 mile from me and anything coming from that direction would be walking into my wind so I'd never see them anyway.
As I am walking in the daylight hours I notice just how many deer tracks there are.
It's almost like there is a deer superhighway running between these corn fields.
I am feeling pretty good about today, the sun is out and it is not as cold and the wind is not as brisk and I don't have to sit all day.
I used a scent drag and walked it along the deer trail leading it to a convenient shooting spot from my stand and making sure to loop the drag around to touch the scrape I found the day before. I climb into my tree about 2 and get ready for action. Almost immediately I see 3 deer in the far south side of the field chasing around. They duck into the fenceline in what I imagine to be a preparation to run up the deer superhighway and I am expecting them in short order.
At 2:30 I hear kids voices, the chainsaw starts up and there are the little orange and little pink hats back in the fenceline where I saw them the day before, about halfway between me and the deer I thought were chasing my direction. Roadblock. Very frustrating.
I sat there for a while thinking about whether I should get down and move west in the trees and just ground hunt or grin and bear it in hopes that we would head out at 3:30 like the day before. Finally I decided that with them there, the deer activity was at least temporarily frozen. Nothing was going to come from the south and the west as they would have to walk towards people to get to me. and the north was kind of out of the question as I has a southerly wind. So I got down and went for a little bit longer of a hike. I got down int he draw to my north and tried to still hunt my way to the west northwest. Of course I bumped a doe and then got to watch her try to figure out what was making the noise. I found a deer bed on a little rise with good views all around it.
I decided to freshen up my scent drag and I worked my way back up the draw to my stand. I got back up into the stand and the chainsaw is still going and so I decide to check my phone for the Bears game final score and right at that moment I see a deer down in that draw. I had a very limited view down into it, so I just caught a flash, but I thought it might come up and out if it was following the doe scent I laid down. But I didn't see anything more and I didn't hear anything more. So I went back to hating chainsaws.
Just about the time that I am seeing the chainsaw dad and kids pack it up and head out I hear leaves rustling right being me. At first I figured it was just squirrels, but with my head craned all the way to the left I can see a deer looking my direction just in the corner of my eye. I spend about 5 minutes doing micro-adjustments to my seat so I can finally see the deer with both of my eyes and my neck not twisted so bad. And it is a little buck and he is bedded down. He was nearly directly downwind of me, but somehow my scent must have been going up over him. I realized then that if you drew a straight line from him to the sun I was right in the middle of it, so I had the freedom to move a bit without him being able to pick up on it.
So I stood up and got my bow and took a picture of him. his just to the right on the tip of my arrow, you may have to zoom in. He's at 20 yards.
Well I am hoping that he gets up and walks to the south so I have an opportunity to catch him in a shooting lane, but instead I stand there for 45 minutes watching him snooze. I tried grunting at him a few times but he seemed to think other deer were not for him. And my hands, which had been warm enough with thin gloves in my pockets were freezing. My back was cramping up from leaning sideways against the tree. And I have a constant inner dialogue going that I should just try to poke him as he is at 20 yards. But there is enough little saplings that I am pretty sure I can't thread that needle. I just kept picturing my shot deflecting and either wounding the deer in a way that would make recovery difficult or missing entirely and sending him out of the neighborhood. Let me tell you those 45 minutes were torture.
Eventually I heard noise on the opposite side and I look up to see a doe at that scrape about 50-60 yards away. I think "great, I'll play matchmaker, grunt at her, get her to come over, he gets up to see her" one way or another I shoot him or her. Well she was interested, but since he was laying down, she never saw him and he may not have been able to see her. SO she drifted off to the west.
Finally, he got up and walked straight at me, but the sun had lowered enough that I was a little afraid to move much. And then he walked directly behind my tree, I rolled over to the other side to see him and he heard that. So he starts stamping and looking around. But he did circle back to the left side and came up and 10 yards broadside to me. I was afraid to move because how could he not see me, he was so close. But he was focused on something out in the field, so I drew back, settled my pin and let it fly.
It was so fast, He was there then he wasn't and my arrow was in the dirt. As has happened several times before. I am immediately thinking I missed, luckily he ran south which is relatively open and I could see the wound in his side. he ran about 40 yards and then just fell over, right at the field edge. I looked at it later and it was a pretty perfect heart lung shot. Guys I can't even tell you how amazed I was at how it all worked out. He is a young buck with 6 points and the start of brow tines that are too short to count, but that's not really the point. I have been hunting hard for two seasons and the beginning of this season and I finally did it. And I did it in a way that had me making good decisions and making a good clean kill. I do have more deer tags that I could fill but I think I am done for this season. I will get out to do some duck and goose hunting hopefully and I would gladly set up and some gobblers, but I got my deer for this year.
