I rushed out of work to get on the mountain in time to walk around a little but before dark. My focus was centered on checking two trail cameras and moving at least one of them. I was disappointed to find very little movement around my cameras. I had a few does, squirrels and a raccoon or two. I created my first mock scrape ever tonight. I’m not sure if I’ll have any success with it, but I guess you never know if you don’t try. I would imagine it would be much easier to get bucks to visit a mock scrape in farm country where there are more deer. I used extra precaution by using rubber gloves and doing everything I could to make sure I didn’t leave any human scent behind. Something tells me I won’t have any pictures when I go back to it in a few weeks, but something else tells me I might just get a glimpse at the buck I’ve been trying to locate. For the amount of sign he had in the area last year it’s hard to believe that he hasn’t accidentally wandered past one of my cameras yet.
After I made the mock scrape I headed down the mountain toward some of my old stomping grounds. I forgot how steep it was until I had to get out of there before dark. At that point I realized I bit off more than I could chew. As I slowly meandered back and forth up the mountain I found a lot of really fresh moose sign. I took a few pictures of the scat I found as well as some striped maples that were stripped from the ground to about eight feet up the tree. The further I walked the more tree stripping I saw. It appears to me that the moose is a resident of the area. Since I don’t know much about moose I’m not sure if it will stay or wander away. I guess time will tell. I would love to see it while I am hunting at some point this fall.
The nights have finally started cooling down. I could actually see my breath tonight for the first time. When I turned the truck on to come home the thermometer read 44 degrees. I’m starting to feel it in the air more and more every day now. November is fast approaching…………….