DEERHUNTINGREPORTS2004-4

DEER HUNTING REPORTS 2004 page 4

Nov 22, 2004
Piff and I went down to Adams county to the place where we turkey hunted last spring. We did not get there until about 8:30 a.m. or so and as we approached the drive to get to the owner’s log home a big doe ran across the road into a patch of woods that is on the property. A minute or two later the owner pulls in the drive and said that there was a buck and a few does in a beanfield on the neighbor’s property. It looked like we might see some action today.

After talking to the owner Piff went to one end the property and I chose a small patch of wood on the other side. I backpacked my climbing stand in and after looking around I determined that I was limited as to where I could put up my stand. I jumped a doe and her yearling while looking around. There were several trails in the woodlot but there weren’t any straight trees near the trails where I could use my climber. I settled on a tree about 40 yards from a trail and near the head of a brushy draw.

It was about 11:00 by the time I got settled in 20 foot up. We were going to hunt until 12:30 or so then take a break for lunch. For one and a half hours I could hear turkeys on the farm about a half of mile behind the property. They were constantly yelping and clucking and making a loud racket.

At lunch Piff had said that he jumped a few dear will walking to and from his hunting spot on the other end of the property. He said that he was going to hunt a fence crossing after lunch. I went back to my treestand.

All evening long the turkeys were still cutting up on the next farm. Shortly before 4:00 I noticed movement through the trees out in the pasture. I got my binoculars out and for about 20 minutes I watch at least 10 Tom turkeys pecking in the pasture. At least 4 of them had long beards. There might have been more but my visibility was limited. About 5 o’clock I heard them fly up to their roost about 200 yards somewhere in front of me. Also from time to time I could here the flock on the other property fly up.

Soon a deer came out of the wooded draw and made it to with 5 yards of my stand. It was a little yearling. I was hoping that the doe would show up and if she followed the yearling it would have be an easy shot. As I watched the yearling below me 4 deer came out of the draw and were working their way down the trail that I wanted to set my stand up on. I could make out that one was a young buck with a little rack.

With youngster below me I took out my buck grunt call and blew on it trying to get the attention of the 4 deer about 40 yards away. The 4 kept on walking while the one below me didn’t even look up. I then took out by can call that makes a doe bleat sound and when I tipped it the 4 deer took off at the sound. Meanwhile the little one looked up at me and did the foot stomp- head fake thing for about 20 minutes. It finally jumped the fence and went out into a mowed field. Within minutes another deer showed up right where the first little one did and walked by my stand. It must have been the brother or sister of the first one because it was a little one also. I waited until dark and the doe never did show up.

Piff had a deer come right to him just before dark but it caught sight of him and turned and ran off. There seemed to be a number of deer in the area and it would have been nice to have been there about two weeks ago when the bucks were more active.

Dec 3-5, 2004--Gun Season
Craig and I went down to Hocking Co. and hunted for a few hours on Wednesday and all day on Thursday and Friday. Deer sightings were scarce. They were not moving. It was quiet and still in the woods. We tried some deer drives with Tom and Craig’s brother Doug. We did manage to kick up a few deer but no one was able to get a shot. Doug probably saw the most deer and even witnessed a buck and a doe mating.

Dec 18, 2004
I went back out to Greene Co and hunted the last 2 hours of daylight. I haven’t been out bow hunting since around Thanksgiving. I sat under the big maple tree in the southeast corner of the big picked beanfield. At 5:00 a nice size deer came out into the field about 250 yards away and browsed on some green vegetation. After about 15 minutes it made its way into the small strip of woods behind the owner’s cottage. This is the area where they usually bed during the winter. I then slipped up to the field on the other side of the woods hoping that I would catch the lone deer coming out of the woods to the green grassy area. After 10 minutes or so it got too dark to see so I gave up for the evening.

Nov 29, 2004—Opening Day of Shotgun Season
Piff and I went down to Scioto Co. for the first day of gun season. It took us about 15 minutes to walk back to the last pasture where we spooked numerous deer in the predawn darkness. Piff hunted at the pond where he could look over the pasture and also watch the lower trails on the hillside above him. I carried my climbing stand and set it up near the top of the hill above the pond where the ridge wraps around. There I could watch the upper trail and see down the hillside to the creek and where I could also see or hear any deer moving on the opposite ridge.

It was a quiet morning without any action until about 10:30 when a shot rang out towards where Piff was hunting. After a few minutes Piff called me on the walkie talkie and told me that he shot at a doe and hit it in the leg. He said that he was going to wait awhile and then he would see if he could find it. Not long after our transmission a doe appears to my left. It was limping up the hill and stopped about 80 yards away.

After standing there for about 10 minutes it suddenly bolts down the hill and runs into a thicket below me. Soon two yearlings appeared above where the doe stood just moments before. They eventually went on over the ridge. After about a half an hour I saw the doe in the thicket below me. She was eating and slowly working her way closer to me. She would go in and out of sight until finally I lost her in the thick stuff. I didn’t see her come out so I figured that she bedded down.

About an hour later I saw Piff walking the lower trail below me. When he spotted me in my stand I tried to signal to him that the deer was below me. He could not make out what I was trying to tell him and he started to walk up the hill towards me. Suddenly the doe burst out of the thicket and ran up the hill and stopped right by me. I shot it and she dropped right where she stood.

After field dressing and dragging the doe down the hill to the pasture we both went back to our positions and settled in for the rest of the afternoon. Around 4’oclock I heard the sound of deer running on the opposite ridge followed by a few gunshots. Soon I picked out 3 deer making their way down the hill where they crossed the creek and ran through the thicket below me. I could make out a doe and a yearling and a young buck with a small rack. They stopped and milled around awhile and I heard the buck grunt a few times. Soon they made their way toward Piff on the lower trail. I anticipated hearing a shot from Piff but I didn’t hear any.

About a half hour later I saw the little buck come back on the lower trail and then disappear in the same place in the thicket that the doe hid in. After a short period of time the buck made his way up through the thicket and stopped broadside out in the open about 25 yards from me. I could see that he was an 8 pointer with short tines about the size of a garden rake. I passed up the shot and then he went back into the thicket. He never did come out so I assumed that he too bedded down in it.

At 5 o’clock I heard a shot ring out where Piff was hunting. Then there was a pause and then another shot. Then a pause and another shot followed by a longer pause and another shot. After a few minutes Piff called me, I figured that he needed help tracking a deer and that he wanted help. He said that he saw the “biggest buck in the land” about 125 yards away and that it was standing up on his hind legs raking the branches above a scrape with his antlers.

When the buck turned broadside he said that he put his gun up and looked down the barrel and much to his dismay his front sight was missing! He tried to gauge where the sight should be and fired three shots and then reloaded and fired another one. At sound of the first 3 shots the big buck just stared his way. After the forth shot he took off. Murphy’s Law strikes again!!!