Sit #2 - Oak Ridge

I tried out the stand I set for Stephanie this morning. The wind wasn't perfect, but it was a good wind just the same. I was on a mission to execute a doe. All summer long and even into early September the same doe and fawn were using this oak ridge and stopping by the Trophy Rock for a little mineral action. Well, today they did not. It's a little bit of a tight shot. The main trail comes to 19 yards. So you better hope for a bit more than a 4 mph wind like it was this morning. Things aren't getting any less busy this week. Stephanie and I have rigorous schedules for the next couple weeks and as we begin October, it might let up a little bit more. Hopefully.
Still no pictures of the target bucks. I've been getting some neat pictures of the same two year old bucks by my permanent stand. Neither should be shot, but hopefully a new one will move into the area. I'm looking forward to checking the camera north of Pete's. It's been there for 22 days now and I bet I get a picture of something I've been looking for. Fingers crossed. Lastly, I just got permission to hunt 147 acres near the river north of town. It looks very promising for an early season buck encounter. I'll check that camera sometime soon.

Opening Day - Sit #1

Saturday morning, September 17th brought 42 degrees, a south-southeast wind, and overcast skies until about 9am. I sat overlooking the clearing just north of the landing in a stand I hung on Tuesday.

I was sitting by about 5:45-6am and as I was setting up my tree arm for the camera, I heard a deer spook behind me in the dark. That was my only action. Well actually, a grouse land in a tree about 25 feet away from me and I just happened to bring an old spitfire broadhead with. I shot low, but feathers went everywhere. The bird flew away.I sent one of my nice new arrows with a crappy broadhead for a joyride. Good luck recovering that one.
Earlier as I was setting up my camera arm, I remembered that I didn't grab the right adapter mount for camera to fit the arm. So that meant no filming, which really meant no shooting. So there I sat, light not even cracked, knowing I won't be shooting, even if a big buck came out.
I eventually climbed down at about 9am and drove into town to find the missing mount. I pulled my camera down that was over by john's and brought it over to the same scrape up by the border in the refuge. It was surprising to see a scrape that was opened up this early in the year. Three years ago the same scrape was open on October 4th and that was a shocker. We went in and hunted it the first opportunity we had and had an encounter with a real monster. So far it's been just young bucks.

Dad and got to workin on moving two ladder stands around for the upcoming rifle season.

We took down the one he had up east of the three-corner and moved it south of the southwest property corner. On our way back in there we ran into another ladder stand we set up last fall. Although dad saw a mature buck follow a doe through that area, it wasnt quite on the mark. We took the one that was already back there and moved it another 150 yards farther southwest. So when it's all how it should be, we should have one stand in the brush 75 yards south-southwest of the corner and the second should be about 250 yards from the corner. These will be two great options come rut time. The farther stand should be near the core fall area of Mr. 140 or Splitbrow.
On a personal note, while dad and I were situating these ladder stands, Steph called to give an update on her grandma and that I needed to get into town in 30 minutes if I was going to ride with her mom and her aunt to Grand Forks. Well, dad and I dropped everything and luckily had the wheeler with and we flew up to the cabin, quickly locked up, and took off back into town. I had just enough time to clean myself up and off to Grand Forks I went. When it comes down to it, family is the biggest priority after our relationship with Christ and being there for Steph is number one and always will be. I'm not sure when I'll be out hunting again, but I'm sure I'll keep the blog up to date.
All of the bucks should be out of velvet at this point. I caught up with some of the younger locals this week to see their progress.

Shooters are still absent on the cameras. I'm taking HighRise off the hitlist. He just doesn't have enough age on him yet. He could be a 150's deer if I let him live. We'll see what the next week brings. It won't be long before I move all of them onto trails.

Hitlist on Crutches

2011 isn't starting out the best, but I still have a feeling it's going to finish strong. With seven of some of our best bucks still MIA, this season could just prove to be one of the best for the Haaby hunting camp. Things are starting to tilt in our favor. This is proably the second driest year in the last 50 years and that makes for more deer bedding on our property, as it is usually wet. That's great, but even better than that, we've had two great crops directly to our northeast and southeast that haven't been farmed into anything for years and years. We have sunflowers to the southeast and soybeans to the northeast. I know that by the time rifle season comes, both crops will be gone, but does and fawns will be in the area and used to those crops. Bucks know where to find does. It should make for a great season. I would say the biggest weakness to this preseason hitlist is how much ground is covered by these six bucks. From west to east, these buck sightings are almost 6 miles... as the crow flies! So my cameras are covering a very large area. I hope to pinpoint a few more deer quickly so that I can continue to move my cameras to figure out some of the rest of these deer. I've been trying to think of ways to capitalize on the drought this summer, but after checking the gravel pit and seeing hardly any tracks, I'm confused to where these deer are watering. The ditches are dry. Bone dry. So it dawned on me the other day that I know of a natural spring or a flow well tucked back up on the south edge of the cedars that I need to go investigate. This is an area I've wanted to hunt anyways, so I may head in there opening weekend to either hunt or just hang a camera and/or stand. The beans are still in transition and not quite ripe enough for the deer to go back to yet.
I stopped and looked at the clover I planted up near the landing and it's still hanging in there. This drought has been hard an everything. I'm thinking this will be another great vantage point to watch a large area to see if any deer are transitioning through it in the mornings. It's supposed to shift to some rain and thunderstorms throughout this week, so that could get deer moving around a bit more. September is a tricky time of year to bowhunt because deer, especially bucks, are trying to make up their minds where they want to call home. On top of that, food is now the biggest priority and finding a food source where deer haven't been pressured yet may be tough.
I'm having a hard time deciding between getting two more Cuddeback Captures or getting a Bushnell Trophy Cam HD that shoots nighttime video in 1080p. How sweet would that be over a scrape? Well, The next blog I post will probably be sit number one of the year, unless I get another new hitlist buck. 2011 season, here we come.

