StringShooter
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I headed up Friday (11/1) for 2 days' of hunting in Ralls County near Perry Missouri. I have to leave the house at 2:45 A.M. in order to be in my stand 20 minutes before first light
On the drive up Hwy 61 from St. Louis I saw 3 deer crossing the highway and several that were hit over the past few days or so. I encourage anyone to be extra careful during your morning & evening trips.
I did a quick clothing change in the rear parking lot of the motel that I stay at while hunting. I get a room after my morning hunt so the first day I have to endure the outside quick change in 20-degree weather with a stiff wind blowing…burrrrr.
While driving up, I saw the clearing line in the sky like someone carved it out with a knife. It went from heavy clouds, temperatures in the mid 30’s and light winds, to crystal clear sky, colder temperatures and higher winds.
Now in my stand, the sky began to brighten and the turkeys, once again, like every other day of hunting, began their morning ritual. Mostly hens calling and some gobbles that are most likely from jakes that don’t really know what to do. Someone may want to enlighten me on the short gobbles this time of year. Like I mentioned before, I’m no turkey hunter but and willing to learn.
Around 7 A.M. I caught movement heading towards my stand from the corner depicted in this photo.
The deer had its head down but I could tell it had a huge body and must be a buck. Wrong….it was one of the biggest does I have seen in nearly 30 years of deer hunting. She walked up to my shooting lane at 20 yards and suddenly became very nervous. She kept looking behind her…hummm! She took a couples more steps with her head down, sniffing the ground, popped up and began the dreaded foot stomp and high step... as I call it. She scented me where I walked in the stand? I wear rubber knee high boots but they must have been contaminated from something. Anyway, I never saw if a buck was trailing her. After the foot stomp, high step, ears up and neck stretch routine, she bounded across the CRP field. I will tell you that she was a big mature doe that would have put to shame the body weights of the last two bucks I have taken. I’m not a good weight guesser so I wouldn’t want to speculate.
That was it for the morning hunt so I decided to check into the room around 11:00 A.M., grab some lunch and head back out around 2:30 P.M.
It was all-quiet till about 45 minutes before dark. One momma doe and two fawns headed across the road to the cut soybean field, 2 bigger does hopped the fence and munched on green vegetation. No deer activity close to my stand that evening.
The following morning I decided to run a drag rag behind me to attempt to cover my scent trail better. When I climbed into the stand, I noticed the rag was gone and must have falling off during my trip down to the stand. One of my good friends was also hunting down around the bend on the opposite side of the ridge. I didn’t see squat but my friend seen 3 does and one buck. He described the buck as the small racked 6 point with the big body that I had seen the week prior. He let them pass.
The evening hunt was one windy sucker. Neither of us saw anything. The only presence of a deer was a loud blow on the other side of the property right before dark.
Oh, by the way. That drag rag I lost on my way into the stand that morning. I found it along the edge of the CRP, handing on a small stick. The most interesting part was the 2 young does that were standing there sniffing it! No kidding. They saw me and took off.
I’ll give the place a rest for a few days and will head up this Tuesday (11/5). I just hate spooking deer like that. Sometimes you can’t help it as much that you try.
One encouraging thing is the rub I found on about a 12-inch diameter cedar. Next to the rub was 2 large beds, several scrapes close by and tons of tracks made by a deer with due claws about 1 ½ inches behind the main hoofs. Nice deer…the one I have been looking for??? I think it is his markings. This deer is bedding right next to one of our ponds, close to the gravel road and 100 yards from where I park my truck in the morning.
How in the world do I hunt this guy? I have no stand near there. I can only hope that I can do my normal routine and slip in around the backside on the pond in some strip woods that leads in and out from where he is bed is. That is if he is still using it. Looks real fresh though. Any suggestions are welcome. I have my climber to set up anywhere, but It's a little more of a pain in the butt to use in the dark. An I don't want to spook this fellow.
It’s sad that CWD was found in Illinois for the first time. It has to be near where the cases were found in Wisconsin. I hope and pray that the sport that we all love so dearly will not be greatly affected by this. I don’t have a good feeling about this though. Maybe I’ll be shooting those turkeys from my stand some day and just reminisce about the days when deer roamed the ridges and fields
It’s time to do some clothes cleaning and Rams football watching today.
