I would have posted a report on the last trip of the year for me when I got home last Tuesday but this trip took it's toll on these old busted up bones. I been back for 10 days but finally am recouped from the trip, and the greeting when I came home last Tuesday!
This was what it looks like today, a 10.5" storm Tues. night and into Wed. morning, followed by 4 more and another cleanup Friday. So now, finally after a week of recuperation, I feel pretty good again. It was a great trip Me and My buddy had 4 tags and the last 5 days to get "r" done, we came close, and if hadn't dropped the ball my first evening when I got there,,,,we would have both tagged out. I got there about 3:30pm and my buddy was already back in a Harwoods in the creek bottom setup on a good funnel we have hunted for years. I decided to setup on the ground, in a fence row that borders a huge field in front of the hardwoods my buddy was in, with a big thicket behind me which is in the no hunting zone. We have both taken deer out of the spots we were in in the past. I had a nice doe step into the field right at sundown and with the bow in my lap, was looking to my right when she stepped in, and when I seen her out the left corner of my eye it was to late to come to draw. I knew at 30 yards she would see me and all I could do was take the safety off and hope she would look away down the fence row,,,,,it didn't happen she just suddenly trotted off for the woods after about 30 or 40 seconds. Then 10 minuets or say later, my buddy text me,,,,doe down. he gave her 30 minuets and started tracking her. By the time I got to the truck he had her and said it would be a while she crossed the creek and only went about 100 yards, but we had to go a couple hundred yards down stream to cross without getting wet, with temps below 5 degrees we had no choice,,,,,late night for night one! We got it to the truck a little after 10:30pm and it was already below zero when we headed to his house. It ended up being a 2 1/2 year old buck that had already shed his antlers.
Then the next morning we had planned to hit a spot on the opposite side of the over 10,000 acre hunting grounds we were hunting. We were going to go in about an hour before sunup and about 1/2 mile apart to spots we have taken deer in years past, then do some scouting about 10:00 on our way out for breakfast. I saw 2 deer that morning about 100 yards out or a little more. he didn't see any. But we both knew the deer trails we saw were all heading the same way, and with below zero and single digit temps, they had to be heading to a food source. It was a winter wheat field, not the corn stubble we thought they were heading to. I found this out by glassing the field on the way home that evening after our day two evening hunt. On our way home I drove by the fields that adjoin each other on the North border of the State ground. The new Zeiss HD's I got this Christmas really got there first test. No moon, cloud cover with about 6 to 8" of snow was all I needed to see there were well over 50 deer in the wheat field well over 1/4 mile back off the road. The decision to buy the new 8X42's paid for themselves the first trip out with them, they are brighter than the 10X50 20 year old Leica Trinivoids I replaced with them, and small and light enough to use, great glass, and put us on the deer with 3 days left to fill 3 tags! The next day Friday we had decided to setup in the new bottom and had a plan to drop around the bedding area, in a no hunting zone without being detected, and work our way up a creek bed in a long narrow bottom, and setup on a couple crossings we new they had used on previous years. He saw deer that morning but wasn't close enough for a shot and the only deer I saw were way off, 150 to 200 yards in my buddies direction. So we knew where they were coming from, where they were going, and now in the daylight, we scouted out a few crossings. we Found the only places they were crossing were where the water was open and in shallow riffle's. We went and had breakfast about 11am and headed back in about 2pm with a blustery temperature of almost 20 degrees, the warmest we have had for this hunt. That evening we took his climber in, and I had a perfect spot on the ground with a good log and some cover to cover 2 crossings that were being used heavily! Then about 4:00 I saw a hunter come in, he went right thru where we knew the deer were bedding, and crossed right on the one crossing, never seeing me. I knew this was not good and why we used the long way in that took us over twice as long to get where we wanted to be,,,,,I know it is public hunting, but what happened next is what make me hate being around weekend warriors that call themselves Hunters!! 5 minuets after legal sundown, with 25 minuets left of legal hunting time,,,,,,you guessed it, here he comes heading out right back thru where the deer have been coming from!!!! Why do they even waste their time???? This was the only evening we didn't see a deer. I think since my buddy was only 150 yards or so down the creek from me, was probably why he didn't see one either. \ I was leery of what would happen Sat. with temps rising into the upper 40's I knew the warriors that had been staying away would show up in full force. But that night on the way home I stopped and glassed the field and as the night before it was full of deer, and a dozen or so out close to the road that evening. So we had to stick to our plan. Then Sat. morning we went to our same setups we were in Fri. evening. There were 3 does that came in behind me in the no hunting area that morning, I had no idea where they had crossed but they were headed to where we knew they were bedding. My buddy saw 5 and they stayed out of his reach and were headed to where I was at but they never crossed between us and I never saw them, so they had to cross well up stream from where I was. This is pretty thick mixed thicket and small timber so 100 yards is about the normal you can see plus the creek winds all over the place, and that is the dividing line for hunting and no hunting, with high banks and big hills that it runs thru. We were out by 10am and back early, with snow melting fast and sunny with temps well in the 40's by 2pm when we headed in, I decided to hunt where I did Friday and that was a mistake, it was closer to where we were parking and I had 2 other hunters come in behind me and leave before dark, no deer that night, but my buddy got a shot. Unfortunately it was a shot he tried to force in through some saplings and made a low hit. we tracked for 2 hours after waiting an hour after he shot right at sundown, but finally lost blood after running in circles, and it starting to drizzle, with the snow pack melting heavily, and the deer going out onto the wheat field we had been seeing them in after dark, it was over. I almost said this was it, but with the rain over night and almost 50 degrees, they were calling for rapidly falling temps over night and all day Sunday. With rain ending early morning and temps falling into the low twenty's by evening, and back in the teens after dark. Plus with Sunday evening being the Super Bowl, I was hoping some of these weekend warriors would rather party that tromp through thye slop from the melt and rain, and the cooling temps would keep them away, so I stayed. This was it, still raining pretty hard at 5AM we decided to wit and let it quit, we would go back in to the spot's we hunted Friday night, and hope all the tromping we did Saturday night looking for the Buck my buddy hit, would be settled down and really had no better place to go the final hours of the season,,,,,,,It worked,,, not 100% but we both scored does, right at sundown, just as I was getting ready to take the shot I my phone vibrate, as my buddy was letting me know he was sitting tight till quit time but had one down and seen it drop. Seconds later I let my arrow go and dropped my final doe for 2013 season just minuets before season over!!!!
We got a break and I really think if it had stayed in the teens and not warmed up Saturday, we would have both tagged out. I am delighted for my hunting pardner, he got em both and tagged out, even though he didn't get his buck this year. I am delighted with my season as I got my Buck this year, a nice 147" 10 point, I don't take bucks unless they'll break 140" and have went without the past 2 years, and I managed 5 nice does for the freezer. This will surely give me enough meat to allow me to be selective starting 2014 season off this spring. But most of all, I proved again that even busted up, turn'n 60 and saying I'll do this till I die, I kept that promise to myself for one more year,,,, get'n one,,,,,on the very last ONE!!!
With 2 old guy's and 3 deer in 5 days, and trying times,,,,,,,the Lord certanly moves in mysterious ways!!! I Thank God, for one more year!!!