Where's Waldo?

I wrote earlier of my frustration with the void of quality pictures... well any pictures for that matter, of a bunch of last year's hitlist bucks. I have not seen nor have I gotten any pictures of Mr. 140, Splitbrow, Chippy, Skyscraper, Curly, The Big 8, or Bullwinkle. That's seven bucks that should be 4 years old or older. These bucks are not dead. They're just more stationary. This would prove my theory well that as bucks get 5+, breeding/feeding become second and third to surival. Not being seen is a deer's number one priority. I need to find them. They are not going to come to me.

After the shedding of velvet (right now), these bucks are breaking up their bachelor groups and spanning out into their fall ranges. Fewer than half the bucks keep the same range from summer to fall. I'm beginning to think that Mr. 140 is now the dominant buck and wouldn't have to change ranges. If there was a northern bachelor group, it probably would consist of Chippy, Mr. 140, and Splitbrow. That's all speculation. They have shared the same ranges in the past, but it will be interesting to see how things shake down in the next three weeks. I might try get into the swamp for the early stages of October. I've got a few good ambush points.

Like I said, I need to keep the cameras moving, probably into locations that I may have never considered because of their obviousness (i.e., field edges, watering holes, etc). I guess I've been a little paranoid of getting a camera stolen, because the majority of my camera setups are on public land. But so far it's paid off at least once in the last week. I hung a camera on the north end of an overlooked bean field that runs into some swamp grass and jungle brush. Sure enough, the first evening the camera was hung, I got this beautiful 3 year old I'm going to call HighRise.

I would probably shoot this buck, even if it contradicts my standard of needing to be 4 in order to harvest. He'd score about 125-130 and would make any hunter proud. My hunch regarding this area was partly based on what I saw last October out in the same field. It was seeded into winter rye and I saw two bucks fighting in the spotlight. Both should have scored over P&Y. One was tall and narrow and the other was wide and heavy. If this new buck is three, neither could have been him last year. So, that means there are more good bucks in the area.
My plan at this point is to just get my cameras into areas that I've neglected in years past. This time of year is becoming more and more about packing on the body weight for the upcoming rut, so even if the pictures are all night time photos, I need to get on the best food sources. We've had an incredibly dry summer and we might even get to mow trails and get the shack field turned over. The crops have peaked early and the soybeans will likely be harvested in the end of September or first few days of October (about two weeks early). That will leave October the month of food. Sunflowers and rye grass are going to be hopping and we just happen to have that deadly combination in the same location - at least until they harvest the flowers. I saw deer filtering into the sunflowers, so I know that's just getting going. Now it's a matter of finding the best camera locations to pick up on these ghost bucks. They'll show up. Trust me.

Bear Season 2011 - So Far, So Bad.

Dad and I applied to bear hunt in zone 12 in northwest Minnesota this year, which is where we do most of our deer hunting. This bear season was planned to serve three purposes. 1) To maybe have a chance at a really big bear and get it on video with either a gun or the bow. 2) To view bears simply as predators to whitetail fawns and do some herd management. The running statistic is that bears are cause for almost half of fawn mortality by predator. 3) To be able to spend some quality time with my dad planning and pursuing game in a new area of hunting. So far, only number three has been going well. We started baiting around the 20th of August and still have not had even one bear visit the sites. Sure the food kept disappearing, but it's all been small critters and birds. We set up two bait sites that were really great locations in my mind. They were right on the backside of a ridge with great trees for backcover and nice 30 yard shooting lanes to fairly natural openings. There were already trails made from bears this summer in these locations. The bears just left.

I talked to a few people who have been baiting nearby and they've said similar things - the bears were just hammering their bait sites and all of a sudden, they just disappeared. The logical conclusion is: acorns. Bears will leave everything sweet and fatty for acorns. Bears breed in June and into early July. However, the fertilized egg doesn't implant into the sow's uterine wall until November. Interesting, huh? If a sow doesn't get what she needs by that time, the egg will not implant. So as soon as she knows acorns are dropping, she becomes obsessed and overcome by her biological makeup. Regardless, the bears have nearly left the area.

My only hope at this point is to move bait sites, wait it out and try again, or sit with the rifle over a 300 yard cut strip that I anticipate bears will cross heading to the sunflowers in a couple weeks. I'll keep you posted as to what I will do. I for sure don't want to keep baiting if there are no bears around.