Unfortunately I couldn’t get yesterday off from work so I could go hunting. It would have been a good day, too. It appears that the bucks are really moving in the Northern Zone of New York in certain places.
I headed to our camp on Friday evening. Dad and I figured it would give us an early start, so we could get to where we wanted to be by daylight. Since we hadn’t hunted the area in three weeks I was excited to see what sign had popped up as well as if I had captured any nice bucks on my cameras.
When we started our hike the leaves were crunchy beneath our feet. As we moved along a few flurries began to fall and before I knew it the snow was coming down so hard it was all but impossible to see 50 yards in front of me. Within an hour the ground was covered with snow.
After I got to my trees stand and climbed in I decided it was somewhat senseless to sit there. The wind was howling and the snow pelted me in the face until my face became raw. Since I wanted to check a few things out I climbed down after three hours and began still-hunting. I figured I would make my way to the cameras and check the cards.
When I got to the first camera I was disappointed to find out the scrape from the previous year had not been reopened this year. I was almost sure I would get a picture of a good buck in the scrape after I found it last spring. I’m not sure if the deer didn’t survive the winter or if he just moved out of the area. I’ll probably never know. I got a few pictures of does, but that was it. I was extremely disappointed.
When I reached the other camera I expected the scrapes from last year to be reopened, but they weren’t either. However, I did get piles of pictures of does on that camera, but not one buck. As I sat there fidgeting with the camera I noticed the big signpost tree out in front of it had recently been rubbed. A pretty good buck had thrashed the tree and the bark laid beneath it in the leaves. I figured I would definitely have him on camera, but the tree must have been just out of reach of the sensor. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. After being in the woods today I wasn’t nearly as hyped up as I had been before I left home last night. Here’s a picture of the signpost tree that had been hit in front of my camera.
