wtnhunt's 2008 deer journal

[wtnhunt]

Tennessee season opener for archery Saturday September 27th.

Opening morning:

Temperature was pretty mild at 54, wind was calm or light at times from the north northwest and the sky was clear. Hunted a hang on stand near our mineral site about 45-50 yards to the south of the field corner, clover/chickory plot directly in front of me.

Sunrise was 6:44, was in the stand and had hangers set camera set and sat down by 6. At 7:05 had a young buck come from around the edge of brush pile to my left down the hill from me. This buck, a spike missing one side, worked his way into the clover plot directly in front of me and fed towards the mineral site, from my left to right and he came in right to the tree line about 7 or 8 yards out in front of me and walked on to the mineral site where I could not see him through the cover.

Approximately 5 to 6 minutes later noticed another deer in the far end of the field to my southwest, could see antlers on the deer, but was not sure what he was. I looked up at the camera and realized I could not see the viewfinder from where I was sitting, it was on the side of the camera opposite me. I did not have the remote for the camera out of the bag either, so I decided to just sit back and watch and not worry about filming. That buck fed into the bigger hamann farms grower plot and stayed out in front of our box blind for a few minutes before another deer came out into the plot. The two deer pushed around and sparred some. At the distance, roughly 180 yards I could not see antlers on the other deer, but knew it had to also be a buck. Those two deer began working their way towards me and were eventually out in the plot in front of me. One was a weird racked buck with the beam on his left side facing backwards. The other a 6 point. All were 1.5 year olds.

The three bucks ended up pushing each other around and some sparring took place, sure the behaviour was about establishing a pecking order, and not any sign of pre mature rutting activity. Earliest I have ever seen any sparring here. Pretty cool to watch, unfortunate not to have the camera setup right and not get footage of it.

By about 7:55 the three bucks worked their way off the plot to my west straight out in front of me over the ridge out of my sight and ended up circling back in gully to the north of me and went into the woods back behind me, I could hear them crunching the leaves but did not see them anymore.

For archery looks like this stand site should produce, had several shot opportunities, just need to be patient and wait for a mature deer.

[wtnhunt]

Same group of 1.5 year olds I watched Saturday morning. Looks like they are using the minerals during daylight hours on a pretty regular basis and around the same time of the morning. Thought I had seen a fourth deer Saturday morning through the brush, but was not sure, and it never came into the plot in front of me.

[wtnhunt]

Sunday Sept 28th morning conditions were a carbon copy of Saturday. Was in about the same time and settled by about 6. At 6:38 a single deer came in, a spike. Did manage to get some footage of this deer, he seemed to catch my movement when I looked up at the camera above me. The little buck hung around feeding near the edge of the minerals for nearly 45 minutes.

Afternoon Catrina went to the same stand. Was warm, wind was light from the north and the temp was around 87 degrees. She saw 5 or 7 does/fawns and she watched them until dark.

[MCH]

Great journal William! Love the pics. Where are you at in relation to the camera??

[wtnhunt]

Great journal William! Love the pics. Where are you at in relation to the camera??

Directly down the treeline Kevin, about 5 yards into the woods along a trail, cannot see the mineral site from my stand. They were at that camera again Saturday morning, but the card filled up on the 25th so missed getting pics the morning I was actually hunting. Looks like this group is getting more frequent, things should pick, ag crops are now coming out around us. Still some beans in, but most of the corn around us is out.

This was the video that I was able to shoot Sunday morning Think the little guy caught the movement when I looked up at the camera, can see the tip of my cap turn up just before the buck looks up. Same spike missing one side that is at the mineral site. He was around for at least 40 minutes past the video clip end.
.

[wtnhunt]

Thursday afternoon slipped out about 5:30, temp was in the 70's with a light and variable wind. Dogs barked pretty well non stop the entire time I was out, hunted the same hangon stand and did not see anything but a few raccoons.

[wtnhunt]

Saturday the 4th hunted the same hang on stand that I had been hunting. Conditions perfect, calm, temp around 43 and clear. Dogs barked just about non stop from the time the sun came up, saw nothing.

