Sits # 10, 11, 12, & 13 - It's Heating Up!

Sit number 10 was spent in the tamarack swamp with Zach and although we had conditions in our favor, we were only able to lay eyes on one deer - a lone doe (according to her fresh tracks on the new snow) That was Friday morning the 26th.
The next sit was the very next morning (the 27th) with my young friend, Jonah. Jonah's a 7th grader and this is his first year bowhunting, so I offered to take him out. I picked him up at 6:30am and we climbed right into our set for the morning sit. It was pretty chilly, lows around 19 or so. We didn't see anything that morning, and when I asked him how he was holding up, he trembled before he even spoke. "Are you getting cold?", I asked. "Yeah. I'm really cold." I figured rather than make him second guess why in the world we were sitting out there in those temperatures, I would just have us climb down so he can get a crack at something else another day.
That same evening, I took Steph out to the same set. Unfortunately, this was a Saturday. Not only was it a Saturday, it was the weekend before rifle opener, so everybody and their uncle was trying to get things ready for rifle season, which is this coming weekend. So we had company all evening shooting, yelling, and driving four-wheelers without mufflers. To top the whole evening off, I forgot the battery to the camera. Talk about absent-minded!
Lastly, on Tuesday morning the wind was perfect to hunt SE of the landing, but the catch was there was no stand down there. So the night before, just before dark, I pulled the stand down from where I was trying to kill HighRise. So tuesday morning, I packed it in quite a ways and well before dark. I was fully set up with about 20 minutes to just let things get quiet. At about 7:55am, I heard that favorite sound of the season - a twig snap under the hoof of a whitetail. By the sound of it, it had to be a buck. It was making so much noise. Turns out it was 4 deer: a doe, 2 fawns, and a yearling doe. They approached me from the east and just kept walking past me and out of sight. That was it for that morning, but now at least the stand is set up back there.
I was able to check my cameras this week and wouldn't you know it, just like clockwork, Pencil showed up! The downside is that every picture of him was foggy. It's my own dumb fault. I checked my camera on the 23rd (in the rain) and had no significant pictures. Well, as I was checking it, I did a few things that took a couple minutes and I'm sure I must've gotten some moisture in the camera. I closed the lid and left. Sure enough, on the 27th at 9 in the morning, here came Pencil, tearing up the place with rubs and scrapes. Not only did he make one pass by the camera, he made 4! Once again at about 4:30pm, again just after dark, and finally at 9pm. That would explain the 10 new scrapes and 8 new rubs I found on that logging road. Even in the foggy pictures it looks like something is up with his right side. It's either underdeveloped or he's already broken some stuff. Probably the latter.

There have been times where I've contemplated doubling up the camera coverage on that spot for just that week. Next year I will. That way if you only get one encounter, you can at least get two angles of the buck. I'm not sure if he'll cruise through there again because the day after he was in there, some guys set up a ground blind right where my camera was. They actually moved my camera two trees over. I can't believe it. I was in there the day after and moved it across the trail to where I had it set up last year. If they do walk that logging road again, they'll walk 10 feet from my camera and have to walk about 10 feet from the ground blind. Very unlikely. I guess I'll find out friday.
The other cameras didn't offer much incentive. I picked up on one 8 point up in the swamp that looked to be two years old, maybe three and a few yearlings.

On the top of the hill I got a couple young bucks too. I moved that camera down to the east side of John's farm to hopefully get a rutted up picture of Pencil, PegLeg, or even BlackNose.
Zach set up his camera near their cabin and picked up a picture of this 3 year old 10 point that we don't have much of a name for.

He's got some great potential. I hope he sticks around. He'd be great for Steph. I cleared out the last downed trees east of my permanent stand and set a camera out over the scrape that has been opened up just south of there. Maybe we'll pick up on Pencil and this nice 10.
At this point, the mystery deer remain to be Bullwinkle, Chippy, and the whereabouts of the 6x5. Time will tell. I can imagine that soon after season, I'll relax my cameras and set them up on older travel routes and pinch points in hopes of seeing some of these older bucks. Food will be king once again come the first week of December. Snowfall will dictate some of that movement.

Sit # 9 - Last Camera Check Before The Cruising Begins

On Wednesday the 10th, I sat in the morning again trying to see if HighRise would show his pretty face - and rack. He did no such thing. I drove around the section to see if I could see anywhere that a deer had crossed a ditch or left a track and there really was only one or two places, so my guess is that he's not even within a half mile of that spot. I did have an easy shot at a huge raccoon but let him go. I also had a fox come by at about 15 yards.
The snow is pretty much gone from our big storm 12 days ago. I was able to get out today to move some cameras around and check the battery life before the pre-rut kicks into gear in less than a week. I picked up on several young bucks north of John's.

I also picked up on two different two year olds north of Pete's.

I took the camera from where I've been trying to encounter HighRise and moved it northwest of the bus, which may have been a mistake. This storm knocked down a million trees and getting back to my stand was a battle. I lost my way right away and had to navigate from my phone. Once I got to the logging road, it was covered up with fallen trees. It's hardly going to make for a travel corridor with all of those blowdowns. I set the camera up anyway and tried to at least make a stretch that the deer might want to use. If I don't have much for traffic by the 27th, I'm going to put it over a scrape.
Last, but not least, I check the Bushnell in between the gravel pits and was pleased to see lots of videos, including three different bucks:
A chunky 3 year old 8 point. He looks like Scabby the way his beams curl so tight. I might even call him Scabby Junior.

