Hunting Journal

It was an extremely busy day for me. I had a bunch of medical stuff to take care, but I still managed to get in the woods after dropping my backpack off with a seamstress to get the zipper fixed. For the amount of money I paid for it I wouldn’t think I’d need to get two zippers repaired in two years. I really like the backpack, but Badlands needs to work on their customer service.

Once I got in the woods I headed to an area where I’ve killed a lot of deer over the years. I went there to get a tree stand that I left leaning on a tree. I was surprised there weren’t any acorns on the hill once I got there. I guess that helps me narrow down my choices for next week.

I checked a few of my cameras while I was out. From a quick scan in the woods it didn’t appear that I got any bucks on camera. I did get a few more coyotes and a lot of does. I’m headed north this weekend to check on my cameras up there and to move a tree stand. I’ll probably carry my single shot 30.06 in case I run into a bear or two. If I get lazy I’ll just carry a sidearm. I think I’d like to carry the single shot so that’s probably what I’ll do. I might try to get out for a few hours to hunt if it’s not too hot out.

I’ll leave you with a picture to remind you how nice the leaves will look in a matter of days.

Walking into the tent when it’s like this is like walking into heaven.

How did hunting season get here so fast? I’m the most unorganized I’ve ever been, but maybe that will be a good thing. Early archery season opens on Friday and I just sighted my bow in tonight. To my amazement it was driving tacks with broadheads. I feel far more confident going into this season than I did last season. I’m back to pulling about the same poundage I always did in the past and most of the pain in my shoulder is gone. It’s amazing how far I’ve come after the reconstructive surgery last year.

I’ve been in the woods quite a bit lately, but I haven’t checked any cameras until tonight and I only checked one. I got a couple nice bucks for young ones. Both of these deer have tremendous potential if they could somehow survive a couple of years. I shot a few of my guns this week and they all hit right in the bullseye. I couldn’t ask for more than that. To my amazement my shoulder took the recoil fairly well as compared to last year when it was all but impossible to shoot a gun.

The quest will start next week. Hopefully I can put myself in a position to see some deer and make the most of the limited amount of time I will have to hunt. I’ve never felt the itch quite like this year. Something is driving me even more than normal, which is saying something if you know me because I’ve never had a lack of ambition when it comes to deer hunting.

Here are a few pictures from the trail camera I checked tonight. I’ve also attached a photo of a buck my buddy Bobby killed this week with a muzzleloader in Kansas. I’ve never met anyone who is more obsessed with picking out a specific deer and hunting it until he kills it. There aren’t many people who can compare to this guy. If he finds a deer he wants to kill he will kill it if he has enough time to figure it out.

I spent the day in the woods with one of my best buddies, TJ Jordan. He grew up in Greenwich, which is a little south of me and he hit it right when he decided he wanted to be a deer hunter. He was always a very good turkey hunter and let it consume him every May. After some encouragement he took up deer hunting and got involved in a very good QDM co-op in his area. I’ve been lucky enough to walk the property he hunts a few times and give him some advice. We spent the day today trying to locate a good spot for him to intercept one of the mature bucks that are known to inhabit the surrounding properties.

After looking around for a while we headed down into a bottom. He showed me an area he liked and we surveyed the area to see if we could find something that would increase his odds of taking a nice buck. It didn’t take long to figure it out. A stream running through the low-land made it easy to identify some prime places to set up. We found some pretty impressive scrapes from last season, which appeared to be primary scrapes. The way the stream ran through the property it funnels the deer to cross a ditch in one place that is about 50 yards wide. There are four main runways there that are pounded into the ground. When I looked at it I instantly new it would be a slam-dunk place to set up, especially during the rut. We set up some cameras and got out of there as quickly as we appeared there. The light rain that fell last night surely washed our scent away to help us with the matter.

I’ll keep you in the loop as to TJ’s success as the season goes forward. I love hunting big woods, but a taste of farm country hunting every year when there are big bucks roaming through the crop-fields is always fun, too. My buddy Bobby is in Kansas right now. He’s been spotting fields every night in hopes of finding a buck he named “Stickers” last year. This buck has a chance to be a 200 inch deer. Hopefully Bobby can find him before early muzzleloader opens in a few weeks. If he locates him I’d put money on Bobby to take him. We’ll see how this plays out as well.

I can feel it in the air. The nights are getting cooler and the northerly winds make me aware that fall is only a few weeks away.

I wanted to get out yesterday to check two of my cameras in the southern ADK’s and put a few more out, but I didn’t make it. That’s why I decided to leave work on time today and get in the woods. I spent longer than I would have liked, but I also got everything done that I set out to do.

I checked the batteries and SD cards on the two cameras I had in the woods. I didn’t see much activity. I got some coyotes and a few does. I wandered around a little and ended up putting a camera next to “The Rock” that I refer to in both of my books. There seems to be a lot of sign around it this year and I got pictures of three different bucks there last year near the end of the season. I hope to get all of them on film again this year. When I set the camera a found a bunch of moose droppings. Since I’ve never gotten a trail cam picture of a moose I would be ecstatic if I get one.  I feel pretty confident about The Rock. I might actually sit there opening day of archery or muzzleloader. I guess time will tell.

I received a couple of pictures from my buddy in Kansas today. One is a dandy 13-pointer. I’d love to get a crack at him when I’m out there in mid-November. The other pictures are a couple of nice 8’s. They’re pretty common out there. They’re really nice deer, but nothing fantastic.

Here’s a coyote from my trail-cam check today.

This season got underway for me about a month ago. I took a day and headed into the central Adirondacks with my father. It was a day filled with a little anxiety since we haven’t done anything of the sort after my father had the massive heart attack on February 27, 2013. We’re very lucky that he survived and I’m extremely thankful. I love that man more than life itself.

I think we were both surprised at the end of the day. We covered about 7 miles and my dad did very well. If I didn’t know better I would have thought nothing ever happened to him. He never got out of breath and we hiked some pretty steep inclines. It made both of us more relaxed for the coming hunting season.

Our main objective was to set out cameras. We accomplished our goal and put six of them in different places across the area we hunt. We returned last weekend to check them and insert batteries before fall rolls around. I won’t return until early October to check them again. That’s when I’ll make a decision about what to do during muzzleloader season and early rifle.

We went back in over the weekend to check on the cameras. I was happy to see a couple of bears in the pictures and a couple of bucks. Since deer aren’t moving much yet it makes me think I stand a good chance of getting some pictures of big bucks as November approaches. Only time will tell.

For anyone interested I’ve created a Facebook page titled “Backcountry Bucks.” You can follow me through the season on that page if you hit the “Like” button. I figured that would be an easy way to gain more followers.  I’ll try to keep this journal and transfer the information over to that page during the season.

Here are a few pictures from my trail cameras to start the season: