Thinking About Deer Season
5 Comments Published by David Blanton on Monday, May 14, 2007 at 8:35 AM.
With turkey season behind us, my thoughts naturally turn to fall and hunting trips. Every year, during the spring and summer months, there’s always one particular hunt that keeps popping up in my head because I am excited about it. There are a lot of different reasons why this takes place each year. It could be a good friend that I’ll get to share camp with, maybe it’s breathtaking scenery I’m looking forward to, or it could be a type of hunt or location that I’ve never been to. But this spring the hunt that keeps posting itself on my brain is a return trip to hunt with Rich Birdcell of Northern Rockies Outfitters (located north of Great Falls, Montana).
Why this hunt? Last year was the first time I hunted with Rich and this particular ranch. It was different than the only other whitetail hunting I’d been exposed to along the Milk River where the land is relatively flat along the river and the cover is strictly cottonwood trees and thickets that buffer the river on each side. When I first saw the lay of the land I knew it was going to be a “different” and more challenging bowhunt because the cover the bucks were bedding down in was steep draws and ravines that sliced into irrigated alfalfa fields. The biggest obstacle was going to be the swirling currents as the bucks made their way to the fields late in the afternoon.
Well, the trip was successful, for more than one reason, and I arrowed a beautiful 141” 10-pointer.
Now here is the reason I can’t wait to get back. Last year, the first afternoon, the rains came and the cameraman and I were forced to sit in a ground blind monitoring the deer movement. We were set up in the middle of the alfalfa field and could not see where they were exiting the cover from. But we saw some awesome bucks as they appeared over a small rise in the field. We counted four bucks that would score over 155 inches. We watched them until dark as they contently fed away from our blind. We never encountered those particular bucks again during the hunt but I know they were using the big, main draw as their bedding area.
Unfortunately, in that scenario, you can’t walk and scout the property because the deer would simply move out of their sanctuaries for the remainder of the hunt, therefore, I am making plans to head out to Montana during June to hang several stands for my October hunt. I will finally have a chance to try to figure out the big, nasty ravine and how the bucks are moving in and out of it as they head out to feed in the afternoons and when they head back into the cover to bed down shortly after daylight. I am pumped about being able to do this!
All I can think about is finding that PERFECT tree! And another reason I can’t wait is that NONE of those big bucks I mentioned earlier were killed last year. They are going to be a year older and I’m sure some will be close to 170 inches!
Tell me what hunt you are excited about or what deer you didn't get a shot at last year that you will be going after this year.
At the end of muzzleloading season last year, i was out seting some traps in the ditch under my tree stand. I started walking back up to the truck when I seen this giant deer standing about 30 yards from my truck I couldnt believe it. I also couldnt believe that this was the first time I decided not to bring my muzzle loader because the previous trips to check my traps, I hadnt seen a single deer because all the corn was gone. As I got closer I could see the giant rack over his head as he walked off. When I got out to the main road a man and his son where waiting for me, and asked if I had seen the deer. Evedently he shot the deer but had very little blood. I took him back to where I had last seen the deer on my land and we only found one drop of blood. The deer acted fine im sure he just grazed him but I cant wait till next year, it was a big ten pry 3-1/2 years. That deer is all I have thought about, cant wait to see how he looks next year. Scott
High David, love watching you guys videos and TV segments. Your blog has me salavating for two places this coming year. The first that we will be making is to Southern Illinois to hunt the Shawnee. I couldnt make the trip this past fall due to a job change, but my two hunting partners made it. Even though they didnt connect with any of the big boys, they sure seen them! About 25-30 P&Y bucks, with two of them pushing B&C. The other place is the coal fields of West Virginia, laying on the boarder of Virginia (where we am from) are 4 counties of archery only whitetail hunting. Last year was our first year hunting up there. Once again, we couldnt make it happen, but we have put some serious hours in scouting the rugged terrain and putting the pieces of the puzzle together that we missed this past fall. I am confident we will be in the ball park this year, but it is still bow hunting. The big bucks are there, we seen them this past year, we just didn't have the puzzle together correctly. I cant wait!!!
David,
I am looking forward to the whole hunting season. I get really excited about every deer season that comes up because I love hunting so much. I am really looking forward to bow season because this is my third year and I have not killed anything with my bow yet.
P.S. Good luck this deer season.
God Bless,
Kristle-Georgia
You know, only being 14 years old growing up in michigan as a hunting fanatic, I already catch buck fever, and gobbler madness. It's said around here that the BIG BIG deer in michigan are near impossible to shoot. I proved that theory wrong last muzzle-loader season, while i bagged an awesome 9 pointer while hunting some land that my aunt owns near coldwater. So I wound up proving to my family and also to myself that if you put your heart and mind into the thoughts and dreams of bagging that once of life time trophy, you are more than capable of acomplishing the impossible.
While at the end of the Virginia Bow season I was hunting on my family's Farm with my causin. We decided to hunt up hill from the swamp area in the hardwoods where we knew the buck would be coming to that late evening. Once we were set up in our climbing treestands, not even 5 minutes had past before the beautiful 8-point buck that we had saw on previuos hunts that bow season. The 8-point walked and stopped right between me and my causin. The thing is that my causin never had a chance to even hoist his bow. He was still clearing out some branches and happend to see the 8-point as well. The 8-point stopped and looked left to right. As I started to get my bow off the bow hangger and had my release on my D-Loop ready to draw back, he took a long look in my derection. So then I just closed my eye's and opened them back up. Finally there was my moment to draw back while he was looking in my causin's direction. I estimated the distance at 30 yards. So I placed the sight on him and pulled the trigger on the release. I saw my carbon arrow flying soooo pretty! However, he was further than I thought and the arrow went right under his vital dead center. As the 8-point ran a little he kicked my aarow back with his front legs as he ran wondering "Hmm was that" and then kept walking down into the thickit. I will defenitly be on my game this coming season here in Virginia.