Close Again!

I went back over to Duluth last Tuesday evening to get ready for one last try. I hit the woods about a hour before light, it was 17 degrees. I was hunting a stand that I had hung before Thanksgiving but had yet to hunt. All was pretty quite until about 8 a.m when I noticed a buck working from right to left, but working away from me. I grabbed my grunt call and grunted until I saw him lift his head and acknowledge that he heard me. He kept moving the way he was. I grunted a few more times. At this point I lost sight of him behind some trees. All of a sudden he emerged from the trees and was only about 25 yds away and on a string. It was a nice 10pt, but only a bit bigger than a basket. In Dec. he was good enough to fill my tag and freezer.

There was a bit of a clearing directly in front of my stand, as you can see from the picture. He stopped to look around 15 yrds out. I needed him to move 2 more steps so his head was behind a tree. He took the steps and I drew. I could see his ears perk as I drew. I quickly found his chest with my pin, and usually at this point I let it fly. This time I am not sure why, a feeling or something, but I didn't. I wanted to make sure I was where I needed to be. At this point the buck got spooky and quickly turned hard quarter away and took a few leaps to be out of range. I have never had the pin on a chest and not got a arrow off! I can still see that in my head and it will haunt me for awhile.

Later that day around 1:30 I noticed 3 deer heading my way. A doe, a spike and a decent 8pt. I tried grunting at them but the doe headed for thicker cover as the bucks trailed. As they were moving away I tried grunting again, but it didn't seem to have a effect. About ten minutes later I tried some rattling. It was just like on TV. I had horns in hand and here came that 8pt back in a hurry. He circled around behind me to try and get my wind, but I lost sight of him. I had thought he had slipped over the ridge. As I stood in my big pine tree I couldn't see the way he had gone due to branches. As I slowly sat I noticed he was looking right at me only 35 yds away on top of a large rock, that put him on eye level. I don't think he saw me since he didn't bolt, but his nose was in the air for several minutes. I don't think he winded me either, but when he didn't smell a buck he climbed off the rock and walked back from where he came. Foiled again!

About 10 mins after he had gone, I thought maybe he would come back to the horns. So I rattled again. I noticed movement off to my left, opposite of where the 8 had gone. It looked like another doe being chased by 2 bucks again, maybe the same ones had looped around. It didn't take long to realize these were different deer. There was a really nice, tall 8 that I could see out about 70 yds. So I tried grunting and I did get there attention. It looked like the doe was heading my way. As it turned out the doe turned out to be a spike with a kicker on his base. That deer walk 10 feet from the base of my stand and looped around me. I noticed a 2nd deer moving my way. This one was about a 125 10pt with a kicker on his base. This one was a bit more cautious. He was in front of my stand about 17 yds out. He was standing in some brush and I needed him to take 2 steps so I could draw without being seen. Well, I thought the spike had drifted over the ridge since I could see or hear him and longer. As I waited for the 10 to move, he got nervous. On a dime he turned straight away and walked off. I grabbed the grunt call and hit it a few soft times, but he kept going, back to the bigger buck, that never came closer than 70 yds. When I couldn't see the 10 anymore, I thought some light rattling may pull him back. As I hit the horn the spike jumped into view 10 yds behind me! I was as surprised as he was. He didn't blow out and was really confused, but he walked away as I tried to get the antlers back on the peg. Needless to say I never got a shot at any of them again. It was almost like to 2 bigger bucks were going to offer up the spike, or at least send him as a scout!

I had a plan for the next morning that included breaking out the buck decoy to keep their interest if they came around again. I got set up early allowing extra time for set-up. Just after daybreak I noticed a deer walking with it's nose down following my trail I walked in on. I had put Deer Herd in a Stick on my boots as I always do, and it was working perfectly. He turned out to be a different spike than the day before. He was 25 feet away from the decoy and headed right for it. I was waiting for him to be scared when he lifted his head. When he finally saw it he didn't freak out in the least bit. Actually I had 2 decoys for about 15 minutes! He walked right up behind it, 10 feet away, giving distance to this bigger buck. He would scratch, then his ears would perk and face the direction the decoy was looking, as if he was missing something! It was very funny to watch. Well this went on for a bit, but then he got bored with it and moved off. Later I had 2 does spot the decoy, but they wanted no part of it and blew off before I even saw that they were close. I only saw flags after they blew. I thought they had seen me move, but a bit later when I knew I was motionless a doe came but about 80yds, saw the decoy, stomped a foot and blew and jumped. My hunt and my time to hunt in Duluth had come to a end.

