On Thursday afternoon, I had a couple hours and a strong north wind and so I wanted to hang a stand in the area where we found a couple sheds last spring. On my way in, I walked right into a burried shed - a pretty nice one. It must've been shed before they bush-hogged that area as there was plenty of debris on top of it and the G3 was cracked. I'm guessing it was driven over by the skidster. That was a pretty sweet find on a day when the last thing on my mind was looking for sheds. It measured 58" with a 24" mainbeam. I believe that it's my biggest shed from Minnesota Hill. Too bad the tines are so short. I got the stand hung and cleared some branches out. It's ready to hunt for one person, but it would need a bunch more branches cut to hold two people. It's in a dynamite spot for the early rut. Just need some kind of North wind.
On Friday the 30th of September I had a free morning, but once again I was plagued with a north wind in the morning. I kept trying to think outside of the box. My conclusion was a gravel pit where there has been a watering hole throughout the summer. However, to my surprise, even through all the heat and drought, the deer never really used it that much. That simply tells me they knew of other water sources. No big deal.
So I sat in the ground blind until I couldn't sit anymore - I forgot my long johns. I saw one young fox at about 75 yards. Fairly uneventful. I checked my cameras afterwards and didn't really get much for pictures. The camera that is north of Pete's hadn't been checked for 25 days and my hopes were high. I got one buck, but the picture was a dark blue tint to it, which only happens in a small window of time when the camera doesn't think it needs to flash yet. I wish it would have. The buck is deceiving. His body looks long, but his rack looks thin. It's not Scabby 9. But it could by the Wide Heavy 8. He has a G4 on his left side, making him a 9. Hopefully he stops by again when the camera is ready to flash. The biggest upset of the day came as I checked the last of the cameras - my brand new Bushnell Trophy Cam HD XLT. It was hanging upside down and I immediately knew that a bear had gotten a hold of it. I first thought, that'll make a sweet video. So I wasn't too upset, assuming the camera was working fine. I got over to the camera and turned it off and exchanged memory cards and when I went to turn it back on, nothing. Dead. He must've smacked it hard enough that before it could write his video to the card, it just stopped working. There are claw marks all over it. I'm guessing he grabbed it with both hands. Anyway, right before that last video, I got a video of a decent 3 year old buck that I think is very huntable. He strolled through at 8:30 on Wednesday morning and hopefully he comes back.
Friday night was the family service for Stephanie's Grandma Lily Stoskopf. Saturday morning was the funeral and both were very well done and extremely well attended. Steph's brother Donny had another day in town so he and I loaded up our stuff and went for an evening bowhunt. We sat up near the border in the Refuge by a community scrape.
It took us a while to pick our spot and once we were settled in it looked really good. After we filmed an interview segment I was messing around with the camera and Donny goes, "Over here." He heard some steps and by the time I heard what he was listening to, the deer was racing right towards us. It flew under the tree and stopped at about 15 yards. It was a nice mature doe and so I tried to get the camera back in the mount and swing it over to Donny. By the time he was ready and began slowly reaching for my bow, she took off at a dead sprint again. She never blew. She never flagged her tail. She was acting very odd. There was a fresh timberwolf track on the border that she may have crossed, but her behavior did not fit the scene. That was pretty much the end of our hunt that evening, but it was really good to get out and it makes me look forward to hunting down in Redwing/Rochester area at the end of this month. Between Donny, Scot (Steph's oldest brother), and myself, we should be able to see, kill, and hopefully video something big.
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