Highs and Lows

I made it out the first part of this week. Monday I climbed into my stand about 5:30, plenty early to let thing calm down in the woods. About 10 minutes into the sit, I heard a deer coming my way. It passed withing 8 yards of my stand and stood at about 10 yards for about a minute. I could really only make out the outline of a deer, but thought maybe I saw some antler. That deer moved on of course, but I had hoped for a great day.

It was fairly quite till around 7:30. When I heard some deer running towards me. I quickly grabbed my bow as a doe and her fawn came into my location. I noticed they were being chased by a buck. He was a 5x3. He was pretty nice on the 5 side, but pretty goofy on the 3. They ended up running through some thicker stuff by my stand, which was okay, since I was going to pass on him anyway.

About a half hr later I heard some noise from the direction they had gone. I thought they might be coming back. Wrong! Here was a guy coming through the thickest best cover I had around my stand. Turns out his wife had shot a deer the night before and they were trying to locate it. He told me they would try not to ruin my hunt and stay below where I was hunting, but of course that didn't happen. I think they tromped through every part of the area, blindly looking for her deer. I didn't wait around to see if they found it either. After a hour and a half, a guy can only stand so much. I grabbed my climber out of the truck and headed out to find a new spot.

That evening was the first time in a climber, and I have to say I was impressed at how easy they are to use. I did feel pretty naked sitting up there with no cover around me. I guess in time I will get more use to it. About 20 mins. into the sit, I had a doe and her 2 offspring come running into my area, but down about 50 yards. They were followed by a fork horn. They stayed awhile, but moved on. About a hour before dark, I saw a deer move in the thick cover. I tipped my can call, even though I didn't know if it was a buck or a doe. The can caught her attention, but she came out to with 35 yards of my stand. She sat there for at least 40 mins. chewing her cud. I was trying to hide best I could and hold still. Needless to say, my back was tightening up for holding my bow, and trying to hold still. My legs were getting sore also. Finally she decided to move off. I was fairly happy to be able to move again!

The next morning I had hoped with the deer being use to human foot travel in the areas I hunt, would be back around my Monday morning stand. Well, I guessed wrong. I sat there until noon without even hearing a deer. I ended up hanging a stand in a gnarly birch tree in the area where I was the night before. Just before dark I had a yearly do and a button buck cross the creek and wouldn't ya know, proceed to feed directly down wind of me and where I walked in. The button crossed my trail first and he got a bit spooky, but the doe, really didn't seem to care. He followed my trail out, and finally took off, leaving the doe to wonder what his problem was. I think she sensed me in the tree. As I was peeking around the tree with one eye, she was doing the same. She never bolted out but moved off. So another eventful night came to a close.

The final morning, Wed., I thought I would try the 1st area one more time. I heard a deer moving through the brush out about 60-70 yards well before light. I thought I even heard where it had laid down. About 8:30 I was eating a granola bar, when I heard something up wind of me headed my way. Boy was I surprised to see a couple hundred pound black bear headed my way. He was on a line straight to my tree, like he smelled the granola bar. I had my bow in one hand and grabbed my cell phone to try and take a picture. When I took the pic he was about 13 yards from my tree. I moved around a little bit, he looked up at me and then turned broadside and walked away. My guess is that with all the warm weather he hadn't thought of finding a den yet. Kinda of neat to see. Unfortunately that was the only game I saw yesterday. I had gotten out of that stand by around 10 and climber into my other one, but didn't see anything in that stand either.

I will be heading back 1st part of next week, and hopefully the cooler temps and giving my areas a chance to calm down will be the ticket. I still have a buck tag and a management tag in my pocket yet, so I am hoping for the best. I know, it can all change in a heartbeat, so I have to remain positive!

The Past 3 Day

I just got back from spending the last 3 days in Duluth, Mn. Tues. was actually my best day for seeing deer. I think I saw around 10 total for a all day sit. Only 2 were withing range. I had 4 younger bucks kind of cruising the area. I did see a doe, but she still had her young with her. So I am not sure that the rut is in full swing. The biggest buck I saw was a 2 1/2 year old 10 pt. At one point he was within 10 yds of the stand. I know some may say why didn't you shoot, but really he was only a bit bigger than a basket rack. He will be a nice one next year. Plus I know there are a lot bigger ones in the area. The other buck in range was a younger 8 pt. Tuesday a lot of the movement I saw was between 2 -4. The last 2 hrs before dark I saw nothing. I climber down in the dark and wouldn't ya know as soon as my feet hit the ground I heard crunch, crunch, crunch! I just stood still until it passed by!

Other than Tues, my action went down each day. Wed. I saw that 10 again about 40yds out, and something at 1st light and that was it. Yesterday morning I had at least 2 around my stand 40 mins. before it was light, and then nothing. I think the wind didn't help at all for me. It was really blowing those last 2 days. Over all, I didn't really see much sign of the rut kicking in. I was a bit disappointed. I am going to go back 1st part of next week and try again! I know last year my best day for seeing rutting activity was Nov. 11th, so I am hoping for a good week!