Saturday, December 5, 2009
It was cold, crispy fall on Saturday as I headed into the woods late in the morning. I knew there was a chance of snow and it was already plenty cold out. So, I timed my trip so I could last until dark and not get too cold.
This was the last weekend of rifle season, so I opted to head for my stand and not walk around too much. I took a good hour, walking slowly and stepping carefully. It started snowing, lightly at first, but it began to get heavier. I sat in my stand, still and quiet.
If you sit quietly enough, you can hear the snow fall. It makes a near-silent muffle as it covers leaves, branches, trunks, and me. The sound gets quieter as the snow plies up, softening its own landing. I like it. Things are very simple right now.
It's turning into winter, and I am watching it happen.
I don't see any deer, and even the squirrels are mostly holed up. The deer will seek shelter in heavy cover, under evergreens, in the thick stands, anywhere out of the wind and snow. They'll just sit tight and wait. Mostly, they can be as patient as they please.
The deer probably won't be out now, but you can never be sure. So, I am happy to sit, snow slowly piling up on me, and wait, just in case.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
I probably ought to be in church, but I am running out of time for this season and with fresh snow on the ground, I hoped to cut some fresh tracks early and find some deer. In the woods I hunt, there is an avenue of travel where I know there will be tracks, there always are. But this trail is too close to the road to hunt, so I have to follow the tracks and try to catch the deer in heavy cover somewhere else.
Actually, my best bet is to get in front of them and then hold still and let them come to me. It is almost impossible to sneak up on them, but you can let them sneak up on you...
It gets windy around 9-9:30 am, typical for most days when it is quiet and then a light breeze kicks up. But today this wind is gusty and poses extra problems. The trees are loaded with 5 inches of snow and every gust empties branches onto the ground, obscuring tracks and making it difficult to judge how old they are.
Following tracks for a couple hours, I paused to rest by a big evergreen tree. I crouched next to the trunk and leaned against it. In one of my very recent footprints only a few feet away, I hear a noise. Looking closely, I see a leaf push up and down a few times. Then like a cartoon, a little bump makes its way under the leaves, under the snow, moving away through an invisible corridor in a whole other world. That field mouse got a rude awakening when I walked by.
Still by the tree, I next heard a scratching noise on the tree and assumed it was a squirrel coming down the other side. I looked around the tree and saw no squirrel, but about eight feet up, there was a small knothole in the tree. Definitely big enough for a red squirrel to get in. The squirrel was inside the tree, right beside me, protected and oblivious. Not bad digs at all for a red squirrel.
I went back to walking and covered a lot of ground, occasionally picking up some tracks, then just moving on intuition and looking for what I think would be natural lines of drift the deer would follow. The woods have a natural flow to them based on terrain, obstacles, tree growth, rocks, and streams. These things all combine to produce natural lines of drift that animals and people will tend to follow. They are not absolute, but animals will definitely tend toward these places.
Different animals move differently, have differing abilities and strengths, and needs for cover and protection. These factors also affect what line of drift would appeal to which animal. I may not tend to see a good opening in the same way a rabbit would spot a potential highway. So when I look for deer lines, I have to look at things like I was three feet tall and with a long body, but a low mid-section. For example, a log that I may climb right over, may not seem appealing to a deer that may have to jump or climb awkwardly over. The deer will walk around or change direction.
Anyway, I spent the day walking quietly through the woods on Sunday. It was perfect. My thermos of hot coffee kept me warm and juiced for the trip and I had a couple sandwiches for lunch beside a clearing.
I passed by a known porcupine tree on my way back and paused to see if the big guy was home. Safely inside his tree, I could hear him shuffling around. It must be tough to get comfortable inside a tree.
I've got one more weekend left to hunt for bow season. I intend to make the most of it. The wood will be quiet this week and if the weather continues to be rough, hopefully, the deer will hole up and perhaps by this weekend, they will be antsy and ready to move. Either way, it has been a greatly enjoyable season and I have learned a lot so far.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Two Dead Scarecrows and One Spooked Deer
I got out in the woods for a couple hours this afternoon. We had errands to run after the trip to church and the tasks delayed me by an hour or so. I had hoped to get out and be set up by 2:30, allowing for plenty of time for the woods to quiet, and hopefully an unwary whitetail to wander through.
