DS19 Part 19: Archery Season's Eve

Bow season opens tomorrow! Got home from work and shot the bow for a while. Shot pretty good from 5 to 40 then swapped the practice heads out for the real deal. Got my stand and sticks, bow case and other gear loaded in the car. Been on and off every weather site out there about 80 times tonight trying to settle on where I will hunt tomorrow evening. Wind is forecast to be out of the NW then switching to the NNW from 6 till dark, scattered thunderstorms in the morning with rain coming on and off the rest of the day.

I'm thinking I will do an observation sit on the amoeba marsh. If I can find the right tree, I will be able to see most of the marsh and any deer that enter it, and have a strong chance of shooting them as they parallel or walk into my point. If they stay out of range, I will have more intel and move in for a kill the next sit with the wind I need, which is pretty much any of them as there are points within close proximity to one another for almost any wind. Great spot to be a buck.

The other nice thing is I will be able to pull my trail cam on this spot on my exit. We will see, I have been known to scrap a plan at the last minute after talking myself out of it. Gotta love the mental grind of deer season, especially when it hasnt even started yet.

A cold front is coming wednesday along with easterly winds that will stick around till saturday morning when they are supposed to flip to being out of the south. I have two good spots ready for wednesday and Thursday, not sure for friday, then plan to go into the spot I got the bucks on camera saturday morning and try to get them coming back to their beds. I have two tags which I can use for bucks or doe's, plus an out of state tag. Hopefully in 6 weeks I'm writing about how happy I am to have filled them and am making my own summer sausage. It's going to be a wild ride, not sure I will be able to sleep tonight.

DS19 Part 18: Feeling Bucky

Ok, finally got a ballpark idea what the weather was doing for the pics that I got during yesterday's card pull. Like many guys on the beast, I can really geek out on this stuff. I think there is a ton of value in using data to highlight patterns or trends you wouldn't have been able to pick up on otherwise.

That said, I also think there is an over-reliance on trail camera photos, apps, etc., and not enough on experience, woodsmanship or gut instinct. So I have to force myself to kind of hit the brakes on the data/technology stuff sometimes, particularly when I'm having a tough time or feel like I'm in a rut.
Every season I have a mental breakdown or two where the deer just aren't cooperating with what I think they should be doing. The way I always pull myself out of that is by going back to the basics- looking at maps until I find an area I think looks good, scouting until I find good deer sign and setting up on it.  Not by spreading trail cams everywhere until I get deer pictures.

This camera sat sat on a small ridge, a little too long to call a spur, that juts off from a really long ridge from 8/11-9/21/19.  The camera was facing north towards the bedding area, but roughly 200'ish yards away. As tempting as it was to leave the camera right in the bedding, I didn't want to ruin the spot. I felt that bedding area was solid for a south wind, but also a good place for them to bed under pretty much any other wind direction. I hoped the deer would be using that point to travel to and from that bedding location. But I wasn't 100% confident in the camera spot. There just isn't a ton of cover in that specific area and I felt deer travel would be better 50yds east by a transition between open hardwoods and a raspberry thicket.

A bachelor group came through from north to south the morning of 8/16.  The wind was out of the south that morning but it was super light. Two hours after that group of pics was taken, it started coming from everywhere, but still only 5-10mph. I'm fairly certain two of these three bucks were the ones I jumped on 8/11. The smaller basket 8 is 2.5 years old, not sure about the one that isn't completely in the frame, but guessing the same. The bigger 8 is also a deer I'd guesstimate at 2.5, but his body does look a little more mature than that basket 8.

Lots of pics of a family of three raccoons using the ridge, as well as a single coyote coming through four separate occasions. Doe's and a doe with a fawn came through fairly regularly, not every day, but just about.

That was it for buck pics. I ran into a guy and a woman on ORV's hiking out, about a 1/4 mile from where I was heading. They were stopped, drinking a beer, looking at something I can't disclose publicly as it might give the spot away. I made small talk and walked past and got about 100yds away when I could hear the engines on their four wheelers fire up. Not wanting them to have any idea about where I was going, I sprinted into the woods towards a small root wad and hid behind it until they passed and were out of sight. They had no clue where I went or even what direction, but the encounter was enough to cause me to pull the camera instead of swapping the card out. I've got the intel I needed, and combining that with past experience at this spot, I feel like I have a good chunk of the puzzle put together.

Before I stumbled into Dan Infalt's DVD's, I thought of this spot as a rut spot. And it is good for the rut, but now I understand why- its a thermal hub. That funnel created by the point and the thicket to the east sucks deer within bow range in some big, big woods. I would save it for early November, but since I won't be here in early November, I'm going to hit it early and again as close to early November as possible. Definitely looks like a winner for a south wind, but I need a SW so it works for me and the deer if he is bedded where I think he is. SE could work, too, and the more I think about it, is probably better. Stand location will be roughly halfway between the bedding and the camera location, as close to the bedding as possible. Late October, I'll be at the SW corner of that raspberry thicket and taking advantage of what I kind of think of as a spot where two funnels turn into one super duper terrain funnel.

