2010 Season Update

Well my 2010 season is not looking so good right now. I have had 3 vacations so far and hunted hard everyday of them and still have not put a single thing in the freezer yet! I have lots of pics from my game camera of deer and pigs but they are all taken after dark. So far I have managed to miss a decent 8 point that I had dead to right at 15 yards, but my arrow dead centered a small limb between me and him and he walked away without a scratch! Next I had a pretty big bodied spike come right under me, but as I was preparing for a shot he must have heard me because he spooked and ran about 30 yards and got some brush between us. The last chance I muffed was when I started second guessing myself since I had not seen anything for a few days. I decided to climb down about an hour earlier than I nomally do and it cost me a chance at the biggest buck I would have ever taken so far.

 I have one of my climbing stands set up across the logging trail from the spot in the cedar and pine thicket where  I have been getting deer pics regularly since July. It is a perfect setup because they come out in the road about 15 yards in front of me, turn left and walk down the logging road bout 20 yards and turn right and follow  a small creek drainage that runs down to the creek on the west side of our property. The only problem with the whole deal is that they do it a lot more when it is dark than when it is daylight! 

I usually get to my stand about 30 minutes before light and I have found from my game cam that alot of the bucks are coming past my stand anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour before I arrive. I usually hunt until about 11 or 11:30am but due to not having much of anything moving around me all morning I decided to climb down about 10:15am  and go check out some other stand sites I have on the property. I had already lowered my pack and bow to the ground and was preparing to climb down. As I was unbuckling the seat of my stand from the tree, the plastic buckle hit the side of the stand and made a small clicking noise and all I heard was a big snort of air and I looked over and there he was looking straight at me! He then turned and 2 jumps later he was out of sight back down in the creek bottom behind me! He was heading back up the drainage out of the creek and would probably have crossed the road right in front of me giving me a perfect 12 yard broadside shot!  I was sick and wanted to cry but that is what I get for second guessing myself and being impatient! Not postive but I am pretty sure it was the buck in the picture below though he is not a monster I would have been really proud to have gotten him!

I have seen a few other bucks walking out of range in the thick stuff and tried calling to them but they are either deaf or pay it no mind. I watched one work a scrape about 50 yards across from me in the thicket one evening and I hit him with grunts and doe bleats and he acted like he never even heard it. He just finished tending his scrape and headed the other way. I have not seen a single doe as of yet this season. I have pics of nine different bucks but also have not gotten a pic of a doe since September which explains why now with the rut on I have stopped getting buck pics these last couple of weeks. I think I have figured out that with my property being mostly creek bottom and thick stuff that alot of the does are hanging out on the property that borders ours on the west side. It is not as thick as ours and has a lot of small openings and scattered timber and I know how much does like that stuff. Also it is for sale and as far as I can tell no one is hunting it at the moment so I am almost 100 percent sure that the pressure we have been putting on our place has made them seek refuge in there for awhile.

I can only really blame myself for making them as nocturnal as they are right now because I was in and out of my hunting area almost every other day this spring and summer but now that I have gotten the place fixed up pretty good after hunting season the place is gonna be kept quiet and undisturbed with as little human activity in there as possible. With me working six days a week now instead of having four days off like I used to have, I should have no problem staying out of there. I cannot help myself sometimes because I love being in the woods, but I know now that to make it a great hunting place like I know it is capable of being, it has to be left alone with as little impact as necessary or they will go nocturnal on you quick!

I have never seen as much pig sign in my life as I have here and not seen pigs. They are nocturnal as well, but they are coming in on my feeders every night now which could also be one reason my deer activity is slow. Of course with the full moon and warm temps we have been having lately I think every thing is moving at night right now but there have been some good deer being killed around here lately. All my vacations are used up for this year, so now I can only hunt the mornings after work but I will be back after them again starting Thanksgiving morning. We have a big cold front that is supposed to come in Wednesday so I decided to give my area a break and not go back in there until Thanksgiving. They should be up and moving around because the temps are supposed to be in the low 30’s so hopefully luck will shine on me and give me another oppurtunity that I won’t mess up! Hope everyone’s season is going good and hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!