It’s been nearly three weeks since I have seen a deer, of any sort, in the woods where I am hunting this year. That is a long spell of time by any standards, but I know the reason why. Muzzleloader season and regular firearms both opened over the last few weeks and the woods have been inundated with clumsy hunters crashing around and looking for deer. Understandably, this upsets whatever loose pattern of movement the deer had been following and makes any encounter I might have with them a much more random event.
Truth be told, I have probably missed my best chances for getting a deer this year. At one point, I had figured their movement down to the day and hour they would be passing a certain area. Twice, I had put myself in position to be successful based on this knowledge, and twice they passed by a few yards too many from where I figured. Then the other seasons opened and I am back to square one.
But getting back to my most recent outing, I was approaching my stand as quietly as I could. The leaves were wind-dried and very crunchy, requiring great effort to move with even reasonable quietness. The wind was dead, helping noise to carry even better. As I approached a small stone wall, the last obstacle to cross before I climbed into my stand, I heard it. The two distinct crashes that a deer makes when it bounds away from you came from well within earshot, just ahead. I was too late.
Now, I still held out some hope that this deer would turn around and come back. I have seen deer do this many times. They get spooked a bit and run away, but whatever was drawing them in this direction to begin with is still there and they will cautiously work their way back after some time. So, I put on my harness and got set up in my treestand anyway.
I heard a couple of steps out there somewhere as I waited, but nothing ventured close enough to see. So, I sat still and watched the last strands of daylight drain out of the woods and darkness settle. I am planning to hunt further south over Thanksgiving and wanted to take another treestand out of the woods for the trip, so I climbed down and headed for the other stand.
To get into this stand, and to protect it from thieves, I use strap-on tree steps. I take off the bottom three or four so there is no way to reach the upper steps and the stand itself from the ground. I clicked my headlamp on red light, and set the lower steps up. I was not going to climb into the stand this time, just climb up and unfasten it from the trunk.
When I got up to the top step, I could see the main strap holding the stand to the tree had been chewed up. The whole length of excess strap was gone and the portion of the strap going around the tree was nearly pulling through the buckle. Had I not checked and just climbed on, I am not sure the stand would have held.
As it was, I unbuckled what was left and lowered it to the ground. In a few minutes I gathered up the steps and folded the stand so I was ready to move. I got back to my truck about 50 minutes after sunset. But I was not done with this trip just yet. Scattered over the side of the road across from my truck were an assortment of beer cans, boxes, and two rather sorry looking scarecrows. All were ditched by someone who perhaps doesn’t realize we have an actual dump that is free to use and would readily accept all of these items.
As I do from time to time, I went over and set to picking up the items and putting them in the back of my truck. It really takes very little effort to clean up a little section of road and just dump the trash with my own. Plus, I think it is good PR if I happen to be spotted picking up trash. I think it helps to break up that beer-drinking and hunting stereotype that tends to persist, even though in reality, I have yet to ever see a hunter drinking in the woods.
So, with a half-eaten treestand, two abused scarecrows, and a little pile of someone else’s beer cans in the back of my truck, I headed for home. Another day is gone, one day less left for this season. But I did learn that the deer are back in the area, and that is good news. I have until December 15th, so there is still time to hunt.
It’s been nearly three weeks since I have seen a deer, of any sort, in the woods where I am hunting this year. That is a long spell of time by any standards, but I know the reason why. Muzzleloader season and regular firearms both opened over the last few weeks and the woods have been inundated with clumsy hunters crashing around and looking for deer. Understandably, this upsets whatever loose pattern of movement the deer had been following and makes any encounter I might have with them a much more random event.
Truth be told, I have probably missed my best chances for getting a deer this year. At one point, I had figured their movement down to the day and hour they would be passing a certain area. Twice, I had put myself in position to be successful based on this knowledge, and twice they passed by a few yards too many from where I figured. Then the other seasons opened and I am back to square one.
