DEERHUNTINGREPORTS2008-5

DEER HUNTING REPORTS 2008
page 5 of 6

Dec. 1-7, 2008

Monday:

Piff and I hunted down in Adams Co. today for the Ohio Gun Season opener. There were three other hunters also hunting the property. The weather was cold and windy with the occasional snow shower. I started the morning’s hunt in the stand at the north end of the woods behind the house where I saw a lot of activity in previous hunts. Piff headed down to his pop-up blind in the bottom of the pasture.

A few hours after daylight I caught a glimpse of a couple of deer moving quickly across the top of the grassy draw that runs north and south through the middle of the woods. They apparently were in a hurry to get somewhere. About ten minutes later another deer, a doe, came running down the draw right towards my stand. She stopped around 12 yards away and stood there facing me for about 45 seconds. She was breathing heavily. By the time I reached for my shotgun she turned and was gone! A short time later two small yearlings trotted down the draw and stopped in front of my stand. It appeared that they were lost. They eventually bedded down in the brush about 35 yards from my stand.

Around 11:00 I heard a shot coming from the area that Piff was hunting. I stuck it out in the nasty cold, windy, and snowy weather until about 1:00 then I made my way down to Piff. When I crawled in his warm blind he told me that he had shot a doe. When I asked him where it was he pointed out the right window. I then peered out the window but all I saw were about 15 cows standing 50 yards away. He chuckled and said that the lone doe came across the hillside in front of him and he took the shot. She then ran up to the fence to his right before she fell. A short time later the cows came through an opening in the fence and surrounded the dead doe.

That was about all the action for the day. We didn’t see any other deer that afternoon. We loaded up the doe and headed home to the processor near Yellow Springs. Arrangements were made to come back down on Wednesday.

Wednesday:

I hunted out of the front stand situated on the south side of the woods behind the house. Piff, once again, hunted out of his blind. Shortly after daybreak I heard the sounds of footsteps in the tall frost-covered weeds about 50 yards in front of my stand. Soon 4 or 5 antlerless deer appeared out in the field on the edge of the woods. I took aim on the biggest one and fired. At the sound of the shot all the deer took off across the hayfield and disappeared down a hill and into the woods along the road. There was no indication that any of the deer were hit.

After awhile I climbed down and searched the area where the deer were standing when I took the shot. I could not find any signs of a hit. I looked in the area where the deer had run and didn’t find any dead deer. About that time I heard a shot coming from Piff’s stand. I later found out that he shot another young doe.

In the afternoon I hunted out of Piff’s blind and had a small fork-horn buck meander down the hill and browse around the blind for about 20 minutes before moving off. The cows also hung around off and on all afternoon. At 4:45, I saw a BIG buck with a tall and wide, white rack trot past the gate. He was followed by a smaller buck and they were traveling from right to left. They must have come from the neighbors to the west. That was it for the day.

Thursday:

I went out to Greene Co. for the last two hours of daylight to hunt. I set up on the ground along the south side of the big bean field where I could see into the smaller bean field to the north. At 5:00 I saw movement in the smaller field. First I saw a doe and a few yearlings, then, much to my surprise, a big buck and another smaller one appeared. The bucks stayed along the far treeline while the other deer fed out in the field. I put the rangefinder on the buck and it calculated that he was 204 yards away. At one time the two bucks banged their antlers together for a time or two, but nothing serious. Suddenly the doe became spooked by something to the east and they all took off into the brush to the west. Boy, it was exciting to see a big buck on this property.

Friday:

I went back out to Greene Co. for a few cold hours in the morning. I set up in the same place as last night. Around 8:30 a doe and a yearling appeared out in the smaller bean field and fed on the stubble for about 20 minutes before vanishing in the woods to the west.

I went back out in the afternoon and this time I made my way to the narrow strip of cover that separates the two fields. As I was slipping through the honeysuckle I noticed a shadow out in the sunny bean field. I quickly sat down and readied my gun. A few seconds later a young doe came into view out in the field. She was walking my way. My initial thought was to shoot the doe but I hesitated because I hoped that maybe the big buck from yesterday was close by.

A short moment later a little yearling showed up and then both deer left the field. It wasn’t long after when another deer appeared out in the field. I was anticipating that it might be the buck but it was another yearling. It hung around in the field for 15 minutes or so before moving off elsewhere. If I hadn’t seen that big buck yesterday I would have not hesitated to shoot the doe!

Saturday:

We went back down to Adams Co. and I hunted the morning out of the front stand again. At daybreak the turkeys were yelping in the treetops on the next property to the east. I could make out the silhouettes of a few of them with the pinkish dawn light in the background. Soon they pitched down into the neighbors pasture and began to gather up and feed. About an hour later they came through the fence into the hayfield next to me and eventually walked about 40 yards behind my stand. I counted 17 Toms and Jakes.

