Ron’s 2011 bow season blog

[Ron]

Time to kick off another year. I head up North this afternoon. The cold weather forecast looks great. ;D

[Ron]

Sat. Morn Sept. 17. 34 Degrees, faint NE wind.

The alarm went off at 5:15. Its was cold enough that I wore longjohns and a stocking cap and used hand warmers. I was hunting the site I have been calling the crossroads site for my deer scent trials. Its been dry for the last few weeks so walking in quietly would be a challenge. When I got within 50 yards of the edge of the woods, I heard a deer busting through the underbrush but it was still dark so I could not see anything. When I got to my stand I hung my bow from the rope and then walked out in front of the stand and placed some of the homemade scent on the back side of a nearby tree and on some of the lower vegetation and then headed up into my ladder stand.

It was cold enough to see my breath which told me the wind was perfect for the direction I expected the deer to come from. I assumed they would be on a neighboring property eating acorns and then would filter back into the woods, cross the small stream and then into a beding area. That’s exactly what happened. At 7:02 I caught the flick of an ear in the distance. I could see it was a doe. I grabbed the camera instead of the bow. The first video is her approach. She eventually gets down wind of the scent.
(You can improve the video quality on Youtube by selecting 720P HD at the bottom right of the viewing pane. Click on where it says 360p)




At the end of the first video she had reached the scent and stops. The second part of the video is after she reaches the scent and starts sniffing and licking the vegetation. It would have been more than long enough to provide a shot but I was not interested in shooting this doe.



In the last video, she walks off unharmed and unaware that I was above her and that I opted to shoot her with a camera instead of my bow.





At around 8:00, another doe approaches from just west of where the first doe was. This put her right in front of my trail camera. I snapped a frame from the video and you can see the bungee cords that hold the trail camera on the tree.



After hunting I pulled the card from the camera. Here is the picture it took as she passed by. Today’s technology is impressive. This doe was being photographed and videoed and she never knew what was going on.



I think she knows she is late getting back to bed and she seems in a hurry. She never gets down wind of the scent but instead passes by it from the up wind side and never stops moving. Both deer splash across the stream and head into a bedding area.



I hunt until 10:00 am and then head back to the farm.

When I got to my parent’s house I learned that my 11 year old Nephew had killed his first deer in the first hour of his first bow hunt.



I had posted a picture of him here back in 2008 at age 8 practicing with his bow.



This young fella and his siblings have been raised in a bowhunting family. Here is a picture of him and an archery kill his mom made while pregnant with their little sister.



After I got cleaned up, I headed to a small family get together. At 3:30 I headed back to the woods to sit another stand. While approaching the spot, I rounded a corner on the field road and spotted a doe.





After a brief stare down, she walked away.

The wind was not the best and I should not have sat this stand but instead should have returned to the stand I used in the morning. The evening passed by with a brief sighting of a doe on the other side of the stream.



At last light I heard a sound behind me and turned to see a spike buck 30 yards to my right rear. It was too dark in the cedars behind me to get a video. After he passed by, I climbed down and headed back to the truck.

The forecast for Sunday was rain with South Winds. Neither are very good for where I hoped to hunt so I slept in after waking to the sound of rainfall. I ate breakfast with my parents and then headed home. While no game was harvested, it was a great opening weekend. As I write this I became aware that I saw several adult does but none of than had fawns with them. Likewise I did not have very many pictures of fawns on the trail cameras either. This has me concerned.

[Ron]

She does not know how lucky she was. Its a good thing my hands were busy with the camera. That would have been a chip shot.

[Ron]

I’m going to call this the rained out weekend. I watched the forecast but it did not forecast non stop rain for the Rosholt area. It rained Friday evening and during the night. I got up Saturday morning to the sound of light rain. I was in my tree (the same tree I hunted from opening morning) by 6:15 and it was too dark to see your hand before your face. It was very overcast with no moon and the trees were still dripping. With the rains, I opted not to put out any scent.

At 6:35, a lone doe approached from my left and milled around for a few minutes but it was so dark that even the video I tried to make was too dark to view. At 7:30, another lone doe approached from in front of me and circled around to my left. I’m pretty sure it was the same doe I saw opening morning. She took nearly the same path as she passed 8 yards from my tree. She stopped only briefly and would have offered a great shot opportunity if I was interested in taking a doe. Here is the video I made of our meeting.



