Monday morning began by me taking off and parking at the bus. I walked into a WSW wind and climbed up in my birch tree and hunkered down by 6:48am. The wind was blowing pretty good with gusts from 15-20 out of the west mostly. It's a perfect wind to hunt that stand. I was actually really surprised to see zero deer. I think it's just a little to far away from the food sources, which aren't as hot as expected anyway. The does are scattered and consequently, so is the buck activity. I've got my cameras set up in deep woods situations over heavy travel areas in hopes to catch a buck cruising at night, cause it's not happening during the day quite yet. I know I just need to be patient. It will happen. Anyway, I sat in my stand until 10:15am or so and climbed down, cut a few more branches in my shooting lanes and checked the camera - one nice yearling. While I was in the stand I got a text from my friend saying he had quite a story for me. He said, I can sum it up in one word... Contender. I thought, he's lying. He would have freaked out if he had shot him. He proceeded to tell me he was watching down to his right because he heard a noise and when he looked up into his shooting lane again, there was a nice buck walking right across. By the time he got his scope on him, all he could see was hind quarters. I'm glad he didn't take that marginal of a shot. He has a camera set up just a few yards past the shooting lane and sure enough, after he climbed down and checked the camera, I picked him up and we looked at it on the camera - it was Contender - 56 yards away! Needless to say, my friend's not feeling too hot right now, but that's hunting. Right after the encounter, he texted me all of this and I asked him which direction he was headed. He was headed my way so I sat a little longer. Nothing. It's really cool to put pins in the map where we know he's been traveling. That was the morning hunt. I ended up coming into town for a while and spending some time at work. I took off for an evening hunt and although it was already getting late, I thought with a west wind, it might be an opportunity to hang a stand in a place I've been thinking about a lot the last two years. I'll refer to it as the pinch. It's really not a pinch except for the treeline. To the southeast there's a little open slough. To the west and northwest, there is a heavy peninsula of cedars. The deer travel this gap of higher ground and every year it's beaten down like a cattle crossing. So I brought a stand (that I'll probably leave out there) and a camera and set that up over a scrape that I found right on the trail. I picked out a perfect birch tree that's about 20-25 yards from the heavy trail and actually overlooks the slough to the south and southeast. The slough might be a better place for a buck to bed or chase a doe around because of the taller grass and willows. To my west there is a flow-well or natural spring that I know should be hit pretty hard, especially on a dry year like this, or in time where the ditches freeze up - it flows all winter long. It really is a good little area. I sat with a west wind, but a southwest would be better. It also would be a better morning spot at does are making their way back to bed coming off the soybeans or whatever they're chewing on out in the fields. I sat until about a quarter after and I climbed down and made my way in for a nice chili dinner with the family. So day three - zero deer.
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