112911 camera pull - Mange?

I moved my camera back to the feeder location.

Small 4 point.

 

A smallish buck with both antlers broken off!

 

A group of does and one with some skin issue….maybe mange??

Black Friday Bowhunt 112511

Black Friday bowhunt 112511

I watched the sun come up from the branches of the large oak in the field strapped into the sneaky sak.  I finally got the hang of that thing and I was fairly comfortable (no car keys in my pocket). 

I spotted two deer moving across the lower field toward my direction at sunup. 

 

They came up behind my tree and I saw it was that same 5 point I have been seeing.  He was bothering a very small yearling doe.  He never got close enough for me to even try to turn around in the tree…..I just watched him go up the hill over my shoulder. 

It started to get very warm (60s) so I got down and walked around a little around 10am.  I saw that lazy xbow hunter again driving his truck out of the lower woods road.   Thanks so much for driving through the area I am hunting because you are too fat and lazy to walk to your stand Mr. Considerate!

I had to go home at noon in order to get ready to travel for the Weekend.  This was the last hunt before the regular firearms season.  I hope there are some deer left to hunt next week when I get to go again.

I put some limb skins (diamond back rattler) on my recurve limbs to cover up some of those stress lines on the back…..looks great on the black bow!

scrape cam 112211

Not too much action from the big boys on the scrape lately.  I suspect they are too preoccupied right now and I am only seeing the "lesser deer".  I certainly did not have any pictures of that very large 8 point I saw in the front yard last week!

Chris and another selfbow harvest

Chris scored his second selfbow harvest on this doe.  Unfortunately, it was a questionable shot and the meat was no good once it was recovered the following day.

Here is his story:

Saw about a dozen deer on Saturday am.  Had a forky walk by at 10 yards about 8:15, head down and plodding, didn’t see him coming and he was passing me by the time I heard him, cant shoot a buck anyway and he was a little gnarly rack so I watched him go by.  About 9;15 saw deer coming from the East, saw four, three does and a buck, the buck was a nice wide tan rack. He drove off one of the does and left following her, never cam closer than about 150 yards. The other two does came my way and stopped to feed and mill about 40 yards out, as I watched them I heard something off to my left and took a peak, there was mr. forky about 10 yards out and moving around me.  I was still focused on the two does when one of them picked up her head and looked past me to my rear, I looked over my shoulder and there was a nice doe about 15 yards out and coming down the same trail that the forky had used earlier. She was walking at a steady pace and as she passed – I had to wait until she passed even- I pulled and had to make a quick shot as she wasn’t stopping. It hit a little far back and looked  like a gut shot, she took a hop or two then joined by the young one that was following her, headed off through the trees at a good clip but not running, I could see the bright neon green feathers sticking out back near her rump.

Still had the three in front of me – two does and forky, but  forky was staring at me and the does started fading away back to the East as Tom came up the trail and walked on up to  our meeting point.  Forky eventually just quietly faded back into the thick stuff.

Cant win for losing !   Found her, but made some wrong guesses and it cost me. She ended up in a dumpster. I had a swim meet for Irene Sat afternoon 1-5pm.  I shot the doe at 9:30 am but thinking I had a bad shot decided I needed to follow the book and give her 6-8 hours for a gut shot.  Well that put me right at dark so knowing I could not likely find her in the dark (no blood trail) high up arrow entry without exit) I decided I should wait until Sunday morning.

Made a good search Sunday am and found her after about 2 hours – no blood trail, she went about 250 yards all together, arrow was still in her. Post mortem showed she was dead before I left the woods, did not lay down just collapsed on a trail.  The arrow went in far back, just clipped the front of the back leg but then angled forward  and did not hit the intestines at all, and since I was fairly low on the tree the shot followed just under the backbone up into the left lung. The angle of her going away was a little more tilted than I realized. The shot was really not that bad.

Drug her out, probably at least ½ mile, hung her up, washed her out and skinned her, began cutting up the meat, took the back hams off, cleared away any nasty areas from the shot,   and then walked out to smell the good meat away from the cleaning station, packed her up and dumped her.   There was still steam when I gutted her.  24 hours was to long at that temp.  she smelled like rot throughout.  It was a real shame, she was a nice one, bigger than the photo shows, probably about 100 lbs.  but rotting meat is rotting meat…

111911 sat hunt

Sat. am I saw a big bodied buck about 80 yards out in the overgrown field.  It looked like a big boy, but was too far to make out much more then golden flashes of antler and white underbelly as it moved through the field edge, nose to the ground. 

I chased a doe out of her bed at about 10 feet on my way out.  I was walking very slow and quiet and actually went past her before she caught my scent and stood up / turned around.  Eye to eye with a doe at 10 feet and no arrow on the string...Oh well.

That afternoon, I got my sneaky -sak (like tree saddle) and climbed the big lone oak in the middle of the field. As soon as I get up the tree a see another big fat hunter with a x-bow on his back stand in the trail and look at me.  He heads off into the brush.  So much for deer coming from that area.   Brent saw a couple does being chased by a spike, but they were too far from him on the top road.  Around 4pm the fat hunter comes bumbling back up the hill.  He had so much gear hanging from his belt he looked like some kind of gypsy vendor.  He heads back toward the vehicles…..so much for deer from that area again.  Right at dark, I hear a buck grunt behind me.  Along comes a basket 5 point cutting through the field.  He smells my scent rag hanging from the tree and stops about 35 yards out in real skinny brush.  Stays there for about 5 minutes sniffing and tasting the air like crazy.  Then a big breeze kicks up and he about jumps out of his skin to run away.  Darn tricky air currents let him wind me.   He ran right by Brent as he was getting out of his tree. He could not shoot it anyway though as he got a spike earlier there with the compound.

 When I walked out I saw the xbow guy sitting on the corner of the field… lying prone on the ground.  It was 5:18 and past legal shooting light but he stayed there after I talked with him briefly????

She said he only saw 2 does that Brent later saw on his way to the truck. 

I do not think I will get out again until Friday morning for a quick hunt, but it is supposed to rain most of the week.

Tips on sitting still

I am getting a little tired of all the promotion of products camo, gear, blah zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, blah....so let's talk hunting for a while.

What are your tips for sitting still and seeing deer? 

Here are a few of mine:

- Use your peripheral vision. 

Do not move your head to look around, but move your eyes only.  This is a learned skill as we are accustomed to facing things we look at (people).  It is tough at first but try this.  Pin your head to your tree and see how much and how long you can just keep your head still and move only your eyes.  Amazing how often you "want" to turn your head.  If you do have to turn your head...dooo  iiiiiiit  slllllllloooooowwwllllly....super slow mo.  In  nature very few things move very very slowly like that.  You will be amazed at how much you can see without moving your head.

- Look 2 ways

Look for movement by trying to pic out details....a leaf, a twitch, a shadow...detail looking.   This is where most people stop.

The other way to "look" is broad.....fix your eyes on something distant but "look" at your peripheral for movement.  You will be amazed at what you can see to the sides movement wise.  Try to switch between these two methods often.

The other day I was walking out of the woods when "something made me look over my left shoulder into the open field"....here come 10 deer straight at me!  That "something" was movement in my peripheral...I could have easily ignored it!

- move but don't move

Especially this time of year.  It is cold and I have low BP.  I get cold quick.  To stay warm I am constantly moving my toes in my boots, my fingers in my pocket, and flexing various muscle groups to stay warm.....no one else would know though because all of these movements are not visible.

111411 scrape cam

Only a few does and BBs checking out my mock scrape this week: