With a deer in the freezer and a few more days of vacation, I couldn't think of a reason not to head out again. I have quite a bit of bear meat left as well, so I was (probably) going to hold out for a deer with interesting headgear or nothing. Probably...
Monday started slow at home, with a lot of napping with the beagles and even a quick walk before heading out to Mike's again. With warmer temperatures I was back in my "normal" deer hunting clothes and it just felt so much more right. Setting up the treestand in the full light of afternoon is also much more enjoyable.
Soon enough I was comfortably in my spot. Sadly, the quiet solitude that I so enjoy about hunting was not to be as there was an obnoxious, flatulent tractor plowing a nearby field. Round and round it went ... all afternoon. It would tease me from time to time, making me think plowing was done, only to hear it throttle up again and keep going. I suppose that agriculture is what gives us these plentiful and large deer, but may I suggest a look into no-till farming? Or perhaps I could buy you a muffler?
Not much was moving and it was hard to hear anything. Squirrels were running around as they always do. I caught some movement behind me and to the west - it was the turkeys again (or another group of turkeys?). Regardless, I've seen more turkeys than deer by this point.
Time passed at a reasonable pace and I caught more movement behind me. Taking time to look, I saw at least one deer at the far south end of the property. It was too far away and through too much brush to tell if it was a buck or a doe. And it was headed nowhere near me anyway.
It started to get dark very early as the clouds and thickened considerably. The clouds gave up their liquid in the form of a mist or light drizzle. A noise behind me that clearly wasn't more squirrels made me carefully look behind me again as I saw a small buck walk behind me, working around next to me. It was was quite small, almost certainly a six-point, although possibly an eight. Its short main beam was almost palmated and the tines were really short. Definitely not a shooter, but he may look quite interesting next year if he lives.
Darkness came and I climbed out of my treestand, locking it to the tree overnight. I walked away from the tractor as it continued its flatulence. After packing up my gun in my truck, I left in a heavy drizzle toward home.
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Tuesday ended up being one of those days where state-of-mind and opportunity meet in a rare and amazing way. It ranks as one of my top deer hunting days in years - no trigger pull required. It was good to have a day like that, since it reminds me of the real reason of why I continue hunting.
I was out the door early before SO left for work. As I drove to Mike's, it was quite foggy in spots and I wasn't sure what it might look like in the woods.
I got to Mike's and with enough light to see, made my way to my treestand. Up comfortably in the stand, the sky above me was partially clear, but the fog hugged the ground in patches all around me. It moved slowly with the wooded ridges - almost like it was alive itself. Two owls were hooting behind me. It was absolutely magical. As the sun came up the fog slowly ascended, eventually dissipating into nothing as the sun burned it away. Wow...
With the moderate temperatures and the now mostly sunny skies, the squirrels were really active. They are fun to watch.
Hearing a non-squirrel noise, I looked ahead and saw a doe pop out in front of me, then another and another until 5 of them were right in front of me. They were following the trail that originally made me choose this stand site - even though I don't see it used near as much as I used to. After walking in front of me they turned around and headed back in front of me again, before making their way beside me and to the south. I calmly watched them as they meandered away.
I saw more movement, and four more does were walking behind me to the east. For the longest time the two groups of deer stopped and just stared at each other. I stared at all of them. I guess they decided all was OK because the mingled together before heading away to the east in one spread-out group.
I sometimes wonder if my scent control is enough, but when I can have five deer within 30 yards of me for an extended period of time, it gives me some confidence.
Shortly after the deer left I saw turkeys on the next ridge to the east. They made their way out of the ravine and toward the south. It has been a turkey-ful year.
More time passed as I just enjoyed sitting in the stand on the wonderful morning when two more does walked out right near where the group of five did earlier. They were quickly followed by a small six-point buck. I watched them for 10-15 minutes while they made their way around me. At one point the buck looked right at me - a little confused or nervous for sure. But he just side-stepped a little bit and kept on going.
The weather continued to improve as the day got even more gorgeous, with bluebird skies, little wind and pleasant temperatures. I was thinking of making Tuesday be my last day to hunt, but with as much as I enjoyed the morning, I decided to take one more day.
The tractor heard the previous afternoon started its flatulence about 15 minutes before I was planning on heading home. That told me it was time for an amazing day of hunting to end.
Even though I didn't shoot anything, seeing 12 deer was great - especially 12 deer that were almost completely calm only a few days after the mayhem of opening day.
It rained that afternoon and evening. It wouldn't have been enough to make hunting miserable but would have been enough to be very uncomfortable - especially with how long it lasted. I was hoping the cushion in my treestand wasn't going to be soaked.
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Wednesday came and I had a little less energy to go out. The rain had stopped overnight, but the air was still quite heavy. Temperatures were a near-balmy 42F.
I got to Mike's but the clouds were so thick I actually needed my flashlight to get to my stand. Thankfully the treestand cushion was only damp and I made my way up.
Once up in the treestand, it was unbelievably still. There was basically no wind and nothing was moving. A coyote howled very close to the west with the oddest howl I've ever heard. I love hearing that sound while sitting in the darkness.
Daylight slowly grew but everything remained still. I guess the morning's low energy wasn't just me since not even the squirrels were running around very early. Wind remained negligible so it was hard to not feel like I was making tons of noise every time I moved. Intuitively, I knew I wasn't.
I spent much of the early time in the stand trying to decide if I should take another deer that wasn't a big buck. I'm not hurting for meat, but it always seems to get eaten - and deer does seem to last much longer than things like wild hog. I sort of said I was going to stick to my original plan and only shoot a big one. Probably. Maybe.
Unlike the previous day, the morning passed s l o w l y . V e r y s l o w l y.
Through the first half of the morning, the only thing remotely exciting was when a squirrel fell out of a tree right behind me, breaking branches and crashing to the ground with a thud. It chattered and headed back up the tree quickly.
Shortly after this a buck walked behind me from the west to the east. It was another small buck and not one that I'd previously seen. There was some brush between me and him and I wasn't going to shoot a small buck. Sadly, that was the only deer I saw all day. I guess my questioning what I was going to do wasn't really relevant.
Clouds remained thick and temperatures barely budged. I was waiting for my time to leave, and as it approached I heard thudding off to the west. It was obviously the sound of the rocks in the mostly-dry creek bed. But what was making it was a mystery. It wasn't something walking down the creek bed, and there was no indication any people were around. The best I could figure is it must have been a raccoon flipping rocks over looking for a meal - I thought I had seen a raccoon earlier in the morning. Weird.
None too soon, it was time to go. I walked to the south end of the property but didn't see anything. I did think about about a couple trees I could use on a future hunt.
So Wednesday wasn't quite the magic that Tuesday was. That is how hunting works. I did remind myself that hunting was preventing me from going to some work meetings that I wasn't too upset to be missing. But that really isn't even a fair comparison.
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