Sunday the 5th hunted the old ladder stand by the river. Conditions about the same as Saturday. Bumped a group of deer walking in about 5:45-5:50. Could hear them shuffling through the leaves, but could not see what they were. About 8 had to turn on the thermacell, about 9:10-9:15 put the quiver on my bow and turned off the thermacell figuring I was about to get down. Not a minute after turning off the thermacell saw a deer about 90 yards off towards the river in thick junk near where the old crossing used to be. Ended up being a doe and 2 fawns, the fawns came around and up the ridge and layed down 10-12 yards from the base of the tree my stand is in. The doe fed on some vegetation in the dried up drain. About 9:25 another doe and fawn came through, looked like they came from somewhere off the back up the hill behind me and to my left. They came on down behind me and headed into the gully that runs behind the house headed towards the 30 acre hardwoods. A few minutes later I heard splashing in the water coming from my right and knew something was crossing, the doe below me now about 35 yards away was on alert. Ended up being our dogs(Molly got loose apparently they had been running all night), they ran through headed back towards the house, they did not seem to know the deer were there at that point. The dogs came back through a short while later, within maybe 5 minutes or so. They ended up hearing the deer and chased them I think, could not see through the brush.

[tmrltree]

Hoping on to follow this great hunting journal. Can't wait to see more pics, and read some more great post.

[wtnhunt]

Saturday Oct 11th, morning temp around 60 wind calm. Walked in and was up in the hangon stand by about 5:55, legal shooting light is about 6:30. Left the camera behind this morning, did not feel like lugging the backpack out and setting it up. Did not bump anything out of the field on the way in as best as I could tell. After light had a gentle breeze from the east to southeast, could hear several turkeys putting and heard a few young jakes trying to gobble. A lot of activity in the trees, squirrels cutting nuts.

About 7:20 a mature hen and 4 young hen turkeys came through along the edge of the field and woods. They fed in the plot a while got as close as probably 5 or 6 yards away and never knew I was there. Heard some dogs barking to the south of me in the bottom quite a bit.

About 8:05 noticed one deer coming onto the plot about 225 yards off to my south southwest. The deer looked like it was being pushed, two more bucks came out behind him. Could see antlers on all three, think two of the three are same 1.5 year old bucks I have been seeing from this stand. The third buck was noticeably bigger in the body and could see his antlers were just about to his ears. With the binos up looked could not see if he had brows or not, got a short glimpse, but the deer had decent mass and at least 3 points on his left side from what I could see. Lost sight of them through the trees in the brush pile, but a few minutes later caught a glimpse of one of the deers bodies near the tip of the brush pile where it juts out in front of me about 100 yards out. Think they went into the pile and either bedded down or went through it and into the hardwoods back behind me.

[Illinois59]

Thanks for the journal. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[wtnhunt]

Friday October 17th afternoon. North wind, temp in the mid 60's.

Hunted my climber over the soybean plot in the bottom for the first time this year. Got out a bit late, nearly 5 when I was walking in, bumped a group of turkeys just before getting to the stand. About 5:30 a doe and fawn showed up to my right. They snuck in on me through the tall grass in the bottom and I did not know they were there until I heard them in the beans. They fed in the beans until about 5:50, they went through the fence and headed towards the house(east).

Heard a lot of splashing, ducks taking off and more splashing. About 6:10 spotted a deer about 140 yards out(to my west) near the end of the bean plot. Not sure if they crossed the river or were bedded down there somewhere. Another doe and fawn, different doe and fawn I think. The first one had a gray coat second one had more of a red coat and was a little smaller. They fed in the beans until about 6:35 and headed to the brush pile off to my right(north).

[wtnhunt]

Saturday October 18th morning. Temp in the upper 40's, pretty clear, light wind.

Pre daylight morning pics at the mineral site had been being before 5:30 for the past week or so, the morning I hunt they would change their pattern. Got to the top of the hill about 5:45 and started heading to the hangon stand, seemed like a good time. Bumped deer on the way in walking down the hill, there was deer at the mineral site and sounded like a couple under the stand, blowing and stomping.