But getting back to my most recent outing, I was approaching my stand as quietly as I could. The leaves were wind-dried and very crunchy, requiring great effort to move with even reasonable quietness. The wind was dead, helping noise to carry even better. As I approached a small stone wall, the last obstacle to cross before I climbed into my stand, I heard it. The two distinct crashes that a deer makes when it bounds away from you came from well within earshot, just ahead. I was too late.
Now, I still held out some hope that this deer would turn around and come back. I have seen deer do this many times. They get spooked a bit and run away, but whatever was drawing them in this direction to begin with is still there and they will cautiously work their way back after some time. So, I put on my harness and got set up in my treestand anyway.
I heard a couple of steps out there somewhere as I waited, but nothing ventured close enough to see. So, I sat still and watched the last strands of daylight drain out of the woods and darkness settle. I am planning to hunt further south over Thanksgiving and wanted to take another treestand out of the woods for the trip, so I climbed down and headed for the other stand.
To get into this stand, and to protect it from thieves, I use strap-on tree steps. I take off the bottom three or four so there is no way to reach the upper steps and the stand itself from the ground. I clicked my headlamp on red light, and set the lower steps up. I was not going to climb into the stand this time, just climb up and unfasten it from the trunk.
When I got up to the top step, I could see the main strap holding the stand to the tree had been chewed up. The whole length of excess strap was gone and the portion of the strap going around the tree was nearly pulling through the buckle. Had I not checked and just climbed on, I am not sure the stand would have held.
As it was, I unbuckled what was left and lowered it to the ground. In a few minutes I gathered up the steps and folded the stand so I was ready to move. I got back to my truck about 50 minutes after sunset. But I was not done with this trip just yet. Scattered over the side of the road across from my truck were an assortment of beer cans, boxes, and two rather sorry looking scarecrows. All were ditched by someone who perhaps doesn’t realize we have an actual dump that is free to use and would readily accept all of these items.
As I do from time to time, I went over and set to picking up the items and putting them in the back of my truck. It really takes very little effort to clean up a little section of road and just dump the trash with my own. Plus, I think it is good PR if I happen to be spotted picking up trash. I think it helps to break up that beer-drinking and hunting stereotype that tends to persist, even though in reality, I have yet to ever see a hunter drinking in the woods.
So, with a half-eaten treestand, two abused scarecrows, and a little pile of someone else’s beer cans in the back of my truck, I headed for home. Another day is gone, one day less left for this season. But I did learn that the deer are back in the area, and that is good news. I have until December 15th, so there is still time to hunt.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Watch Your Step!
I stayed in the woods for about five hours today. I went out this morning and stayed until my feet, hands, and arrow fletching was soaked. Most of me stayed dry, thanks to my Frogg Toggs rain gear. It is made of lightweight, Tyvek-like material that breathes, but is waterproof. I have worn them several times now in extremely wet conditions, and they have worked great. I highly recommend them if you want to do stuff outside during inclement weather.
I sat in my treestand for two hours, then climbed down to go for a walk in the evergreen stands. The thicker canopy keeps out the rain somewhat and I thought the deer may go there for cover. Before I headed off to the stands, I wandered around near my spot to look for fresh sign. I approached a big rotting log and went to step over it. I know that stepping over logs blindly in snake country is a bad idea, but up here there aren't too many dangers like that. As my foot cleared the log, I looked down and saw a baby porcupine almost underfoot!
The porcupine was maybe the size of a volleyball and did not have hardly any quills large enough to have their distinct white coloring. It was sitting with its head under the log and its backside out in the rain. I was surprised and pulled my foot back in time to not step on it. I walked around it a little further away and watched it for a few minutes. I had eaten an apple earlier and chucked the core up the hill toward my stand. I walked over and found it. I wanted to see if I could feed it to the porcupine. But when I returned, it was in time to see it scurrying up a tree. I left the core at the bottom and moved on.
It was a good reminder to me of age-old woods-walking advice; don't step blindly over obstacles. You never know what might be on the other side.