That’s all folks!
On the drive up Hwy 61 from St. Louis I saw 3 deer crossing the highway and several that were hit over the past few days or so. I encourage anyone to be extra careful during your morning & evening trips.
I did a quick clothing change in the rear parking lot of the motel that I stay at while hunting. I get a room after my morning hunt so the first day I have to endure the outside quick change in 20-degree weather with a stiff wind blowing…burrrrr.
While driving up, I saw the clearing line in the sky like someone carved it out with a knife. It went from heavy clouds, temperatures in the mid 30’s and light winds, to crystal clear sky, colder temperatures and higher winds.
Now in my stand, the sky began to brighten and the turkeys, once again, like every other day of hunting, began their morning ritual. Mostly hens calling and some gobbles that are most likely from jakes that don’t really know what to do. Someone may want to enlighten me on the short gobbles this time of year. Like I mentioned before, I’m no turkey hunter but and willing to learn.
Around 7 A.M. I caught movement heading towards my stand from the corner depicted in this photo.
The deer had its head down but I could tell it had a huge body and must be a buck. Wrong….it was one of the biggest does I have seen in nearly 30 years of deer hunting. She walked up to my shooting lane at 20 yards and suddenly became very nervous. She kept looking behind her…hummm! She took a couples more steps with her head down, sniffing the ground, popped up and began the dreaded foot stomp and high step... as I call it. She scented me where I walked in the stand? I wear rubber knee high boots but they must have been contaminated from something. Anyway, I never saw if a buck was trailing her. After the foot stomp, high step, ears up and neck stretch routine, she bounded across the CRP field. I will tell you that she was a big mature doe that would have put to shame the body weights of the last two bucks I have taken. I’m not a good weight guesser so I wouldn’t want to speculate.
That was it for the morning hunt so I decided to check into the room around 11:00 A.M., grab some lunch and head back out around 2:30 P.M.
It was all-quiet till about 45 minutes before dark. One momma doe and two fawns headed across the road to the cut soybean field, 2 bigger does hopped the fence and munched on green vegetation. No deer activity close to my stand that evening.
The following morning I decided to run a drag rag behind me to attempt to cover my scent trail better. When I climbed into the stand, I noticed the rag was gone and must have falling off during my trip down to the stand. One of my good friends was also hunting down around the bend on the opposite side of the ridge. I didn’t see squat but my friend seen 3 does and one buck. He described the buck as the small racked 6 point with the big body that I had seen the week prior. He let them pass.
The evening hunt was one windy sucker. Neither of us saw anything. The only presence of a deer was a loud blow on the other side of the property right before dark.
Oh, by the way. That drag rag I lost on my way into the stand that morning. I found it along the edge of the CRP, handing on a small stick. The most interesting part was the 2 young does that were standing there sniffing it! No kidding. They saw me and took off.
I’ll give the place a rest for a few days and will head up this Tuesday (11/5). I just hate spooking deer like that. Sometimes you can’t help it as much that you try.
One encouraging thing is the rub I found on about a 12-inch diameter cedar. Next to the rub was 2 large beds, several scrapes close by and tons of tracks made by a deer with due claws about 1 ½ inches behind the main hoofs. Nice deer…the one I have been looking for??? I think it is his markings. This deer is bedding right next to one of our ponds, close to the gravel road and 100 yards from where I park my truck in the morning.
How in the world do I hunt this guy? I have no stand near there. I can only hope that I can do my normal routine and slip in around the backside on the pond in some strip woods that leads in and out from where he is bed is. That is if he is still using it. Looks real fresh though. Any suggestions are welcome. I have my climber to set up anywhere, but It's a little more of a pain in the butt to use in the dark. An I don't want to spook this fellow.
It’s sad that CWD was found in Illinois for the first time. It has to be near where the cases were found in Wisconsin. I hope and pray that the sport that we all love so dearly will not be greatly affected by this. I don’t have a good feeling about this though. Maybe I’ll be shooting those turkeys from my stand some day and just reminisce about the days when deer roamed the ridges and fields
It’s time to do some clothes cleaning and Rams football watching today.
That’s all folks!