Around midmorning I went down to visit Piff in his blind and he told me that he shot at and missed another doe. He also said that he saw the big buck cross in front of the gate around 8:30 and that it was headed back into the neighbor’s property to the west. That afternoon I hunted out of one of the stands in the woods to the west anticipating that the big buck might return. I didn’t see any deer movement but had turkeys all over me again. I watched them feed around my stand for about an hour until they finally hustled off to the east just before sundown. Piff said that they crossed in front of him and that he counted about 24 or so, all Toms and Jakes. I did see about four does/yearlings near the gate at dark when I was walking to meet up with Piff.

Sunday:

We both hunted out of the blind at the bottom of the pasture in the morning. Around 9:00 Piff decided to make his way over to another blind not far away while I stayed put. We decided to hunt until 11:00 then we would head for home. I didn’t see any deer all morning. Piff had a coyote run right past him but it was out of sight in a flash.

At 11:00 I packed up my gear and slowly made my way up to the gate through the snow-covered hillside. When I neared the gate I saw Piff approaching from my left. While waiting on him I slowly turned to my right and immediately noticed movement in a little patch of woods above the blind. It was a doe and she was high-tailing it through the woods and then ran down the hill towards the blind. When she got about 30 yards away from the blind she stopped and stood there for a second, then slowly walked off. She never did see us; something else must have spooked her. If only I had stayed in the blind for another 20 minutes, that’s how my whole week has gone!!!

Dec. 20, 2008

We gun hunted down in Adams Co. again today. I hunted out of the front stand in the woods behind the house in the morning and didn’t see any deer at all. The turkeys were roosted again over in the next property to the east and I watched them fly down shortly after daybreak. They were making a racket all morning and I could see them fighting and sparring in the pasture.

At 10:00 I walked through the front woods towards Piff who was set up at the gate. Shortly after entering the woods I heard some deer get up and run his way. It wasn’t long before I heard a shot. I figured that Piff shot another one, but when I met up with him he told me that he took a shot at one of the four deer that came out of the woods. He said they were running and he missed the shot. After checking the area and following the tracks in the wet pasture we confirmed that indeed he missed. Piff also informed me that earlier in the morning he had four deer come up the hill towards him but they suddenly did a 180 and ran back down the hill. He stated that the wind was in his favor and they must have spotted him up at the gate.

We then made our way to where his pop-up blind was set up only to find that it wasn’t there! We figured that the high winds from yesterday must have blown it away. After searching for awhile Piff found it lodged underneath some of the cedar trees along the hillside not too far from its original position. I spent the next half an hour watching Piff wrestle with the blind trying to get it folded back up and into its bag. We then called it a morning and took a break back at the owner’s house.

After lunch I decided to walk over to the little one-acre locust patch that is just west of the house near the road. It is a small patch of woods that is thick and full of stickers. As I walked across the hayfield toward the thicket I saw a flash of white in the brush. I then saw a deer run out the north end and down to the woodlot below. Boy that deer sure was jumpy! I wasn’t even that close to the woods when it took off. It is so thick in there that it could have stayed hidden and I could have walked right past it.

I then met up with Piff and he told me that he was going to hunt the rest of the day out of the other ground blind that is down in the pasture. This blind is made up of a bunch of cut cedar trees and overlooks a couple of brushy draws. I told him that I’d walk the fence line to the east and make my way to a spot where the fence comes to a T. This spot we call ‘turkey corner’ because that’s where I took a turkey a few years back.

On my way down the fence line I noticed a small white object at the base of a fence post. It turned out to be a cat that eventually spotted me and ran off into the neighbor’s pasture. After arriving at ‘turkey corner’ I settled in for the last couple hours of hunting light.

Around four o’clock I heard a couple of shots to the east. A short time later I heard a few more shots. I hoped that with all the shooting going on that maybe some deer might move my way. Soon I spotted a doe at the lip of a wooded ravine about 80 yards away. She stood there for about five minutes then slowly eased out along the edge. Shortly two young deer followed her. There were too many small trees and clutter in the way for me to get a clean shot. They all eventually disappeared back into the ravine.

A short time later I again heard a few more shots. It wasn’t long after that a buck appeared out of a small pine thicket to my left. I readied my shotgun on the shooting sticks and found him in my scope. It was a young 6-point buck. He was too small to shoot, so I let him walk.

About 10 minutes later I saw the doe back at the edge of the ravine, she was staring towards the fence about 50 yards to my right; something had her attention. As I watched her slowly turn her head in my direction I finally saw what she was looking at. It was the white cat that I had seen earlier. It walked right up to me and suddenly stopped when it saw me. It spooked and took off on a run towards the ravine. The doe then immediately turned and bounded off out of sight. That’s how my whole season has gone!!!

As I was packing up my things at quitting time I noticed movement again over by the ravine. The deer finally came out into the field and it was too late to shoot. I then proceeded to head over to the blind where Piff was supposed to be. When I took a few steps in that direction a deer snorted at me and ran right past his blind. I found out later that Piff left the blind around five o’clock. It didn’t matter anyway, it was after shooting hours.