A thrilling night on FWP land
Yesterday was a day just like any other. Except that it was simply GORGEOUS outside and I couldn't keep myself from milling around outside after work. It only took about 20 minutes of that until I started getting antsy to go hunting and enjoy a relaxing evening in the riverbottom. However, the cat had other plans...SHE was out hunting and figured I could wait. So I paced for a while and then caught up with her, she gave me a look like, "Oh, hey Tom. You going somewhere?" Real innocent-like. Cats.
Okay, so I decided to go to another public land hunting area down to the south...a little further drive, but I know the area well and it really does have a lot of deer in it. There are some large hay fields (alfalfa I figure...never really looked) on two sides of this section of land, which means a buffet for deer. This section of land has some of the thickest cover around, so it makes it ideal for deer to bed on the FWP land during the day, then move to those fields at night. The trick is that the FWP land is on an island, all that work drying my boots off went to waste as I waded through the river minutes after leaving the truck. Yes, I've got hipboots, but to change shoes that much just to walk across 30 yards of knee-high water just seemed a little excessive.
There is a treestand that has been set up for quite a while. The chain that holds it to the tree is slowly becoming engulfed in bark and wood. Obviously it has been there much longer than when I found it two years ago. The good news is that I have a decent stand if I ever feel like using it...no one else seems to. Shoot, they probably think it's mine. It's tucked along the edge of a really thick area with a lot of trails around it, there is a slough to the west about 70 yards away, and beyond that is a series of connected fields full of cheatgrass and whatnot that are intersected by thick brush that effectively make "corridors" that the deer use. The stand itself is on a little tree, I would guess about 18 inches in diameter (DBH) but it's a stunted Ponderosa so tapers pretty well...this makes it kinda fun in strong winds...you rock and sway...get vertigo, then hold on. Almost relaxing...but what a terrible place to fall asleep! It really is a touch-and-go stand, some days it is REALLY slow and others it is pretty busy; it all depends on the time of year and where the deer are headed. I was headed by there in the summer once to go fishing and saw the largest buck I have ever seen. I've talked to other fellas down there that have all caught glimpses of this deer because they all seem to talk about it. No one has ever got close enough..Intriguing. But, when I saw him, he had crossed the slough and walked directly under that stand. SO, it will produce if you sit there long enough.
Well, I tried to lay a scent trail on my way in using Mule Deer Estrus urine on the heels of my boots. I then freshened a mock scrape I had made earlier this summer with it and noticed nothing had been using it at all. I need to continue going down there to doctor it...hopefully I'll make it active by November or so. I think the licking branch is too high, a bummer because it'll take some serious work to try to get another branch down the the right height. Hmmm, might be time to find another tree I suppose. Anywho, then I climbed this tree, pulled the bow up by a rope (yep, I was safe) and settled in for a long wait. By this time it was about 1630.
I decided that since I hadn't practiced shooting my bow from an elevated position, that I'd use my one arrow with a judo point on it to test it out. The thought was to shoot this arrow, then leave it down there until I was leaving, while hoping that there wasn't enough scent on it to scare any deer away. It shot just right and I hit the pinecone I was aiming at. Funny, I hadn't realized how much I missed actually SHOOTING the bow; it's much more fun than just carrying it around. I may have to go out stump shooting sometime and just relax while walking through the woods. Of course, you know as soon as I do that, I'll stumble into deer. Sometimes that's just the way it seems to turn out. Okay, so I shot this arrow and was confident. Then this chipmunk with it's little cheeks just PACKED with seeds sat on a stump about 10 yards away and stared at me. He couldn't really holler at me because of all the seeds, so all that he could squeeze around them was this "cheeuump, cheeuump." Every time he'd make a noise (about every second) his tail would move back and forth like a metronome. It was kind of funny for a while, but by the half-hour mark it got extremely annoying. I was trying to throw sticks and whatever I could find to try and get him to leave. Finally, I thought, "If I still had that judo, I'd stick him." That slowly progressed into me seriously considering sacrificing one of my broadheads and nailing him. Well, as it turns out, I climbed down the tree, got the arrow with the judo point, then climbed back up the tree. This shut him up for a while, but after about 10 minutes, he was back in the same spot, doing the same thing. "Quit staring at me clown!" JUST as I was getting to the point of nailing this innocent little furball, he decided I wasn't a threat and moved on. If he could only know.
