Travel Rubs

I sat Sunday night the 11th 30 yards from the Canadian Border on a beautiful bottleneck that I'm sure will produce more buck travel in the next two weeks. I saw no deer.

I was out Tuesday morning the 13th. I was attempting to be a bit more aggressive and get closer to where I thought the bucks were bedding. We'll on my way to the spot in the dark, I got wet. I was wearing my winter boots and it was 16 degrees. I was going to freeze. As soon as I sank in the first hole, I knew that if I was going to sit, I was going to shiver my face off. Well, I knew I'd kick myself and always tell myself that I probably missed him come by. So I sat until 9:30 and shivered my way back to the truck. Zero deer. I don't know what the deal is. I have sat over 15 times and have not seen one single deer while sitting. Something's gotta give.

I sat friday morning the 16th and overlooked a great trail for bucks cruising and scentchecking a decent bedding area, but again, I think my curiosity has got me about two weeks early. That evening Steph and I sat not too far from the gravel road where I had seen a nice wide buck. I put my camera out and got a few pictures of what I thought was the Wide Web buck from this summer. It turns out it's a different wide buck. Wide Web had a distinct start to a G4 on his right antler, and this new wide buck is only a 9 point, with no G4 on his right. So, we have two different wide bucks. Anyway, Steph and I sat until dark and didn't see a thing. According to the pictures, the bucks were coming through and staging right after dark.

I went back and sat in the same spot last night in hopes that they'd be coming out a little earlier, but nope. I got some more pictures of them at 7:30pm and it's too dark to see my pins at 7:05pm. So they keep winning.

The next few weeks will change everything. There's a field where we've spotted lots and lots of deer each night, and it's getting to be more and more every night. The bucks are going to start checking and nudging the does in about a week. So give me that Southwest wind.

There has been a few new rubs appearing, none appear to be territorial. Most of them are on small willow or pine saplings, most likely made while on the move. The scrapes haven't been hit too hard yet, but I think that's about to change too. I would say that by this time next week, we'll have some serious increase in action. For sure by the 29th and 30th, the scraping will pick up. I've got to position my cameras accordingly.

Hard Frost

I woke up to my 4:30 alarm, well actually I woke up at 4:29 and looked at my watch and thought, uh oh... my alarm's not going to go off. Then it did. I ate my two pieces of peanut butter toast and flew out the door trying not to make my sleeping beauty.
I drove up to the dike. 22 degrees on the drive up, which was by far the coldest its been this year so far. I had gotten a few pictures of does and fawns and few yearling bucks, but nothing showed their face. I sat from about 6:25 until 8:45am. I saw nothing. My toes were numb.
I drove to the refuge and checked my camera. There was a few pictures. Seems the activity is picking up finally. There was a 2 year old that visited and worked the scrape, the hind end of a deer the evening before (thursday night), and the 2 year old 8 point and his sidekick were in the shack field at the hill at about 6:30 (about 45 minutes before dark).
As I was driving back from the scrape I saw two spike bucks cross the road at about 10:25am. So they were moving a little later. I think because the frost was so hard, it was crunchy until about 9:30am. I don't think they liked that much. It was a south wind.
I drove along the East West road by the hill looking for fresh tracks and there were quite a few. I crossed the ditch and found a decent spot to try hanging my wildview, we'll see if Wide Web or some of the others make their way through there.
The temperatures are supposed to stay chilly, and there's a little blanket of snow on the ground. I'm sure something would've hit those scrapes last night. I can't wait to check them, but I need to not 'overcheck' them.

