Nov. 5th

So back on the Nov. 1st I noticed that an area I have had a stand in the past appeared to be pretty active. This is an area where a large buck lives and there were a lot of scrapes in the area and a lot of tracks. I decided that day to move a stand back into the tree where one had been previously.This particular spot is a tough place to hunt, its in a bottom along the base of a steep section of ridge, sandwiched between a swamp at the bottom of the ridge and a large clearcut surrounded by thick mountain-laurel on the other side. Between these two places is a section of white pine and scrub brush about 100yds wide (this is where the scrapes were showing up). The wind in this bottom is usually a nightmare and is the primary reason I didn't leave a stand in that tree.
  With that being said the morning of Nov 5th was supposed to be a balmy 45 at day break with an almost non-existent wind out of the ssw, high temps were supposed to reach 70. In a perfect world I would hunt this stand on a southeast wind. I decided this morning that with the wind being so calm that I could try this stand even though the wind direction was not perfect.
   At about 7am I heard footsteps approaching from out of the swamp to my right. A short time later I spotted a doe heading right for me. She came up the hill and walked directly under me to a scrape on my left. She stopped and hit the licking branch and urinated in the scrape. She then proceeded to bed down directly under me. This would normally be ok, except on this morning it was so calm that even the slightest move seemed loud. After a little while I was able to sit down and hang my bow up without spooking the deer, After about 20 minutes the doe got up and fed off behind me. A short time later I could hear more footsteps coming up from the swamp,and this time they were coming quick. I grabbed my bow and stood up, but before I could turn my body I looked down to see and 8 point closing the distance quickly on the path the doe took. At 15 yds the deer entered a lane and I drew my bow. The problem was my feet were not turn toward the deer, I attempted to turn just my upper torso which resulted in an awful feeling in my shoulder and a clunk that felt like a dislocation. My draw came down, as the deer now was about to walk under me. I quietly tried to turn my feet into position, I managed to turn them a bit but not to where I needed them. The buck was about to walk under my tree to my back side. I tried to pull the bow back, but my shoulder did not let that happen. Just then the buck cut the track where I entered and stopped in the brush. He then slowly turned and began to head back the way he came. As he started to head back I heard more footsteps coming, and quickly noticed a nice 6 point coming up on the same path. Now the 8point and 6point were face to face, I thought I was going to witness a fight, but rather than push into the 6point, the 8 turned to his left and walked into the wide open. This time I had no problem with the draw and made a prefect shot at 28yds. It was a complete pass through and the deer only ran a short distance when I heard the loud crash of the deer going down.
    Now the 6 point was still standing 30yds away, I quickly nocked another arrow. The 6 continued up the trail the doe was on but ended up cutting my track in the brush at 20 yds, he slowly turned back the way he came and never offered a shot. I am not sure I wanted to end my season with a buck smaller than the one I had just shot, but to maybe take 2 deer in the same morning I would have done it. The 8 point dressed at 154 lbs and I have what I believe is a video of the same back from the 24th. Below is the video I shot of the doe from the stand on my phone and the trail cam video of the buck back on October 24th at 7am.

October 30-November 4

So as usual we always start hunting at the end of October and if you go back through the blog into the years past you will see that it is very rare that we see much activity and even rarer that we get a decent buck. This year was not much different...I saw zero deer in this time frame, and others have only seen a few sporadic sighting to match. I have seen a few coyotes and I had some neat wildlife sightings but that was about it. The 2nd and 3rd were both chilly (35ish lows in the morn and 60 highs in the afternoon). The 4th was even warmer with a low in the morn of about 42 and an afternoon high of about 65 and winds have been primarily out of the south and southwest...not exactly deer weather. There is a front moving in on Friday night (Nov 6th), that is going to cool things off and bring some northwest winds for Saturday and Sunday (too bad we can't hunt on Sunday). Then next week looks cooler with primarily sw winds...things should start to heat up...I hope.

One Down

It was Oct. 27, 2015 and I was hunting a new stand I had found this year in Orange.  I had numerous big bucks on camera and video through out the summer and on Saturday I had found 5 fresh scrapes.

