Hunting Journal

I had the day off, so I headed north. There’s something about the Adirondacks that attracts me and holds me there. While I like the southern Adirondacks the further north I go there are more things that stimulate me while I’m in the woods. I love the challenge of finding a big buck and trying to kill him.

It was a yet another great morning to sit. I heard three deer go past me at different times, but never saw any of them. In the new spot my visibility is far less than average, which makes spotting animals much more difficult. The best thing about it is that they all came down the ridge in the same place. Since I’ve never sat in that place it made it very easy to figure out what I’m going to do next time. I have to make a few minor adjustments to put myself in a better position to see deer coming down that ridge. Hopefully they don’t change it up and come off the other side next time. I feel much more confident here than in the places I hunted last year. There’s a lot more sign and that’s enough for me. There’s a lesson in this for you, too. Don’t make a habit of returning to the old haunts if they don’t have what you need to be successful. Find the sign and hunt it. Don’t hunt a place and hope for the sign to return if it was there in the past.

I made it home in time to run into the woods north of where I live. I checked my cams and changed some batteries. I was very pleased to get photos of a few bucks in the daylight. I was extremely excited to get a photo of the big 6-pointer I passed up a number of times last year. He’s once again a 6-pointer, but his rack is a little larger and his body grew substantially. I’d gladly fill my tag with him just because I have a history with him.

Good luck to everyone over the next few weeks. I won’t be writing in this again until near the end of the season when I update everything after I return from the Midwest. I hope to get some good weather and have a good time. My dad had a great day today. He saw around 10 bucks this morning. He’s seeing a lot of deer in the 120 inch range, but hasn’t seen what he’s after. I’ll be glad to join him in a few days……………..find the sign, hunt hard, and shoot straight.

The first few hours were great once again. The woods were calm and the movement of animals was minimal at best. I’m sure they might have been moving around someplace, but not where I was sitting. I found some really good sign in the area I sat, which was close to where I placed my camera before the season. Not having hunted in there before I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got a couple nice bucks on camera and both of them were in the daylight. I’ll definitely be spending some time there when I return from the Midwest on the last two weekends of the season.

I covered a lot of ground today while still-hunting. I concentrated on walking like a deer since the leaves where crunchy. The method works really well and I fully expect to walk up on a deer sometime this season while making a lot of noise, which goes against everything we’re taught.

Unlike where I’ve been hunting I found a lot of large scrapes with licking branches which seem to be active. It felt great to be in the woods, but then again it always does. I miss hunting with my dad, but I’ll be with him next weekend. He has called home a few times and he’s having a good time. He’s covered a lot of ground while scouting things out to ensure we’re in the best locations we can be in for prime time next week. It’s hunting so nothing is a guarantee. I just hope to see some nice deer. Once again I can’t attach the pictures for some reason. I’ll have to look into that when I return from Iowa.

Well, here we are in the magical month. This is the month that most of us deer hunters wait for all year long. It’s the month when dreams can be made or dashed in the flash of a second. Sometimes the worst season in the world can become the best with the turn of a head. No matter what happens in November the events are always memorable.

I got an early start and made good time getting to my stand. I was there before daylight and the woods were quiet. When I headed in the temperature in my truck read 28 degrees and i welcomed it. It felt relaxing to settle back and wait for the sun to rise in the east. Sometimes it’s amazing how quiet things can be before everything wakes up and begins scurrying around.

Although I didn’t hear any deer crunching through the leaves I didn’t find it depressing. Instead, I imagined what might happen throughout the rest of the morning. As the minutes crept into hours my optimism didn’t fade and seconds later I spotted a deer trotting toward me.

As I searched the landscape behind her I could see him coming quickly. The antlers shone brightly in the sun. It was my trusty dusty little buddy Mr. Four-Pointer. I have pictures of him on every camera in the woods and I’ve decided he’s going to be my bud this year. I have about 4 minutes of video of him. After he chased the doe past me he hung out and wandered around in front of me.