I sat in my treestand for two hours, then climbed down to go for a walk in the evergreen stands. The thicker canopy keeps out the rain somewhat and I thought the deer may go there for cover. Before I headed off to the stands, I wandered around near my spot to look for fresh sign. I approached a big rotting log and went to step over it. I know that stepping over logs blindly in snake country is a bad idea, but up here there aren't too many dangers like that. As my foot cleared the log, I looked down and saw a baby porcupine almost underfoot!
The porcupine was maybe the size of a volleyball and did not have hardly any quills large enough to have their distinct white coloring. It was sitting with its head under the log and its backside out in the rain. I was surprised and pulled my foot back in time to not step on it. I walked around it a little further away and watched it for a few minutes. I had eaten an apple earlier and chucked the core up the hill toward my stand. I walked over and found it. I wanted to see if I could feed it to the porcupine. But when I returned, it was in time to see it scurrying up a tree. I left the core at the bottom and moved on.
It was a good reminder to me of age-old woods-walking advice; don't step blindly over obstacles. You never know what might be on the other side.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Chilly Sunrise
Honestly, there are not too many Saturdays I rally and get up before the sun to get in the woods, but today was one of them. I am working far away right now, so time to hunt after work is pretty much eliminated. This situation makes me desperate to find time in the woods, thus the 5:30 am wake-up and out to get set up.
A couple of things always seem strange about the morning. The first is that one would expect it to warm right up when the sun finally begins to paint the tops of the trees and slowly washes down their trunks. But this is not the case, usually, dawn brings a sharp cooling in the air. Until the sun actually gets high enough to hit you with its rays, it can be downright freezing. I spent four hours on stand this morning and didn't see a deer. Squirrels and even some unknown songbirds were out in force, but no deer.
The second is that I always like to be out, once I am there. But I have to talk myself into getting up that early and making it happen. Sometimes hunting is actually a lot like work and I go out when I know I should, not just when I feel like it.
I do know this; every single time I force myself to stop being lazy, gear up and go outside, I am always glad I did.
A couple of things always seem strange about the morning. The first is that one would expect it to warm right up when the sun finally begins to paint the tops of the trees and slowly washes down their trunks. But this is not the case, usually, dawn brings a sharp cooling in the air. Until the sun actually gets high enough to hit you with its rays, it can be downright freezing. I spent four hours on stand this morning and didn't see a deer. Squirrels and even some unknown songbirds were out in force, but no deer.
The second is that I always like to be out, once I am there. But I have to talk myself into getting up that early and making it happen. Sometimes hunting is actually a lot like work and I go out when I know I should, not just when I feel like it.
I do know this; every single time I force myself to stop being lazy, gear up and go outside, I am always glad I did.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Red Squirrels Are Bullies
Today was about as windy as it can be and still what I would consider safe enough to stay out. On very windy days, the top branches of trees can just start snapping off and fall. Sometimes they are small, but some are big and will stick in the ground. Also, it has been so wet this year, the ground is soft and trees are still apt to just go over in a gust. So if it seems crazy windy, I'll stay out of the timber.
Besides the trees, hunting is tough on windy days. The deer are sketched right out and it very tough to hear anything. The wind hampers the deer's senses and they are spooked by the crashing branches, so they try to be ultra-alert to compensate. This makes getting close to them almost impossible; you have to let them come to you.
Red squirrels, right, back on topic. A couple days ago, I watched a gray squirrel foraging on the ground along the edge of the evergreen stand where my treestand is. Out of nowhere, a red charged him and began to chase him away. After a thirty yard chase, the red stopped and the gray kept moving. Just when the gray had resumed foraging, another red bolted out of another tree and chased the gray even further away.
The reds knew exactly where the ground that had acorns on it was and where it ended. Once the gray was pushed out of that area, they just went back to their trees and ignored him. By now, most of the acorns are out of the trees, so the battle is for the ground. Thing is, the grays actually do most of the work. I see them up in the high branches, shaking the acorns loose frequently, but I never see the reds up there doing any of the work.
