Pics from 10/8

Saturday October 8th, On the board!

After hunting for 7 straight days I entered the woods sleep deprived and very tired today.  However the anticipation of more great conditions for the morning hunt and my plans to sleep in on Sunday, I dragged myself up the mountain in New York for my 3rd straight day in this stand.  As it is, I've seen deer every time I've sat this stand this season, and I've already passed 3 one year old bucks.  Cloudy skies and a SSE breeze between 5 and 10 mph had me excited for another morning in this stand, despite the 50 degree temp and humid air, which made feel warmer than any other day this week.  I had hopes of finally seeing one of the many doe groups feed across my bench like many years past, or maybe even getting lucky and seeing an older buck late for his trip up the mountain, or maybe I would even get skunked this morning, always possible in the deer woods as we all know.  At 8:20 am I checked my clock, wondering if I was close to 8:30 am when our NY hunting crew would be getting on the radios to check in on the action.  As I was looking at my phone, finally, the unmistakable noise of a deer walking in the crunchy leaves.  I looked up staring in the direction of the noise, but couldn't spot the deer and my heart rate starting climbing as I knew something was close and that feeling of maybe getting busted by an approaching deer continued to drive up my nerves.  Once I spotted the deer I knew it was safe to stand up, I quickly noticed a bigger rack than the 3pt, 4pt and 6pt I've been seeing all week at this stand and a quick look through the binos confirmed he was a 7 pointer.  He wasn't huge, and any other day would probably have gotten the pass.  However, after passing 3 bucks already this week, missing once and hitting two doe's (only one of which I recovered) this season, I was locked in for a clean harvest, and this was the best NY deer I've seen all week, and more so, I could have my Sunday's off for the rest of the season to recharge if I tagged out.  I ranged him at 35 yds as he entered my shooting lane, "buuuuuurp," he stopped broadside in my shooting lane, I thought to myself "grip, nose, level, pick a spot" and click!  My arrow ripped right through him, perfect shot I thought to myself.  He bounded about 20 yds and froze, I knew he had no clue what just hit him, and he stood there still for about 2 minutes.  As I was coaching him in my head to go down, he started walking away hurt, very slowly, and soon got 60yds away and out of my sight.  I knew the shot was good, he just needed time.  I jumped on the radio as it was now 8:30 am to tell the guys about the news.  While I was breaking the news and hearing about Reggie's 3pt he had just dropped only 500yds down the same bench, I suddenly heard some thrashing in the leaves, as I looked up I saw a deer bed down.  I noticed it was my deer as soon as I raised the binos on him, but he got up again, only to crash a few more steps and collapse for the last time.  For the double lung shot I made, I thought this deer fought the good fight longer than I had expected as I hate making them suffer, but the good news was he was down, and he stopped moving, and I'm on the board for 2016.  Its been a great few weeks to start off 2016;  My scouting in CT paid off with multiple deer sightings and a couple shots, unfortunately my doe was eaten by coyote's, but my buddy Pauly also dropped a 6pt in a spot I showed him I had previously scouted.  My go to "old faithful" bench in NY paid off big as well going for 6 hunts and seeing 7 deer, at least one a day aint all that bad on public land!  I certainly spent very little time scouting in NY this year and my bench just so happened to be getting heavily used prior to the season opening, and it all came together today.  I'm hoping the deer come back in CT as they vacated the premises for a week after the coyote's got my doe, this week I'll be focusing on CT trying to get a tag filled in another state.  After all, NY and CT are my warm ups for the MA bow season I've spent countless hours scouting for all year and setting up 8 stands, 2 climber spots and growing my food plot.  After one more week in CT, I'll be all in for the MA season pursuing big woods public land bucks, mainly my target deer, "Bullwinkle."  The pressure is off now, and I'm more excited than ever that this will be a great season as I get to let all the little ones walk this year and focus on shooting a mature buck, hopefully its Bullwinkle...  More to come, the season is young.

