Todd's Hunting Log

[ToddP]

I kept a log of my archery season last year. Here's the start of my log for this year. Enjoy!!

Day 1

The weather has been drizzly the past 24 hours and it is calling for showers clearing off as the morning gets older today with winds picking up as a high pressure system moves in. Cooler temps are coming too. It's been in the 70's with near 100% humidity the past couple of days. I arrived at my new found hunting property, parking in the landowners driveway, and started walking to my stand. I got only a little way down the trail when I see a truck pull into the woods near where my stand was. This is why I parked in the driveway. I tracked back and met up with another hunter who also has permission to hunt on this property. He lights up a cigarette while we talk and then we walk down the trail together so we know about where each other is located. I walk to my stand with little or no use of a flashlight. This hunter uses one, as we walk, like he's spotting deer. Turning off the trail I head to my stand. (Stand A on map) This stand is by a small ore hole that holds water. During the drought the deer were hitting it pretty hard. Since it rained pretty good the other weekend they are not coming in like before.

The morning is pretty uneventfully. The fog clears off and there's a gentle west wind blowing. The other hunter is west of me and with the wind direction I can now smell every cigarette he lights up. He is about 70 or so yards away. Besides watching the tons of gray squirrels the only action I see is when an hawk crashes into some bushes nearby trying to capture on of the squirrels. I see the hawk fly off and assume it was a miss. Finally the smoke gets the best of me and I decide to pack it in about 10:30am. The other hunter had asked me to come get him when I leave. We walked out together. He had a 4 point come in and walk around him.

The other hunter seems to be a nice guy. It doesn't look like there will be any problems with us hunting the same property. I will just need to watch where my stand is in proximity to him the next time.

Later,
Todd

 

[Hideandwatch]

Todd...good post, glad that someone else is doing it. Mine have gotten boring I think, there is just no action as yet. Does this mean that you will be moving your stand further from the smoker? I use a light to get through the last part of the trek, there are some holes I dont want to fall into, shallow but holes, then theres the dry creek that has alot of fallen branches on the banks from the ice storm.
Keep them coming I enjoy reading them.

 

[ToddP]

Hopefully he won't be around much. He was in a climber. I was in a fixed stand. I plan on hunting this stand this week before moving on. I can still hunt my old haunt across the street. No one is hunting there.

 

[swampfox]

todd your season is always enjoyable to read. keep us posted.

 

[Cabin Fever Bob]

Thanks for posting Todd! I'll be looking forward to reading updates! Happy Hunting!

 

[feelinducky]

Keep on keeping us posted Todd. I enjoyed the posts last year. Good Luck!

 

[ToddP]

*Note - I had my stand location marked wrong on the map for the day one post. It has been corrected.

The weather is looking great. Temps in the 60's with a little wind out of the west. I am hunting my stand (point A on map) again.

I pull into my spot and there is another truck there already. I assume it is the father of the guy I hunted by Saturday. Mike shows up shortly after I get set up, waves to me from the trail and continues to his stand.

My stand is between food source and a bedding area. The bedding area is thick brush that is right behind some houses. Less than an hour into the hunt I see movement about 50 yards away to the NE. I see a yearling, with her red summer coat, walking my way but I am more interested in Mom might be. As the yearling slowly makes her way towards me another deer appears, this one much darker, appears. This deer is a little bigger but not by much. The yearling doe is not near as cautious as the deer behind her and makes her way right underneath me. She works her way to the water hole behind me. The second deer cautiously comes towards me and at about 10 yards I can see he is a button buck. There will be no shooting at either one of these deer. The button buck senses that something is not right. He keeps looking around but cannot figure it out. He turns and dashes out from me with the yearling following, then stopping about 30 yards out. They eventually work their way through the woods and out into the soybean field south of me. (Red Line on map)

About an hour later, at approximately the same location the previous deer appeared, a buck appears. He stands in the opening soaking in his surroundings before slowly walking towards the soybean field. The buck stays about 30-35 yards out from me and stays in the thickest brush around. I lose him in the brush most the time. He would walk a couple steps and stop to see what is going on. Slowly he makes his way around me and into the field. I can only see a Y on him. If he had a browtine of any size I did not see it. (Light Blue on map)

Somewhere in between all this I again have a hawk or owl come crashing in. I guess they are after one of the many squirrels in the area. I assume it was a red tail hawk after I hear one start screaming nearby. I could be wrong though because a huge owl flew in at the end of the night and perched in the tree right above me. I think he was taking a dump. His rear end was bobbing around like he was trying to pucker something out.

Things are quiet again, for a little bit, then I hear something coming up through the brush to my west. I see another buck half running about 40 yards out to my north. I only see a Y but there could be more points. The buck is moving through the area on three legs. He is not using his front left leg at all and makes his way into the thick brush by the bedding area. My first thought is that someone has shot him. I keep hoping that is not the case. The rest of the evening ended with out any action.

