Final Trip of 2017

Last Wednesday I made my way to the cabin at lunch time. With cold temperatures and snow on the ground, I was really looking forward to hunting over my food plots as I knew the deer would be seeking out food in the evenings. With a bow tag still in his pocket, dad met me at the cabin but was only going to stay through Thursday, while I was staying through Friday.

On the first evening, with temps in the low single digits, I headed to the small field blind while dad headed to the big field. Dad's evening was slow while mine was anything but. I saw 3 young bucks, a doe and 2 fawns. With a doe tag in my pocket, I took aim at the doe, who was quartering towards me at about 30 yards and squeezed the trigger. It was really strange that the majority of the deer in the field didn't even really spook or react to the gunshot. The doe did run a little ways, but then stopped before slowly walking into the woods. With such a strange reaction, I wasn't sure what to expect. I got out of the blind and walked over to where she was standing to find a good amount of hair and a little blood. I headed back to the cabin to talk it over with dad and we decided to eat supper and wait an hour before pursuing her further.

View from the small field blind

After dinner, we headed back out to pick up the trail. We spent about an hour on a VERY small amount of blood and tracks without any luck before calling it off until morning. After the morning hunt, that produced no deer sightings, we did a body search but again turned up empty. My best guess is that I either skimmed her back or chest with the shot causing a minor flesh wound. I again was absolutely devastated. I have a lot of respect for the deer that I hunt and the last thing that I want to do is to wound an animal and this was the 3rd time that I had done just that this year. 

I carried that feeling into the evening hunt when I once again sat in the small field blind with dad back in the big field blind. The evening was slower than the previous one as I only had 2 fawns walk through the plot. After the hunt, dad cleaned the fresh snow from his truck and headed for home while I snuggled up with a blanket and a book before drifting off to sleep. In the morning, I decided to stay mobile to keep from getting too cold and to start doing some scouting for next season (it is never too early). I walked a few miles and found some potential tree stand spots but only managed to see 1 fawn while I was out walking.

View of the Des Moines river bottom in the distance

I spent the afternoon packing and starting to load the truck before heading back to the small field blind again. Just after 4:30, 2 fawns and a doe stepped into the field from the East. I lined up the muzzleloader on the doe and again squeezed the trigger. This time, the sabot hit the mark right behind her shoulder. She only made it about 40 yards before expiring in the woods. 

The snow made for an easy track job

I was thrilled to punch a tag for the season and am very much looking forward to my final trip of the season with my neighbor, Brent, next weekend. It is always a little sad too as it signifies the end of deer season for me. Of course, in true Patrick fashion, I'm already planning for what I'm going to do in the off season and making plans for next fall as well.

Gun Season Success

On December 19th I headed for the cabin with a couple of late muzzleloader deer tags in my pocket. I met dad down there in time for an evening hunt. With temperatures near 50 degrees and no cool down in sight, I wasn't sure how the hunting would be. I headed for a tree stand on the South end of the small food plot while dad headed for the big field food plot. For me, it was a very uneventful evening in the stand, but with about 20 minutes of shooting time left, I was startled by the sound of a single shot to my Southwest. I waited for a phone call that finally came once I made it back to the cabin after shooting time.

Dad told me that he had shot a big buck. He had marked the spot that the deer was standing when he shot and followed the path towards the ridge stand until he found some blood. It was getting dark enough that we decided to regroup at the cabin to grab the spot light and deer cart. As soon as we reached the start of the ATV trail I found a good blood trail and followed it right to where dad had marked blood about 20 yards down the trail. It seemed strange that such a good blood trail stopped so abruptly, so we decided to continue down the trail to the ridge food plot. We spent the next 15 minutes walking down each deer trail leading out of the plot looking for more blood or the deer unsuccessfully. Dad mentioned that he had thought he heard the deer crashing closer to the edge of the woods, so we decided to make our way back to the last blood we found.

To paint a picture for you, due to some timber edge feathering that I had done a few years ago, the ATV trail is surrounded on both sides by impenetrable thick brush and undergrowth consisting of a lot of black locust, blackberries, and multi-floral rose. We were discussing the possibility of leaving the deer over night and returning in the morning to do a body search with more light. I decided in 1 last ditch effort, to take the spot light and shine into the thick brush on each side of the trail into and out of the woods. It took about 10 seconds for me to find the buck about 20 feet from the blood that dad had originally marked. Now it made sense why the blood trail had ended so abruptly but we still have no idea how that deer managed to get to where he ended up.

How did he get back there?

After the initial excitement, I offered to climb back in there to pull the buck out. I had to crawl on my hands and knees while trying to avoid prickly branches and vines on the way in and managed to only get stuck good a few times. I snapped a few pictures when I got back in there and then pulled him out to the ATV trail for a better look. 

Finally managed to get back in to where he fell

Dad with his biggest buck EVER

Obviously dad could tell the story better than I can, but I will do my best. At just after 4:50 pm, a doe came into the food plot from just South of where dad was sitting. Dad considered shooting the doe before noticing this buck following behind her. Shortly after the buck stepped into the SW corner of the food plot, he presented dad with a 30 yard perfectly broad side shot. Dad made a perfect double lung shot and the buck was down in about 70 yards. I could not be any more excited even if I had shot that buck myself. I love hunting with my dad and it warms my heart when he has success. 

For the 3rd year in a row, we have managed to put at least 1 big buck on the ground and the season isn't over yet. I believe that this big 8 pointer is an older dear. I'm not super good at estimating age, but his body size, blocky head, and roman nose makes me believe that he is at least 4 1/2 years old. Field dressed weight was just over 160 lbs, putting him at about 210-220 lbs live weight. He is one of the biggest deer that we have shot down there, 2nd only to the buck that I shot during late muzzleloader 2 years ago (we believe that deer was around 250 lbs). 

Compared to the first evening, the remainder of the trip was fairly uneventful. The next morning, I decided to still hunt my way through a major bedding ridge on the DNR land. I did see 2 fawns and managed to spook another deer that I never saw, but that was it. That evening, I sat in the big field blind and had a 1 1/2 year old spike buck come into 25 yards and opted to pass on him. The next morning I headed to the DNR/County line stand which is about a 1 mile walk from the cabin. In hind sight, I should have waited until it was daylight to head to the stand because I managed to spook a lot of deer on my way to that stand. It was obvious they had been out in my food plots in the dark and were headed back to bed. If I had waited, I may have been able to see them first and maybe even gotten a shot. My time in the stand produced no more sightings. After 2 1/2 hours sitting in the rain that evening, I headed for home. 

Although I didn't punch a tag this trip, I did take away several things that have me looking forward to going back to hunt this week. For starters, the temperatures have dropped significantly and there is a couple of inches of snow on the ground. I have the best food around and the deer should be using my food plots regularly. Also, my small field food plot has been nearly demolished, there is still food there, but I don't think it will be lasting much longer. In addition, the trail camera that I had on that plot took over 2,000 pictures of deer during the first 2 weeks of December. 

Half eaten turnips and open dirt is most of what remains in the small field

Plenty of food left in the big field

I have a lot to look forward to during my last 2 trips of the year. In addition to the buck that dad shot, we are still getting pictures nearly every day of 2 mature bucks that I have had around all season, along with 5 other mature bucks that have shown up since the rut. Although I only have 1 set of pictures so far in December, I am still holding out hopes that a monster 8 pointer that I had on camera during the rut is still around too. I have never had this many big deer on the property during late season, so that is helping to keep me excited as I head back to the cabin tomorrow. 

One Last Chance Before Gun Season

With a couple of extra days of PTO to take before the holidays (I have 17 days scheduled off work starting December 15), I decided to head down for a quick hunt before the early bow season split ended and the shotgun seasons started up. I left work early on November 30th and headed to Bass Pro Shops to pick up my boat on the way to the cabin. I got down to the cabin with plenty of time to get the boat stowed away, change, and head out to the county land stand.

Beautiful afternoon to be in the outdoors

Dad didn't get off work until 1:00, but had decided at the last minute to head down and hunt with me as well. He made it to the cabin with about an hour and a half of shooting time left and headed to the Ridge tree stand. On my way to the stand, I spooked a doe and dad saw some deer in the big food plot in the dark on his way back in but neither of us saw anything from the stand. It turns out that we should have found a way to sit on the food plots that evening because the trail cameras showed that they filled up with deer just before dark. 

The next morning, I headed to the DNR stand just south of my property line while dad headed to the cabin stand. With a clear night and a moon that was nearly full coupled with warm daytime temperatures, I didn't expect to see much in the morning and I was completely correct. Even though there were squirrels running around everywhere, there were no deer in sight. 

Sitting a pinch point overlooking an oak ridge on the DNR land

Even with the warm temps, I had high hopes for the evening. We really haven't hunted the food plots much this year at all and deer have been showing up in both the big and small field each evening. With a South wind, we would have to hunt the box blinds on each field. The small field food plot is long and narrow with most of the deer coming out of the far south end. With the blind on the north end, I knew it was very unlikely that they would make it all the way up into bow range before dark. With this in mind, over our lunch break I grabbed a tree stand and we headed over to the small food plot to find a tree on the east side closer to where the deer come out. 

The tree we found was leaning quite a bit, but we made it work and got a couple of good shooting lanes out into the plot. After a quick lunch and changing out of sweat soaked clothes, we headed back out, me to the new tree stand and dad to the big field blind. 

Looking northwest from the new tree stand

At about 4:30, a doe came into the food plot from the south and worked up the field edge just in front of me. Even though she was up wind and I was completely still and hiding behind a tree, just before she stepped into my shooting lane at 6 yards, she figured out something wasn't quite right. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, she would work her way into the food plot and back into the woods 5 times keeping her eyes on me the entire time. Finally, at about 5:00, she decided to take off up the food plot and head to the bean field to the north. As she went behind a tree (far left of the picture above) she was about 35 yards and I took the chance to draw back. She must have caught a little movement because she stopped immediately. after standing for about a minute, she turned around again and started heading back to the woods. She was too far out in the field for a shot in the opening to my left. My only chance was a small hole through tree limbs just before she reached the woods, but I had to sit down to make that shot. I had been at full draw for about 3 minutes and didn't have an exact distance on the shot. I guessed at 25 yards and with her on edge I figured she would drop a little so I put my 20 yard pin on her vitals and released the arrow. 