I went in around 2 PM and it was mild and the leaves were very loud.  The area where my stand is has mountain laurel all around and I can see about 50 yards straight in front of me.  The entire area is thick and some places you can't even walk through.

About 5:15 I heard a deer walking in the leaves.  I knew it was close so I stood up and grabbed my bow.  I looked to my left and I could see the body of a deer walking through the mountain laurel.  I couldn't tell what it was but as it got closer I could see a fork on the left side.  I wasn't certain but I didn't think he had one on the right side.

I had some James Valley scrape gel out in a near by scrape and he could smell it.  He walked right into an opening and stopped about ten yards away broad side.  I drew and released.  The lumen nock never lit up and I couldn't see the arrow go.

 I use a string tracker and it seemed that it had gone out but when the deer took off the string was not moving.

The deer ran about 100 mph straight ahead for 40 yards and stopped.  When it stopped it just stood there and then slowly walked off.  It looked like he went down into the ravine filled with mountain laurel.  I was certain I had drilled this deer but I have never seen one run like that and then stop.

I couldn't see my arrow sticking out of the ground and I couldn't see any blood.  I waited half an hour and got down.  There was no blood or arrow where he was standing.  The string was broke and hanging in the mountain laurel.  Not knowing where I hit it I left it till morning.

In the morning my father and my wife went in with me.  I went to where I last saw it and found a few tiny specks of blood.  We spread out and within minutes Lisa yelled she found it.  The buck had been shot through the rib cage and the arrow passed through it going right through the liver.  It didn't go 75 yards.  It's not a monster but I don't care.  It's a 2 pt and it weighed in at 132 LBs at Grr gear.

and it begins...

It's now October 28th and the archery season opened on October 19th. I have only been out once and that was on opening day. I saw nothing but a coyote in the morning and had a doe walk in at 5:30pm. She came into the scrapes I was sitting on and gave me multiple easy 15yd shot opportunities, but I don't have a doe tag (of course).
    Within the last few days a few friends were able to connect on some smaller bucks and a couple were able to connect on nice bucks yesterday evening and this morning. A weather front bringing rain moved in this afternoon, so i think the deer were moving a bit prior to the front. Its supposed to rain hard tonight and tomorrow before giving way to a couple days of cold weather. I was supposed to start my time off on Saturday (Halloween) but the idea of this cold weather following the rain forced me to take Friday off and start a day early...one more day of work and then game-on.
  I was able to get out and check my cams on Sunday and it seems that October 22nd-24th seems to have been the trigger dates for deer to start moving more and hitting scrapes a bit. I was able to get a few bucks on scrapes. Below I have included some videos, the first is the doe walking into the scrape on opening day as I was in the stand 15 yards away. The others are some bucks I would love to see during the season.

First Post of 2015

Things have been pretty busy and I haven't been checking cameras like I normally would be, but a few people have been asking for a post so I guess now is as good a time as any.

To start: I think my brother was able to capture the buck I hit in the shoulder 2 years ago on video. If you look back you'll see that I saw the buck the year after I hit him but his rack was a mess. Last year I was not able to capture him on video and wondered if he may have died at the hands of another hunter, coyote, or just the rough winter. Turns out none of the above may be true, this could be him, He had 5 on the left and the side that I hit him on (the same side he was screwed up on the year following the hit seems to have 2 (maybe 3) points on it. Here the video...

Thesceond buck on the list is a buck that we only got pics of last year during the rut, he was a big 9 with a 8" drop tine. This year it doesnt look like he's going to have the drop tine, if he does it wont be as big as last year. We seem to have figured out where this buck likes to spend some time, but only time will tell if we are going to see more of him during the rut. Heres a video of him from late July, I have some more recent vids of him but they aren't as clear....yes he's even bigger than this video.

I have one other big buck that I have been watching this summer. Its a wide frame 8 point that I located late last season. I have the bucks summer home really pinned down, I have about 100 videos of him coming out of one particular thick patch of mountain laurel. There are several does living in the same patch so hopefully he will stay nearby and rut in this area...if he does this may be the buck I spend the most time on. He is way out in the woods and should see zero pressure. I also have some very huntable stands in his area (although I'm not going to enjoy the long morning walks). 

