Sit # 25 - Short Sit

I went out to retrieve my ground blind on Thursday. I put it up in the end of June (so the deer would get used to it). Haha. I never sat in it once. It was always a decent option, but it was in an island woods so basically the deer had to be bedded in there. However, the other morning after that buck ran by me, he ran north and into that island in the middle of the morning. So it's not out of the question that a deer can and will run in there in daylight, but they've got to have a reason to do so. I've still got my cameras up, I'm still trying to pattern this mature buck's movements before, during and after the rut, and I'm still trying to locate any new bucks in the area. I've got most of them I believe, but at the same time, it would be foolish to think that I could ever achieve 100% inventory.

After reading Bill Winke's blog about the poor rut, I'd have to say it hasn't been that bad up here. It seems to me that we had good pre-rut, nudging, not-so-much chasing, then the lock-down, then the cruising on the backslope of the peak of breading. I've noticed all the stages up north, although that doesn't mean that I'll be face to face with a rutting buck from my tree stand. The rut doesn't happen on our watch. After like the 20th of September, there is more dark than there is light in a 24 hour day. Tell me you don't think they're getting most of their business done in the dark and coolness of night. I've seen plenty of rubs, plenty of scrapes, and plenty of trail camera pictures of mature deer. They're moving. It's just during night. We've got too much hunting pressure up north and so this is just the reality. It's the odd buck that you encounter in daylight that you can get a shot at. To have an encounter with a shooter in bow range is a rarity in and of itself. I had four encounters this archery season. I was lucky. I only got to shoot once and I missed low. Bummer. The buck I believe I missed was a deer we've nicknamed Splitbrow. I'm glad I missed, because next year, he could be a real dandy. I also heard he got grazed by a rifle bullet. Lucky deer.