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.