Funny follow up, DF brought his truck up into the field and told me what to do to get the field dressing done, which was not as difficult as I imagined. But as he pulls up and I meet him at the field edge in full view of everything, a buck chases a doe right past us, then she turns around and he chases her right back past us again. I could have stuck out my foot and tripped them.
Saturday I was going to man up and spend all day outside in the belief that if you are out there you won't miss a single opportunity to see a deer. Despite the cold (high in the upper 20s I believe) I bundled up in hopes that the cold front would force them to be up on their feet. Now I usually try to get to my spot a half hour at least before legal shooting light, but thanks to the DayLight Savings folks, my two hour drive out to the hunting spot and my human need to sleep, I was walking in just a few minutes before legal shooting light. And as I am 30 yards from my stand at the field edge, I step on something that cracks loudly instead of crunching softly. Well that spooked a deer that must have been right near my stand cause I hear it run off and then start wheezing at me. Wind is coming my way and it is not very light yet so the deer is not sure what I am and is just not happy. I climb up the tree and get sat down and the whole time this deer is snorting a wheezing at me. It finally decided to head west but I could hear it snorting for a 1/4 mile.
And so I have my first moment of feeling like I should have gotten in earlier because then that deer might have walked right under my stand at first light instead of what happened. Oh well, the joys of hunting, but it is a long cold day to start by second guessing yourself.
At 7:45 I look up to see a buck cruising by me from right to left on the field edge. I don't know what to do, so I script out in my head what I want him to do and by the time I realize that he is not reading my script and I need to stop him, he has effectively passed all of my shooting lanes. I grunt and hang him up for a second or two but he crosses the fence line and I can't see him any more.
Around 10 I hear a snort and some crunching of leaves behind me (downwind) and I figure something must have been headed my way until it caught my scent.
Around 11 I get down to do a little bit of walking just to get my blood pumping. I found this turkey feather right at the field edge, which is nice. I always like to see turkey sign.
I also got a look at the terrain directly north of me and realized that there is a decent-sized gully that heads off to the west northwest. But I was afraid to go to far out and around since I didn't want to bump something that might decide to get up and head my way in the afternoon.
I did discover this freshly worked scrape about 50 yards west of me.
That was right near the field edge and in my field of vision from the stand but I hadn't been watching it and I wonder if that morning buck had been hanging out there before I saw him cruising by.
Anyway I go back up to sit and hope that something happens and about 1:30 I hear a chainsaw going. It sounds close and there are houses and farms all around me, so I figure it's just someone in their backyard. Then about 2:30 I see orange in the cornfield that I walked in through. And then I see pink. I get out my binos and discover that there are two little kids about 150 yards south of me right on the fenceline looking to the west into the picked corn field I am sitting along. Then i see their dad set down his chainsaw and join them. I can't see what they were looking at, but I am guessing it was deer and I'm pretty sure that the deer they saw also saw them and they decided not to continue their journey my way.
About 3:30, the woodcutters packed it in and headed away and I was getting pretty glum. But then at sunset 4:45 I see 5 deer enter the field about 1/4 south of me. I spent 5 minutes thinking they might come to me, but then I decided that I could get down and duck behind the fenceline and try to close the distance. At that point, any activity even foolhardy activity was welcome just to get the blood flowing. So down I went and stealthy as stumbling bear I slipped along the standing corn to get closer. Well it worked and I got pretty darn close with almost 10 minutes of legal shooting light, but thanks to the overcast nature of the day 10 minutes of legal shooting light meant the deer looked like black blobs on a dark gray background.
It was an exciting gambit and I wished I had decided to try it a little sooner, but I was happy I tried. I drove home kind of dejected thinking that I had just spent all of the light hours of the day freezing my ass off and hadn't much to show for it.
I got home and emptied my Pilot and started shucking all my layers and telling the story to my wife. I must have been pretty sorry sounding, because she suggested I go out the following day. I told her I was way too tired to try to get up in the morning and get back out there and she said, just go for the afternoon. Done deal. I love my wife guys, she smart and pretty and wonderful.
Sunday we all slept in and made bacon and eggs for breakfast. It was glorious. Although I was a little worried that even if I took a shower and hit myself with scent spray I was going to smell like bacon all day. As it was, due to the drive time an afternoon hunt means leaving in the mid morning, so it wasn't long before I was back on the road. When I got to the area, I drove around the neighborhood and I saw the chainsaw dad and his kids out in the field again, but this time they were in the Northeast corner down near the creek. That seemed ok to me since that would put them over a 1/4 mile from me and anything coming from that direction would be walking into my wind so I'd never see them anyway.
As I am walking in the daylight hours I notice just how many deer tracks there are.
It's almost like there is a deer superhighway running between these corn fields.
I am feeling pretty good about today, the sun is out and it is not as cold and the wind is not as brisk and I don't have to sit all day.
