| DEER HUNTING REPORTS 2008 page 4 of 6 |
| Nov. 20, 2008 Once again Piff and I made the early morning drive down to Adams Co. hoping to arrow either a big buck or a doe. Piff went down to his ground blind at the north end of the property and I went to my treestand in the southwest corner of the west woodlot. Around 8:00 I noticed a small deer moving in the neighbors pasture to the west. I lost sight of him for awhile until he appeared in the tall weeds in the field behind me. It came right up to the fence line and stopped. It was a little spike buck. About an hour later I just happened to look behind me and was startled by the appearance of a young buck with a 7 or 8-point rack. He was across the fence at the edge of the weed field. He was too young to shoot and I watched him move off through the field. He headed up to the front woods where I hoped that he might run some deer out of the woods and that maybe they would eventually come my way. As I found out later from Piff, he did run some deer out but they headed to the woods behind the house and I didn’t see them. Around 10:00 I noticed movement in the woods about 80 yards in front of me. I caught a glimpse of a rack and decided to try to call him in. I tipped the can (doe bleat) and grunted a few times with the buck call. A few seconds later the buck came my way on a fast trot. It was another small 8-point buck. He was grunting all the way in. He stopped right below my stand and started sniffing a decaying log. Whatever that was all about I don’t know! After a minute or two he walked over to the fence and began to nibble on the greenbrier that was growing along the fence. After a few more minutes he jumped the fence and went up through the tall weeds and then eventually jumped the line fence and went into the neighbor’s field. About an hour later I heard the sounds of something running in the leaves to my right. I stood up and grabbed my bow. There are a couple of oak trees to my right which still have there leaves on them. I couldn’t see what was behind them until a big doe suddenly appeared and jumped the fence. She would have offered me a 15-20 yard shot if she stopped, but of course that didn’t happen. She walked briskly up to the pond next to the woods behind the house and went out of sight. Around noon I decided to head back to the landowners house for a quick lunch then head back out. While walking back I spotted two young deer moving out of the bottom pasture. They slipped along on the other side of the gate and went into the woods behind the house. After finding out from Piff that he had a slow morning he decided to go the stand in the southeast corner of the woods behind the house. I went back to my same stand that I hunted in all morning. I spent all afternoon back in that stand and didn’t see a thing. When I met up with Piff after dark he told me that he had one heck of an evening. He saw 18 turkeys, including a couple of big Toms, working their way along the fence line on the east side of the hay field behind his stand. While watching the Longbeards, suddenly, out of the woods that runs along the road to the south eight or nine does and yearlings bolted down through the field right towards the turkeys. In hot pursuit was a nice 8-point buck with white tines. He chased them awhile before splitting off into the woods by Piff. The others jumped the fence at the north end of the field. Piff said that he watched the field for a time before turning around only to find that a doe and a button buck were only 10 yards or so from the front of his stand. When he tried to grab his crossbow the little buck spotted him. Piff could only watch them as they moved off into the woods. Not long after that he spotted a nice size deer coming across the field. As it got closer he could tell that it was a young buck with a 2-point rack only on his left side. It was the same buck that we had seen on an earlier trip. Well, at least he had some excitement! |
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| Nov. 23, 2008 It was a cold trip down to Adams Co. this morning. Temps were around 20 degree, give or take, but the winds were calm. This was to be our last trip with a bow before next Mondays Gun Season. As the sun peaked over the eastern horizon the woods came alive. Turkeys began yelping, clucking, purring, and gobbling all over the next property to the east. This boisterous crowd was joined by a lone coyote who was howling from somewhere close by in the hayfield. Soon the landowners Husky chimed in. Throw in a couple of crow caws and honking by some Canada geese and you could hardly hear yourself think. I hunted out of the ladder stand in the north end of the woodlot behind the house. To my left is a 70 yard long but narrow clearing with cedar trees intermingled. This patch of woods is a known bedding area and in the past we have seen bucks running does out of there. Around 8:00 I noticed movement up at the end of the clearing. Soon a doe and yearling appeared and they began to ease their way down toward my stand. I grabbed my bow and readied for a potential shot. The doe kept coming but she was facing me the whole time! When she came to within 40 yards she and her youngster turned to my left and went into the thick brush and disappeared. About an hour later seven does and yearlings came out into the opening. They too meandered down towards my stand and I again prepared for a shot. But just like the first group they went into the brush about 45 yards away. They played the cat and mouse game going in and out of the opening for about 20 minutes or so before crossing the clearing and vanishing to the brush on the left. Sometime later that morning I heard movement in the tangled hillside in front of me. I could make out 5 deer slipping their way from my right to left. Soon they came out into the opening and hung out for awhile. Meanwhile as I was sitting and watching the five deer on my left I noticed that one of the does was staring down the hill below me. Suddenly I heard the sounds of footsteps below me and to my right. I looked down between my knees and saw a young 6-point buck walk about a yard from the bottom of the ladder. He stopped and turned around and smelled the ground where I took a whiz out of the stand earlier. A few seconds later he joined the other five and they eventually went into the cover to the right. When I hooked up with Piff at lunch he told me that while hunting out of his blind in the pasture he had a young 8-point buck come down the tractor path from the other woods. The buck passed in front of him but stayed on the other side of the ditch and never offered him a shot. I also found out that Piff shot at one of the five deer that ended up buy me earlier. He said that they also came down the path and stopped right in front of him about 30 yards away. He told me that he had a clear shot and took aim with the crossbow and fired at the biggest doe. A split second later he heard the arrow smack into a tree behind the doe. The startled deer jumped and took off towards my stand with the others in tow. Upon investigation of the arrow no signs of a hit were visible. He missed, low and to the right, again! After lunch we adjusted the stand in the southeast corner of the front woodlot. Piff hunted out of there the rest of the evening and saw a nice buck cross the hayfield. He watched the buck cross the field until it went out of sight into a small weedy draw in the middle of the field. He said that he didn’t know where it went from there. As I made my way down to the gate to go to my morning stand I caught a glimpse of a young buck running down the field at the west end of the property. Apparently he saw me and ran into the west woods. The afternoon warmed up and it was comfortable sitting in the stand. Around 4:30 I heard movement behind me. As I craned my neck to look through the cedars I noticed movement up in the narrow clearing. I saw a doe and a yearling walk briskly from left to right. It wasn’t but a few seconds later that a buck appeared on their trail. I am assuming that it was the same buck that Piff had seen in the hayfield. I tried calling with my buck grunter and rattling to lure him in but apparently he was to preoccupied with the doe. That was it for the day. Let’s see I saw, 2+7+5+1+1+4, twenty deer for the day, the most action so far. Now if they would just hang around until gun season… |
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