Final installment of “The Last Day” series
11:54 a.m.: A lone doe with one fawn walks out of the woods northeast of my stand, cuts south after passing my spot and enters the woods behind me. When I left the woods later today, I discovered a spot where these two deer had bedded down. I’ll detail this find in a note later in this journal entry.
Anyway, the pair entered an area around a stand I call “Powerline #1”. Here, two giant poplar trees with trunks bigger than you could encircle your arms around fell some years ago during a microburst wind storm.
As they collapsed, their huge branches and dense, heavy trunks smashed and ripped out an opening in otherwise heavy forest cover. They literally ripped down other large trees like skyscrapers falling onto smaller buildings.
Several years ago I discovered this place and hung a treestand in a huge cedar at the edge of the opening. I then used a chainsaw to cut the fallen poplars, which had been arching above the ground by resting on big branches that supported them like legs. Once flattened, an opening big enough to hunt was created east of the cedar I put my stand in.
12:56 p.m.: I hear a deep, single grunt from the woods behind me – just where the doe and fawn went earlier. I suspect a buck has responded to my calling and rattling and was circling downwind of the spot I called from (the Owl Stand) to try to scent check the area for the source of the calls. I’m so high up in this tree though, that my scent will pass over any deer coming up from the south (downwind) of me.
I can hear something moving in the heavier cover behind my spot, and I sure hope it is the buck that grunted! Despite the additional calls I make however, this deer does not show itself. In any case, I can’t turn far enough around on this small platform to get a shot in that direction if one presents itself. The main trunk of the tree my stand is attached to is in the way, and there is lots of heavy cover at ground level that way.
Note: Later this day when I left the woods, I walked through the woods straight behind (west) of the Owl Stand to see if I could figure out what happened. I found two fresh deer beds in the newly fallen snow about seventy-five yards away from where I had been posted. Just south of the beds, I discovered a large set of tracks approaching into the wind to scent check the spot.
The doe and fawn tracks left the beds, heading northwest, with the larger tracks following them. So the buck rousted the two bedded deer and would hound them for a while. I really think that buck was coming in to check out my calling efforts when he discovered the other two. That buck left good sized hoof prints. They seem as large as the eight-point buck I shot two years ago near here.
1:42 p.m.: A four-point buck walks into view from the north. Like the spikehorn that earlier followed roughly the same path, this small buck browses his way along, nipping at various types of woody forage. I watched this deer biting at small branch tips from trees and I think he even ate some spruce needles. This is somewhat unusual since spruce certainly is not a preferred food. This makes me recall deer I watched in Georgia one year that definitely ate needles from some species of pine tree. Of course deer up here in the northwoods eat white cedar all winter, so I guess each region has certain foods that appeal to the local herd.
2:30 p.m.: I have had enough exposure for this day. I’m stiff and my face is windburned despite the face mask I’m using. Seven and one-half hours up this tree is enough. I parked my four-wheeled all terrain vehicle about one-half mile west of here and I have to bushwhack through the woods to get there. Despite the fact that I did not kill a deer, I enjoyed this day. Muzzleloader season opens in another week and I’ll be back out again. I’ll have some new reports from that hunt.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008
Showing posts with label calling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calling. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
THE LAST DAY - Part two
Author's note: This is part 2 of the series entitled "The Last Day. It details observations I made while spending 7 1/2 hours in an open treestand on the last day of the 2008 rifle season for deer (Sunday, November 30). I used no bait for this hunt. I wanted the movements I watched to be as natural as possible. I did do a lot of calling and rattling antlers to try to attract bucks - and I saw bucks. I was surprised at the amount of rut-based movement this late in the season.
Beginning of part two of “The Last Day” series.
A light snow has been falling for the past hour or so. If I sit very still, a dusting of the powdery stuff starts to cover me. I feel this is a good sign since deer tend to move more during periods of light snowfall. It is almost as though they sense that the new snow may cover up more of the stuff they feed on, and that they should feed more heavily while the opportunity exists.
10:48 a.m.: Three big deer cross from the north and trot toward another stand I have, “Birch Hill”. I almost hunted that spot today, but decided at the last minute to take this place instead. I’m glad I did. Birch hill is a ground blind made from brush and logs piled in a roughly circular formation. It is a great little spot where I can watch a small clearing surrounded by heavy woods, but it does not offer a panoramic vista as the Owl Stand has.
Anyway, these three deer are all does and I wonder where their fawns are. Any doe from 2 ½ years and older normally has from one to three of them tagging along. They have probably stationed them in nearby heavier cover since bucks are still chasing the adult does at this time. If the fawns were present with the adult does, bucks might injure them by driving them off during this phase of the rut.
