GREAT night on FWP land
Yesterday afternoon was windy and nasty. The clouds were moving in and there were no deer in the field by my house like there usually is...and the barometer had been falling all day. I thought about not going hunting, but then thought, "What ELSE are you going to do?" Plus, I wanted to see where the deer had been hiding down there. They don't like walking around in wind that swirls around like that, it messes up their senses...smell, sight, and sound.
I ended up down on FWP land again and decided to do some stillhunting rather than sit on the stand all evening. (Stillhunting to me means moving really slowly through the woods and sitting a lot.) I got to within 20 yards of a young cow moose right off the bat...boy did SHE make a lot of noise crashing off through the tall grass and brush. But, I still did a good job at moving slowly and waiting for things to calm down, rather than just figure she moved everything in a one-mile radius out of there. I poked around one side of the section of land and found absolutely nothing...and this is where that stand is...so I decided to go to the OTHER side of this square mile and check out some of the thickets over there. It was a good thing I did.
There are a lot of funnels over there, created by bands of 20-foot brush cutting fields in a north/south direction. Interesting, because each one of those funnels has a trail or two in it that leads directly to an adjacent private field. You'd think you'd see more people hunting out there, but in all honesty it's kinda hard. No good trees for treestands I suppose ruins it for some folks. Well, I snuck in there and found a patch of trees right in the middle of one of these corridors. I sat down and waited for the wind to die down...and to take a break to see if I could hear anything moving in front of me...in the thick stuff I was planning on going next. I even got up and went to the bathroom...that's how unconcerned I was about any deer being close to me. Well then the wind died down and blew slow and steady to the south...
I was absentmindedly looking through the brush about 50 yards in front of me...and saw a deer's tail wag! "What the..." I thought. So I watched this deer move off to the north, behind some brush, under a fence, and then off toward the private land. Then I saw another deer following her. I made up my mind that I had to get closer to where they were crossing under the fence if I was going to have a chance at a shot. The only problem was that there was about 30 yards of open field (low 12" grass) between me and any other cover...a small group of aspens. So I crawled. Slowly through this field. I got to within 15 yards of where I wanted to end up when I looked to the west and saw this doe staring at me from 20 yards away! Crap! So I froze...in an uncomfortable position...and started to shake. The camo must have done alright because she went back to feeding. Okay, now my attention was turned toward her. There was some bitterbrush or something that stood about 18 inches tall a couple yards from me...in the direction of this deer. That's the best I could do for cover and started crawling that way. That's when ANOTHER deer stood up! In all there ended up being THREE deer bedded about 40 yards from where I was poking around and went to the bathroom. Why hadn't they heard me or ran? Hmmm, a mystery.
I was able to flip my bow over so I could nock an arrow, then slowly remove an arrow...then get situated...all done about 16 inches from the ground. I moved into a modified sitting position...where I was kind of sitting on one of my feet and "one cheek." Hunkered behind 18 inch sparse brush I watched these deer feed around the small hollow they were in. One started moving toward an opening pretty quickly, so when her head was behind a large bush, I came to full draw. The first time I've done that since the season started! Of course, then she stopped and didn't continue out into the open. I started to shake pretty bad by that time (not long) and had to slooowwwlllyy let it down. Then the other deer started to move the way of the first and I started to draw again, I got to half-draw (not good with a compound because you're essentially holding 60 lbs) and had to let that down when they stared at me. That spooked two of them and they took off. The first deer was kind of confused and stood there a little longer...so I again came to full draw, but she saw that and bolted.
Talk about shaking like a leaf! I had so much adrenaline going that I just laid there for awhile. Then I got up and started sneaking around to where they were going to come out in the open. While doing that I got caught (by them) twice in a low crouch...and had to try and stand there in this field, half-lunge position, and not move. My leg muscles are sore this morning, I'll tell ya! Well, they finally had enough of me and took off with large leaps into the private field...I saw them about 200 yards away still running..entering the woods on another side of that field. They're done.
I then decided to go into the thick stuff where I was originally headed. In moving over there I spooked yet another deer that must have still been bedded down...I had no idea she was there. No big deal. I got back to where I was playing with those three deer and paced off how far they were. It came out to 18 - 20 yards, but when they were standing there, it felt more like 15 or so. Funny how much a difference it seemed when they were standing there.
I went into the thick stuff and found where the deer were hanging out. I found two more does in there and one got jumpy and headed back towards where I came. I decided since it was getting dark, I'd try to head her off on one of those corridors. I picked the wrong one and could hear her still crashing through the next one over huffing the whole way. I was spent, so headed home.
Overall, a very productive night. I think by entering from the OTHER side of the section via the slough off the river...I could sneak into that thick stuff fairly well and then just wait. It'd be better if I could use the canoe to get down there, but then it's either a long float to the next take-out...in which case I'd have to find someone to give me a lift back to the truck...or I would have to use a rope and pull the boat back upstream. Doesn't sound like much fun, so I'll probably just hike along the river and try not to get TOO wet doing it. I need to get a treestand to put up in there. It's thick with dry grass, leaves, and sticks...the walking is very loud. Plus you can't see anything...it'd be nice to have a view at least.
