I didn’t go out yesterday. The torrential rains made it rather difficult to justify a trip into the woods. After pouring all night and half the day today many of the streams are flooded. We desperately needed rain, but this was a little extreme.
When the rain tapered off about 2pm I decided to go hunting when I got out of work. I figured the deer would be moving with the cold front coming in. I also wanted to set a stand for Saturday morning.
I had to stay late at work so I didn’t get into the woods until 4pm. I slowly picked my way to the area I wanted to put the stand. When I was within a couple hundred yards I saw what I thought was a deer’s leg. I wasn’t sure so I stopped and waited. A few seconds later a small buck crossed an opening in front of me. Since I was rushed I forgot my binoculars at home. He was about 50 yards from me and I could see that he was definitely a crotch-horn and possibly a 6-pointer. I decided I would take him if a shot presented itself. We only have a 2 week bow season and I’m headed out of town for three days next week and I won’t be able to hunt.
As he continued walking I drew my bow and used some brush as cover to move a little closer. At that point he needed to take a few more steps to give me a good shot although it would be long. Then, I felt something looking at me. Sure enough that buck had a buddy behind him and he caught me red-handed. His buddy was a small spikehorn. He sensed something was wrong and bounded over a few knobs and out of sight. The other buck ran at the same time and slowly walked away without ever offering a shot.
There were more acorns on the forest floor than I can ever remember. I ended up getting my stand set up for the morning. I think the deer will move just because the weather has been so miserable the last few days.
I was hoping to sit for a while, but it appears that I’m going to have to cut the morning short. I’m bringing a buddy with me and he just informed me that he has to be home for some other plans. Instead of throwing a fuss I tried to accomodate his change in plans, so I’ll make the most of the few hours that I get to sit in the tree.
The weather tonight was clear after the rain moved out. The wind swirled like crazy but I guess you could say that it was coming out of the north. The temperature hovered around 55-60 degrees.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. This has always been a good spot for early archery season for us. Here are a few pictures of deer that we’ve killed there in the past. I killed the first one on the last day of the season one year right at dark and ended up in the hospital that night for a week long stay. Dad killed the other buck in early bow season a few years back.