It would have been an easy shot with her quartering away.



As it got lighter, the fog rolled in. At 9:00 it seemed to be getting darker rather than lighter.



I sat and listened to the dripping off the trees until 10:00 and then headed back to the farm.

At 3:30 pm, I dressed to head back to the woods and it was already raining lightly. I drove to the back of the property about 400 yards from my stand and sat in my truck watching the sky for signs its might lighten up.



At 4:00 pm I called it a night as the rain got heavier. I turned the truck around for the drive out and rounded the corner to see to small bucks standing in the field. They ran before I could snap a picture. The forecast for Sunday was even a higher percent chance for rain than today. As I drove back to the farm to pack my things and head home, the fields were filled with deer, less bothered by the rain than I was. Some of the deer were already bedded down out in the open farm fields since it was quite dark out for that time of day. Hopefully next weekend will be dry. Two weekends down and both were rainy. I can use Sunday to catch up on some knives I need to finish.

[Ron]

No, I am just holding the camera in my hand. I cant believe the deer by you dont have those green dots on them. I thought all deer had them.

[Ron]

Friday Sept 30, 2011. I’ll call this the “I hate light and variable winds weekend”

Headed up North early on Friday to get an evening hunt in. It had rained all week in the Rosholt area so I knew it would be wet but the forecast for the weekend looked good. I hunted the location of the swamp site for the scent trials but at 5:30, the neighbor came in with his 4 wheeler to do some bear hunting. The wind would put him in a position to alert any deer in the swamp not to come out until after dark. Oh well, it was a nice sit even if the deer don’t show. Here is a view from the stand. You can see the trail camera. To the right of my stand is a small creek. Straight in front of my location is a large pond in the river created by beavers a few years ago.



The only action I had was wood ducks. The nice thing about hunting near a body of water is there is going to be something to entertain me. There are ducks and geese landing and taking off at all times. I took a short video of the wood ducks. (all videos can be improved by clicking on the 360P in the lower left and setting the quality to 720P)



With a half hour of good hunting left, the bear hunter fired up his 4 wheeler and left, cementing the fact that I would not be seeing any deer tonight. I hunted until I could not see well enough to shoot and walked the 400 yards back to my truck. I headed back to the farm, enjoyed a supper made by my dad then looked through the trail camera pictures from both cameras. It seems the deer are getting more nocturnal as the rut gets closer. I talked with my parents for a while and then hit the sheets.

Sat. Oct. 1, 2011 AM. Its cold. The digital thermometer read 30F. There was a frosty coating on everything.



The forecast was for light and variable winds which must mean that the winds will constantly shift to your disadvantage. While there was no wind to speak of, the currents were shifting my scent every which way based on the cloud of fog my breath created. One minute it was from the East and then West, North and South. This was not going to be good. I was in the stand in the pre-dawn darkness and at 6:40 I hear hoofs on the frosty leaves. I think it was my Saturday morning doe that I have seen every weekend. She has no fawns. This time, she paused when the current shifted to her. That caused her to circle back out to the edge of the field. It was too dark to get any sort of video in the woods but when she hit the field edge, there was enough daylight to take a short video.



At 8:00 I could hear splashing in the river behind me. I assumed it was a deer crossing the river to head to the bedding area but the splashing continued and continued and continued so I turned to see if I could make out what all the splashing was about, I expected to see wood ducks. The sound was coming from at least 100 yards behind me so I had to use every bit of zoom my camera has to pick up who the splashy culprit was. Due to the high level of zoom, the video is a bit shakey. The sound was too far for the tiny camera mic to pick up but rest assured it was loud enough to get your attention.



It turned out to be two adult does and two fawns that were just playing in the water before heading to bed. This went on for about 20 minutes and was funny to watch them play. I saw this same thing last year but it was two young bucks playing in the water that time. I was just happy to see some fawns. These are the first fawns I have seen all season.