I ended up down on FWP land again and decided to do some stillhunting rather than sit on the stand all evening. (Stillhunting to me means moving really slowly through the woods and sitting a lot.) I got to within 20 yards of a young cow moose right off the bat...boy did SHE make a lot of noise crashing off through the tall grass and brush. But, I still did a good job at moving slowly and waiting for things to calm down, rather than just figure she moved everything in a one-mile radius out of there. I poked around one side of the section of land and found absolutely nothing...and this is where that stand is...so I decided to go to the OTHER side of this square mile and check out some of the thickets over there. It was a good thing I did.
There are a lot of funnels over there, created by bands of 20-foot brush cutting fields in a north/south direction. Interesting, because each one of those funnels has a trail or two in it that leads directly to an adjacent private field. You'd think you'd see more people hunting out there, but in all honesty it's kinda hard. No good trees for treestands I suppose ruins it for some folks. Well, I snuck in there and found a patch of trees right in the middle of one of these corridors. I sat down and waited for the wind to die down...and to take a break to see if I could hear anything moving in front of me...in the thick stuff I was planning on going next. I even got up and went to the bathroom...that's how unconcerned I was about any deer being close to me. Well then the wind died down and blew slow and steady to the south...
I was absentmindedly looking through the brush about 50 yards in front of me...and saw a deer's tail wag! "What the..." I thought. So I watched this deer move off to the north, behind some brush, under a fence, and then off toward the private land. Then I saw another deer following her. I made up my mind that I had to get closer to where they were crossing under the fence if I was going to have a chance at a shot. The only problem was that there was about 30 yards of open field (low 12" grass) between me and any other cover...a small group of aspens. So I crawled. Slowly through this field. I got to within 15 yards of where I wanted to end up when I looked to the west and saw this doe staring at me from 20 yards away! Crap! So I froze...in an uncomfortable position...and started to shake. The camo must have done alright because she went back to feeding. Okay, now my attention was turned toward her. There was some bitterbrush or something that stood about 18 inches tall a couple yards from me...in the direction of this deer. That's the best I could do for cover and started crawling that way. That's when ANOTHER deer stood up! In all there ended up being THREE deer bedded about 40 yards from where I was poking around and went to the bathroom. Why hadn't they heard me or ran? Hmmm, a mystery.
I was able to flip my bow over so I could nock an arrow, then slowly remove an arrow...then get situated...all done about 16 inches from the ground. I moved into a modified sitting position...where I was kind of sitting on one of my feet and "one cheek." Hunkered behind 18 inch sparse brush I watched these deer feed around the small hollow they were in. One started moving toward an opening pretty quickly, so when her head was behind a large bush, I came to full draw. The first time I've done that since the season started! Of course, then she stopped and didn't continue out into the open. I started to shake pretty bad by that time (not long) and had to slooowwwlllyy let it down. Then the other deer started to move the way of the first and I started to draw again, I got to half-draw (not good with a compound because you're essentially holding 60 lbs) and had to let that down when they stared at me. That spooked two of them and they took off. The first deer was kind of confused and stood there a little longer...so I again came to full draw, but she saw that and bolted.
Talk about shaking like a leaf! I had so much adrenaline going that I just laid there for awhile. Then I got up and started sneaking around to where they were going to come out in the open. While doing that I got caught (by them) twice in a low crouch...and had to try and stand there in this field, half-lunge position, and not move. My leg muscles are sore this morning, I'll tell ya! Well, they finally had enough of me and took off with large leaps into the private field...I saw them about 200 yards away still running..entering the woods on another side of that field. They're done.
I then decided to go into the thick stuff where I was originally headed. In moving over there I spooked yet another deer that must have still been bedded down...I had no idea she was there. No big deal. I got back to where I was playing with those three deer and paced off how far they were. It came out to 18 - 20 yards, but when they were standing there, it felt more like 15 or so. Funny how much a difference it seemed when they were standing there.
I went into the thick stuff and found where the deer were hanging out. I found two more does in there and one got jumpy and headed back towards where I came. I decided since it was getting dark, I'd try to head her off on one of those corridors. I picked the wrong one and could hear her still crashing through the next one over huffing the whole way. I was spent, so headed home.
Overall, a very productive night. I think by entering from the OTHER side of the section via the slough off the river...I could sneak into that thick stuff fairly well and then just wait. It'd be better if I could use the canoe to get down there, but then it's either a long float to the next take-out...in which case I'd have to find someone to give me a lift back to the truck...or I would have to use a rope and pull the boat back upstream. Doesn't sound like much fun, so I'll probably just hike along the river and try not to get TOO wet doing it. I need to get a treestand to put up in there. It's thick with dry grass, leaves, and sticks...the walking is very loud. Plus you can't see anything...it'd be nice to have a view at least.
posted by geotracker12 at 7:16 AM
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