Decided to change up things a bit and hunt the soybean plot in the bottom where I had hunted Friday afternoon. Made the walk around and down to the bottom, put me about 10 minutes behind the time I wanted to be on stand, but still had plenty enough time to get in before legal shooting light. Got to the fence and crossed about 75 yards from the climber and heard deer blowing in the bottom. Had started to get a little light by this time and did not want to climb up in the climber and have deer watch from the hardwoods across the field, so opted to just walk back along the river down to the ladder stand and hope for the best. Walked to the ladder stand and climbed up and after about 45 minutes a single doe walked through down at the river, probably about 7:05. At about 7:35 a doe and young fawn(still in spots) came back through.

Did not see anything else until getting down. Had gotten down and was raking leaves out from under a branch that has been used for scrapes in the past when a doe and fawn came through at the bottom of the hill. They came around and went along down by the river and headed towards the bottom.

Saturday afternoon hunted the hangon stand and did not see anything, but did hear a crashing in the brush pile that I am sure was a deer. Had done a little grunting, and I know there are deer bedding in the pile.

[wtnhunt]

Saturday October 25th am. Conditions about as perfect as for a youth hunt as they could possibly be; clear, calm, and temp around 40.

Bumped a deer on the way in, heard the deer blow a few times as we climbed up into the stand and one more time after I was up in the stand. At 7:?? Christina spots a buck in the corner to my left, blind spot for me due to a tree. The buck fed its way out in front of us, I got some good video footage of the deer, which was a small 1.5 year old. Christina opted to pass the deer up hoping we would see more. Did not see anything else, we got down as the wind started to pick up. Will load some pics and possibly video later on.

[wtnhunt]

Temp was in the 40's, clear and fairly calm.

Saturday morning walking in we bumped something well before daylight. At about 7 we had a 1.5 year old 4 point walk past us pretty early on at about 30 yards and we got it on video, Christina chose to pass up the buck hoping we would see something more. We stayed on stand for about 3.5 hours, about all my back could take of the corner I was squished into next to the seat she was sitting in, but we would not see anything more that morning.

Saturday afternoon we got out a bit later than I planned to, but we were out about 3 hours before legal shooting hours would end. It was warm and a bit windy, with the wind blowing out of the west and south west. We watched a good sized bobcat come across the field not 5 minutes after getting in the stand, I got a little footage of the cat.

After sitting for a good bit in the wind, the wind finally died down and as the sun started to set we could hear quite a bit of movement in the woods. At about 6 the first deer came out of the woods from our left, then another came out and another and they seemed to keep coming out all heading across the tall grass in the field towards the plot to our right. Eventually there were 8 does and one spike, the spike was trying to chase one doe and did chase her some, most of the deer were heading towards our hamann farms clover plot. I asked Christina if she was comfortable with the shot(about 100 yards) and told her which one I thought was the probably the best doe to take. We had to move her gun past a little limb that was out in front of the stand and she got on the doe. She steadied and I tried to keep the camera on the deer I told her to get on. I could not see the viewfinder and could not tell if the camera was zoomed in or not, it was not zoomed in unfortunately, but I was on the deer and I heard her take the safety off and a few seconds later I heard the shot as I watched her doe jump just about straight in the air and kick. The doe took a 80-90 yard death run and I watched her fall and knew she was done, she did not make it off the field. The 100 grain winchester power point from her .243 browning A-bolt found its mark and effectively did the job.

Christina's second deer, first with her own rifle. Guessing the doe weighed around 120-130 field dressed, pretty good sized doe around here. Thread to the video clip 2008 youth hunt-video clip



Sunday morning we watched a 5 point come across about 7:40, later on saw 4 does/fawns go through the 4h plot.

Sunday afternoon we saw 4 or 5 does/fawns again and near sunset a spike came through and pushed the does out of the plot.

[wtnhunt]

Thursday the 30th afternoon, temps was in the 60's clear and light variable wind. Went to the bottom and hunted the climber, was in the stand by about 4. Around 5:40 a doe and very small fawn came through and fed on the soybeans. They were in the beans until about 6:30 and they headed to my north west. Climbed down quietly as possible about 6:45 and had deer behind me take off when I got about half way down the tree. Not sure what they were, but they did not blow.