But by far, I saw the the most violent attack a few weeks back. In the tree branches, about twenty feet off the ground I saw a red squirrel catch up with a gray and what happened next surprised me. The red pounced on the gray's back, wrapping him up and rolled out of the branches in a suicidal attempt to wrench the gray out of the tree. Once both squirrels were falling, the red released the gray and grabbed on to a branch a few feet below! The gray fell to the ground and ran off, shaken, but apparently uninjured.
So, these are my basis for the conclusion that red squirrels are bullies of the forest. I have yet to see anything to the contrary and while I am sure the predators are plenty aggressive, the reds are the most aggressive of the furry little critters.
Besides the trees, hunting is tough on windy days. The deer are sketched right out and it very tough to hear anything. The wind hampers the deer's senses and they are spooked by the crashing branches, so they try to be ultra-alert to compensate. This makes getting close to them almost impossible; you have to let them come to you.
Red squirrels, right, back on topic. A couple days ago, I watched a gray squirrel foraging on the ground along the edge of the evergreen stand where my treestand is. Out of nowhere, a red charged him and began to chase him away. After a thirty yard chase, the red stopped and the gray kept moving. Just when the gray had resumed foraging, another red bolted out of another tree and chased the gray even further away.
The reds knew exactly where the ground that had acorns on it was and where it ended. Once the gray was pushed out of that area, they just went back to their trees and ignored him. By now, most of the acorns are out of the trees, so the battle is for the ground. Thing is, the grays actually do most of the work. I see them up in the high branches, shaking the acorns loose frequently, but I never see the reds up there doing any of the work.
But by far, I saw the the most violent attack a few weeks back. In the tree branches, about twenty feet off the ground I saw a red squirrel catch up with a gray and what happened next surprised me. The red pounced on the gray's back, wrapping him up and rolled out of the branches in a suicidal attempt to wrench the gray out of the tree. Once both squirrels were falling, the red released the gray and grabbed on to a branch a few feet below! The gray fell to the ground and ran off, shaken, but apparently uninjured.
So, these are my basis for the conclusion that red squirrels are bullies of the forest. I have yet to see anything to the contrary and while I am sure the predators are plenty aggressive, the reds are the most aggressive of the furry little critters.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Update to A Very Bad Day
Since that Tuesday night last week, I spent all Wednesday, Thursday afternoon, and ten hours in the woods on Friday looking for that deer. I picked up where I had lost the trail in the dark on Tuesday. I was hoping it was just me in the dark and I would find more blood, but there was no blood to find. I had been marking the trail and it was easy for me to pick up my last spot.
I used a clover leaf recon pattern to search from the spot, out, around and back, then out in a different direction, around and back again. Along the route I was hoping to cross more blood, or find the animal. I searched every ditch, stone wall, deep cover spot, and grassy area for that deer, no dice. I did not even find my arrow.
But on Friday, I wanted to move my treestand before I searched an area across the road from my usual patch of woods, so I started back near where I had shot on Tuesday. As I was setting my stand in a new spot, I saw three or four deer move past me in the oppostite direction I wanted to search. I thought that if the deer was not seriously injured, she would want to rejoin her herd and keep moving with them and so it would be worth checking to see if she was there.
I got out of the tree and slowly began to try to catch up with the deer. Catching up with a moving herd of deer is a counter-intuitive process. In your mind, you will think you have to rush and try to close the gap, but in reality, you have to go very slowly and keep glassing (using binoculars) to try to avoid bumping them. They blend in so well, it is easy to do, and most of the time that is what will happen anyway. But I try to move only a couple yards, then stop and glass. It takes a lot of patience to move this way, but the deer will stop and feed or freeze at a sound for a long time, so as long as I keep quiet and move in the right direction, I can usually get close at least once more.
I followed the deer along a ridge for forty-five minutes or so, and was able to stay quiet and undetected as far as I could tell. The silence was broken by a loud snort from my right and further up the ridge. I had nearly passed a big doe standing just up over the crest of the ridge in some scubby cover. I recognized her immediately and even the snort sounded exactly like the ones I had heard on Tuesday night. She stared at me for a second and I felt like she recognized me, then she bolted. I didn't see an arrow and she moved just fine.
