Success Last Weekend 10-19-08

Last Sat. morning I climbed into my stand above the apple trees around 6:10 a.m. it was a great morning, not much wind and cool temps. By 6:20 I could make out a deer that had worked it's way in for some morning apples. It was to dark to make out what it was. I could just see it was a deer. It ate for about 15 minutes, but then wondered off before I could see what it was. The rest of the morning didn't produce any action. So I got down and went and scouted and hung another stand on some private land I can hunt.

That afternoon the winds picked up big time but I was perched in my other stand up the hill a bit, more on a ridge. The apples from these trees were all but gone. About 2:15 I had 2 fawns work through, but then it was very quite until just before dark. I looked over to my left just in time to see a 8 pointer walk out from the brush. He was as wide as his ears, but his tines were only about 4-5 inches long, so I decided to let him keep on his way. He walked directly down wind of me and didn't seem to pick up on the fact that I was only 20 yards away from him! He went straight to the apple tree and did manage to find a few stray apples but left within 5 mins. I did have one other doe come by shortly after he left.

Sunday morning came and I barely wanted to get out of bed because the wind was howling went I went to sleep. I did manage to force myself out from the covers. I went to the stand I had hit the morning before. I was in the stand by 6:10 and to my delight there wasn't much wind at all. All was pretty quite until around 7:50 when I spotted a doe headed my way. There is some open field around my patch of cover, so I saw her before she came into my area.

I decided I want to try to harvest her, so I grabbed my bow and got ready. I figured she would feed the same as the one the day before had, and the ground was trampled where they had been feeding. For about 10 minutes it was pretty intense, mostly for me, but she was a bit nervous too. There were a few times I thought she would give me a shot, then she would lift her head or turn goofy. Finally she was moving from left to right, and broadside. Her head went behind the apple tree, so I drew. There was a "Y" in the apple tree that I knew I could shoot through, so I waited until her vitals entered that shooting area. I let the arrow fly, she kicked and ran off about 50 yards and looked back for a minute before she disappeared.

After about 10 mins I had to get down and look at the arrow. That when things got a bit more interesting. It looked like there was lard smeared on the arrow mixed with blood. I got a hold of my friend Lorin and he said that maybe I had hit the brisket area. I looked at way she took off and there was good blood, but I backed out anyway. I didn't know it at the time, but I had hit a twig best I can figure out and it deflected my arrow a bit. More on that in a bit.

About a hour and a half later I was on the blood trail, after about 75 yards the blood was getting less. As I was searching for the next drop of blood she jumped up 15 yards ahead of me! That wasn't what I wanted to happen at all. It didn't sound like she went very far, but again, I backed out. I headed to Lorin's place to wait til after the Vikes game to start looking again.

Lorin and I picked up where she had jumped and within 20 yards, about where I heard her stop, she laid expired. When I hit the twig it must have sent the arrow towards her rear end, or maybe she stepped at the sound of the arrow. Either way I hit her back. I hit the artery and exited ahead of the hind leg. I did work out in the end, but it's a bad feeling to have a deer jump up when it should be dead! Thanks to Lorin for helping me track and drag out my doe!

Interesting Weekend Sept 27-28

Last Sat. morning I decided to try a funnel that I had hunted opening weekend. I climbed into my stand around 6:15. Friday night it stormed pretty good with a lot of thunder and lighting, and continued to rain most of the night, but I had to give it a shot. By 9 am though, I hadn't even heard a deer moving so I got down. You may ask why I even bothered writing that, but keep reading, it comes into play later.


About 2 Saturday afternoon I climbed into my favorite set up next to 2 apple trees, hoping that the deer would be moving early since they weren't moving much that morning. Now this stand actually over looks the area below pretty good and has open, grassy areas. At 3:30 I spotted a deer about 180 yards down below, so I grabbed my binos. It was a doe. So I put my binos back down. Then suddenly there was another deer. When I grabbed the binos again, I couldn't figure out where that one had come from. Suddenly I figured it out when a 3rd deer stood up next to the other ones, they had been bedded in the tall grass where I had first spotted them.


A short time later I had a strange feeling that I should look out to my left. I spotted 2 does feeding about 70 yards out, just on the other side of one of my apple trees. They never came any closer, but it was good to see activity this early in the evening. About 6 I had a small doe work its way to about 30 yards of my stand, working around one of my apple trees, but I wasn't planning on trying to harvest this doe. About 6:15 I hear voices coming from below where I had spotted the first does. At prime time, a guy decided to bring his 2 sons to pick apples from my tree. When they got about 30 yards from the tree they bumped the doe and a smaller buck that just came on the scene. Well they picked apples for a few minutes when one of the sons got bored and started looking around. He spotted me! So I waved. Of course he poked his dad and pointed. I waved to the dad, no response from dad except I heard him say to his sons, that maybe I was bigfoot! Now there was nothing I could say or do because this hunt is on public land. It was just my misfortune that they happened to come at the best time of the day. Needless to say they cleaned out most of the apples left on the tree. They left me with about 20 mins of daylight left but no deer appeared after that. I did manage to get a good picture of them! haha

The next morning I decided to climb back into the same stand, just to see what the morning would bring. Little did I know at that time that every crow in the city of Duluth roosted just down the hill from my stand! Talk about noise! I am sure they were fighting over who got to go to which parking lot! After they left I did manage to see a small 6 pointer and some does, but nothing really that close. So about 9:30 I got down and did some scouting. The problem with this zone is that bigger trees are hard to come by!

Now we talk about my Sunday night hunt. I went back to the spot where I hunted Sat. morning, in the funnel. I hadn't seen a deer in this spot yet, but the wind was wrong for my other spots, so I had to give it a go. I had gotten into the stand about 4, after another loss by the Vikes. About 6 I just got that feeling that I should look to my left again. As I did there was a good size doe standing about 10 yards from my tree! Then her fawn came up behind her. I was sitting at the time but had my bow in my lap. If they stayed on their current heading they would have been broadside at 8 yds. The fawn went straight but the doe followed the cover scent that I had put on my boots. Which meant she was walking right to my tree. I wanted to try to harvest this doe, but I suddenly had to stand and turn hard to my right to have any kind of chance. I got stood up while she was right under me. When I went to turn, there must have been a bit of sand on my stand from walking in, and that made a little noise as I turned. Now I am thinking she heard this, but she did seem to care. As she started to walk out from my tree I drew back. When she was out about 10 yards I stopped her. My pins were a bit duller than I thought they should be, but I was in a pine tree. I release the arrow, she jumped a bit, but then kept walking. I reached behind me to grab another arrow from my quiver. I managed to nock the arrow. Because of over head cover I had to stop her again at 20 yards. This time I wasn't drawn back. When I want to draw she was looking up my direction. So I didn't try to draw. I really don't think she knew what I was, but she knew something wasn't right, and took off.

Thinking back on the events that unfolded I realized that I simply rushed the shot and hit between her legs! I guess I just got to excited. I would have like to harvest her, but a clean miss is 100% better than wounding a animal. I will be in the field again this next weekend, so check back to see what happened!