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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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