10.5 months later

I must've really lost the ambition after missing those last two bucks in Alberta last year.
The year finished out alright. More close calls. So many almosts I shot at a buck the following day and grazed right under his armpit. He was a very respectable 140" 8point. I just jerked the trigger I think. There was a tiny bit of white hair cut and laying on the ground where he stood. Unbelievable. Anyway, I flew back home and tried muzzleloading a bit. Rattled up two bucks that came right up behind me in the ground blind and winded me. Just my luck. Whatever. So it was tag soup for me and Stephanie in 2008.
On to 2009.
This has been the year of mineral sites. We've got plenty of pictures of nice bucks in the late spring/early summer, but since the third week of June, all but two bucks have disappeared. I only got one day's pictures in July of the other two. One is Hanger, a buck we've known about for two years now, and his sidekick Crazy 8. Both are in the 130s. Both would make beautiful european mounts.
I have four cuddeback captures and one wildveiw camera. I got pictures of a nice 10 or 11 point, but he's not on property I have permission to hunt. I've tried to shift some cameras around between the refuge and the hill, but it's just been 2 and 3 year old bucks this August/September.
The biggest bucks we've seen lately have been after dark while shining.
I'm beginning to right again so I can track some of the happenings in the whitetail woods this fall. I'm trying to find correlations between the last two years and this year and so far, nothing correlates. But, it's October 8th, and the Mini-Rut is about to swing in. I am just going to bet that I'll see some increases in pre-rut activity in the next week and a half.
The new moon was on Oct 11/Nov 9/Dec 9 in 2007. In 2008, it was on Sept 29/Oct 28/Nov 27/Dec 27. This year it falls on Sept 18/Oct 18/Nov 16/Dec 16. In 2007, I shot my 5 1/2 year old 144" gross buck on Oct 13th - two days after the new moon and the deer activity that night was intense. There were deer all over in the fields before dark, which isn't too common on those roads that see a bunch of hunting pressure. If there is any correlation between rut/deer activity and the moon phase, this year is about a week behind the moon phases of 2007. I know that photoperiodism (or the shortening of light in the day) is really what consistently triggers most whitetail changes including the rut, but there have to be other secondary triggers. Those are what I am trying to figure out.
Tuesday night the 6th of October I was driving home after an evening sit and I was shining in some fields. It was 8:10 pm and there were three bucks crossing a bean field in front of me. They had to have been on their feet before last light. Either that or they aren't bedding too far from the road, which is also possible.
As we have more and more nights of frost, the natural forage in the woods will die off. The deer will be forced to feed a little more in the open. This should happen in the next week or two - overlapping the new moon (the darkest nights possible).
October 16, 17, 18, & 19 have the closest sunrise - moonrise/sunset - moonset overlap throughout the month, with the very closest being on the 17th - the day of the new moon. This only means that the moon will be at it's peak at around the same time the sun is at it's peak. I've read articles that infer that this has a sort of 'pull' or 'pressure' and that it provokes animal activity. We'll see about that.
I'm trying to monitor a little more closely the weather also. That tuesday night, the barometric pressure was dropping from 30. somethin on monday to 29.52 on wednesday. I don't know if that is significant yet, but we'll see if I can more parallels.
Hopefully this blog will help me remember the details.

Days Five and Six

Day Five
Unbelievable. So the wind switches completely opposite so Tuesday morning it's out of the northwest, which means I'm not going back the blind that gave me the encounter the night before with the big 8. I'm pretty bummed. Shaun wants me to sit in a stand that he's "... hardly seen anything in." Great. I reluctantly agree and sit find my way through the dark, only guided by oral directions from the truck a half mile back. "I'll find it.", I figured. Eventually I did. I slipped into the blind and noisily started my sit. It was going to be another all day hunt. At about 8:30 I saw two yearling does and then about ten minutes later they went back where they came from (I didn't put this together in my head until later that night). After that, I did not see one deer until four o'clock. A doe and a fawn came from my left and walked across in front of me at about 110 yards (again not piecing this together). A short while later a lone doe came from my right and walked up against the face of the hill across from me and stood there for what seemed like forever. She was staring to my left (the west) behind the brush. Then she stared into the brush, then back, then back, and again. All of a sudden I heard a loud grunt come from the brush so I reached for my rifle. With my rifle out the window, I see a doe come out of the woods going left to right on the same trail as the previous doe and fawn (110 yards). I'm watching her watching her expecting to see the buck come behind her. I raise my binoculars to look closely at the doe's tarsal glands, and when I lowered them, I saw the buck tearing up the hill towards the first doe. By the time I got him in the scope, my crosshairs couldn't catch up to him and they were gone. Dang. He was really wide, really heavy, and a definate shooter. I stayed quiet and saw a spike come out that had broken one antler off, and a button buck that was grunting, it was pretty funny. Lots of action, just within the last 40 minutes of light. I leave the blind and pack up my stuff and I get back to the road and after I cross the fence, I feel my chest and realize I dropped Shaun's cell phone. Well I figured I'd go tell the guys in the truck first before we go backtracking. As I get to the truck, still frustrated with my missed opportunity, I peek into the bed of the truck and sure enough, there's a buck... wait, two bucks in the back! I couldn't believe it. Just then Joe goes, "Check out the drops!". Double droptine 10 point (12 total). Seriously unreal. Shaun's buck was a very respectable 125-130" 8 point. So Joe's on cloud 9, as he should be, and then I tell them we nearly had a triple. My heart still drops when I picture that buck running up the hill away from me with his nose in the air. Dang, Bill. Well, the wind stayed the same, so I am determined to sit there again. We got Joe's prize all caped out, gutted, skun, and Shaun's too. To listen to Joe retell the story is priceless and so I won't cheapen it by blogging about it.
Day Six
So I wake Shaun up. Joe, of course, is sleeping in this morning. Well-deserved, I might say. I get dropped off and I hike my way to the same blind in hopes of getting another crack at this wide heavy buck. By the way, the night before we had Richard (Shaun's neighbor) cape Joe's buck. I was telling him the story of the buck I got a glimpse of and he said, "I know that deer. That's a book deer." And to hear Richard say that means that he's had several good looks at that buck. Our descriptions lined up and so my adrenaline is off the charts as I sneak into the blind. 7:08am I'm hunkered down and quiet. I saw deer every hour, making 12 before noon, including one little fork. It got slow after 1:20pm until about 3:10ish. This yound doe was walking around trying to get a drink from the frozen slough. She walked behind some trees and rubbed her hocks together and peed. She started getting figitty and she bounced down the hill towards me a bit. Sure enough, here comes a buck. My rifle is already out the window at this point (I told myself no more binoculars). Through the scope it was obvious this was not the buck from the night before, but he was nice. A big 8 point. 10-11" G2s, 9" G3s, narrow, but pretty heavy. Probably gross high 140s. I decide that there's only one day after this, so I'm gonna shoot. I bring my crosshairs to his chest and baaa so he'll stop. On a dime, he yanked his head up. Bang! He ran up the hill like he was late for a meeting. I did not feel good about that. At this point it's about 3:40pm. I've gotta go check to see if there's blood. I'm skeptical. I hike over there and sure enough I find hair. lots of short white hair. Briskut. I shot low. No blood. So I head back to the blind because I've still got an hour before dark, but I didn't see any deer. Tonight the wind has changed again, which puts me in a predicament. Back to the Dead End Blind? We'll see in the morning. Canadian weather forcasts have been worse than the U.S.'s so far, if you can believe that. I'm ticked, but at least it was a pretty clean miss. He might feel a draft.