This time of year, deer have elevated levels of clotting agent in their blood to help the heal fast due to the rut and the violence that can accompany the whole mating season. I still feel awful of course about not taking her right down, but now at least I know she survived and is back with the herd.
Deer don't usually snort at you. It is pretty unusual and I though that I bumped a buck in the dark on Tuesday night, but now that I look back and recognized the snort from the doe, I think that I actually bumped into her in the dark and she snorted at me. I could not see her, but I was wearing a headlamp and she probably could have seen me pretty well.
Well, at any rate, the hunt is back on. The herd walking around is up to five now, at least when I saw them this morning. Plus this week should be getting very close to the rut, if it's not on already, and the bucks should be out and running around too. I've got my other treestand set up too, so I have my choice of spots all ready to go depending on which trail the deer are using. I won't shoot at one that is 20 yards out anymore, 15 is my new max range. It's not that I can't stick an arrow where I want it at the further range, it's just that the deer has too much time to move and I can't have that, again.
I used a clover leaf recon pattern to search from the spot, out, around and back, then out in a different direction, around and back again. Along the route I was hoping to cross more blood, or find the animal. I searched every ditch, stone wall, deep cover spot, and grassy area for that deer, no dice. I did not even find my arrow.
But on Friday, I wanted to move my treestand before I searched an area across the road from my usual patch of woods, so I started back near where I had shot on Tuesday. As I was setting my stand in a new spot, I saw three or four deer move past me in the oppostite direction I wanted to search. I thought that if the deer was not seriously injured, she would want to rejoin her herd and keep moving with them and so it would be worth checking to see if she was there.
I got out of the tree and slowly began to try to catch up with the deer. Catching up with a moving herd of deer is a counter-intuitive process. In your mind, you will think you have to rush and try to close the gap, but in reality, you have to go very slowly and keep glassing (using binoculars) to try to avoid bumping them. They blend in so well, it is easy to do, and most of the time that is what will happen anyway. But I try to move only a couple yards, then stop and glass. It takes a lot of patience to move this way, but the deer will stop and feed or freeze at a sound for a long time, so as long as I keep quiet and move in the right direction, I can usually get close at least once more.
I followed the deer along a ridge for forty-five minutes or so, and was able to stay quiet and undetected as far as I could tell. The silence was broken by a loud snort from my right and further up the ridge. I had nearly passed a big doe standing just up over the crest of the ridge in some scubby cover. I recognized her immediately and even the snort sounded exactly like the ones I had heard on Tuesday night. She stared at me for a second and I felt like she recognized me, then she bolted. I didn't see an arrow and she moved just fine.
This time of year, deer have elevated levels of clotting agent in their blood to help the heal fast due to the rut and the violence that can accompany the whole mating season. I still feel awful of course about not taking her right down, but now at least I know she survived and is back with the herd.
Deer don't usually snort at you. It is pretty unusual and I though that I bumped a buck in the dark on Tuesday night, but now that I look back and recognized the snort from the doe, I think that I actually bumped into her in the dark and she snorted at me. I could not see her, but I was wearing a headlamp and she probably could have seen me pretty well.
Well, at any rate, the hunt is back on. The herd walking around is up to five now, at least when I saw them this morning. Plus this week should be getting very close to the rut, if it's not on already, and the bucks should be out and running around too. I've got my other treestand set up too, so I have my choice of spots all ready to go depending on which trail the deer are using. I won't shoot at one that is 20 yards out anymore, 15 is my new max range. It's not that I can't stick an arrow where I want it at the further range, it's just that the deer has too much time to move and I can't have that, again.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A Very Bad Day
Sometimes the toughest part of writing is being honest. I have not written in a while because I have been in the woods every spare minute of daylight this week, and I have not wanted to be honest. The story of why, is tough to tell and could be tough to read. Hunting is not always clean and easy, so if you are squeamish of such things, this is not the post for you to read. Skip it and read another.
