| DEER HUNTING REPORTS 2005 Page 1 of 6 |
| Oct. 1, 2005
My brother-in-law, Craig, and I went down to Hocking Co. for the Ohio Bow Season opener. I am hunting with my Martin compound bow again this year and I am still looking to take my first buck with a bow. Craig was not hunting on this trip, he was just down to enjoy being in the woods. We camped out Friday night and got up at 5:00 Saturday morning and headed up the hills around 6:00. Craig went up the hillside across the creek from the campsite and he planned to watch that hillside to see if there were any deer moving to and from the new clear-cut to the west. Before he got halfway up the hill he got busted by a few deer that were feeding on acorns around some big White Oak trees. He finally made his way up to the saddle at the top of the ridge and hung out there for an hour or so. He saw a few more antlerless deer there before he moved closer to the clear-cut. He then glassed the clear-cut and observed a few more does and yearlings browsing on a hillside about 250 yards away. All in all, he said that he saw about a dozen deer all morning. I went up the hillside above the campsite and hunted out of my climbing stand overlooking the head of a ravine on the other side of the ridge. There were two trails that crossed below me with the closer trail showing the most travel. I was positioned in a saddle on the ridge and could also see down the hillside behind me where there were a lot of acorns and deer droppings. Around 8:40 a doe and two yearlings came up the hillside behind me. When the doe came within 10 yards of my stand she suddenly looked up and spotted me. I think the early morning sun was shining on my stand and bow causing a glare. She was up wind of me and I knew she couldn’t smell me. After a few minutes of head bobbing and foot stomping she finally settled down and walked down the hill in front of me. When she turned broadside at about 10 yards I took her picture. At the sight of the flash she turned inside out and ran about 20 yards and blew and stomped for around 5 minutes before she finally move on. About a half hour later another doe and a yearling came walking along the ridge top behind me to my left and milled around some oaks for a while before moving out of sight. Then around 9:45 a doe and a yearling came hurrying along the lower trail below me. After they crossed the ravine head they stopped and looked back for a few minutes before quickly moving on. A minute or two later another deer came along the same trail. It might have been a young buck because I thought I saw a glimpse of a small antler as it went through the thick underbrush. That was it for the morning. We both went out in the evening and only saw two deer in the bottom of a steep ravine as we walked into the woods. Between the two of us we saw about 20 deer or so. There seems to be plenty of does around to attract the bucks when the rut starts. |
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| Oct. 8-9, 2005
Went down and hunted our lease land in Pike Co. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. One or our guys arrowed a young doe that was eating some “Deer Cain” near his stand Saturday evening. Sunday morning another one or our hunters hunted out of the same stand and had a few more young ones eating the Cain but they were too little to shoot. I didn’t see any deer, only turkeys! |
| Oct 17, 2005
Went out to Greene Co. this morning and sat underneath the big maple tree in the southeast corner of the standing corn field. No deer sightings. I went scouting and did not see hardly any deer sign! I don’t have any tree stands hung yet but I might put one up in the back of the property at the end of a grown up field. |
| Oct 20, 2005
I went out to Greene Co. this morning and stood underneath the big maple again. At 8:45 I noticed some birds flying up out of the standing corn as if the were startled. A few seconds later a few more birds flew up closer to me. Just then I saw a coyote trotting out of the edge of the corn field heading towards me. By the time I grabbed my bow and attached the release he slipped in front of me and turned back into the corn. I didn’t see any deer. I went back out in the evening and didn’t see deer, only three raccoons that live in a big hollowed out maple tree about 20 yards from me. I have been hearing them climb up in the tree just before sunup the last couple of mornings that I hunted. |
| Oct 25, 2005
I went out to Greene Co. at midday and hung a stand on the Northeast corner of the property. It is hung about 12 foot up on a wild cherry tree overlooking a little clearing at the end of a long narrow overgrown field. To the North is a picked bean field. Behind the tree to the East is a wooded hillside. To the West are trees and honeysuckle. I then left and looked for tracks since it has been raining. I didn’t find many; the most were in the corn right next to the road. I went back out and hunted under the maple tree in the evening. At 6:30 I caught a glimpse of a deer walking through the low corn stalks at the East end of the field. It was coming my way so I grab my bow and got ready. It eased along the edge and then turned and went into the next property. I thought that I caught a glimpse of a small antler. The deer might have been a spike buck. |
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| Oct. 26, 2005
I hunted out of the treestand that I set up yesterday. It took longer than I thought to walk back there in the dark. I didn’t get settled in until around 8:00. At 8:40 I noticed a lone deer about 150 yards away making its way through the picked bean field heading northeast. I doe bleated with “The Can” and it stopped and looked my way. I had its attention for about 5 minutes or so until it finally lost interest and headed into the wooded hillside north of me. It was a good size deer, either a large doe or maybe the spike buck that I saw last night. I went back out in the late afternoon and hunted from the same stand. Around 5:00 I noticed something white among the shoulder high weeds about 250 yards west of me. I looked through the binoculars and saw the head and rack of a small buck. The main beams were small, just inside his ears. After about 10 minutes he disappeared somewhere in the tall weeds. Fifteen minutes later I caught movement in the bean stubble. It was him and he was waking on the same line that the deer in the morning did. I put the binocs on him again and saw that he was a small 6 or 8 pointer, too small to shoot. I used “The Can” call on him and rattled a little with the rattle bag and he stopped and came my way. I lost sight of him when he came closer to the edge of the field because of all the trees and honeysuckle. I kept waiting for him to come into the clearing below me. Soon I heard him walking in the wooded hillside to my right and below me. He was trying to get down wind of me. That was the last I heard of him. |
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