Sit # 34, 35, 37, 38, & 39 - Week After Rifle Season

On Thursday morning, I had a WSW wind and so I headed back to the spring stand. I saw zero deer. It was cold and still and I made it until about 9:00am. I pulled the camera from there and checked the camera NW of the bus - one yearling buck (possibly a two year old). I crossed a fresh set of timberwolf tracks - three of them to be exact. I moved that camera back to the logging road NE of Pete's. I figured that I could still maybe get a picture of Mr. 140 before he sheds his antlers around Christmas. I need to figure out if he's still in the area or whether I should give up on him.
On Thursday evening Steph and I took a drive around the east side with the rifle to see if we could kill anything the easy way. We saw a bunch of does and fawns - all of which were on adjacent properties to the one we have permission on.
On Friday, I had the intention of hunting all day, but I decided to sleep in with my beautiful wife and just hunt later. Well once I got up to the hill, I realized I didn't have much motivation to sit out in a tree. I ended up pulling two cameras down and moving them, which took about 3 hours. I pulled down the Bushnell from the scrape and the Cuddeback from near the Crazy 8 stand. I brought both of them up near the standing beans that I anticipate will get hit harder and harder as the season moves into December.
Friday evening I went out with the rifle again to the east side of town and spotted a doe and a buck right outside a resident's woods. Knowing they weren't going anywhere, I drove in the driveway to ask permission to shoot the buck. He was at least a 120 deer probably 3 or 4 years old. After I began the conversation, it was very apparent that she didn't want anyone shooting any deer anywhere near her house. She 'protects' them. So I watched them from across the road in the event that they bolt and take off for any reason. They never did.
Saturday morning came and Zach and I had planned to hunt together for the day. I sent him NE of Pete's just off the logging road. I went north of road just west of Pete's. We both froze our butts off and neither of us saw any deer. I drove up and down the road examining tracks and really only saw few sets all entering the woods together. Must've been a doe in heat with two bucks behind her. After I picked Zach up we were just driving and for no real reason, I decided to turn and head south of Orville's just to see what it looked like this year. We drove until the signs said we couldn't go any farther. We were just parked and staring out into the wide open talking about deer and all the hypotheticals of stand placements, etc, when all of a sudden Zach asks, "Is that a deer?" Way off in the middle of the mile there was a little dark speck. I couldn't tell for sure. Then when I looked through the binoculars, it looked like two heads. Then they disappeared. I pulled out the spotting scope and got a better look. Yup. A buck and a doe. She was definitely in heat. He wasn't leaving her. We drove all the way around to see if we could get a better look. Once we got to the other corner of the section, we couldn't see them. We drove back north up the road a ways until we could see them again. We himmed and hawed until we decided that if we could get the stalk on video, it would be worth it to shoot this buck, which at best would score 115. Probably a three year old buck. We took off walking and made it a quarter mile before we started taking our time and checking every 50-100 yards for heads, ears or antlers. At this point we're about a half mile from the road when all of a sudden, they both pop up right in front of us at about 150 yards. We both hit the deck and it knew it was about to get interesting. It's always deceptive how much sound a person creates and also how well that sound carries. I snuck up to the next patch of cattails and waved Zach up to do the same. I couldn't hear him crawling until he was 15 yards from me. Granted, a deer's hearing has to be better than mine, but that gave me a bunch of confidence if I could stay low enough. I moved up to the next patch of grass and waved Zach up one more time. That was where he was going to stay - about 80 yards from the deer. I crawled up one last time until I was 34 yards from the closest reeds, which the doe was just behind. The buck was another 5 - 10 yards behind her. I slowly creeped my head up enough to see that the doe was looking right at me. I froze. It seemed like forever until she got distracted. I had my bow in hand and I just clipped my release onto the string. I was waiting for the doe to turn around so I could either stand or get to my knees. As soon as I saw her turn her head, I started getting into position. The next glance up, the doe took off trotting away. The buck went right along with her. He had no clue what was going on. They ran about 150 yards. I was tired and I really didn't feel like putting much more energy into a buck of this caliber. He was a nice buck, but I knew there were better ones in the area. It just goes to shoe that a spot and stalk can work if the conditions are right. A doe in heat can be the only thing needed to invade the personal space of a rutting buck. It was an awesome hunt even though I didn't throw an Easton Axis at him. We got almost all of it on film, which makes it memorable too.
After the spot and stalk attempt, we went over to the guy's house who shot The Contender. He wasn't home, but when we were looking for him, we saw the rack out in his shop. We took some pictures and measurements and were on our way.

Contender gross scored 147 7/8" and net 137 6/8". Had he not broken his left browtine, he would have grossed 151 1/8" and net 144 1/8" typical - AS A THREE YEAR OLD! Here's his measurements:

The same group shot another 8 point buck that looked very similar to the Wide Heavy 8, but certain angles didn't look right in comparison to the July 31st trail camera picture. The tines were too short and the overall frame wasn't convincing enough for me. So I'm going to believe that he's still alive.

After that we got a late start getting set up for an evening sit on the east side of the creek near the Tullefson bridge. We did see some fresh tracks and were optimistic for the evening sit. We finally got our stands set at about 4:15 and had about an hour to sit. We had a small spike buck and a fawn come running through at about 50 yards offering no shot at either - had they been monsters. That concluded the 19th of November.
Last night, Dad and I went for a drive on the last day of rifle season in Minnesota. I actually had the idea of dad doing a little drive for me. He walked through the nice woods on the east side of the river and I sat overlooking the short CRP grass to the north expecting anything in the woods to bolt to the north. No such luck. No deer. We drove around and spotted a few does and had some good conversation. That wrapped up the 2011 Rifle Season.
What I observed was very informational. The 18th and 19th both had bucks locked down with does in heat. So there's no telling what can happen between the 11th and the 19th. This period of a little more than a week is by far the best rutting/chasing/breeding activity - the peak of the bell curve if you will. That means that the week to come is sort of the decent of activity leading back to heavy feeding. Does have caught on to food, and there is still the lingering chance that a buck can come check them, or scent check the food source. So setting up inside the edges of food sources and finding natural staging areas may be key until the next sub-rut comes in. I'm guessing that based on the November 11th date, that the second rut will kick off on December 8th or 9th and only last until the 13th or 14th. You can figure that 70% of the does got bred the first time around  (depending on the ratio). The last 4 days of Muzzleloader Season will be good days. Find the food source.