11:18 a.m.: Three more large deer come running out of heavier timber north of my stand. They too, are traveling east toward Birch Hill. One of them gives out a loud bleat as it crosses the opening I watch. I go on “high alert” at the sight of these does and fully expect a buck to show at any time. Few reasons exist for the does to be running unless a buck is chasing them or a pack of coyotes have taken up their trail.
11:19 a.m.: Sure enough! A buck comes out of the woods where the does emerged. He is dogging them, nose down in the snow and zig-zagging along. Since the three does all ran on slightly different paths, the buck is crossing all three sets of tracks out repeatedly, trying to sort out where they went and how far ahead they might be.
I can see small antlers on this deer and I am confident it is just a six-point buck, meaning that it has three antler points on each side. It is possible that this one may have two additional brow tines near the antler bases, making it an eight-pointer. Even if this is true, I would not take this deer. It has some potential to grow into a considerably larger buck next season. Also, this is the last day of this rifle season. I don’t think this buck will be killed by anyone else who might still be hunting north or south of here. I know at least part of his home territory from the observations I made today, and I’ll be back next year.
11:30 a.m.: Two fawns come out of the woods northeast of my stand, followed by a spikehorn buck. Looking at this small two-pointer, I figure it is the same one I saw earlier in the day. They amble along, heading toward the Powerline #2 stand. They seem to have a specific destination in mind because they are not taking time to browse along the way. Most of the time, deer are almost constantly nipping at various types of plant growth or pulling leaves from trees and picking them up off the ground. This is especially true during the early winter time frame when they need as much body weight as possible to survive the lean times to come.
Note: All of the deer I have reported so far have been within range of this stand, from about fifty to one hundred and fifty yards away. I have seen other movements slightly inside the heavier cover, but have not counted them as deer since I could not be sure they were actually whitetails.
The final installment of this series will run tomorrow. Stop by then!
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008
Beginning of part two of “The Last Day” series.
A light snow has been falling for the past hour or so. If I sit very still, a dusting of the powdery stuff starts to cover me. I feel this is a good sign since deer tend to move more during periods of light snowfall. It is almost as though they sense that the new snow may cover up more of the stuff they feed on, and that they should feed more heavily while the opportunity exists.
10:48 a.m.: Three big deer cross from the north and trot toward another stand I have, “Birch Hill”. I almost hunted that spot today, but decided at the last minute to take this place instead. I’m glad I did. Birch hill is a ground blind made from brush and logs piled in a roughly circular formation. It is a great little spot where I can watch a small clearing surrounded by heavy woods, but it does not offer a panoramic vista as the Owl Stand has.
Anyway, these three deer are all does and I wonder where their fawns are. Any doe from 2 ½ years and older normally has from one to three of them tagging along. They have probably stationed them in nearby heavier cover since bucks are still chasing the adult does at this time. If the fawns were present with the adult does, bucks might injure them by driving them off during this phase of the rut.
11:18 a.m.: Three more large deer come running out of heavier timber north of my stand. They too, are traveling east toward Birch Hill. One of them gives out a loud bleat as it crosses the opening I watch. I go on “high alert” at the sight of these does and fully expect a buck to show at any time. Few reasons exist for the does to be running unless a buck is chasing them or a pack of coyotes have taken up their trail.
11:19 a.m.: Sure enough! A buck comes out of the woods where the does emerged. He is dogging them, nose down in the snow and zig-zagging along. Since the three does all ran on slightly different paths, the buck is crossing all three sets of tracks out repeatedly, trying to sort out where they went and how far ahead they might be.
I can see small antlers on this deer and I am confident it is just a six-point buck, meaning that it has three antler points on each side. It is possible that this one may have two additional brow tines near the antler bases, making it an eight-pointer. Even if this is true, I would not take this deer. It has some potential to grow into a considerably larger buck next season. Also, this is the last day of this rifle season. I don’t think this buck will be killed by anyone else who might still be hunting north or south of here. I know at least part of his home territory from the observations I made today, and I’ll be back next year.
11:30 a.m.: Two fawns come out of the woods northeast of my stand, followed by a spikehorn buck. Looking at this small two-pointer, I figure it is the same one I saw earlier in the day. They amble along, heading toward the Powerline #2 stand. They seem to have a specific destination in mind because they are not taking time to browse along the way. Most of the time, deer are almost constantly nipping at various types of plant growth or pulling leaves from trees and picking them up off the ground. This is especially true during the early winter time frame when they need as much body weight as possible to survive the lean times to come.
Note: All of the deer I have reported so far have been within range of this stand, from about fifty to one hundred and fifty yards away. I have seen other movements slightly inside the heavier cover, but have not counted them as deer since I could not be sure they were actually whitetails.
The final installment of this series will run tomorrow. Stop by then!
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