Wife is out of town hunting rocks in the UP, so I've got all of my gear spread out in the living room, hunting beast DVD marathon on the TV (minus farm country, don't have that one yet), and leftover pizza on the counter for lunch. Life is good.

DS19 Part 17: The Oaky Knoll

Kinda looks more like a running track to me than a heavy deer but still a good one 

Found a new spot last night cyber scouting. It's kind of an anomaly for this area. A single hill of mature oaks rising 60 to 80 feet from the area around it, roughly 300yds by 300yds, surrounded by low lying stuff, near a river. We just dont have those kind of small isolated pockets of oaks around here. Usually if you have a little island in the middle of a swamp or marsh here, its aspen, and if you are really lucky maple/beech. But this one is oaks. And what's really cool about it is there are no other oaks for over a mile. But with all holy grails, you always have to work hard to get to them.

I studied the map and it's like I found the Bermuda triangle. No roads go near it. The ones that get within a mile arent really roads.  So today's mission was to figure out how close I can get my car. I drove around for a couple hours coming from multiple directions and was pleasantly surprised with what I came up with. The hike shouldn't be more than an hour. I'm thinking this spot is a strong contender for opening day.

I was feeling good about the find and had a few hours to kill. I checked the weather and saw we had thunderstorms rolling in this evening and winds out of the southwest. The camera that has been taunting me to come check it is perfect for those conditions, so I drove a little over an hour to it.  I'm still going through them and figuring out historical weather data for the days  and times I had pics, but wunderground is acting up. It was on a terrain funnel since 8/11 so lots of pics to get through. I'm crazy excited to see 10/1 on the extended forecast in an hour.

DS19 Part 16: A Good Night of Shining

Tonight's shining session was a little more productive. 10 deer, all doe's, 2 coyotes- one which basically walked right up to the car and didnt stop until I growled at it, 1 opossum that did everything it could to get run over but somehow survived, and three elk- one of which was a massive bull. Saw a couple other guys out shining, too. 10 days until the opener, everyone is starting to remember that they like to hunt deer.

I wasnt seeing any deer for the first 45 minutes or so and came into an area that the hound hunters had dragged each side of the road to monitor for bear tracks tomorrow morning. This is normal for most of this area, and being friends with guys who run dogs- and arent really deer hunters- I'm always asking them to let me know when they run into big deer tracks. A light bulb kind of went off, I'm not seeing deer, I should be shining the drag and looking for deer tracks made this evening.

So there I am, shining the road and a pair of headlights pop up behind me, with a spotlight behind them. I quickly raise my light up to look like I'm shining the woods like everyone else, not wanting to give away what I'm up to. Then as they get closer I pull over to let them pass. There are three young kids riding in the back of the truck, huge smiles on their faces, one of which is holding the spotlight. They flip it back on after they pass and continue shining. Made me smile.

I really want to move one of the trail cams I have set. It's not in a horrible spot, but I really want to shift it 50yds east to a transition the deer will start using right about now. As tempting as it is, I think I'm going to leave it, I have to leave it, until I hunt there the first time. Makes no sense to go in and let the deer know they're being hunted this close to the season. But man, it's so tempting to go in there and make a quick move.

I'm musky fishing next weekend, so this weekend will be all about getting my vehicle and gear in final order, out of fishing mode and into hunting mode. I love fishing. Didnt get out near as much as normal this year with a lot going on at work and a foot injury, just under 60 times, but it was a great season, and I'm ready to hunt deer.

DS19 Part 15: Deer Tag Blunders

It's getting dark earlier and earlier every day, bout quarter to 9 right now. Went out shining tonight, saw one doe and two porcupines. Between shining and a couple trail cam checks, you'd think that there are no bucks in my area. Let alone mature ones. Yet somehow, I'm not even close to being discouraged. This is all just stuff to kill time and keep me sane until the season gets here and I can go into the places I hunt and see what's actually going on, find a spot I like and set up and hunt it. Only 12 days until the archery opener.

The exciting thing for me there is that means it's only three days until October 1st pops up on the 10 day forecast. Cant wait to start watching the weather and wind to come up with a game plan. Its also time to quadruple check all my gear and make sure everything is in order.

I purchased my deer tags back in March and couldnt find them a couple days ago. I was sure I lost them so I went up to the DNR today to purchase replacements. I walk out and ask myself, where can I put these so I wont lose them again? I pull my wallet out and think of the perfect spot, only to see my original kill tags there...