At 8:20, I saw a buck fawn approaching from the West. My breath showed my scent would be heading right towards him. Sure enough, he stopped and when I scanned the back trail, the doe had already caught my scent. After a minute she turned and headed into the swamp to cross the river at a different location. The nub buck saw mamma leaving then followed. I made a short video of our encounter



At 9:15, I spotted a fawn coming through the swamp. The lead deer was a nub buck followed by a doe fawn and then an adult doe. Their feet were black from the swamp mud. Again, it was good to see fawns. I noticed there was some sort of growth under the chin of the doe. It is about the size of a golf ball. Here is a video and a still image I snapped from the video.





I watched them head to the river to wash their hoofs before heading to bed. I sat until 10:00 am and then headed back to the farm for breakfast. My Mother made French toast and sausage. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Sat. Oct. 1, 2011 PM. More adventures with light a variable winds.

On the way to my stand I encountered a few does already in the field.





I placed a small pad with my homemade scent on the side of the tree in front of my trail camera. I intended to remove it at the end of the night but forgot to do so so it stayed out overnight and through the morning.

It seems I could not catch a break tonight. I had a small buck bust me when he came from a direction I would not expect and the breeze carried my scent to him. He bolted before I could get any video footage. Right before dark, I spotted a doe which also caught my scent with the swirling currents. I was entertained by grey and red squirrels who dont seem to care how bad I smell. I shot a video of a grey squirrel trying to find the perfect spot to burry a portion of corn cab he harvested from the nearby field. He spent the entire evening going back and forth from the field to the woods burying his treasures.



This little red came up my tree and got his picture taken when he reached my seat. He turned inside out when he realized what I was. That chuckle made the night worth it even if the deer did not cooperate.



Sunday Oct. 2, 2011 AM. Another hard frost. 31 F. A good wind but the deer are early

I got to my stand while it was still dark but busted a deer already in the woods near my stand. I heard it run off and splash across the river. I guess it was a buck as they tend to head back to bed earlier than the does. While it was still dark another deer walked under my stand but it was only a grey blob. It too splashed across the river.

At 8:20 2 does came the usual direction and filtered past my stand. They two became youtube stars



2 more does showed up about 5 minutes later. These deer got their picture taken by my trail camera when they rached the scent patch I have on the tree. The last one had either burrs in her hind quarter or ticks. You can see the bumps on her hair in the video and the still pic.








Those were the last deer to show up. I sat until 10:00 and headed back to the farm to pack for the trip home. I have a bear skull to boil and make a mount for member of our archery club and I want to get it done this week.

My thinking in not taking any of these doe is that the bucks tend to come into the woods before daylight but once the rut hits, I hope the bucks will let their guard down and will be following the does that tend to come in under full daylight. I can only hope that plan works out. It was a good weekend even if no deer were harvested. The trail camera pics show a few bucks and a couple are nice mature deer that may someday get a ride in my truck. Here is one of them. His neck is already swollen.

[Ron]

It was a good weekend even if it was very windy. I don’t recall ever bowhunting is such high winds.

Friday afternoon Oct. 14th, 2011.

I saw a nine pointer tonight just after 6:00 pm. I sat in a different stand and this guy walked 15 yards behind my usual ladder stand and got his picture taken by my trail camera. There is something up with the hair on his back. The video from today shows it and so does the trail cam pic that was taken this morning when he walked by the camera. He is not the deer I am looking for so even if he would have been in range, he would have gotten a pass. Boy was it windy. I tried to stop him with the grunt tube but the wind was just to loud. I was using the video camera with one hand and the grunt tube with the other hand swaying in the wind so the video is pretty poor and so is my attempts at loud grunting. I was blowing it as loud as I could. Self videoing./grunting/swaying is pretty tough. You can see the ladder stand I normally sit in in the video On the right side of the screen.



Another poor video.



And some stills I took from the video that show his messed up back hair.





Here is trail cam pic from that morning. You can see the messed up hair on his back.



Here is the trail cam pic from that afternoon while I was videoing him.



Here is a picture of him and his older cousin a few days ago.



When it got dark I walked over to the usual ladder stand, climbed it and hung my bow there so it will be ready for me in the morning.



Sat. Oct. 15, 2011 Morning. More wind. Lots of wind.