Alberta - Day Four

Well, Shaun wanted to put me in what he calls the "Dead End Blind". So that is where I sat. All day. From dark to dark. Sun-up to sundown. I saw lots of deer (probably 15ish). The very first thing I see was a coyote. I should've shot him, but again, Shaun's pretty adiment about not shooting in areas that you're trying to hunt deer. Anyway, about a half hour later I saw a doe and two fawns, but they shortly disappeared. I saw a bunch of muley does followed by a fork. Then I saw a little 8 point whitetail working his way down the ridge across from me. To set the scene, I was on one side of this very large pond and there were hills on all sides, mostly covered with popples and willows. The pond was freshly frozen over and had a minimum of 6 muskrats milling about. Joe would've been out of ammo had he been sitting there. I had to step out of the blind to stretch and pee so I crept down behind the ridge I was sitting on and peed in a cows hoof print. The wind was strong and in my favor, so I wasnt too concerned about stinking up the place, even though Shaun insisted I bring a pee bottle. So back into the blind at about 11am. I am determined to stay vigilant. Not too long after getting settled again, I picked out the two fawns from before chewing on some saplings without their mother. After watching them for about 15 minutes, they moved behind a small hill and out of sight. about 12:10pm I saw two tails running away from me up the big hill in the woods. I quickly raised my binoculars and in runs two more deer. It's a buck and a doe. It takes a few seconds to get a good look at the buck and I realized I wanted to shoot. He was about 230 yards and in some brush. I reach to bring up my gun and as I glanced back at the deer, I saw him chase the doe up the ridge and out of sight. I didn't even get to put him in the scope. Aarrrgggh. In my binoculars I could see long G2s, really good mass, and he was chocolate. mmmm. I never saw him again for the rest of the day even though my contacts just about peeled off my eyes I was watching so intently. I saw a few other and a few of the same deer second and third times, but no new bucks. I'm going to sit there again all day in hopes of a decent shot. I know he's there. So I'll be ready. I'm rough guessing him at 145 as an 8 point, but he could have more points, I couldn't really tell. We'll find out when I blister him.

Alberta - Days Two and Three

Day Two

We woke up about 5:30 and decided to act on some advice from wise neighbor. A couple people had been seeing a 13 point in the same spot right at daybreak for a couple of days. We figured we see if he was worth shooting. So we sort of sacrificed a morning of sitting to see if Joe could get a crack at this buck. Well as luck would have it, we saw him, but at about 730 yards. A bit too far to take a shot, even for Joe. We drove off hoping that he'd continue crossing the field, maybe offering us a better shot. He didn't. Otherwise, we didn't see too much movement that morning. So we went back to the neighbors and discussed it all. That evening Shawn and Joe dropped me off where a few 'frenchmen' had seen a really big buck, but they couldn't tell if it was a muley or whitetail because they can only tell by its butt. Anyway, I sat for an hour or more before the first deer poked out. It was a young 4x5 muley. He walked down the fenceline, looking for a good place to cross. He crossed at about 175 yards. After another hour, a muley doe and fawn came out of the same side crossed the fence into stubble wheat field. Finally as light was starting to fade I caught some movement in the same area. Another muley doe squirted out of the woods with her ears back. She didn't even slow down until she was out of my sight behind the next hill. Sure enough, right behind her was a nice 5x5 buck. He was following her pretty close. He had pretty average character, with all slightly above average measurements. He would probably gross in the 170s-180"s. To end my evening, a little whitetail buck came beneath me by the fenceline, but never crossed into the field. He just sort of watched the muleys (which I couldn't see from that angle) and waited - probably until there were a few more whitetails in the field. I snuck out of there in case there were more deer I needed to get a look at that came out without me knowing. There wasn't.

Day Three

This morning we overslept a little bit. I threw together some bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and we high-tailed it out of the house. Shaun and Joe dropped me off on this canola field that over looks a big slough. I saw lots of deer movement, but only two little yearling bucks were in range. I bet I saw over 25 deer, but most were at 1,200 yards or more. Still, it was good to see that the deer are starting to move or are moving into the morning hours a bit. The land where all these deer were meandering was private and well-known for 'no hunting'. Oh well. It looked like the deer knew that too. While I was sitting, some dohon drove his truck right through the field, parallel to where I was facing. He stopped to look over this hill and when he turned his truck off, I whistled at him. He cussed and drove over to me and apologized. I told him not to worry and off he went. As I thought Shaun and Joe were probably on their way back, I got up to leave. Here the guy came again to look for deer! What an idiot! It's not that often that I get worked up, but I was getting frustrated with this snaggle-toothed intruder. Anyway, got back to Shaun's, had some juice and a good little nap.

This evening Tyson (Shaun's friend) and I went to the other side of this monster slough in hopes of catching some of the same deer coming back up. We watched 30+ deer way across the slough and a quarter over from where I was in the morning. Unbelievable. I bet I watched four buck chasing does that were 2.5 or older. One was for sure a shooter, but again, only 1200 yards away. At dusk we saw two coyotes at 200 yards. I wanted to shoot, but I refrained. They want to do as little shooting as possible over there. Whatever. Shaun and Joe finally saw some deer tonight and got a glimpse of a borderline shooter, but he didn't present a shot for Joe. Hopefully tomorrow there will be some powder burnt.

Alberta - Day One

After all sorts of chaos early thursday morning, we finally touched down in Edmonton in anticipation of seeing and hoping to get a crack at some of the biggest whitetails Joe and I had even laid eyes on. Mrs. Blackwood picked us up and off we went, stopping at Walmart to pick up my tag. Joe needed my friend Shaun (Joe's hunter host) to be present in order to get his tag. We arrived at the farm and the wind was absolutely howling. We hopped in the farm truck and took a quick loop around the section and still managed to see a couple bucks with their noses to the ground. Oh the excitement of estrous. We laid out our stuff and set my alarm for 4:55am. Morning came fast and I woke up Shaun way too early (not wanting to be late again). We scarfed some eggs and bread and hiked into a place Shaun had been scoping out for a few days. Well, with three grown men, two of which were wearing Carhartt bibs, it was simply too much noise to sneak in. We spooked one doe and that was it. We tried rattling a bit, but to no avail. We headed into town and picked up Joe's tag and got some Subway and eventually took a few minutes to make sure the guns were on. Then we split up - Joe and Shaun and me by myself. Joe and Shaun didn't see much for deer: one little 6 point and a few does. I saw a bunch of deer: 4 or 5 different bucks (the biggest being around P&Y) and a bunch of does still with their fawns. The bucks didn't seem all that interested in the does yet. They nudged them around a bit, but it looks like we're still a good week away from the rut. But, we'll keep at it. All in all, day one was good. There are lots of bucks around and Shaun's got permission on some choice places. I can't wait to see what Joe's gonna pull the trigger on. Stay tuned for day two.