The arrow appears to miss low and my heart sank a little as she ran off into the woods. I grabbed my range finder and ranged the arrow at 35 yards (so she was probably just a couple closer than that). With just a few minutes of shooting time left, I got down and retrieved my arrow. Upon further inspection I must have actually hit her just below the arm pit as there was white hair and a little fat on the arrow with no blood. I checked the trail that she ran into the woods on and confirmed there was no blood. I walked further into the woods just to make sure, but it definitely wasn't a vital hit. On my way back to the cabin, I spooked about a dozen does and fawns out of the bean field to the north of my property. 

It took dad awhile to make his way back to the cabin as well because he had a similar experience. 2 bucks had come out into the big field food plot around 4:30 as well and took a long time to work their way close enough for a shot. The buck he shot at was quartering away slightly and wheeled away at the sound of dads shot. The arrow glanced off the bucks shoulder without penetrating at all. The buck didn't really know what happened and only ran a little ways before stopping and looking around and eventually wandering off. It took dad awhile to find the arrow in the dark as it deflected up and away from the deer. 

This was my 4th hunting trip of the year, and it ended up being another good one. We didn't see the numbers this time but I attribute that to the warm weather. The food plots have done very well, and with dad and I both having a late season muzzleloader tag along with our archery tags still in our pockets, it should be a GREAT late season! Oh, and all the extra time off work will help with that too. I plan to hunt the food plots in the evenings and try to do some still hunting and hunting from the ground near thick bedding areas on public ground in the mornings. 

Thanksgiving Vacation Hunting

In the last week, I made 2 trips down to the cabin for some more bow hunting before the gun seasons came in. On the evening of Thanksgiving I drove down to meet my friend, Justin, to hunt through the weekend. It was Justin's first time bow hunting, and even though neither of us killed a deer we saw a lot and had a great hunt. 

Friday was our best day of hunting. Justin hunted the DNR stand just south of the property line and actually shot at a yearling buck but missed low. I hunted on the DNR/County line stand and saw 2 mature bucks with one of them coming into shooting range but never quite giving me a shot. He got within 20 yards and walked just on the other side of a path staying in the brush. I drew my bow 2 separate times but could never quite find a shooting lane. After about 20 minutes of browsing on some undergrowth that still had green leaves, he wandered off to the West. 

Est. 3 1/2 year old buck that I almost got a shot at the first morning

The evening was just as productive. Justin sat in the same stand and saw a bigger buck cruising, but he was well out of range. I sat on the County Stand and was treated to some excitement early as 2 smaller bucks chased a doe through just North of the stand. I drew back on the doe but she ended up running through my shooting lane and stopping behind a tree before continuing on. I saw 2 more deer just before dark but they were too far away to identify. 

View from the County Stand on Friday evening

Saturday morning started off just as hot. I was sitting on The Ridge food plot and had the exact same 8 point buck walk by that had refused to give me a shot the day before. I saw him at 9:30 both days but the stands are about 3/4 mile apart. Instead of coming into the plot, he circled down hill to my East and popped back up the hill to the North of me but again just didn't give me a shot. Justin sat on the small field food plot and had a doe come out to feed with 2 fawns. Sadly. although the wind was forecast to be out of the NW, which is good for that stand, it ended up being more straight west and the deer winded him and left the food plot.

The next couple of sits were very uneventful. Justin sat The Ridge, I sat in a new stand that we just put up north of my cabin along a logging trail along the north edge of the county land, and Erin's uncle Mark joined us for the evening and hunted in the small field blind. None of us saw a deer, but we weren't surprised as a pair of dogs made their way through the entire property making quite a lot of noise. In addition, another hunter walked in on the county land about an hour before the end of shooting time and wasn't very quiet about it either. Even though nothing came up the old logging trail that evening, it was quite an exciting discovery and I look forward to scouting further in during the upcoming off season. 

Sitting an old logging trail that we discovered behind the cabin

A clear night resulted in a hard frost and very cool temperatures on Sunday morning. I was hoping that this would spark deer movement but it was extremely quiet instead. A stiff SW wind chased me out of the cabin stand early and Justin was shortly behind me. It took quite awhile for us to warm up in the cabin before heading back out for an evening sit. Justin chose to sit the stand on the big field food plot while I took the loooooong hike over to the DNR/County line stand. I did not see anything from the stand, but Justin had a bunch of does pile into the food plot as the evening came to a close. One of the does made it across the food plot but didn't give him a broad side shot before shooting time ended. With that, our trip was over and we headed home with tags still in our pockets.