Holy smokes is it windy!!! The wind woke me up several times during the night. I got to my stand in the windy darkness and started swaying.

The hemlock Im in is not that big and it was like riding a bucking bronco. At 6:50, I spotted movement to my left out at 50 yards. It was the spike buck I got so many pictures of over the summer. He walked past me and headed to a tree that ends up having a scrape under it every year. He kicked the dirt a bit and then squatted and then turned back to sniff and kick at the dirt again. After a bit he walked right under my stand and passed by at 10 yards. I shot a video of him and a few still photos.





When he got past me he got his picture taken by my trail camera.



By 9:30 I had heard two large trees blown over and come crashing to the ground. Then I decided it was time to head out. I didnt see any other deer except the spiker. After breakfast, My father and I went back to the woods to put up a pop-up blind for him to use. We found a great spot and brushed it in. He plans to hunt out of it by mid week.



Saturday afternoon Oct. 15, 2011

This was perhaps the windiest experience I have ever has while bowhunting. It was bordering on unsafe. I stuck it out but saw no deer.

Sunday Oct. 16, 2011 morning hunt. The winds have died down.

I got in my ladder stand in the pre-dawn darkness. The deer began arriving almost as soon as I was in my tree. Rather than explain all I saw and post a bunch of videos, I made a combined video of the morning hunt. In that video you will see I harvest a nice fat doe. I think this is the same lone doe that has walked under my stand on 3 different mornings that I have shot lots of video of. I saw a lot of deer on this morning sit. More than I had seen on any other morning. This was the last deer of the morning when I was ready to get out of the woods so I took one for the freezer. Here is the video. ****Do not adjust your volume. There is no sound.*****



Here in the entrance hole.



The exit also cut the far side elbow. I’ll bet you can guess which organ I hit.



You would be right if you guess heart. I never had a deer go down so fast. I stopped her with a few calls and when she stood there, it was like a hose was running out of her side. I wish I would have gotten that on video. Even though I did not need to blood track this deer, I did any way. It was impressive to say the least.




I took the deer back to the farm to dress it out. After breakfast, I took the deer to Rosholt to register it and gas up for the trip back. I listened to the Packer game for the next 2 ½ hours on the long drive home. I hung to doe to cool and will butcher her tomorrow.



Right after I enjoy a meal of grilled tenderloins.



Loading a deer in the back of a tall pickup truck by yourself is a pain in the butt so I now carry a small block and tackle and wooden ramps to get the deer into the truck bed. When the deer is on the wooden ramps, I lift the end of the ramp and slide it into the truck bed.

[Ron]

Here are a string of videos I shot on Saturday morning Oct. 29, 2011. The first video is of a small buck that comes in after I did a bit of cold calling. I rattled, grunted and used the estrous bleat. I also had 3 scent wicks at ground level and two in the tree with me, 15 feet up. I’m using special golden estrous. I’ve never used it before. At various points in these videos, all the deer are down wind of me but the bucks seem to be interested in the sensory stimulation I am producing. The first buck is dripping wet with sweat. His back and neck are all wet. The temp that morning was 26F with a heavy frost. He comes in curious enough, looking for the source of the rattle grunt bleat.

(note** turn up your sound as some of the videos have some interesting sounds. Also, the image quality defaults to 320P but can be improved by selecting 720P at the lower right part of the viewing pane)





In this next short video you will see the buck take on an attitude. He lays his ears back and then tackles a small tree as if to show is dominance. I thought he was putting on a show for me. What I did not know is that my cold calling attracted another buck from the other direction. While the first buck is small, the 2nd buck is smaller so the first buck flexes his muscles.




The two small bucks approach each other and circle one another. The first buck on the scene is clearly the dominant buck (even though he is small and young) and lets the other buck know it by running him off.



Because my view of the bucks was blocked and because of the sun glare I turned off the camera, my mistake because the two buck start fighting. As quick as I could restart the camera and get it focused, the fight was over and the loser was run off injured. One of the two deer can be heard snorting. You can see him limping on his rear right leg. At times, he does not put any weight on it. The fight only lasted about 10 seconds. The winner of the battle escorts the loser out of the area. I lose sight of the loser but I hear a deer splash across the river so I assume it is him departing the area.