Speaking of gear, I had a pretty awesome piece of hunting gear land on my doorstep today. Haven't been this excited about a piece of gear in a long time.

Sausagefest

First thing I want to do with it is Bearded Butcher's cajun snack sticks mixed with pepper Jack cheese. https://youtu.be/zEFhqBVY-zA

DS19 Part 14: Small Game Opener

Youth hunt weekend and small game opener here in Michigan. The elk rut is also heating up and bear season in my area opens on Monday. I drove around to see if there was any hunting pressure around my spots and was pleased to see they were empty. I guess I did choose them for a reason.

Jet lagged from going to China still and overslept today, woke up at 1pm in the afternoon. Probably didnt help that I was up till 3am last night watching youtube videos on meat processing techniques. I love chasing the best bucks I can find in my area, but the food aspect of hunting is always my number one priority and the thing that has often got in the way of me chasing big bucks. Just something about a young doe that makes my mouth water. One year I actually passed what would have been my personal best buck to shoot a doe later that evening at last light. Boy was I kicking myself in the ass when I got to the end of the blood trail and spikes materialized on the top of its head.

But this year is going to be different. My goal is to chase the best of both worlds, which world that is will depend when and where I'm hunting.

Took a long walk in the woods tonight with the shotgun, an elk bugle and a couple trail cams. The mission was to get a grouse or two for dinner and call an elk in. Brought a couple trail cams and sticks just in case I ran into some decent deer sign. Loaded the 20 gauge 870 with low brass 7.5 shells, put some high brass 6's in my pocket in case I ran into any squirrels and started matching through the brush, stopping to bulge every 5 minutes or so. Got a couple answers through the evening but no players.

Didnt flush any grouse, but did see some decent deer sign in a few spots, one of which was worthy of a trail cam deployment. One of the tricky things about deer hunting in this area are the elk. Usually, elk and deer sign are easily distinguishable, but once in a while you run into a rub that could have been one or the other. The one in the pic below was such a rub. Elk rubs typically start at least mid-thigh high off the ground and can go up pretty high. They also tend to leave tine marks on nearby branches and trees. None of these rules for elk rubs are hard and fast. This rub started fairly low, just below the knee, and it didnt go up super high, but the distance from top to bottom was much longer than a typical deer rub. There were no time marks on the upper branches, nor were there any on the little tree right next to it. The back side was rubbed a little lower yet. I'm wanting to call this an elk rub but I'm just not 100%.

Buck rub

Started getting close to dark so I started looping back towards the car and saw a couple squirrels bouncing around the tops of a patch of oaks. I slowly slid the 7.5's out of the magazine and replaced them with 6's and made a tricky stalk on them. Just when I was almost in range, they bounced a little further away so I boogied after them and the woods went silent. I stood motionless at the base of a big oak for a minute or so when one of them came out and was running down a long 45 degree angle branch about 20yds away. I aimed for the head and he spilled over the opposite side and hit the ground. As soon as the shotgun blast finished echoing through the woods, the other started moving straight down the side of a different big oak, right at the edge of my range. I put the bb on its head and it flew off the side of the tree as I pulled the trigger, making a hollow thump as it landed. A third, unknown squirrel started barking nearby but I couldnt find it and recovered both animals and walked out in the grey light.

Winner, winner, squirrel dinner...

DS19 Part 13: Amoeba Marsh Trail Cam Check

We got a heavy rain yesterday so I checked the camera I had on the amoeba marsh spot last night. It's been soaking about two and a half weeks. Had a couple does go through twice and a group of three go through once, then a few single does here and there. Interestingly, no fawns. Been seeing a lot of them driving around elsewhere. No bucks but still trying to focus on the positives- it's still summer patterns, now I know bucks arent using that transition to come out of the marsh into the hardwoods. Another positive is in two card pulls, I have yet to have a deer looking at my camera which means carrying a couple sticks and wearing a harness in is worth it.

 The thing that surprised me was I thought I was within 100yds of bedding, which should have translated to seeing them come through earlier in the evening and later in the morning. But the ones coming through in the morning were probably 30 minutes before light, and the evening movement was well after dark except for the group of three which came through about a half hour before sunset.
Using the logic that any bucks in that area are coming through after the does, I need to be further into the bedding area. At least if I hunt that spot in the early season. I also hope to keep tabs on this family group, cause any bucks in the area certainly are. I left the camera there and just swapped the card, wont be back till season whenever I decide to hunt it for the first time.

Gotta go to china for work for a week starting friday. Kinda tempted to check one other camera before I go, mostly because I want to move it 50yds. Will be back the 13th, jet lagged the 14th, and small game hunting or elk calling the two weeks leading up to opening day on 10/1. Kinda starting to feel like christmas eve.