DS20 Part 6: Weekend Scouting Trip

Had an awesome time camping and deer scouting this weekend. The area is in the heart of the big woods up here. The sign came in waves. A whole lot of nothing for a mile or more, then several runways then more nothing. I found one spot that would be worth throwing an observation sit at, but didnt see enough in thus area to make me excited about it.

The best spot was where four runways converged coming down a ridge from multiple directions into a little hub and then split into two. I marked a tree and followed them both but never found any bedding. More of a just passing through area for them. No buck sign from 2019 to speak of, and just one old rub, at least 3 years old.

DS20 Part 5: Winter Camping Prep

All packed up for a backcountry camping and scouting trip this weekend. Going to meet up with a buddy and hike about 2.5 miles into a local public land area and set up camp for the weekend. He plans to just kind of explore the area back there, I am going with plans to deer scout all day Saturday and maybe a little sunday morning. We will hike out sunday around lunch time.

Night time temps friday night will be the worst of it, mid 20s, and then it isnt too bad, low of around 30 Saturday night. Both days will be pretty dang nice, mid 30s saturday and low 40s sunday. Snowshoes are packed, we are sitting on around 2 or 3 feet of snow in the woods, it's been a pretty mild winter with most of that accumulating over the last month. At least it feels that way.

I'm not expecting to learn a lot from actual deer sign, most rubs are going to be under snow and all sign will be late winter sign, but I'm hoping to find a big track or two, backtrack, and locate bedding locations.

DS20 Part 4: Switching to a Saddle

It was good to kind of not think about deer in January, my batteries are fully charged again. My saddle came from Aerohunter. The flex is super comfortable. I am kind of through the weight weenie phase, but I was curious what kind of weight savings the saddle would give me. It's a lot.

My climbing method will still be beast sticks, so no weight difference there. Same for my linemans rope and tether- been using a tether style rope as a tree strap for years. The differences are going from a full body harness to a saddle and treestand to a ring of steps.

My harness is a muddy ambush or something like that and weighs 2.78lbs. My flex with sewn in webbing bridge weighs 2.36lbs. So I save a half pound there. My treestand weighed about 12.5lbs. The ring of steps (4 squirrel steps with an OCB strap) weighs 1.3lbs, so I'm saving about 11lbs there. I'm also saving the 2lbs that my hunt comfort seat added.

Roughly 13.5 less pounds is kind of huge.

I am doing homework on a new arrow build for next season. I'm really sick of all the red on the maxima reds. I know it seems silly, but it just drives me nuts looking at that wall of red in the quiver. Deer must see it for miles...  Lots of shafts out there so I let my OCD kick in and I entered the spine, grains per inch, ID, OD, and straightness for every Easton, carbon express, gold tip, victory, black eagle, day six, etc shaft currently sold. Computer isnt in front of me but it was like 450 different shafts. It took about 4 hours, but it was totally worth it cause I'm turning that spreadsheet into an arrow calculator. Working out some of the more advanced formulas and will share it with the forum when it's done. It will predict or calculate FOC, speed, KE, momentum, etc. All the numbers. Like I said, OCD...

DS20 Part 3:

February came kinda fast. Been doing a little cyberscouting here and there, and my first on the ground scouting yesterday. Floated 6 miles of river and marked all of the deer crossing and watering locations. Been packing away at the gear needed list. Picked up a ring of steps to use with my saddle purchase, also got a new pair of mittens bringing my gear purchase total to $443. Kinda hoping my wife never reads this. Still need arrows, broadhead blades, and kill tags.

DS20 Part 2:

1/10/2020

End of preseason week 1 update- or maybe it's the end of the first week of the post-season?

Either way...

One week has passed since the 2019 season ended, and this is what I've done to prepare for 2020.

Rutcation dates are requested off at work and approved. I will be travelling back to OH after work on 11/6 and hunting till 11/15. That's a few days later than I normally go and a couple less days. I have two seasons under my belt there and feel like I've really got a good grasp of how deer use my hunting spots there. I cant wait, this is the best week of my year and something I think about daily.

I'd like to do a quick 4-day trip down in the early season, we will see how that plays out.

Been shooting my bow every day in the basement, 6 shots a day. It's about a 14yd shot and a nice stress reliever.  Cyberscouting, too. Always cyberscouting, but starting out by looking at my current hunting areas, thinking about where I saw deer and how they were using the terrain this year., and trying to gain what I can from it. There were definitely some good lessons learned. The one Ohio spot was a real eye opener and I'm feeling pretty cocky about hunting it now. Cocky enough that I will be picky about what I shoot there, if that means anything. Still no boots on the ground scouting, hopefully that changes this weekend.