Then there was another mature deer, probably 4 years old who is a clean 8 point with longer beams he'd probably score in that 125 area.

Lastly, there was a huge bodied buck, I would guess 5 or 6 years old. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on with his rack, but I realized that he's a mainframe 10 point that has already broken off his right G2. He could have an extra point or two, but he's a really nice deer for that area.

I hope to get some more clear pictures of him as time goes on. I may even retrieve my camera from NW of the bus and try to get a better picture of these deer. The videos are great, but they're always fuzzy. I put my Wildviews over scrapes. I put one on the top of the hill by the cabin and the other down by the river on the pinch. It should be interesting. Hopefully the batteries hold up.

Sits # 7 & 8 - October Snow Storm & A Missed Opportunity

I checked my camera where I had gotten pictures of HighRise back in September and was lucky enough to snag him again. I checked the camera on the 3rd (Wednesday), and the batteries were dead - just my luck. After scrolling through the photos, it looked like HighRise came in at about 10:40pm, left and came back around 3 am and once more around 6 am. Then the batteries died. I did the trick of just pulling the batteries out and putting them back in, knowing I was completely out of batteries at home. Sure enough they had just a bit of juice left, so I left planning to come right back with some fresh batteries. Since this was a Wednesday, I was super busy with church activities so I never went back out there. We went to the corn maze and it began to rain. The forecast was very dreary with a chance of snow for over 24 hours. I wanted to get back out there before the snow got too bad, but I just couldn't. 10" of snow later, the batteries were still dead and I was just wondering how many opportunities I was missing at harvesting HighRise. It finally worked out to hunt that stand yesterday morning (8th) and so I found some batteries lying around the house and went out for a morning hunt with a good 5" of snow remaining. I had three grouse roosting and feeding in some willows about 25 yards away for quite a while, but I saw zero deer. I got down prematurely to check the camera and pop in new batteries. Sure enough, the same day I was last there, HighRise came right back in after I left. He was there midday, and about an hour or more before dark. The time is off by a couple hours from when I switched the batteries. I was in there around 11am and I figured he came in around noon and then again around 5:30 or 6pm.

This is super encouraging for a few reasons: 1) he's spent more than 5 hours there at a time. 2) He's not afraid to be moving during daylight. 3) He obviously smelled me in there at the same time. So he should be fairly comfortable. As I was climbing down yesterday morning, it began to rain. Harder and harder. It rained for more than half of the day which really wiped a lot of the snow away. So here we are, October 9th on the tail end of a major cold front. Deer should really be moving if they weren't already. HighRise was feeding hard on the front end of the storm and I anticipate he'll do the same on the tail end. The next south wind is Friday. So that's my day. That's the day that HighRise will fall. I am so pumped.
The hunt before that was on Saturday night (6th) with Zach. We hung a new set north of the softball diamond in two big jackpines. We saw 4 deer. A doe, a yearling, and two fawns jog across the open field headed down to the soybeans. This will be another good set for the pre-rut (October 28-November 5). The deer were really out of there element with this amount of snow this early. They were pretty determined to get from A to B.
I'm waiting to check some of the cameras that I've put out until the snow leaves completely. I don't really want to advertise where I'm doing my scouting from. Another couple days with warmer temperatures will help.
It's crazy to think that we're already entering the time frame where I've been getting good pictures of mature bucks. Two weeks to the day when The Clown was on his feet. Two weeks since Skyscraper's excursion, etc, etc. I need to get my cameras back onto major travel corridors and a couple on scrapes. Here we go, the rut will be here before you know it. One lunar cycle away!

Sits # 4, 5 & 6 - And The Return of HighRise

In the most classic way, the trail camera pictures and daytime movement have nearly come to a halt. It's not like I should expect it to be any other way, but I guess I get too caught up in admiring these bucks that I forget that they are shifting into a survival pattern. It's truly amazing what two weeks to a month can do. The 28-30th of August, bucks are still very predictable and not camera-shy in the least. As soon as they peel velvet, it's like they bed down and don't move.
Sit # 4 found Steph and I in the ground blind in the one spot I most anticipated some type of action - the island. We saw 5 deer on our way to the blind and zero once we sat down. It was the only sit we actually got to do while we had one week of permission for that spot. The wind was just backwards on the nights we had free. Too bad. Sit # 5 was me by myself in the ground blind overlooking a waterhole that I recently discovered. I put up my Bushnell and finally got to use it on Field Scan mode. There were several deer using the waterhole as I predicted and a majority of that was during daylight hours. My first evening sit I had a doe and a fawn come in for a drink at 30 yards directly across from me. After they hydrated, the fawn ran up to the doe and started nursing. It was pretty neat.

Sit # 6 was me by myself again in the same spot but was a morning hunt this morning. I sat from 6:38 to about 8:45am and saw no deer. I also pulled the camera down, but left the ground blind up. I plan to bring a first time bowhunter out there to see if he can shoot his first deer with the bow.
On my way back to town, I checked and moved a few cameras. On the last camera I checked, I lifted the cover only to see that the batteries were dead. I hate that feeling. I reviewed the pictures and sure enough, there was HighRise again! About time. The crazy thing was that he was there at almost the exact same time, exactly 27 days later. Maybe he travels by moonlight? Interesting. He came in on September 5th at 9:50pm and then on October 2rd at 8:38pm. He stuck around for quite a while. I hope he begins moving into the area like he did last year. He's a brute!