Work continues to be slow and I had all of Tuesday to spend in the woods. I have come to believe that most early morning trips into the woods are wastes of time for a variety of reasons. First, entering the woods in the dark of morning is usually loud and difficult. It is also very cold and unpleasant, this makes the hunter get cold and by midmorning, most are ready to leave the woods to warm up. However, I have found that later in the morning is a prime time for deer moving and I have seen many this time of day. Entering the woods a little later means I can slowly move and watch for hours, covering ground and spend a good seven or eight hours without leaving the woods. But having said that, going in early every now and then is good because it is another piece of the puzzle and it will let you see the woods wake up, which is always neat.
Tuesday, I went in at about 10 am. I brought some climbing sticks with me to try out and replace my strap-on climbing steps with at my treestand. On the way in, I could hear something in the thicker woods near my stand, so I stopped, set down the climbing sticks, and dropped my pack. The sounds were just across a clearing and I waited for about a half hour on the near side, watching and listening. I knew I should have tried to move closer to the edge of the clearing, but I though the deer would pop out any minute, so I froze and waited. Sure enough, a doe came out and stepped to the edge of the clearing, but she saw me, and stopped. I had time to shoot, but she was facing me almost direct and about 25 yards away. Too risky of a shot for me to take, so I held off and she turned and bounded off. No problem, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was wound her.
I got to my stand and put up the new climbing sticks. They went together easily, were solid and very easy to climb. Satisfied with my stand, I went for a little walk around, then decided to go on stand at about 2 pm, and settle in.
Three big porcupines sat up in the trees nearby and time passed quickly as I alternated between watching them feed and looking for deer. Around 5 pm I heard steps and watched. Four deer came in from my right and moved across to my left, getting closer. There were three does of average size (100 lb. or so) and one in the lead that was head and shoulders above the others, probably 150 lbs. or so. That was the one I wanted. I watched them come in, unaware of my presence.
I was standing, and I had about a 22 yd. shot, down and to my left through an open lane. The big doe stepped into the space and I had a perfect broadside shot. I drew, aimed behind the shoulder and shot. What happened next is blurry and happened so fast, it is difficult to describe. The deer moved before my arrow even reached its mark. I thought I might have missed, everything moved so fast, I just couldn’t tell. The big deer bolted in the direction it was headed and the other three broke toward the direction they had come from.
At first I just waited, watching and mentally marking the spot where the deer was standing, and marking the spot where it ran off to. I untied my harness and climbed down. First, I wanted to find my arrow, if it was still there. I looked for 45 minutes and couldn’t find anything. No arrow, no blood, nothing. I went to the last place I saw the deer, then tracked it for about a hundred more yards, still not sure if I hit it, then I saw some blood and knew I had. By now it was nearly dark and I switched on my headlamp to start trailing.
The trail was pretty light and I had to move slowly, looking for drops, smears, anything I could find. I carefully marked sign with a forked stick and another stick resting in it, showing direction of travel and keeping me from tracking in a circle over the same sign. I tracked in the dark, the blood trail was light to begin with and it got lighter and lighter, until I couldn’t find anything to follow.
By now it was almost 9 pm and I was a good distance from the original shooting location. I tried to find more trail, but I was in an area where lots of deer were bedding or passing through and there were multiple trails in many directions. Then, I bumped the buck. He sounded big, but everything sounds bigger in the dark. I could hear him move away from me, maybe 10 yards, then stop. I knew it was a buck because it didn’t just take off; it stood its ground and began to snort at me. It was at this point that I decided to get out of the woods for the night.
If you feel bad about reading this, about what happened, trust me, I feel ten times worse. Wounding an animal is every hunter’s nightmare and I have not been able to get over this. I practice and practice and have passed up at least six other chances to shoot so far this year, specifically to avoid this situation. I have spent every spare hour of daylight in the woods looking for this deer and I will spend at least 10-11 hours out there tomorrow. It is all I can do. I want to find that deer more than anything right now and I will do everything I can to. This story isn’t over, yet.