I watched a lot of squirrels and chipmunks and mice, (oh my!) while I was up there. Actually, that's all I did. They'd run around in some tall dead grass though and sometimes that would sound like deer walking; it made the time go by a little quicker with a shot of adrenaline every now and then. I would listen to the squirrels and imagine deer walking around further in the thick stuff. But once you've sat in one place so long, you start thinking that there are critters all around you and if you're just patient, one will step out. It's hard to leave...no matter how much your butt hurts from sitting on the tiny wooden seats those things have.
That's when it happened. I started noticing sounds like you would NOT believe. I watched a pine cone break off a branch and fall, now THAT was something I'd never seen before. A large branch fell out of a cottonwood about 40 yards from me and fell to the ground, which almost made me leave due to dirty shorts. (Don't worry, I controlled myself.) I swear I could hear a leaf "POP!" off the branch and then crash to the ground "crash rustle BOOM!" Seriously. A dragonfly sounded like a helicopter and I think I could hear flies or bees buzzing around at 20 yards. Just joking, all this was very normal and the sounds probably weren't THAT loud, but I was very in tune with them. I tend to do that, listen too small. Yep, listen too small. I've snuck up on grouse walking around in the underbrush in years past because I could hear them...and in my head, made it out to be some kind of deer walking around. It's funny though, after you do that for awhile, there is no denying when you actually DO hear a deer...sounds like a Sherman coming through the woods.
Well, this went on for about 3.5 hours, and come 2000 I decided I had enough. I snuck back to the river and across in the dark. I didn't see a single animal. But, when I talked to two fisherman at the parking area, they said they had seen about 12 does where they were fishing...right across the property line of the island...on private land. Hmmm, THAT'S where they were. No worries. I had a good time.
Okay, so I decided to go to another public land hunting area down to the south...a little further drive, but I know the area well and it really does have a lot of deer in it. There are some large hay fields (alfalfa I figure...never really looked) on two sides of this section of land, which means a buffet for deer. This section of land has some of the thickest cover around, so it makes it ideal for deer to bed on the FWP land during the day, then move to those fields at night. The trick is that the FWP land is on an island, all that work drying my boots off went to waste as I waded through the river minutes after leaving the truck. Yes, I've got hipboots, but to change shoes that much just to walk across 30 yards of knee-high water just seemed a little excessive.
There is a treestand that has been set up for quite a while. The chain that holds it to the tree is slowly becoming engulfed in bark and wood. Obviously it has been there much longer than when I found it two years ago. The good news is that I have a decent stand if I ever feel like using it...no one else seems to. Shoot, they probably think it's mine. It's tucked along the edge of a really thick area with a lot of trails around it, there is a slough to the west about 70 yards away, and beyond that is a series of connected fields full of cheatgrass and whatnot that are intersected by thick brush that effectively make "corridors" that the deer use. The stand itself is on a little tree, I would guess about 18 inches in diameter (DBH) but it's a stunted Ponderosa so tapers pretty well...this makes it kinda fun in strong winds...you rock and sway...get vertigo, then hold on. Almost relaxing...but what a terrible place to fall asleep! It really is a touch-and-go stand, some days it is REALLY slow and others it is pretty busy; it all depends on the time of year and where the deer are headed. I was headed by there in the summer once to go fishing and saw the largest buck I have ever seen. I've talked to other fellas down there that have all caught glimpses of this deer because they all seem to talk about it. No one has ever got close enough..Intriguing. But, when I saw him, he had crossed the slough and walked directly under that stand. SO, it will produce if you sit there long enough.