All fall I have been using my pull behind camper as my hunting shack, and with temps falling into the teens at night, it was time to winterize it for the year, plus the miles and time away from my family was starting to take it's toll. At times this fall, my season was really slow, but that week around the rut was outstanding! In 3 days I must have had 30 deer come by and 7 of them were does. One I harvested. I saw 2 very nice 10's this year, and big, chocolate racked 8, and several other very nice deer. I was close on several occasions but couldn't quite get it done. At least I know if I can get that zone again, there are some very nice deer around.

As for hunting around home, I am not sure I will get a chance. We found out the other day that my wife will probably have to have back surgery and I will have to be around to help out, like she did when I had mine 2 years ago.

If you are still hitting the woods, best of luck to you!

Harvested a Nice Doe!

I was hunting pretty much this whole last week. Wednesday was particularly interesting. I climbed into the stand about a hour before sunrise. The first hour or so I heard some deer moving about the area but hadn't seen anything. Then about 8 a.m. I heard something behind me. I could see in the brush that it was a buck. I really couldn't see how big he was. All of a sudden a doe comes busting out of the brush and runs to 12 yds in front of my stand. The buck follow of course but he was behind me. It turned out he was a nice 8 pointer with a chocolate rack. He was out just past his ears and had decent tine length. As they stood there we all heard another deer heading our way. The 8 pointer headed to cut him off at the pass. His hair bristled up and he ended up running off the buck about 80 yds out. The other buck looked to be nice sized also, but I really couldn't see him to well. In the meantime the doe laid down where she had stopped. She was watching the show as I was with her head facing away from me. As I watched the buck in action, I got to looking at the doe and noticed a hole in the brush I thought I could get a arrow into. It didn't seem like the buck was coming back anytime soon, so I planned my move. Being 20ft up a tree she looked to be a yearling. I drew back and buried the pin where I thought I needed to go. I let it fly! The arrow hit just off to the side of her spine.

She jumped up and took off. The buck rejoined her in a instant. She went about 50 yds and with my bino's I could see she laid down but her head was up. As the buck came closer she got up and went another 20 yds, behind some trees. I kept watching but never saw her leave the trees. After a few minutes I noticed the buck walking over to where I last saw the doe with his head on the ground almost nudging. At this point I figured the doe had expired. After another 10 minutes the buck had walked off and I climbed down to check on my doe.


I snuck over to her with a arrow ready, just in case. She was expired. As I stood there looking at her I heard a deer. Sure enough it was the 8 pointer about 60 yds out. At one point he was 50 yds with nothing in the way but I told myself no! Now I figured this doe was really close to being ready the way he was guarding her, so I drug her back to the stand and put her 10 yrds in front of my stand. I climbed back into the tree and was catching my breath when I looked over to were I had just drug her and there was a small buck looking at us. The next 20 minutes I had 2 other small bucks do the same thing. Within the hour my plan almost worked out to perfection. The large 8 was walking about 60 yds out when he got the does wind. He came to 13yds but all the trees were small in diameter so I couldn't get drawn without him seeing me. Finally he turned his head away and I was at full draw. Wouldn't you know he turned straight away from me and walked off. Foiled again! About 1pm I had 5 does, a small 8, and a fork all around my tree. Some of the does were really wondering why that doe wasn't getting up to join them.

I waited as long as I dare let the doe lay before climbing down to take care of her. I called a friend to help me drag and when we got back in to get her a deer jumped out from in front of my stand. We couldn't tell if it was him or not. She turned out to be a very nice sized doe, my guess was around 110 lbs. I was very happy to have harvested her.


A few other cool things from this past week... I had a different 8 pointer with a doe Thursday morning come through the area. He was as wide as his ears and pretty tall with decent mass, but he had a broken G2 on his left side. For that reason alone I decided I wasn't going to try and take him if he offered a shot. He never did offer me a shot though! All in all it was a great week of hunting!

Finally Some Action

To say the start of my season was slow would be a huge understatement! I think I sat 7 or 8 times this year and never saw a deer from my stand. I had trail cam pics, so I knew there were deer in the area, but for some reason I wasn't seeing them. I was hunting a piece of woods owned by the company I work for, so having it to myself I thought I would do good. There was my problem....thinking!

