My season is cut severly short by me taking a trip to Wetaskiwin, Alberta in pursuit of a "real" buck. Never-the-less, I thought it would be beneficial to log my hours in the field for 2008.
Opening Day: Steph and I sat on top of the hill in the groundblind in hopes of seeing a doe in heat or one of the bucks for her to shoot. We sat uncomfortably until about 9:30 and headed back to the cabin. Steph sat tight and warmed up and I ventured out to my ladder stand from about 10:30 to 12:30 without seeing a deer. There was a few fresh rubs, a wolf-kill, and a couple of fresh tracks. It snowed friday. I made a loop around the strips, brought steve out to my stand, put out some molassess, moved the trail camera, put out some buck jam in the shack field, and switched the memory card in mom and dad's Cuddeback. Steph and I went back to the groundblind and sat until dark. Zero deer for opening day. Mom saw a few does and fawns and a spike, dad saw a few deer too. Steve saw nothing during his one day season.
Sunday, Nov 9: Church in the morning and then rehearsal with Bob and it was back out to the woods. We sat at the 90 back in the cedars northwest of the landing. There was a few scrapes made the week before on the south trail, but not a peep. Zero deer for day two.
Monday, Nov 10: I grabbed my groundblind and headed to the refuge. Steph walked down to the shack with dad going to his stand. After getting set up in a completely unscouted place, I rattled and grunted once at about five minutes to seven, I saw a deer crossing the canada pasture from east to west. Looked to be a doe. After her I saw a second deer that was obviously a buck. He looked pretty good. 120s-130s? He was pretty heavy and narrow. I didn't want to shoot him in Canada, so I waited to see if he'd cross the border strip. I held my scope on the strip waiting and he didn't cross when I expected him to so I looked out of my scope. I heard a loud skid and crash through the ice. Then he started blowing. I don't know if it was another deer that was blowing or if it was him. Regardless, I should've stepped out of the ground blind for the shot. I was sitting too low. The cattails were too tall and I missed my chance. Crap. I saw one doe behind me before this and then I eventually saw another doe by itself go from south to north. Then I went back to the hill and went down to get Steph out of the shack. We both went back and sat on the border in the refuge in hopes to see another buck. We did see one deer (doe) cross really quickly. We could barely see it the grass was so high.
Tuesday, Nov 11: I don't know why I had my mind so fixated on hunting that same border spot. I guess nobody was seeing many deer at all at the hill, so I wanted to find a spot that I didn't think other people would be hunting at the refuge. Anyway, I sat and saw one little buck and again, he crossed so fast, I don't think I would've been able to take a shot if I wanted to. I packed it all up and came back to the hill for a bite to eat and then I went out to my ladder. I sat from 12:30pm until dark. It was about 4 and half hours of nothing and then finally I heard a crunch over my left shoulder. I knew that I would need to stand up in order to take a shot. As I stood up I thought I spooked her cause she took off running a few more steps. I thought I blew it. Then she stopped and I heard more footsteps from the same direction and then a loud grunt. This quickly painted the picture of what was going on. Buck chasing doe. Perfect. I got my gun up immediately. I saw the doe jump through the tiniest opening, so I put my gun on the branch and tried to get the opening in my scope. I waited patiently, safety off and finger on the trigger. I wasn't going to mess this up again. The buck took a couple steps and stopped what must have been just shy of the opening. I took my eye out of the scope to look what was going on, and I saw the dirty bugger scurry across the opening. I missed my shot so I grabbed my grunt call and let 'em have it. Nothing. I was so ready for the steps to turn and come in my direction. Instead there was a sound coming from the place I first heard the deer. Coming around some brush and skirting me, I lost him. Finally, I hear a twig snap right in front of me coming close. Stopped behind a tree, I thought to myself that this was it, this was the same big buck. Nope. He moved and revealed his two year old head. 7, 8, 9, I dont know how many points he had, but he was not the buck I hoped for. So I tried to relax and take in the show. The hot doe was long gone, but this buck didn't care. He was stupid. I grunted as loud as I could at him at 15 yards, he froze and didn't move until I snort-wheezed at him. Entertaining at least.
Now, it's off to Albert - the land of giants. My hopes are through the roof. Stay tuned, I'll write in a week or less.
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