DS20: Part 1 Looking Back on 2019

Our deer season ended yesterday so I guess preparation for the 2020 season-- DS20-- starts now. I had a lot of fun writing a hunting journal here last season, my only regret was that I didnt start it until mid-summer.

Before you can prepare for the next season, you have to reflect on the last. 2019 wasnt my most successful season as far as pounds of meat in the freezer or inches if horn on the wall, but it was my most successful season to date by a mile- particularly my out of state hunts. I had more nice buck encounters, and more mature buck encounters than any season prior. I put lessons learned from past seasons to use and was 100% I was going to let an arrow go during every hunt. I learned some new areas, and I covered some serious ground, hunting 6 counties here in my home state and another on my out of state hunts around 9 hours away. All that despite hunting the same number of days as any other year, 28 hunts. 26 of those with a bow, 2 with the muzzleloader.

All that said, I spread myself too thin hunting so many areas in my home state, taking first time sits to the extreme. Instead of working a few select properties, and squeezing a little tighter and tighter until I got the kill, I bounced from one property to another based on phase of the season, conditions and wind direction. I have complete confidence scouting my way in and doing a first time sit, but I was so mobile I was really just trying to get lucky. I was also giving up on properties too soon. That wasnt the case out of state as my options were a little more limited and it paid off.

I put meat in the freezer, but I missed shots on two bucks, both of which would have been personal bests, and one of which would have been my first P&Y. I practiced my but off in the off season and could make those shots with my eyes closed in practice. But real deer arent block targets. I've gotta pick better shots, and practice even harder. Target panic on the P&Y also has me considering back tension.

I failed to locate a mature buck in the preseason in my home state. It wasnt for lack of effort. I scouted in the spring and summer. I shined 2 to 4 nights a week. I had trail cameras out. If I'm going to shoot a mature buck here, I have to find one first. I need to scout earlier and more often.

I let my trail cameras sit too long between checks. They weren't in anyone's bedroom, there was no reason to leave them alone that long. If I checked them more often, I could have moved them around more and maybe located a mature deer.

I let my guard down. That P&Y I missed at 30yds...well, if I had my act together, I could had a shot at 9yds where he was when I first saw him.

I wasted too.much time finding the right tree to sit in. Scouting my way in means I never knew where I would end up exactly, which meant finding a tree when I found sign I couldnt walk past. There were.a couple instances I spent 30 minutes finding the right tree, leaving an obscene amount of ground scent. One of those times another buck that would have been a personal best hit some of that tree searching ground scent and hung up out of range before backing out.

I hunted more mornings, and I liked them.

I used my full body harness as a saddle with my beast sticks as a platform a half dozen times or so. I loved it, but am going to a saddle in 2020 to increase comfort.

Those were the lessons that are jumping out at me, I'm sure I will think of others as the offseasons progresses. Now it's time to think about winter scouting. Should be able to take a walk on Saturday and see what I see. The number one priority is to locate a mature buck close to home. They're a needle in a haystack, but they're out there. 10/1 will be here before we know it, time to get after it.

DS19 Part 39: Still Hunting with the Muzzleloader

I didn't get out at all during rifle season.  It was kind of on purpose and kind of a case of the time just slipping away during a few weeks of craziness at work playing catchup after being gone, heading back to Ohio to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday, and if I'm honest, needing a break from the woods to recharge my batteries a little. 

Drove around the PRC a little yesterday to scout where muzzleloading hunting pressure is.  Tons of people in the woods right now with late elk season also in progress.  Saw a little deer sign driving around and figured out where I would hunt today.

First stop was Lance's to borrow his muzzleloader.  I sent him to a spot a couple weeks ago and he got a nice 8pt with his rifle.  That was pretty cool and he was grateful for the tip, and insisted I take his muzzleloader for a walk.  

I still hunted a long transition between a marsh, pines and an oak ridge.  20 minutes into the hunt, a deer crossed in front of me but I wasn't able to get the gun up fast enough to get a shot.  A few steps later, another passed.  The woods opened up 20yds in front of me, if I could just get around a small group of pines, I'd have a shot at one.  I stalked forward through the shin deep snow as quietly as I could, but 5yds before I got to the pines, the deer bolted.  

I probably won't be able to get out again until the weekend after Christmas.  Two tags still need to be filled.