I met a guy in the woods this afternoon. In the last two years I haven’t seen anyone and this year I’ve seen people every time I’ve been in the woods. I’m going across the road tomorrow to check a camera I put in there before the season. I’m hoping there’s more sign in there than where I’m currently hunting. We shall see.

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Traditionally this day has been good for as long as I can remember whether it was in the days of my childhood when my dad used to bow hunt  in Oneonta or later in life when we began hunting in Ohio. Halloween has usually provided action of some sort or another.

I headed north well before daybreak. Without much sleep the drive went surprisingly well. I made good time getting to the area I wanted to go to. I couldn’t have asked for a better morning. It was calm, cold and the leaves were crunchy. When I headed into the woods it was 23 degrees. I was prepared for the cool temperatures forecasted for the weekend, so sitting wasn’t a problem. I sat until noon without much luck. As I aimlessly wandered through the darkness on my way in I saw a few scrapes littered across the forest floor.

I took the rest of the day to check all of my cameras on this side of the road. Without a doubt things have changed from last year and with change you have to adapt as quickly as possible. If you don’t adapt to the changes the hunting season can get away from you and be gone before you know it. I’m still getting photos of a small 4-pointer. He seems to be ruling the roost. I’ll give it one more day in this area before moving on to greener pastures. It’s all about patience and persistence. I’m trying to narrow down a good buck to chase before I leave for the Midwest. He could get killed when I’m gone, but I’d like to be in the same zip code as one or two.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I feel like I’m close just because of the weather. It’s perfect sitting conditions.

Luckily I got out of work in time to rush into the woods. I set a camera up on a scrape last week and wanted to see if it had any activity. Unfortunately when I arrived the camera wasn’t working and hadn’t taken any pictures at all. It was disappointing to say the least. When I checked my other two cameras I was pleasantly surprised. On the first camera I captured five different bucks and on the second camera I had a new 8-pointer that hadn’t shown up any of the other cameras. Through the course of the evening I saw four deer. It felt good to actually see deer for once. I’m ready for some action. It still doesn’t appear that it’s going to break any time soon. The weather had been staying warm for this time of year. I won’t get out again until the weekend when I head north on Friday morning. I’d post some of the trail cam photos, but I’m having problems loading pictures for some reason. My apologies for that.

Today was a slow day. We left camp in plenty of time to allow us to get to where we wanted to go by daylight. When my dad pulled over to drop me off I realized I had left my gun back at camp. By the time we returned to get it and got in the woods I was after daylight when I got to where I wanted to go.

It was a slow day today. Not much of any wildlife seemed to be moving. I did a little bit of still-hunting to see what I could find. I still haven’t come across much sign. My dad didn’t see anything and neither did Brian. We’re all waiting for some sign to pop up.

Going into next weekend I’m thinking of scouting an entirely different area across the road from where I’m currently hunting. I’ve been in there a few times in the past and have some places I’ll go to in order to see if the sign is absent from them as well. I plan on doing that next weekend. I’ll be in the woods from Friday to Sunday and then again on Tuesday.

Today was the first day of Northern Zone rifle season in New York. Although there are still a few leaves left on in the north country many of them have fallen to the ground since last week. The meteorologist called for rain showers starting around 8:30, so I packed my rain gear to be safe.

The rain started shortly after I got to the area I wanted to watch over and it rained most of the day. It was very slow in the woods. I wandered around in search of some sign, but came up empty handed. I didn’t see anything that interested me. It appears that bucks haven’t started moving much yet.

I had a doe make her way past be around 11:30, but nothing followed her. She appeared to be the same doe I got on my trail camera for the last month. She’s big and mature, but doesn’t have any fawns with her. Dad didn’t see anything today.

My buddies Brian and Josh hunted down the road from me. Josh saw three does while sitting. The first sightings were at 8am and the last was around 11am. Brian didn’t see anything.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.