Blood Brothers Outdoors Season Reports: November 2007

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Blood Brothers Outdoors Season Reports

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Late Pre-rut/Rut hunting Show/Hide This Report

The last three weeks have been a busy time for all of us pre-occupied with bowhunting. I've spent all but a few days in the woods and swamps, and maybe a total of 90 minutes on this web site during that stretch. I plan on making this post and then getting right bed to do it all over again tomorrow morning. I've spent most of the last couple weeks, from Oct. 22 til Nov. 8th, hunting the hills of Western WI. and the last couple days in the swamp close to home.
Late October had bucks active and chasing late into the mornings and back at it two hours before the sun went down. I rattled in a couple scrubbers during that time but nothing worth shooting. It's the first time I've had success rattling, but based on the age class I was attracting I abandonded that tactic feeling I was only giving mature bucks a heads up as to my whereabouts; they had heard that all before and weren't being fooled. I was seeing a few shooters while on stand but couldn't get them close enough for a shot, or I moved stand locations pre-maturely only to have shooters walk by the location I had just abandoned. The bigger guys were cruising till around 11 AM and you had to be confident that it could pay off to stay in one location from sun-up until noon; I got to second guessing myself due to winds swirling and it cost me on a 140 class eight pointer. My son Tom, joined me in early Nov. and spent a couple days filming me giving up his precious little time he had for bowhunting to help the old man make it happen on film. One evening he filmed me arrowing a jake an hour before sundown, and a half hour later we had a shooter come in from downwind to 20 yards, only to catch us set up for filming the other way. A two minute staredown from that buck got my heart kicked in to overdrive but he got in on us so quickly neither cameraman or hunter could make the proper shift to get into position to do the job since he already had our wind and was looking right at us, all we could do was freeze hoping he would do something stupid and give us a chance. Even horny bucks aren't that stupid. Two days later both Tom and I got close to shooters around 10 AM but couldn't get them to come close enough. That night Tom grunted in a 21" wide, short tined eight with long main beams, that he passed at four yards. It was getting to be around Nov. 6th when I started to feel I had burned all my spots and it wasn't gonna happen. My farm had a lot of does and fawns on it until early Nov. when the does split, leaving their fawns to fend for themselves. Instead of having a buck magnet property with willing adult does waiting for Prince Charming to show up, I wound up with a baby deer nursery! I left for home a day later and dove into a local swamp and hit paydirt. The first evening I hunted this spot a doe and her fawn showed along with a couple yearling bucks. The does hocks were black so she was a welcome sight. I planned on being back at the same spot well before sun-up the next day to see if the local mature bucks would come courting her. The next morning I was set up and settled in waiting for shooting light when I started hearing the deer chasing close by. All I could do was wait for daylight and hope they'd hang around. Once it got light I could see it was yearling bucks harrassing a couple fawns but it was fun to watch. A half hour later I'm still watching two small bucks milling around when a branch snaps behind me. I slowly turn my head and see a good buck just make a turn to walk away from me. I swung my camera in his direction but he was on a steady walk and I couldn't find him in the camera view finder, he was getting away so I reached for the grunt call and gave a single long, low grunt. To my surprise it worked and he turned my way and was coming in fast. I guessed which spot he would pass in the heavy cover and pointed the camera there, then I drew my bow and aimed at the opening he was going through. Too late, he got passed it so I swung forward to the only other opening there was, just before he got there. When he hit the next opening at about 18 yards, he angled in my direction and gave me the less than broadside shot, but I held tight to the shoulder and got both lungs as my arrow passed through him. He whirled around 180 degrees and stumbled in the thick cover. He ran 30 yards and stopped, 10 seconds later he was on the ground and a minute later it was lights out. I believe he thought one of the small bucks closeby had made that grunt and was gonna head over to him to set things straight with who was boss. He's 18" wide with 10 points and scores 133". Not a slob but I got it on film which is rare, for me. I'm happy with him and a little more confident that it is possible to get kills on film doing it yourself. I'll try to get a pic posted soon.

# posted by lee @ 9:37 PM

Monday, November 5, 2007

Early Bird Gets the Worm, or Maybe a Big Buck Show/Hide This Report

I had been there before; up late, carefully calculating the time it would take me to get to my hunting property in Wisconsin and setup into my stand the next morning. My alarm was set for 3:00am, which would give me just enough time to get showered, out the door and on the road for my two hour drive to Wisconsin's bluff country. That alarm always comes sooner than expected, but I knew that big bucks don't wait for guys that sleep in. I was climbing the bluff by 5:45am which gave me plenty of time to hang my Lone Wolf stand with time to settle in.

Based on a quick weather check the night before, I had picked a spot that I had not hunted since earlier in the season. In 2006 I had killed my buck just 200 yards from this stand but further scouting last winter told me I had an even better pinch point on some heavy trails just further in a bench. Even in the early season the trails under this tree were heavy with doe activity and I knew bucks would be cruising this bench throughout the rut.

Settled in my tree I could finally see some daylight breaking over the bluff. Filming light finally became available and I did a quick deer check before I commenced whispering into the camera for a self-interview. As I was turning the camera off I caught some movement to my left. A doe fawn had somehow quietly snuck within 8 yards of my tree and I hadn't even noticed her. She seemed a bit nervous but her attention was not on me, it was on something behind my tree. A second later I heard the blessed twig snap that we all love; I slowly turned around the tree to see a large bodied deer with its head behind another tree. Was it mom? A split second later revealed a head full of antlers.

My focus now dead on the buck, I quickly forgot the doe as I reached for my bow with one hand and moved my camera into position with the other. In the back of my mind I knew that fawn was going to catch my movement but I was going to be sure the buck didn't. The doe began to snort loudly at my movement but the buck just turned and grunted at her! He appeared to be walking right into my first shooting lane but took a sharp turn down the back of the bluff. I thought he was gone so as a last desperation act I tipped over my estrous bleat call and it turned him right around. He stepped into my shooting lane at 18.5 yards and I let fly. My arrow struck true and he darted off and collapsed in just 30 yards. I had made a perfect shot through both lungs and clipped his aorta as well. He was dead before he even began to run.

Another Early Morning Hunt Pays Off

My fatigue from the early morning hunt had given way to elation as I held his rack in my hands. The early morning, late October hunt paid off again in 2007. You can bet that this hunter will be setting his alarm for the early hours when the end of October rolls around again next year.

# posted by James @ 11:11 PM