Anyway, the season started off with a small hitlist. I had a tremendous struggle to pinpoint some of last year's target bucks. I got onto some of the not so exciting bucks to the west: Whitey, Contender, PegLeg, and Junky Brewster, but the two mature bucks I figured were in that area never showed. I would say the biggest factor in mid summer scouting this year was the crazy amount of soybean fields. Great for the deer, but that definitely means deer didn't have to travel far to find the best food source. A buck could literally bed and feed within the same quarter mile and that made picking the right fields very difficult. I thought I had a gold mine when I got permission to put a camera up on Norvall's beans, but all I got were does. It wasn't until the end of October that bucks moved into that area to look for does. I finally got fed up and moved some cameras to areas they hadn't been before. the first week I got my Bushnell camera up I had videos of Splitbrow and Pencil. That was a relief. I also picked up on two good bucks out in the lake bottom: HighRise and Twigs. Since we were hunting bear out there, it made it unethical to hunt these two bucks, but I got thousands of pictures of them. Enough to know that there's some real potential over there for next year.
I hunted down in Whitewater and learned a bunch of lessons, but saw some truly amazing terrain, buck sign, and hmong populations. We may try it again in 2013.
Returning back up north, my hitlist was scattered. After I checked my cameras on the 3rd of November I was encouraged to find Bullwinkle, Contender, Pencil, Splibrow and a few other young bucks. The buck density wasn't as good as it had been in 2009 or 2010. This made sightings fewer and farther between. My only buck encounter during rifle season was the morning of friday the 11th. I had a buck chasing a doe up behind me near the east side of the little hill. I really didn't get a good look at him. I should have been patient and let him get further along his route before I grunted to him. He may have crossed the little opening I had if that were the case. I really couldn't tell what he was. Just a buck with a decent rack. Stephanie sat a few times and let a few does and fawns pass by. She eventually took a shot at a doe and we couldn't find any blood or hair. She probably hit it and we'll probably find it this spring. Mom and dad both shot bucks on the same day I had my encounter. Thursday/Friday/Saturday the 11th/12th/13th were good days around the area. Contender was killed on the 10th in the morning, dad passed up Pencil on the afternoon of the 10th, Scabby was killed on the 11th in the morning, Dad's 2 year old 10 was shot in the early afternoon of the 11th and Splitbrow was killed in the last 15 minutes of shooting light on that same evening. The Wide Heavy eight died of a gunshot wound on Saturday the 12th. There is definitely something that happens on the night of the 10th and into the 11th of November in our area. I would say hunting the 9th through the 21st would be the best bet of killing a big deer. Those are the days to take your vacation time.
I tried to hunt hard the remainder of the season, but it just wore on with odd weather and very little sign. Even when we would get a skift of snow, there would be hardly any tracks and definitely no obvious patterns. It almost looks like there are very few deer. This shed season should reveal some answers to carcasses, winterkills, etc. We need it to be legal to feed the deer not only to help them through the winter, but to get a more accurate idea of how many deer are still alive. It's good to have standing beans like we've had the last two winters, but there is a dramatic difference between the two seasons. Last year we had snow on November 18th that stayed and got deep. By New Year's, we had over a foot of snow. This year on New Year's, heck by the 6th, we had NO SNOW. Deer are not stressed yet. There is no big reason to pile into a soybean field. Their body's calorie requirement is very low and until there's some impending doom on them, they will just browse and feed moderately. The temperatures are supposed to drop later next week, but there's still no significant snow in the forecast at this point. They may hold onto their antlers until February. Actually, my prediction is after a really cold snap (16-18th), the next surge of warm air triggers them to drop. As of today we are sitting at 40 degrees...ABOVE ZERO!! It's absolutely insane. I'm sure some bucks have dropped somewhere, but it will be a few more weeks.
The most recent pictures have shown that no bucks have lost their antlers yet, which is no surprise to me. Unless a deer has been badly injured, there's not enough stress on them to feed heavy or to lose antlers. So that will come by the end of the month and into February. Here's this last batch of pictures.
Filming your hunts does add a degree of difficulty to each sit in the stand. It will definitely be worth it, but I need to find somebody who can tolerate a little colder weather and who has the same determination as I do to get on these bucks day after day, early morning after early morning. But for now, it's time to take a break from the woods for a couple months and then scout out a few places this spring while looking for sheds. Should be fun.
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