I have some smaller bucks as well, the smaller bucks seem to be starting to feel a little frisky and are starting to check into some scrape areas. I'll probably start to check cameras every couple weeks now leading into the season so that I can figure out which bucks are moving in which areas. There are a ton of acorns in the woods, which should make for some fat deer, but could also lead to difficult hunting due to food being everywhere. Time will tell!

First buck of the season

I didn't get nearly the ammount of time I wanted to to hunt this November but I was fortunate enough to take the 3rd week off. The last week off work before my vacation dragged on and I found myself debating where to go i hadn't been getting pictures but I knew both my stands were good cruise spots. Saturday morning I found myself hiking up to a stand I call the passage it's in a saddle on too of a very steep mountain and there's nothing pleasant about getting to it but the deer love it up there. I made a few mock scrapes as I made my way in and coated them with a buck bomb along with some saplings and brush then climbed into my stand. About a half hour after it got light I started doing some light calling doe bleats mixed with grunts every so often. At about 815 I heard something crashing up on the ledges to my left the last place I expected deer to come out of but sure enough I caught movement then horns and this deer was on a bee line straight down the ledges right at me. It was all I could do to stand up and grab my bow and this deer was at 5 yards sniffing around at the buck bomb all wound up he wouldn't sit still. Finally he turned and went to a mock scrape a had at 10 yards but was facing directly away from me so I wouldn't shoot then he made his fatal mistake he turned to the right took a step and at that he was broadside at 10 yards and I was at full draw and let one fly. He took a couple bounds then stopped with no idea what happened then I saw him get the wobbly legs and he was in the dirt... An awesome way to start my week off a nice 130 lb 5 pointer 

Decisions, Decisions!

  Sometimes an entire Massachusetts deer season comes down to making one right decision or maybe encountering one small piece of luck. This season I didn't seem to make a good decision, or have any luck. We all know that we're not living in the midwest, we don't really know the rut is happening until its too late. By the time your friends are telling you that they saw bucks cruising or got a crack at a good buck, or that your trail cameras are showing daylight activity...it's too late...you've missed it. Based on these two pieces of information this years activity started to pick up slowly on Nov. 6th. I had a nice 8 point cruising later into the morning on that date and also had late morning cruising on the 8th at that camera as well. The majority of activity seem to ramp up around the 10th and ended around the 14th or so.
     During this time frame we had numerous bucks on there feet all day. with a couple good bucks at 10am, 11am,  and 1pm. in that date range. Those deer were at my stands, just not the stands that I was hunting on those particular days. Some I can excuse because maybe the winds weren't good for hunting those spots on the particular days, but for others that wasn't the case. One particular stand is a stand that I have had plenty of activity at and was one of the few stands that I had deer sightings at this year. I was waiting until I could confirm the rut was one before going to that stand. This stand and another were two stands that I could hunt on westerly or northwesterly winds. When that wind came I flipped a coin and ended up in one of the stands (not the right one) for one all day sit, and then a typical morning then evening hunt (never seeing a single deer) on the 12th and 13th of November. Meanwhile the other stand had deer at it at all hours on those days.
   That simple decision during a couple of the highest activity days may have cost me a deer this year. It's been a rough season, its not over but its getting awful close. Below are a couple videos and pics of some daylight deer at the stands that I wasn't hunting.


Nov. 6th @ 7:30am - the video whited out but you can still see its  a good buck. This buck is cruising a shelf in a funnel. This location had another buck come through on 11/8 @ 9am. This location had almost no doe activity so I hadn't been hunting it, but the bucks still cruised through checking.

Nove. 6th @ 4:30pm this buck we called the skinny 8, he didn't have much mass but looks to have good genetics if he survives. We had a lot of pics of this buck so we hope he survives.

Nov. 10th @ 8am this spike walked past one of my stands along the back of a clear cut. That same morning at 11am a nine point came through the same spot. I had pics of the big brow-tined 9 at another stand on 10/27 but hadn't seen him again until this video showed up. I also ended up getting a few more of him on 10/13 just before daylight.

Nov. 12th @ 4:49pm another spike wandered by one of my stands.