Well, I tried to lay a scent trail on my way in using Mule Deer Estrus urine on the heels of my boots. I then freshened a mock scrape I had made earlier this summer with it and noticed nothing had been using it at all. I need to continue going down there to doctor it...hopefully I'll make it active by November or so. I think the licking branch is too high, a bummer because it'll take some serious work to try to get another branch down the the right height. Hmmm, might be time to find another tree I suppose. Anywho, then I climbed this tree, pulled the bow up by a rope (yep, I was safe) and settled in for a long wait. By this time it was about 1630.
I decided that since I hadn't practiced shooting my bow from an elevated position, that I'd use my one arrow with a judo point on it to test it out. The thought was to shoot this arrow, then leave it down there until I was leaving, while hoping that there wasn't enough scent on it to scare any deer away. It shot just right and I hit the pinecone I was aiming at. Funny, I hadn't realized how much I missed actually SHOOTING the bow; it's much more fun than just carrying it around. I may have to go out stump shooting sometime and just relax while walking through the woods. Of course, you know as soon as I do that, I'll stumble into deer. Sometimes that's just the way it seems to turn out. Okay, so I shot this arrow and was confident. Then this chipmunk with it's little cheeks just PACKED with seeds sat on a stump about 10 yards away and stared at me. He couldn't really holler at me because of all the seeds, so all that he could squeeze around them was this "cheeuump, cheeuump." Every time he'd make a noise (about every second) his tail would move back and forth like a metronome. It was kind of funny for a while, but by the half-hour mark it got extremely annoying. I was trying to throw sticks and whatever I could find to try and get him to leave. Finally, I thought, "If I still had that judo, I'd stick him." That slowly progressed into me seriously considering sacrificing one of my broadheads and nailing him. Well, as it turns out, I climbed down the tree, got the arrow with the judo point, then climbed back up the tree. This shut him up for a while, but after about 10 minutes, he was back in the same spot, doing the same thing. "Quit staring at me clown!" JUST as I was getting to the point of nailing this innocent little furball, he decided I wasn't a threat and moved on. If he could only know.
I watched a lot of squirrels and chipmunks and mice, (oh my!) while I was up there. Actually, that's all I did. They'd run around in some tall dead grass though and sometimes that would sound like deer walking; it made the time go by a little quicker with a shot of adrenaline every now and then. I would listen to the squirrels and imagine deer walking around further in the thick stuff. But once you've sat in one place so long, you start thinking that there are critters all around you and if you're just patient, one will step out. It's hard to leave...no matter how much your butt hurts from sitting on the tiny wooden seats those things have.
That's when it happened. I started noticing sounds like you would NOT believe. I watched a pine cone break off a branch and fall, now THAT was something I'd never seen before. A large branch fell out of a cottonwood about 40 yards from me and fell to the ground, which almost made me leave due to dirty shorts. (Don't worry, I controlled myself.) I swear I could hear a leaf "POP!" off the branch and then crash to the ground "crash rustle BOOM!" Seriously. A dragonfly sounded like a helicopter and I think I could hear flies or bees buzzing around at 20 yards. Just joking, all this was very normal and the sounds probably weren't THAT loud, but I was very in tune with them. I tend to do that, listen too small. Yep, listen too small. I've snuck up on grouse walking around in the underbrush in years past because I could hear them...and in my head, made it out to be some kind of deer walking around. It's funny though, after you do that for awhile, there is no denying when you actually DO hear a deer...sounds like a Sherman coming through the woods.
Well, this went on for about 3.5 hours, and come 2000 I decided I had enough. I snuck back to the river and across in the dark. I didn't see a single animal. But, when I talked to two fisherman at the parking area, they said they had seen about 12 does where they were fishing...right across the property line of the island...on private land. Hmmm, THAT'S where they were. No worries. I had a good time.
posted by geotracker12 at 6:16 AM
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