After pulling my stands from the previously mention area, I decided to move into my assigned area in the Duluth City hunt. I scouted Wed. afternoon. After jumping a deer I started to look around for trees. I didn't find much that I thought would work for my needs. I kept scouting. When I didn't find much that looked any better I went back to the area where I had jumped the deer. As I was looking at that tree again, I heard something behind me. As I turned I had a basket 8 pointer walking towards me at 20 yards. I decided at that time to try and make this tree work! The tree was a cluster of 3 smaller maples. If you can picture this I have 2 trees at my back and the other just off my left shoulder and there is a gap of about a 2 foot gap between trees that I can shoot though.

I waited until Thursday morning to hunt the stand. At this time of year I am all about the all day sit. Dark to dark is my motto. There was a light blanket of snow on the ground and about 26 degrees. I figured this to be a prefect morning, but there I went thinking again. By 11:30 I hadn't seen or heard anything moving. I was starting to second guess my stand choice. About that time I heard one crash and looked to see a doe being chased by a spike within 20 yards of my stand. Then after my shock wore off, I heard something else coming and this time at least I had my bow in hand. Another doe followed them up and while I was ready to take the doe, she stopped behind some brush and turned a different direction than the others did. Foiled again! I heard something else coming. This time it was a small 6 pointer. Of course he came by slow enough that I could have shot him 5 ways from Sunday! About 5 mins after they had gone I heard something from the direction they went. Here came a small 8, but he was headed my way. I had applied Border Crossings Deer Herd in a Stick to my clothes and boots, and it's my belief that he smelled it and came towards me instead. He came through my area and when he finally figured out that there were no deer there, he circled back around and maybe caught up to the others. I thought it was pretty funny that about a hour later the spike and the 6 came back up the trail....alone! The only good thing was the both freshened a scrape about 40 yards from my tree. The night ended with another spike and a different small 8 working through. Right at dark I notice a form about 50 yards out. As light was fading fast I could make out a face of a deer either sniffing the air or licking a branch. The other thing I could make out was a main beam that went out along ways. I was pretty sure this was a big deer. I ended up stand in my stand another 45 mins into dark to let this deer move off and not blow my set up.

I realize this is getting long....but the best and worst is yet to come!

Friday morning I was in my stand a hour before shooting time. Just after legal shooting time arrived I heard some antlers banging together behind me. To me it sounded like a human sequence, and it may have been, but 15 mins later a 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer was hitting that same scrape from the day before. He moved off but came back through my area 3 times in about a hour. In the meantime the wind had switched just a bit and was blowing the direction the bigger deer at dark from the night before had come. I decided to put out some VS-1 made by the company mention earlier. So hear I am within the 1st hour of shooting time, climbing down to place 2 scent pads. One back and to my left and one front left. Back in my stand for about 10 mins, that 8 had come through again. After he was gone I noticed my front scent pad had fallen off the branch. This was bugging me to no end. Down the tree I went again.

As I settled into my stand again another half hour past and it was pushing 9 when I heard something coming from my back left, but out aways. Here came another buck and he was heading towards my front scent pad. The wind was not blowing towards him though. I noticed he was a good sized buck. Turned out to be a very nice 10 pointer that I later figured was in the mid 120's.

Back to the story. He was heading towards that front corner. I was going to try and take this deer. As I got ready he got a whiff of the scent pad to my back left and turned and moved that way. So now I had to try and turn and get my bow over there. That tree on my should only left me with about a foot of room, but I got turned and was ready. He moved to with 8 feet of the scent. When his head was behind a cluster of birch I drew. He was going to be at 20 yards broadside. He stopped before his body cleared the birch. I held, and held. Then he decided to turn back and go back the other way. So now I had to try and turn again. I got the bow back around as he walked to about 10 yards from me. It was getting really exciting at this point. All I had to do was get my feet around and him to take 2 more steps. He was now 7 yards away.I was half way home on my turn when my boot caught a clip for the backpack straps on my stand! It sound like banging metal and the buck erupted out of there. I could not believe my luck. I had turned twice and missed it, but not this time. He only jumped about 15 yards, but of course it had to be in the thickest cover in the area. So I decided not to try and punch a shot through. Then I was forced to watch him walk away.

I was pretty bummed out about this since it was the biggest buck I had seen in about 7 years. I don't think he knew what happened, or maybe he did, I can only hope I see him again, or better yet something bigger! The rest of the day it got really warm and I think the deer bedded.

I guess that's why they call it hunting!