Instead, I was hearing a 3rd buck approach. This buck is the smallest of them all (I didn’t think they made em much smaller than the first two) This little buck must have had his antlers damaged in velvet. They seem smashed and leaning to the side. This buck approaches the exact spot the doe I took two weeks ago died. Its rained several times and there is no blood anywhere but the scent is still there and you can see his caution.



As I continue to film I hear another deer cross the river but I can’t see the river so I have no idea of it’s a deer coming towards me or one that’s leaving the area. It turns out to be a small doe that made the mistake of coming into an area with three bucks. The little smashed antler buck sees one of the other bucks begin to chase her so he gets out of the way.




The winner of the fight chases the doe directly under my ladder stand between the tree and the ladder. In her haste to get out of the area, he slams into my ladder with her hip knocking it hard enough that I stopped filming and held on thinking the stand was going to come down. Then the small buck approaches my stand. The doe had done a sharp right after she passed under my stand so the buck does a bee line to her. He gives me a brief look but is not alerted by my presence.




He runs her off again and then follows her out of the area. This event took place between 8:30 am and 9:00 am.





At 9:45, I again do a little cold calling. At 10:00, the same doe and small buck return and circle me a few times. The buck keeps his distance but never lets the doe out of his sight.





He gets here to walk under my tree. She stops to urinate.



After about 15 minutes of keeping his distance, he gets too close and runs her off again.




They were the last deer seen that morning.

Saturday night, I hunt a different stand deeper in the swamp and even closer to the river. I forget the camera back at the farm which was a real shame because I could have got some great footage of a 9 point 2 ½ year old swim across the river after being coaxed across by some rattling, grunting and bleating. He first approached the river which is too deep and muddy to wade across and then retreats only to pick a fight with a small pine tree. I increase my calling and he returns to the river bank. This time he goes all in and does a spectacular belly flop and swims across. Once on shore, he shakes himself dry like a great big dog and walks right under my stand at less than 10 yards. 10 minutes later, a spike shows up to see what all the commotion is about. I really wish the camera were with me.


Sunday Morning Oct. 30, 2011

It still cold and very overcast. Again I have multiple scent wicks saturated in estrous scent on the ground and in the tree with me. I do a little rattle, grunt bleat at 7:30 am and at 7:45 this fork horn shoes up. Every buck I see this morning approached from down wind. I don’t get busted but I think they could smell me but I think the scents and sounds I was producing kept them focused on finding that hot doe. You can see him sampling the air over and over as he approaches the oragne scent canister.




In this video the fork walks over to an old apple tree with a scrape and overhanging branch. He works the branch pretty good.





He then walks over to a small pine and rubs it up a bit.






What I did not notice is that my calling seemed to have attracted another buck from the Northwest. The fork heads over to intercept the smaller buck. They circle each other to size up who is the dominant buck (this time it’s the fork).It turns out the smaller buck was the winner from yesterday’s match. This time, he is second fiddle. Notice the pinned back ears on the fork as he follows the smaller buck.





You will want your sound turned up for this one to hear the “dominant” buck fighting with brush to show the smaller buck he is “the man” He breaks up a small stick and then goes a little bigger with a fallen tree top. This exchange takes place for about a 20 minutes before they wonder off.





At 8:20 I do a little more rattle grunt bleat. At 8:35, this 6 point shows up (again from down wind) He does a sight check and then heads over to the apple tree scrape visited earlier by the fork. This buck does it up right. He works the over hanging branch, rakes the leaves, puts his rear hocks together and urinates on them. The buck looks at me several times which made me think he busted me by sight or smell. It turns out he was looking at another buck behind me. He wastes no time heading over to great the intruder.





Notice the pinned back ears and the bristled up hair. The smaller buck (again the fight winner from day one) knows when its time to go.





At 9:30, the first buck from Saturday (the winner of the first fight) comes back and passes through.





I saw several lone does or does and fawns until I called it a morning at 11:00 am. I think its still a bit early in this area and the big ones are still laying low and moving after dark. The rut is about a week off and perhaps then the mature bucks will be on their feet during daylight. I will be waiting for them.

[Ron]

I like hunting with a video camera. I never miss.