Sit # 4

Well for the first time since being back in Roseau, I sat on a Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful cloudy morning and I must've spooked about seven deer off the field on my way to the stand. I'm learning that morning hunting that spot may be a bad idea, unless you are heading out after first light - so the deer are already in the woods. Who knows what I spooked. While sitting I saw zero deer. I checked three cameras only to find nothing. The bucks are dispersing. There's a chance some are still in bachelor groups, but it's not very likely. On Saturday, I'm going to move my cameras north and get onto trails that transition from bed to feed. I did this last year, but not until the middle of October and immediately had good results, so I'm hoping to double those results by being two weeks early. The camera out by the refuge hasn't produced the buck I was hoping for, so unless he's on there on Saturday, that camera will come back to The Hill, too. Things are changing fast. The leaves went from beautiful to half-off the trees in about three days. We got a ton of rain here last weekend and the fields are fairly wet. A lot of the beans that would have been taken are still out and ready to be harvested. The weather has been really nice this week. Yesterday was 70. There are only small chances of rain in the forecast, but nothing worth mentioning. The moon is getting smaller and so evening hunting is the way to go this week. We'll see if it pays off. I elected to sleep in this morning and I'm pretty sure it was worth it.

Sit # 3 of the Season

So tonight I drove the Refuge to take down a stand that I had left up all year (since November). I made my way through the wet woods and finally arrived at the stand. As I looked up I noticed there was no seat pad on the fold down seat. I don't remember taking it with me, but then again, I guess I could've. Either way, I took the stand down and set it up by the dike. I had the right wind to hunt a buck we named Cage because of his 'rib cage' effect. Nice long tines, quite symmetrical. I spooked a doe and a yearling off the bean field on my way in. The beans got taken off on Monday, but they didn't cultivate the field, so they'll still use it for a while.

I got set up and endured 2.5 hours of pouring rain. My hopes were high, at least to see a deer. Nothing. I climbed down at about 7:45 and got back to the truck. As I headed down the road about 4 deer ran across the road from the bean field to the east. So who knows how many deer were out in the field, they just didn't come by me. I think I might put in some more effort in the Refuge before the rut comes. I really only have a few wind directions that work around the hill. I will have my cameras at the hill, and probably scout with my eyes near the refuge. Sounds like a decent plan. We'll see how that goes. We're gone for the weekend so it'll be a few days before I get to sit again.

The Fast-Growing Legend Comes To An End - Inside Crabclaw Down!

Well, it seems that the 2010 season begin with a bittersweet heartache. On the second evening of archery season, at about 7:20 pm, Inside Crabclaw met his maker. Another whitetail fanatic put in his time scouting and pinpointing this buck and was lucky enough to encounter and kill this magnificent buck. The place where he shot ICC was only 1/2 mile west of where we sat opening day. So close, but not close enough. The lucky hunter's dad owns about 200 acres of prime whitetail habitat adjacent to where we had permission. I was able to go over to his house and handle the awesome rack and take some measurements. We even exchanged some trail camera photos.
I came up with 160 2/8" Green Gross Non-Typical. I came up with 144" Green Net Typical, depending on the determination of which points were considered typical. I leaned in the buck's favor. This buck had 12 typical points (a perfect 6x6) and one abnormal - a split G2 on his right side. The bucks G2s were 10 1/8 and 11 2/8". His G3s were over 7" and his 4s were both 6" even. His G5s were like 3 and 4. All his circumferences were over 4", with his H3s being 5+"! His mainbeams were 22 and 23". This buck had it all... Except age. The neighbor and I ageed that this deer was for sure no older than 4 years old. He feels like he was three this year partly because of his small body, and partly because of his small face and head. The buck only measured 7" from eye to nose, which would suggest a young deer, or a simply a small head. Whatever the case, he had probably the most potential that I've ever seen up around Minnesota Hill. I hope he bred last year. So scratch Inside Crabclaw off the 2010 hitlist. I'm sure something will take it's place in the next few weeks. I'm going to move some cameras in about a week. There's still two bucks I'd really like to kill in the next few weeks. NE wind today and tonight. So I'll be heading to the dike in the rain. Going to hopefully get a chance at a buck I call Cage.

Opening Day

Well, the 2010 archery season is officially underway. I woke up this morning at 4:50am and gassed up and headed for the pinch. Of course, since I was rusty at all of this, I forgot my water boots, and my harness. So I left town about 10 minutes late. Once I got up to my parking spot, I again realized just how much stuff I take with me to the stand. So I was another 10 minutes behind. I had a 3/4 mile walk to my perch and wouldn't you know it as it's just breaking dusk I see a lone big bodied deer cruising the edge of a been field headed right toward my stand. AhH! Had I not been behind, I may have filled my tag already. As I finally made it to my tree without spooking any deer (that i know of), I sat about 3 hours and my toes were numb. 32 degrees this morning! Where was that last November? I checked a few cameras on my way back to nap and here's my findings:

The camera I put up over at the refuge produced 200 some photos, so I got my hopes up, just to be let down. There was a buck that looked pretty familiar and I got pics of him both in and out of velvet. Here he is in 2009:

And in 2010:

After my nap, Steph drove up and we got ready for our evening sit in the same set. It was pretty quiet except for some annoying birds picking through the leaves. At about 7:45 or so I finally caught movement from the west and knew immediately that it was a deer coming out way. I told Steph to grab her bow and by the time I got around the tree they were gone... or so it seemed. They froze. Just as they started to come closer, a fisher came running underneath us! Seriously. Of all the times in the world to see a fisher, that was the worst. It turned out there were two deer (both does) and they turner and went around the willows in front of us. dang it! so close. They got to about 35, but there was too much brush in the way for any kind of a shot. One of them popped out the corner of the field and circled downwind of our tree. She didn't get spooked from that. It was an eventful first sit.

Hard Horned

It's time. The beans are turning, the wheat is off, the morning dew is cold...fall is here. I'm guessing that 80% of the bucks are now out of velvet up here. I got two pictures of Inside Crabclaw polished up yesterday morning. The pictures were only taken 5 hours before I checked the camera. He didn't stay long, but long enough to make me want to be in the stand sitting silently.

On a more sucky note, I walked out to the camera that's been really producing a lot of great pictures for me and as I got closer to it, I realized that I couldn't see it on the fencepost. Uh oh. I got up to the trophy rock and there lays the camera on the ground facing up where the trophy rock was. The rock had been booted about 5 feet away. Someone slid it off the fencepost and laid it down on the ground, but get this... they stole my memory card! Ahhh. I haven't been that mad in quite a while. Who knows how many pictures were on it. They took the card on the fourth (saturday). The internal memory got a picture of them opening or closing the lid on the camera. I believe I know who it was and I'm going to try to get the card back in a civil way. It just makes me mad.

On the wildview I got a few more pictures of Scabby 10 and a new buck (which may not be new) out of velvet. He's a nice 10 with a fishtail forked left G2. So I think he has 11 points. A nice 3 year old.