Trail Cam Photos

Here are a few pictures from my trail cam. This 1st one looks to be a nice deer, and the others are just some of the better photos! I will post more pics when I get back over to Duluth to check my cameras! Now that the season is open check back for reports! Good Luck Hunting this fall. Shoot Straight!

Monday Success!

I had today off from work and after hunting both Sat. and Sunday, I was down to my last chance for awhile and time to pull out all the stops. Today I was bring my buck decoy out to play! Boy was it a interesting day!

After getting the deke set up I crawled into my stand and was settled by 5:50. Just at daylight I heard something moving up the hill a bit. All of a sudden I catch movement headed my way. I was pretty upset when it turned out to be a fellow hunter. As he got closer he spotted my decoy, and wouldn't you know it he pulled up his crossbow and shot at my decoy! I couldn't believe this. Lucky for him he missed and missed me! In the Duluth city hunt you are not allowed to do any hunting from the ground. Plus this guy tried to punch a shot threw thick cover, and all he had to aim at was the butt end of my decoy. He didn't even apologize!

After he left I figured it would be a slow morning since he headed off the way most of the deer come from in the morning. About 9:30 I had only seen one deer in my area and was getting ready to pull the pin, when I noticed a deer about 250 yards down the hill. I grabbed my binos and it looked like the 8 that gave me the slip on Sat. When I saw him he looked to be making a scrape, so I grabbed the grunt call and let him have it. I thought I noticed him look my way so I thought there was hope. A friend and I had watched a Roger Raglin show just the night before where he said if that deer is out there, keep calling until you know he hears you, that just what I did. I even threw in a snort/wheeze or two for good measure!

He started working his way to my right through a thick area of cover, so I called so more until I could see him again. When he showed up again he was about 200 yards straight down hill of me. He started heading my way! When he reached the hill to start making his way up to me a doe appeared behind him. Thinking I was going to lose him I started grunting again. Lucky for me he left her and headed towards me. Now he quickly headed up the hill, and when he reached about 60 yards I thought maybe he could see my decoy. I don't think he did since he headed into some brush and started beating it up. Now he was heading towards the apple tree on the down hill side of my stand. I was waiting for him to hit that same 2 foot gap that I had on Sat. to try to shoot threw. He ended up cutting inside, closer to me, about 20 yards. I had some brush in my way, but I thought maybe I could make the shot. Well, I was wrong, I hit brush, clean miss. He jumped out about 20 yards. I thought what the heck and started to grunt a few times. I couldn't believe it when he turned back towards me. I quickly nocked another arrow. the problem was that I was facing my tree, but on the left side, and he was coming towards my right. Now he was 15 feet away from the base of my tree and totally locked into the decoy.

I turned my neck to barely see him standing there looking towards the decoy. When he started walking again I quickly turned around. He was at 10 yards when I drew again. I wanted him to take another step since I worried about another twig. When I drew he must have heard something and looked over his shoulder up at me. That was all the time I was going to give him. I aimed just behind his far shoulder and let it fly! I knew instantly that I had a good hit on him. As he lit out over the hill I could hear him crash, so i knew the buck was mine!

I called my friend Lorin who came down to help me drag. When we got on the blood trail Lorin happened to find the crossbow bolt, but no where near where the guy was aiming. It was 20 yards to the left. It had hit brush and deflected. I was really happy it didn't go to the right, and towards me. After a short blood trail Lorin spotted my buck. He had only gone about 80 yrds.
He is a 8 pointer 5X3, we figured him at 2 1/2 and about 170 lbs. Sure it is nice to get one for the wall, but I am very happy to have this buck in the freezer! Thanks for your help Lorin!

Nov.15 &16th

It's that time of year again that bow hunters dream of...the rut. In northern Mn it is really starting to heat up, so I had high hopes climbing into my stand. Within 10 mins of settling into my stand I could make out a silhouette in the darkness moving towards me. It stopped about 30 yds under the now bare apple tree. To bad there was still a 45 min wait until it got light enough to shoot! I could hear some antlers hit the tree branches but couldn't make out what he was. He stayed around for a few mins and headed out.