As I get out of my stand I can see a flashlight following where the buck had run. I know now that someone has shot him. I drop some of my gear off at my truck and pick up a light I use for mountain bike riding at night. You could almost spot deer with this light. I meet up with Mike and he tells me his Dad shot a deer. I begin to ask questions but Mike does not have any answers for me. We meet up with his Dad, who is on the deer trail, and I stop him to start asking questions again. "Where did you hit him?" He proceeds to tell me that he was 30 feet in a tree and shot the deer through the shoulder. "He was only 10 yards away" he tells me. Hmmm, 10 yards away and 30 feet up. Doesn't seem like much of a target. From the information I gather it sounds like the deer was quartered towards him when he shot. Definitely a "no shoot" situation. I asked if he recovered the arrow and he tells me that he did not stop to look for it. I then told him I watched the deer go by me and that it didn't look like it was hit hard. At least the deer wasn't going to stop any time soon. I was pretty sure that the deer crossed to road onto another property. I picked up the blood trail and followed right through where I saw the deer go. When the trail crossed the road I marked it and told them they were better off to wait till morning to continue with the trail. The blood had a nice fire engine red color to it but was not coming out like a lung shot. (Purple Line on map)

I need to get these guys into one of the Bowhunter Ed Classes next year.

I am taking today off then heading for my old hunting property across the street Wednesday. Too much commotion in this area for now.


Later,
Todd

 

[Speckmisser]

Sounds like lots of activity in your area. Don't blame you for moving to your old spot.

That fire-engine red blood sounds like it could just be a deep muscle hit. I'd be interested in finding out if they recover that deer. From your description of the way it was running, I'd guess the deer has a broke leg at worst... my bet is he'll still be running when the season ends, but with a pronounced limp.

Those two could definitely benefit from a few tracking lessons.

 

[Hideandwatch]

Wow 30 ft up! I get the willies at 15 ft. I can't imagine hunting that high, seems ya would be looking for trouble, and it looks like they may have already found some trouble. Too bad for that deer, I hope it recovers soon.

 

[ToddP]

No hunting last night. Tonight I am heading to Spot B on the map. It is on the 30 acres I have hunted the past couple of years. I saw deer in the field to the north a bunch of times last year. Right now I have a camera haning on a pine tree in that field and another one where the treeline and woods meet to the south east. I did get some pictures in this general area a couple weeks. One was a nice 7 point with an acorn on one of his tines.

Later,
Todd

 

[StringShooter]

Todd,
I hope that yourself or someone that knows what the heck he is doing with a bow has an opportunity to have that injured buck present a "lethal" shot soon. That burns me up. Up 30 feet in a tree? I don't have a problem with that if you can shoot a good group of arrows at that height in an elevated position. Apparently he doesn't practice from that height? I doubt it very much.

His "shoulder" shot is probably more like a leg hit, so someone should see a gimping walking deer soon. Take him if you do see him please. I hate to see them suffer.

I strongly beleive that anyone who hunts with a bow needs to quailify at a range before he/she is allowed to hunt. The folkes that shoot 2 arrows into a paper plate at 20 yards the day before seasons opens up need to just stay at home!!!!

Good luck Todd

 

[ToddP]

SS,

The deer crossed the road and into the woods just north of where I will be tonight. It went on a neighboring property that is also hunted so chances are good someone might come across him.

Todd

 

[ToddP]

Day 3 - Oct. 9

Hunting stand "B". After waiting an hour and a half deer start to come into to field. It is now a little after 6pm. About 90 yards in front of me a bunch of does appear. Looking through my binoculars I do not see an horns. Two of the doe rear up on their hind legs and start trashing each other. I can not get my camcorder turned on fast enough so I miss taping it. I do take about 30 seconds of video. Past experience with this field leads me to believe these deer will make their way towards me. Tonight, thought, the landowner's dog starts barking towards the house for some unknown reason and the deer spook back into the woods. The dog is chained and does not bark at the deer. He is used to them. I watched deer walk by him in the past and he just lays there. So much for these deer.

About little while later two deer appear in the field to the right of where the first group was and much closer to me. The are feeding a little bit on the grasses but I need them come in faster. Darkness is approaching. I used a bleat can and gained the interest of the smaller deer, at least a little. Slowly the smaller deer makes its way towards me but I am interested in the big doe behind him. The first deer comes with in shooting distance but he is a button buck. The bigger doe finally comes into range too but she is walking towards me, not a good shooting angle. The way my stand is set up, I face a tree when I face the field. The allows my to use the tree to hide behind. This also makes some shot difficult. The big doe starts to cross the line for a shot on the left side of the tree. This would allow me to get a quartering away shot except my bow is to the right of the tree. Both deer know something is up but not sure what yet. While slowly backing up in my stand so I can swing my bow through the big doe decides this is not a good area for her and she bounds away back towards the woods with the button buck following. So ends another night.

Calling for rain today. Does not look good for hunting tonight.
Link to video I shot last night, <2MB

 

[StringShooter]

Keep the footage coming...I love that kind of stuff. It's nice not only to read the story but to see the action. Seems like you have a bunch of deer where your hunting. Shouldn't be long before you score.

 

[swampfox]

looks like you do have a good chance todd. be persistant, it will pay off

 

[phantom]

Toddp
That is awesome details of your hunting...keep the updates coming..

 

[Hideandwatch]

Way Cool Todd!

Keep them coming, but don't miss your deer cuz yer filming

 

[ToddP]

Rain rain go away, please come back another day.
Preferably Sunday.

No hunting last night, rain. None today. Typically keep it open for the wife. Tomorrow morning looks like rain. Might head out if its not too hard.

Todd

 

[h2obobh2o]

Todd-

Uneventful season so far.....although we desperately need the rain, I wish it would hold off for after dark, and on Sunday's. Looks like with the rain, I won't get to hunt much, heading for Colorado on Monday, I will be gone until October 29. I will be back in time for the best two weeks of our season though!!! Good luck Todd, and all other bowhunters!!!

 

[swampfox]

well hopefully todd it will hold out . keep the updates coming. im ready to see some pics of some harvested deer!