Nov. 13th @ 11:17am and 1pm the same buck cruised past two cameras in the same area. 

Then on the 14th following a morning hunt I returned to this stand for an evening hunt to see tracks in the snow. A doe had come though at 9am and a buck trailed her a half an hour later.

 I still have a couple cameras that I haven't checked in while...I'll update if I get something good.

Not A Deer

   Its not Sunday the 9th and I still haven't seen a deer. Today one friend reported seeing a buck chasing 3 does but he was the only one with a sighting. I sat the same stand that I hit my big 9 pointer from 2 years ago. This stand only seems to produce when deer are on the move, then the swamp edges push the deer past me. At about 9:30am I heard some footsteps coming down the edge of the swamp. They were very loud and I did not think it was a deer, and it wasn't. I large cow moose followed the script and walked down the swamp edge and walked right into my shooting lane just like the deer do. She stepped directly in front of my trail camera and showed me her best side before show moved off....only to come back up through a few minutes later. Let's hope that a deer does the same before this season is over. I shot some pretty good video on my phone but the file is too large to put on the blog. I had to chop it into a pieces to get it on the blog. Here are some of the vids and the view from the trail camera (see below).
    As far as deer movement, it may actually be starting to happen. I had a small buck come through this same stand 2 days ago at 3:30pm, and my brother got pics of one of the 8 pointers we've been getting pics of near one of my other stands at 3:30pm on this past Thursday (the day of the storm).

November 5th Update

Well it's November 5th and as I sit in my stand I am wondering where all the deer are because it's definitely not near me.  I know several guys who have been at it hard and are in the same boat.  We have a lot of different bucks in the area, but none that seem to be cruising yet.  We are still getting pictures, but only after dark.  The last two days have been warm with highs in the mid 60's. The next two days are supposed to be stormy and windy. Then starting Saturday the daytime highs are only supposed to be in the 40's with nighttime lows in the upper 20's,  let's hope that gets things moving.

The Traveler

   As many of you know there is a buck that I have been hunting for about 4 years. I have posted about him several times.  He started as a decent 8pt., then became a very big 8pt.,  then a big 11pt. , last year he was a massive 9pt., this year he is a huge and massive 8pt.   
   I thought I had this deer pretty well figured out.  I have always got his picture in the same area around a big mountain laurel thicket.  Last year I got hundreds of pics of him right through the season,  minus one week in mid November when I figured he had found a doe. This area is difficult to access and hunt,  I need an east wind to hunt the area. I was able to get relatively close to him last year but swirling winds are also a problem in this area,  and they cost me.
    This year I got his picture on cue within just a few days of setting the camera in September.  I thought I was on my way to another season with possibilities of killing this monster.  I had moved the stand slightly in the spring to hopefully help with the wind issues.  Much to my disappointment, I never got his picture again from September through mid October. There are tons of acorns this year and I assumed he had shifted his range to take advantage. 
   As late October rolled around I decided to set a camera on some big scrapes I had located post season last year while shed hunting.  I had never got pics of  this buck rutting and have never found the type of sign that you would expect to go along with a buck this size. 
   On November 1st I checked the camera and sure enough there he was opening the scrape on October 31st at 7pm (see video below).  I also had a huge bodied 5pt as well the day prior (see video below). I was excited to see him again, but would still need an east wind to hunt this spot, and this location was even further out.  
    The following morning the winds were blowing northwest. I hunted another stand quite a distance away where I had been getting numerous buck pictures, and had seen a 6pt and some does earlier in the season.  After an uneventful morning I hopped down and checked the camera overlooking a popular scrape.  Much to my suprise at 5:30am on November 2nd the big buck was at this scrape.  I couldn't believe it,  I had never seen this buck anywhere but the small area where I had got his picture for the previous 4 years.
    When I got home that evening I needed to know just how far it was.  I pulled up google maps and measured it out.  From one camera to the next in a straight line was 1.8 miles.  I didn't know what to think and still don't. Was this normal,  is this his regular rutting area or was this a brief wander.  It is not peak rut, deer really have not been cruising yet.  I guess I need to move a few more cameras into this area and see if he hangs around.  If he does it will open up some possibilities.