Fast forward to about 8 a.m. I looked out past my apple tree to see antlers low to the ground and moving my way. I quickly grabbed my bow. As he got closer I could tell he was a 8 pointer. A very nice 8 I will add. I would have guessed him in the 130 range. As he moved closer to my position I expected him to follow the route every other deer I have seen in that stand take. Wrong! He went behind the apple tree leaving me no shot, the he cut out in front of me where there is a bunch of scrub brush. Still no shot. I could see where he was headed and knew I had only one hope left. I had about a 2 foot wide opening to try to stop him in. As he made his way threw the brush I drew my bow. Wouldn't you know he stopped. I held my bow for over a minute when he finally started walking again. I tried to stop him as soon as his front shoulder hit the opening, but as luck would have it when he stopped briefly all that was in the opening was a gut shot. After that he spun quickly to try to figure out the noise, but he didn't offer any other shot, so I had to watch him walk away. I tried grunting, but he was gone. Thinking about the events later I probably could have tried the shot when his front shoulder hit the opening, but I just wasn't comfortable taking that walking shot with such a narrow opening. In my opinion it was better to let him walk than take the chance of a bad hit. He was a very nice deer though!.

Around 1pm I had a small basket 8 walk by my stand about 40 yards out. He wasn't close enough or big enough to consider shooting, but what happened next was what you hear the rut is like. As he moved away from me, he stopped on this little noll that overlooked some scrub brush below. I saw him look down below him. Next thing you know he takes off. Down in the bottom I hear brush breaking and 3 deer go busting out of the cover, the doe in the lead! They must have pick up a 4th someplace but I got to watch as these smaller bucks took off in hot pursuit! The 4th buck must have been a bit slow on the uptake, as he didn't see which way they headed and just ran a few circles around a patch of brush. I lost sight of them for awhile, and I figured things were going to settle down again. Next thing I know they had somehow made it back to the original patch of woods they started from. I heard some loud grunts, almost the growl you hear about and brush breaking. Then 3 small bucks got chased out of the brush patch the were in. By this time they must have got the hint to keep out, as they finally disbanded. I never did get a look at the buck who was controlling the roost, but he must have meant business. I tried grunting, but he never came to my side of the cover.

The rest of the day went by with several sightings of does and smaller bucks, but none of it was close to my stand. Of course that 8 didn't return either.

This morning when the alarm went off at 4 a.m. I was excited to wake up and get to the woods. It was a beautiful morning, 21 degrees and very little wind. I figured it would be hoppin'! I didn't see my first deer until 8, a really small 6. On this morning I forgot to reset my stand a bit before climbing in. What I mean by that is that I just lift the front of the platform. It seems to take all the "pops" out of it. Well when I saw that buck coming I shifted my weight and pop! This instantly put this deer on alert. He turned and headed the other way. About 10 mins later I heard something pawing at the ground behind me, so I turned to look. There was another deer. I saw that it was a buck so I turned to grab my bow. When I went to turn my head back to see the deer he happened to catch my head movement....busted again. When walked back the other way. It looked to be a small but decent 8. I figured things were starting to pick up, as far as deer movement, but how wrong I was. I sat until 1 pm when my feet could no longer stand it and only saw 1 doe way off in the distance. It was like the whole herd had left the area. I really don't know why they weren't roaming heavily like the day before. I guess that's why they call it hunting instead of killing! Fortunately for me, I have a extra day to hunt this week, so I will be after them again tomorrow!

Pinned

Last weekend it was sunny and warm. I headed to a new stand site. I figured the deer may move late because of the nice weather. I was right! The 1st movement I saw didn't happen til right at dark. I heard something behind me, and at first I thought it was another red squirrel. I looked back anyway only to see a doe at 20 yards and closing. As I turned to grab my bow, my hunting vest snagged on some of the bark on the tree. I thought that doe was going to lose her mind! She took off snorting like crazy. I really don't think she knew what happened just that it freaked her out. It wasn't until I snort/wheezed that she shut up and went on her way.

As I was waiting for her to leave so I could get down I could hear a deer moving my way in the crunchy leaves. As I waited in the near darkness, this deer walk within 4 inches of my stand. As hard as I looked I could make out any antlers. When the deer reached the trail I walked in on he sniffed and started grunting. As I waited for him to clear the area I heard another deer headed my way. I could follow the sound and see a form heading towards my location. This deer didn't come as close to my stand but within 8 yards. She hit my trail a bit farther back than the buck. When she did she started bleating. As I waited for her to depart I heard something strange. She was coming back! As she got closer I could make out a body below my stand. She ended up making a "U" around the base of my tree. She never stopped, never made an alarm or seemed nervous. She just kept walking on the path she had started on. I finally got down at 6pm when it was dark at 5:15. That was the longest I have ever been "pinned" in a tree. It was fun but I wish it could have happened during daylight hours!