Sunday, October 29, 2017

Although I never hit the snooze button during hunting season, I couldn’t resist doing it this morning. I could hear the rain pounding off the roof, and I knew that the forecast was calling for more than two inches of rain. I definitely didn’t want to get out of bed, but I know that the number of days I get to hunt is limited, and with every passing day, I’m running out of time.

When the alarm rang the second time, I got up and started moving around. I recalled all of the bucks I’ve killed in some really bad weather, and I figured maybe today would be another one of those days.

I decided to stay fairly local today and give it my best shot. My dad and Brian planned on leaving for the Midwest this morning, and my mom was headed to Maine with her cousin Bonnie and her husband, Harvey. I stopped in to their house to say goodbye before I headed into the woods.

After parking my truck, I began the journey to a place I’ve had a little bit of luck in the past. The walk was peaceful as the rain pounded off the hood on my rain jacket. It was refreshing in some sort of strange way. About 4o minutes into my walk, the rain subsided and it became calm.

When I got to where I wanted to go, it was just about light. I nestled my back against a beech tree that my dad had carved the years into for the last two years. With my back firmly pressing against the 15 and 16, I felt at ease.

About 25 minutes into my sit, I caught a glimpse of a deer. It was down the ridge from me, and another deer accompanied it. As I looked at them through my scope, they started running toward me. Trying to put an antler on one of them, I watched them get closer. Before I knew it, deer were running all over in front of me. Six does and fawns went past me in a few seconds, and I waited for the buck. I could hear him aggressively grunting a little farther down the hill. I saw the legs of two deer go through an opening, and the grunting deer followed them. Almost instantly, all was quiet again, and the rain began coming down in buckets from the grain sky.

I lasted about 25 minutes, until it became so bad that I couldn’t handle sitting there any longer. I decided to use the rest of the morning to still hunt and check some things out. Since I have cameras in various locations this year, I decided I would check the couple that I had in this piece of woods.

I was pleasantly surprised when I reached one that was about 1.2 miles from where I was sitting when I saw the deer. When I slid the SD card into my viewer, I saw a nice buck standing in the scrape. It was a dandy 8-pointer, and he visited the scrape yesterday morning. I also checked another camera and was surprised to see another nice buck. By the time I was done, I had collected some really nice images to keep my imagination running wild. I’m hoping the trend for bucks growing in size continues in the years to come.

I didn’t put a camera in any of my traditional places in this piece of woods. Instead, I put them in places that I’ve always been interested in sitting. The results so far tell me that I should spend time in these places in the early season next year or maybe in the late muzzleloader season.

On my hike through the woods, I decided to place a camera in a place that should act as a funnel. I’ve never seen much sign in the place, but something tells me that big bucks might use it to cruise during the rut. I decided I had nothing to lose, so I put the camera there. I’ll probably go get it after the season. It’s well beyond where I could hunt between now and the end of the year. As I was standing there and admiring my work, I heard something coming. Looking up, I could see a big doe barreling toward the funnel, and I could hear a buck grunting somewhere behind her. Since my gun was lying in the leaves in front of me, I reached for it, but she saw me and bolted. I never got a look at the buck. I should have kept my gun in my hands. He probably would have been right in my lap in another 10 seconds. It seems that the season is going to be like that. I guess I’ll accept it since I’ve had such good luck over the years.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do the rest of the week, if anything. I have to shore up a few things before I head out on Thursday. I wish I could spend every day in the woods. That would be a dream come true.

The rain never stopped today. It was still pouring when I headed out of the woods when it got dark. It was a very long day for me. I’m sure my body will feel it tomorrow. I never stopped walking.

Here are a few pictures that I gathered. It felt good to explore these new areas today, especially since they’re close to home.

MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA

 

 

 

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