Friday, October 7th

Back to NY, 3:00 am again for a morning hunt with my dad and two guys from our NY crew Reggie and Pat.  Today there were only 10 deer in the field by the road and abandoned house, 8 doe's and 2 young bucks sparring.  The good news is they'll probably head up the mountain, the bad news is we have to walk by them without totally blowing them out of there.  Another awesome morning for hunting, 45 degree low, calm wind, crunchy leaves.  At around 7:30 am I spotted a deer moving quickly up the mountain, as I stood up to get ready, I thought I noticed it was a doe in a hurry and that got the blood pumping in anticipation of what could be spooking her.  After losing sight of her when she got on my bench, I noticed a deer step out from where I last saw her and stare down the mountain.  Unfortunately, it was not a doe, it was a familiar face, the same 6pt I saw last Sunday morning.  Good deer to experiment with I thought, and I threw a short grunt at him, he immediately grunted back and came walking in my direction about 30yds.  I grunted again, he grunted back and closed another 20yds.  He was now at about 35yds so I left him alone, he crunched down half a dozen acorns in less than 5 minutes and then bolted in excitement through my shooting lanes across the bench, stopped again and calmed himself down on some more acorns.  As I was losing sight of him 70yds away, I head another deer walking toward me from where the 6pt came from.  Enter the 4pt from opening day, walking in like a boss.  He stopped briefly at the scrape but didn't hang around, he went straight for the trail and headed up the mountain.  I could still see the 6pt in the distance but I don't think he even heard the 4pt and the two never met up.  As I pulled out my phone to let my dad know about the action, I had a text from him already stating he just had a 4pt close by was busted by him and he headed my way.  That was it for the morning, Reggie and Pat didn't see any deer, no other action aside from the busy squirrels all morning long.  Back at it on Saturday...

Thursday, October 6th

Up at 3:00 am, out the door by 3:30 am, hour and half drive, parked by 5:00 am, in the tree by 5:45 am settled by 6:00 am, this is a typical round trip for hunting New York.  There was a doe and fawn hanging around the road and abandoned house where we park, gave me some hope they'd head up the mountain this morning.  It seemed all worth it for the near perfect early season conditions, 43 degrees, thermals in full effect on the mountain side carrying my wind off the hillside out of the NE.  I watched a familiar 3 point show up on my bench and head right for the trail that scales the steep mountain side 40 yards away, all within a minutes time and he was gone.  It felt like a boring morning overall, but with the squirrels constantly gathering acorns and worse, knocking acorns out of trees, along with the dry leaves, I was on high alert all morning so the time passed quickly.  The good news is the deer are moving in the mornings pretty consistently in NY where I've seen deer 4 out of 4 sits, the leaves are getting crunchy too so there's a good chance of hearing them before seeing them.  In the afternoon I grabbed my climber and headed above the field, closer to the parking area where they've historically come down during shooting light.  75 degree high, yeah I didn't see any deer this evening, onto the next hunt...

Forgot to include pics from 10/5

Acorns?  This group of 4 red oaks has been dropping for 4 weeks, the drip line, or should I say drop line is at least a 60ft circle of acorns this thick!! But the carcass 200yds away is keeping Coyote's around and seemingly keeping the deer out.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Rob Cote, obsessed Whitetail hunter.  Check out No Bitchin Outdoors on Youtube:  No Bitchin Outdoors

Whitetail Blog Wednesday October 5

Had the best weather conditions of the young season today, low 39, calm, clear and chilly!  Fleece jacket, fleece neck gaiter, 2nd pair of socks, hand warmers? Check, check check and check.  Got into my stands ninja quiet for a 4 and half hour morning hunt and a 3 hour afternoon hunt, trees pooring acorns, thermals were taking my wind up into the trees all morning long as the sun came up, thermals took my wind right off the hillside all afternoon and the sun went down... Wait for it, ZERO DEER today.  I checked my camera, another coyote last night, I think the deer are officially avoiding my area due to the carcass from last Wednesday.  I moved my camera from my ridge stand overlooking a group of oaks pouring acorns (see pic) to the corner of the adjacent hillside where a ton of oaks are pouring acorns over an area loaded with last years scrapes and rubs.  At this point, I'm abandoning CT for a few more days in favor of an earlier morning and a longer drive to NY for some more public land pursuit.  I should at the least have our NY grounds to myself and the deer will have no hunters to dodge or smell as they work their way to bedding, improving my odds greatly from the normal weekend traffic, which I still went 3/3 with sightings Saturday-Monday.  Stay tuned, the next 4 days will be live from New York.

Nov. 17th.

