Hunting Journal

Although I was exhausted today, I decided I better head north and check out a place I haven’t been to yet this year. Prior to the season starting, Brian and I put on a lot of miles across the Adirondacks, doing 35 miles in one three-day stretch. We put out cameras in places we had never been, and I can’t wait to go back near the end of the season or after the season to collect them. We put one on a phenomenal scrape, and I can’t wait to see if anything visits this scrape. It has been there for a number of years, as you could see where the licking branches had been swapped for new ones along the way. I’m sure a buck could be killed on this scrape. My buddy Kentucky might hunt it at some point this season. That will be his choice. He knows where it is because he was with me and Brian when we put the camera on it.

When I headed up the mountain, my body felt weak and tired. I had a few cameras in my backpack, and I wanted to put them in a place to see if anything worthwhile is living in the area. I’ll return to check it during muzzleloader season. It’s a place that is always good during early season. I didn’t see much sign while walking, but I did come across a nice rub early in my journey.

Seeing my first rub of the year gave me a sense of satisfaction. It also told me that at least one buck had to have been walking through the forest in the same place where I was standing. I enjoyed the moment, as it gave me a newfound confidence for the days and weeks ahead.

Walking out of the woods, the rain began striking the leaf-covered trees. That zero percent chance of rain that I saw on the forecast must have been for another area. It’s amazing how weathermen are more often incorrect with their predictions than correct. I still can’t figure that out. I think I should’ve been a forecaster.

Well, I”m not sure what the next few days will bring, but I’ll be drawing about big bucks and thinking about many of my past memories.

With all of the things I had to do today, I debated going out. However, when my buddy Jim called me on his way home from work and asked if I was going to hunt, I told him I didn’t know.

An hour later, I was waiting in my driveway to get picked up. When he got me, we made quick work getting into the woods and didn’t waste any time finding places to sit.

After a quick survey of the area, I felt confident when I climbed a small oak that was on a flat that had small evergreens mixed in with some low brush. It looked like a perfect location to intercept a buck in the early season. It had everything a buck would need: cover, food, water, and an escape route. There were a few scrapes nearby, too. Here’s a look at it on my GPS unit. As you can see, there isn’t much terrain change, but I did get set up on the closest thing to a saddle that I could find. Looking at the map when I got up in the tree, I felt really confident I would see something.

It didn’t take long for the woods to get quiet. Shortly thereafter, I was packing up my stand in the dark at the base of the tree. I waited for Jim and headed back to the truck. We had an uneventful evening. Maybe tomorrow will bring something better. This was my view from the stand.

Well, here we are. This got here quicker than I’d like to think about. I guess competitive archery season required too much concentration for me to think much about hunting season.

I went out with my buddy Chris Hall for the first day of Northern Zone bow season on 9/27. If you remember correctly, Chris is my friend who can’t walk. We both worked on a food plot behind my dad’s house for him last year, and it seems to have caught the attention of the deer this year.

We’ve been watching a trail camera on the plot regularly, and Chris figured we would probably see something as long as we got into the blind early enough.

We settled into the blind at about 2 p.m. and waited patiently. Amazingly, at 6:00, I could feel a deer’s body against the blind and on my back. Somehow, the deer had followed the small path I cut for Chris to crawl to the blind, and it had nowhere to go once at the blind. It found a way to squeeze between blow downs and the blind to get into the food plot. Once in the plot, Chris drew his bow, but the adult doe got a little nervous and fidgety.

After being at full draw for a long time, Chris started to let down. However, he quickly drew the bow again, settled the pin and touched off a shot. A loud “thwack” startled me, then Chris cursed. He had hit the blind. The arrow didn’t make it out the window, and the mechanical broadhead had opened when it went through the blind’s fabric. The doe raced into the woods on the other side of the plot, and all was quiet once again.

A few minutes later, Chris crawled out of the blind, and we made our way back to the house. It was an unsuccessful, successful night. It was a night that I will remember for a long time. Although we didn’t take a deer, we made memories and had a good time. Hopefully, Chris will get another opportunity in the next few weeks.