Travel Rubs

I sat Sunday night the 11th 30 yards from the Canadian Border on a beautiful bottleneck that I'm sure will produce more buck travel in the next two weeks. I saw no deer.

I was out Tuesday morning the 13th. I was attempting to be a bit more aggressive and get closer to where I thought the bucks were bedding. We'll on my way to the spot in the dark, I got wet. I was wearing my winter boots and it was 16 degrees. I was going to freeze. As soon as I sank in the first hole, I knew that if I was going to sit, I was going to shiver my face off. Well, I knew I'd kick myself and always tell myself that I probably missed him come by. So I sat until 9:30 and shivered my way back to the truck. Zero deer. I don't know what the deal is. I have sat over 15 times and have not seen one single deer while sitting. Something's gotta give.

I sat friday morning the 16th and overlooked a great trail for bucks cruising and scentchecking a decent bedding area, but again, I think my curiosity has got me about two weeks early. That evening Steph and I sat not too far from the gravel road where I had seen a nice wide buck. I put my camera out and got a few pictures of what I thought was the Wide Web buck from this summer. It turns out it's a different wide buck. Wide Web had a distinct start to a G4 on his right antler, and this new wide buck is only a 9 point, with no G4 on his right. So, we have two different wide bucks. Anyway, Steph and I sat until dark and didn't see a thing. According to the pictures, the bucks were coming through and staging right after dark.

I went back and sat in the same spot last night in hopes that they'd be coming out a little earlier, but nope. I got some more pictures of them at 7:30pm and it's too dark to see my pins at 7:05pm. So they keep winning.

The next few weeks will change everything. There's a field where we've spotted lots and lots of deer each night, and it's getting to be more and more every night. The bucks are going to start checking and nudging the does in about a week. So give me that Southwest wind.

There has been a few new rubs appearing, none appear to be territorial. Most of them are on small willow or pine saplings, most likely made while on the move. The scrapes haven't been hit too hard yet, but I think that's about to change too. I would say that by this time next week, we'll have some serious increase in action. For sure by the 29th and 30th, the scraping will pick up. I've got to position my cameras accordingly.

Hard Frost

I woke up to my 4:30 alarm, well actually I woke up at 4:29 and looked at my watch and thought, uh oh... my alarm's not going to go off. Then it did. I ate my two pieces of peanut butter toast and flew out the door trying not to make my sleeping beauty.
I drove up to the dike. 22 degrees on the drive up, which was by far the coldest its been this year so far. I had gotten a few pictures of does and fawns and few yearling bucks, but nothing showed their face. I sat from about 6:25 until 8:45am. I saw nothing. My toes were numb.
I drove to the refuge and checked my camera. There was a few pictures. Seems the activity is picking up finally. There was a 2 year old that visited and worked the scrape, the hind end of a deer the evening before (thursday night), and the 2 year old 8 point and his sidekick were in the shack field at the hill at about 6:30 (about 45 minutes before dark).
As I was driving back from the scrape I saw two spike bucks cross the road at about 10:25am. So they were moving a little later. I think because the frost was so hard, it was crunchy until about 9:30am. I don't think they liked that much. It was a south wind.
I drove along the East West road by the hill looking for fresh tracks and there were quite a few. I crossed the ditch and found a decent spot to try hanging my wildview, we'll see if Wide Web or some of the others make their way through there.
The temperatures are supposed to stay chilly, and there's a little blanket of snow on the ground. I'm sure something would've hit those scrapes last night. I can't wait to check them, but I need to not 'overcheck' them.

10.5 months later

I must've really lost the ambition after missing those last two bucks in Alberta last year.
The year finished out alright. More close calls. So many almosts I shot at a buck the following day and grazed right under his armpit. He was a very respectable 140" 8point. I just jerked the trigger I think. There was a tiny bit of white hair cut and laying on the ground where he stood. Unbelievable. Anyway, I flew back home and tried muzzleloading a bit. Rattled up two bucks that came right up behind me in the ground blind and winded me. Just my luck. Whatever. So it was tag soup for me and Stephanie in 2008.
On to 2009.
This has been the year of mineral sites. We've got plenty of pictures of nice bucks in the late spring/early summer, but since the third week of June, all but two bucks have disappeared. I only got one day's pictures in July of the other two. One is Hanger, a buck we've known about for two years now, and his sidekick Crazy 8. Both are in the 130s. Both would make beautiful european mounts.
I have four cuddeback captures and one wildveiw camera. I got pictures of a nice 10 or 11 point, but he's not on property I have permission to hunt. I've tried to shift some cameras around between the refuge and the hill, but it's just been 2 and 3 year old bucks this August/September.
The biggest bucks we've seen lately have been after dark while shining.
I'm beginning to right again so I can track some of the happenings in the whitetail woods this fall. I'm trying to find correlations between the last two years and this year and so far, nothing correlates. But, it's October 8th, and the Mini-Rut is about to swing in. I am just going to bet that I'll see some increases in pre-rut activity in the next week and a half.
The new moon was on Oct 11/Nov 9/Dec 9 in 2007. In 2008, it was on Sept 29/Oct 28/Nov 27/Dec 27. This year it falls on Sept 18/Oct 18/Nov 16/Dec 16. In 2007, I shot my 5 1/2 year old 144" gross buck on Oct 13th - two days after the new moon and the deer activity that night was intense. There were deer all over in the fields before dark, which isn't too common on those roads that see a bunch of hunting pressure. If there is any correlation between rut/deer activity and the moon phase, this year is about a week behind the moon phases of 2007. I know that photoperiodism (or the shortening of light in the day) is really what consistently triggers most whitetail changes including the rut, but there have to be other secondary triggers. Those are what I am trying to figure out.
Tuesday night the 6th of October I was driving home after an evening sit and I was shining in some fields. It was 8:10 pm and there were three bucks crossing a bean field in front of me. They had to have been on their feet before last light. Either that or they aren't bedding too far from the road, which is also possible.
As we have more and more nights of frost, the natural forage in the woods will die off. The deer will be forced to feed a little more in the open. This should happen in the next week or two - overlapping the new moon (the darkest nights possible).
October 16, 17, 18, & 19 have the closest sunrise - moonrise/sunset - moonset overlap throughout the month, with the very closest being on the 17th - the day of the new moon. This only means that the moon will be at it's peak at around the same time the sun is at it's peak. I've read articles that infer that this has a sort of 'pull' or 'pressure' and that it provokes animal activity. We'll see about that.
I'm trying to monitor a little more closely the weather also. That tuesday night, the barometric pressure was dropping from 30. somethin on monday to 29.52 on wednesday. I don't know if that is significant yet, but we'll see if I can more parallels.
Hopefully this blog will help me remember the details.