I used a scent drag and walked it along the deer trail leading it to a convenient shooting spot from my stand and making sure to loop the drag around to touch the scrape I found the day before. I climb into my tree about 2 and get ready for action. Almost immediately I see 3 deer in the far south side of the field chasing around. They duck into the fenceline in what I imagine to be a preparation to run up the deer superhighway and I am expecting them in short order.
At 2:30 I hear kids voices, the chainsaw starts up and there are the little orange and little pink hats back in the fenceline where I saw them the day before, about halfway between me and the deer I thought were chasing my direction. Roadblock. Very frustrating.
I sat there for a while thinking about whether I should get down and move west in the trees and just ground hunt or grin and bear it in hopes that we would head out at 3:30 like the day before. Finally I decided that with them there, the deer activity was at least temporarily frozen. Nothing was going to come from the south and the west as they would have to walk towards people to get to me. and the north was kind of out of the question as I has a southerly wind. So I got down and went for a little bit longer of a hike. I got down int he draw to my north and tried to still hunt my way to the west northwest. Of course I bumped a doe and then got to watch her try to figure out what was making the noise. I found a deer bed on a little rise with good views all around it.
I decided to freshen up my scent drag and I worked my way back up the draw to my stand. I got back up into the stand and the chainsaw is still going and so I decide to check my phone for the Bears game final score and right at that moment I see a deer down in that draw. I had a very limited view down into it, so I just caught a flash, but I thought it might come up and out if it was following the doe scent I laid down. But I didn't see anything more and I didn't hear anything more. So I went back to hating chainsaws.
Just about the time that I am seeing the chainsaw dad and kids pack it up and head out I hear leaves rustling right being me. At first I figured it was just squirrels, but with my head craned all the way to the left I can see a deer looking my direction just in the corner of my eye. I spend about 5 minutes doing micro-adjustments to my seat so I can finally see the deer with both of my eyes and my neck not twisted so bad. And it is a little buck and he is bedded down. He was nearly directly downwind of me, but somehow my scent must have been going up over him. I realized then that if you drew a straight line from him to the sun I was right in the middle of it, so I had the freedom to move a bit without him being able to pick up on it.
So I stood up and got my bow and took a picture of him. his just to the right on the tip of my arrow, you may have to zoom in. He's at 20 yards.
Well I am hoping that he gets up and walks to the south so I have an opportunity to catch him in a shooting lane, but instead I stand there for 45 minutes watching him snooze. I tried grunting at him a few times but he seemed to think other deer were not for him. And my hands, which had been warm enough with thin gloves in my pockets were freezing. My back was cramping up from leaning sideways against the tree. And I have a constant inner dialogue going that I should just try to poke him as he is at 20 yards. But there is enough little saplings that I am pretty sure I can't thread that needle. I just kept picturing my shot deflecting and either wounding the deer in a way that would make recovery difficult or missing entirely and sending him out of the neighborhood. Let me tell you those 45 minutes were torture.
Eventually I heard noise on the opposite side and I look up to see a doe at that scrape about 50-60 yards away. I think "great, I'll play matchmaker, grunt at her, get her to come over, he gets up to see her" one way or another I shoot him or her. Well she was interested, but since he was laying down, she never saw him and he may not have been able to see her. SO she drifted off to the west.
Finally, he got up and walked straight at me, but the sun had lowered enough that I was a little afraid to move much. And then he walked directly behind my tree, I rolled over to the other side to see him and he heard that. So he starts stamping and looking around. But he did circle back to the left side and came up and 10 yards broadside to me. I was afraid to move because how could he not see me, he was so close. But he was focused on something out in the field, so I drew back, settled my pin and let it fly.
It was so fast, He was there then he wasn't and my arrow was in the dirt. As has happened several times before. I am immediately thinking I missed, luckily he ran south which is relatively open and I could see the wound in his side. he ran about 40 yards and then just fell over, right at the field edge. I looked at it later and it was a pretty perfect heart lung shot. Guys I can't even tell you how amazed I was at how it all worked out. He is a young buck with 6 points and the start of brow tines that are too short to count, but that's not really the point. I have been hunting hard for two seasons and the beginning of this season and I finally did it. And I did it in a way that had me making good decisions and making a good clean kill. I do have more deer tags that I could fill but I think I am done for this season. I will get out to do some duck and goose hunting hopefully and I would gladly set up and some gobblers, but I got my deer for this year.
Funny follow up, DF brought his truck up into the field and told me what to do to get the field dressing done, which was not as difficult as I imagined. But as he pulls up and I meet him at the field edge in full view of everything, a buck chases a doe right past us, then she turns around and he chases her right back past us again. I could have stuck out my foot and tripped them.
duckhunt
Well-known member
Thats awsome