Well it finally got cold and the wind is finally out of the Northwest. I hiked over a mile to what has been one of my most active stands (on camera) yesterday and sat all day. I think I bumped every deer in the woods on my way out in the morning. That seems to be the story of that stand, it's very active and there are a lot of deer but my entry sucks sucks and I have bumped deer almost every time I have gone up there, im going to have to rethink the stand location on that one.
   Today I didn't want to make that long hike again so i decided to hunt a funnel that we believed one of our biggest bucks uses during the rut to cross a road. Its a strip of woods with a swamp on one side and a super thick overgrown clearcut on the other. The strip of woods is about 100yds wide and we got numerous pictures of a big buck with a drop tine using the funnel last season. The buck did not develop a drop tine this season but hes still big. I have had a camera in this area since late august and in that time I had only got the bucks picture once, but was confident that once the rut kicked in he would be using it. I need a west or northwest wind to hunt the stand (which we have not had).
   I climbed in the stand early and as I was unpacking my things in the dark I heard a deer walk up the hill from the bottom of the funnel. The deer was close, im guessing 20 yds, I could hear it feeding and I heard it defecate in the crunchy leaves. After about 10 minutes it fed its way down the hill. during this time I was just standing in the stand waiting until I felt like I could move without spooking the deer. Once it walked away I turned around and sat down and nocked an arrow as it was just barely starting to get light.
    About 5 minutes after the deer (that I suspected was a doe) walked down into the funnel I could hear more deer walking, the walking quickly turned into running and grunting and I knew deer were chasing just 60 yds away, but it was still to dark to see. As the next few minutes passed I could start to see a little bit and I decided to roll a bleat can and grunt a few times in an attempt to keep the deer near me for just a few more minutes until I could get shooting light. I rolled the can about 3 times and gave a few short grunts. Rather than a deer coming from the bottom I instead heard a deer coming down from above. The deer was close but I couldn't see it in the gray light, it walked behind my stand from above me and walked down at a steady pace toward the chasing below which was still going on. After a few minutes I repeated the same calling sequence, this time I heard a deer coming up from the bottom on the same path that the deer had just walked down. behind my tree stand it is very thick with whips and brush (I can see, but I have no shooting lanes, and would only be able to shoot if the deer was less than 15 yds away). The deer came up and stopped behind a hemlock just 30yds away. The deer stood in that spot for what seemes like 5 minutes but was probably just a couple. at that point it let out a deep grunt and I knew it was a buck. The deer continued up the hill on the path the previous deer had come down and finally passed me at just 25yds, at that point I saw nothing but a huge body and horns. that deer walked back intot he funnel above me grunting the whole way.
   A few minutes later I again repeated the calling this time I could hear a deer coming from directly behind me, this turned out to be small buck. It never offered me a shot but I wouldnt have shot it anyway knowing that the large buck was just above me. The small buck proceeded down the hill toward the chasing below that was still going on. Once more I called and another deer came up from the bottom, I could see a deer through the brush at 45yds but didn't get a very good look. These deer all eventually chased out of hearing range. About 20 minutes later a lone doe walked up out of the funnel about 45 yds in front of me. I thought that this doe might bring me a parade of deer (or at least I hoped), that never happened.
   After I got down I checked a camera that was about 100yds away above me in the funnel in the same area where the mornings deer came down from, and where the big buck exited. The camera had been active including the drop tine buck. He had been in the area numerous times since the 7th of November. He had been captured 3 times in the morning hours on this day and once after I had seen him. All in all I would have loved to have got a crack at this buck, but I had a great morning and the stand location guess had panned out, so I couldn't complain. Below are a couple vids including the buck running by after I saw him on this morning.

 

Nov. 12

Nov. 12 was another warm day and it had rained a little on the 11th. I decided to go back to the stand I killed by buck out of earlier in the season as the area still seemed to be active with scrapes and buck sign. The ground was wet and the trees were still dripping from the rain during the night. The wind was calm and out of the south. At about 8:30 out of the laurel just 30yds away a coyote appeared. I had never heard it coming and never saw it due to the thick brush. The coyote walked straight in to me and at about 7 yds I drew my bow and made a lip squeak. The dog stopped and looked up and I released. The coyote only went about 10 feet before expiring. I continued to sit in the stand and about 1/2 hour later I looked up to see another coyote coming, as that one approached I noticed a second one not too far behind. I attempted to get shots at these two but I just couldn't get them to stop in the open. I have now seen 6 coyotes this year...that's probably more than every other season combined...maybe I need to do a little late season calling once the deer season is over.

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.