Work continues to be slow and I had all of Tuesday to spend in the woods. I have come to believe that most early morning trips into the woods are wastes of time for a variety of reasons. First, entering the woods in the dark of morning is usually loud and difficult. It is also very cold and unpleasant, this makes the hunter get cold and by midmorning, most are ready to leave the woods to warm up. However, I have found that later in the morning is a prime time for deer moving and I have seen many this time of day. Entering the woods a little later means I can slowly move and watch for hours, covering ground and spend a good seven or eight hours without leaving the woods. But having said that, going in early every now and then is good because it is another piece of the puzzle and it will let you see the woods wake up, which is always neat.
Tuesday, I went in at about 10 am. I brought some climbing sticks with me to try out and replace my strap-on climbing steps with at my treestand. On the way in, I could hear something in the thicker woods near my stand, so I stopped, set down the climbing sticks, and dropped my pack. The sounds were just across a clearing and I waited for about a half hour on the near side, watching and listening. I knew I should have tried to move closer to the edge of the clearing, but I though the deer would pop out any minute, so I froze and waited. Sure enough, a doe came out and stepped to the edge of the clearing, but she saw me, and stopped. I had time to shoot, but she was facing me almost direct and about 25 yards away. Too risky of a shot for me to take, so I held off and she turned and bounded off. No problem, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was wound her.
I got to my stand and put up the new climbing sticks. They went together easily, were solid and very easy to climb. Satisfied with my stand, I went for a little walk around, then decided to go on stand at about 2 pm, and settle in.
Three big porcupines sat up in the trees nearby and time passed quickly as I alternated between watching them feed and looking for deer. Around 5 pm I heard steps and watched. Four deer came in from my right and moved across to my left, getting closer. There were three does of average size (100 lb. or so) and one in the lead that was head and shoulders above the others, probably 150 lbs. or so. That was the one I wanted. I watched them come in, unaware of my presence.
I was standing, and I had about a 22 yd. shot, down and to my left through an open lane. The big doe stepped into the space and I had a perfect broadside shot. I drew, aimed behind the shoulder and shot. What happened next is blurry and happened so fast, it is difficult to describe. The deer moved before my arrow even reached its mark. I thought I might have missed, everything moved so fast, I just couldn’t tell. The big deer bolted in the direction it was headed and the other three broke toward the direction they had come from.
At first I just waited, watching and mentally marking the spot where the deer was standing, and marking the spot where it ran off to. I untied my harness and climbed down. First, I wanted to find my arrow, if it was still there. I looked for 45 minutes and couldn’t find anything. No arrow, no blood, nothing. I went to the last place I saw the deer, then tracked it for about a hundred more yards, still not sure if I hit it, then I saw some blood and knew I had. By now it was nearly dark and I switched on my headlamp to start trailing.
The trail was pretty light and I had to move slowly, looking for drops, smears, anything I could find. I carefully marked sign with a forked stick and another stick resting in it, showing direction of travel and keeping me from tracking in a circle over the same sign. I tracked in the dark, the blood trail was light to begin with and it got lighter and lighter, until I couldn’t find anything to follow.
By now it was almost 9 pm and I was a good distance from the original shooting location. I tried to find more trail, but I was in an area where lots of deer were bedding or passing through and there were multiple trails in many directions. Then, I bumped the buck. He sounded big, but everything sounds bigger in the dark. I could hear him move away from me, maybe 10 yards, then stop. I knew it was a buck because it didn’t just take off; it stood its ground and began to snort at me. It was at this point that I decided to get out of the woods for the night.
If you feel bad about reading this, about what happened, trust me, I feel ten times worse. Wounding an animal is every hunter’s nightmare and I have not been able to get over this. I practice and practice and have passed up at least six other chances to shoot so far this year, specifically to avoid this situation. I have spent every spare hour of daylight in the woods looking for this deer and I will spend at least 10-11 hours out there tomorrow. It is all I can do. I want to find that deer more than anything right now and I will do everything I can to. This story isn’t over, yet.
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