October 31: Young bucks on the move

I have very little personal experiences to share about this MA season so far because I continue to see little to no deer movement.  Things really heated up with my weekend, on Friday I had a doe come by at 6:20 am in the dark and set off my flash camera, and on Saturday I saw two doe's crossing a power line while I was driving out.  Its an October slump, but tomorrow is November so my hopes are still with each passing day.  Today I decided to get out of my bucks main bedding area which has been super cold and started moving into the doe areas he likes to visit.  After another beautiful morning, I adjusted a couple cameras, opened the scrapes, added a little scent and snuck off, I'm going to leave the bedding area alone for a week or so I've decided.  After dropping my gear at my Jeep I took off to the top of what I call "Moosebuck Mountain," where I started getting regular pictures of Bullwinkle (originally Moosebuck) last year.  I hung my new Bushnell Wifi camera (courtesy of the best girlfriend in the world) at the top of the ridge on an intersection with a big community scrape as I've caught Bullwinkle here mostly at night but quite frequently the last two years.  Thanks to trail cameras placed all over last years rut sign as I expanded my scouting for Bullwinkle, I discovered his second favorite thicket to bed in on the north end of his territory.  This "mountain" is in the center of his range, smack in the middle of his two favorite areas to bed and spend his time, making this ridge top is an ideal spot for him to cross over while traveling between them.  My plan is that if I can catch him checking this scrape in the next couple weeks it will give me some sort of useful information, leading me to either his southern or northern bedding to hunt, regardless of what time he passes by.  I've failed to make use of this camera to date as I seem to be a step behind every time I hang it somewhere new and the spots have been cold cold cold.  This scrape has had plenty of activity the last couple weeks so my hopes are high, would be cool to get a text to wake up to in the morning showing me which direction he's headed, all intel is good intel on big woods bucks.  This afternoon I took a chance in a new tree stand on an open hardwood hillside that I haven't hunted yet.  Its a stand for a dead North wind or a NE and until I got in there to learn the thermals, I didn't want to risk anything else.  But today I was yearning to see a deer after a slow two weeks, and this spot is perfect for cruising bucks, as evidence by the video below of 6 Pack from last Thursday when I snuck in to check the cam in the snow.  A NNW wind turned out to perfect, so I'm excited to have a new NNW stand given how much we've already seen that wind direction this year.  I got news of a 1 1/2 yr old buck chasing doe's that died by the bow this morning, and another 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 yr old buck that died by the bow cruising for doe's this afternoon.  Another buddy of mine saw a nice buck in a field with his nose down going back to the woods, later 5 doe's came running by him, but the buck never followed, must have just got the girls up and checked them out.  My area is still very slow for scrapes, but others are reporting fresh scrapes the last couple times in, some areas are heating up, get in the woods as much as you can, any day the big buck in your area could get up and move, it could be yours next!

6 Pack came by Thursday 4 hours after I checked the camera, cool snowy video.

Bullwinkle cruising by like he did on 10/16, 10/18 and 10/21.  Just need to pick the right day.

October 27th: Things are heating up, right?

Another slow day for me, but not for others as the friend report has been heating up all week.  This cold front has paid off great for most hunters I've been exchanging information with.  Fresh scrapes are showing up, aggressive rubs, and I've heard two reports of grunting and chasing.  My area remains quiet, I sat my bucks core bedding area for 4 straight days in 3 different stands, not a deer in sight not a picture on the cameras.  My attitude is still very positive after a mid day scouting mission today to make my rounds and check the cameras and stands I haven't seen in two weeks since before the season began.  The sign is still light in my area overall, only a few satellite scrapes, barely any community scrapes opened up yet, but some good rubs continue to pile up in some areas around the thickets where I know doe's like to hang.  The intel continues to pile up for me, I've never known so much about a buck I've been after.  I got a surprise last night while I was clearing some memory cards I pulled last week, a picture I couldn't see clearly enough on my card reader while in the field last week, but my target buck "Bullwinkle" walked right by my camera only 3 days after I moved it, he walked right down the cart road at around 8:00 pm,15 yards from the stand I sat the last 2 days.  I began wondering if he'd gone nocturnal, which was hard to digest considering I had so many day time pics of him in his core area, I'm talking like 80% of the pics of him in his core area were day time from June to early October.  But it all makes sense now that I've thought it through, this is what bucks are supposed to do, rest up and save their energy for peak breeding activity.  After checking my cameras today, its exactly what I had hoped to confirm after sitting 4 days without him or another deer in sight.  I got pictures of Bullwinkle at two other stand locations out of the 4 spots I checked, all night time pictures checking his doe areas.  3 confirming his departure from his core bedding area at night, one from his north most bedding area, and another of him bedding smack in the middle of his territory by my climber spot and coming out at exactly 6:30 pm last week, probably too dark to shoot of course.  I'm confident he's in trouble this season with my current set up, it seems like wherever I put a camera he shows up on it.  My last stand location I hadn't got a picture of him he visited 3 times last week, I just knew by the terrain and last years sign this was a regular spot to check, especially with all the mature oaks around.  While I may not be getting many pictures of him in his core bedding area lately (last pic was opening day at 6:08 pm) he is still checking his doe areas at night either coming from or going to his favorite bedding areas.  Don't give up on big old bucks, while there is certainly a chance to kill them this early in the season, they know its time to relax during the day and conserve energy for marking their territory and visiting the ladies at night.  It brings me additional confidence and patience to know that despite mostly nocturnal pictures, that I did get him moving in shooting light 3 times in October and all of these dates he's showed up at a tree stand location confirmed by trail camera just since the start of the month:  October 2, 10 (at two cameras), 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23.  Some pictures below of the recent action...

Never got him in this cam and he shows up 3 times in 5 days!

Mock scrape in the snow, looks real doesn't it?  Still gets ya pumped!!

These two rubs were right on my trail to my stand.  I could smell the birch tree on the second one it was so fresh.  The last 3 times I went to that stand there was a new rub on my trail in, and now there's 3 rubs and 3 scrapes... Guess they like the path I cut.

Coming out of bedding the week before the season opened, I couldn't tell it was him on my card reader, so I guess I was sitting in the right place the last couple days, just need him to do this with a light left, quartering away 20 yds isn't bad!

And so it begins...

    ...Actually it began a couple weeks ago, but for me it began yesterday (Oct 25th). I was waiting for some cold weather, and yesterday morning it was 30 degrees and windy. I hunted a spot that recently has had a lot of smaller bucks. I was hoping to fill the freezer and also keep my better stands fresh. I didn't see anything, morning or evening. I am in the same place again this morning. The temps are a cool 30 again but with a light wind, it's nice but no deer as of yet.
   As far as bucks on the list for the season there are a few. 1st is the drop tine, he's been around a couple years. I saw him once last year and we found a shed from him this spring. The 2nd is the split brow tine buck. He has been around a couple years as well. I set 2 new stands for him and already have numerous pics of him. I'd like to think if the temps and wind cooperate I might have a shot at that buck. 3rd is a buck nicknamed by a friend as "Juice" because he went from a skinny framed 9-point to a big 10 this year. We really don't have his core nailed down, last year he was everywhere, but he was young. In the last few days I got his pic in the area I'm sitting now, but I never got him in this area last year. Time will tell if he sticks around. The last deer is a buck I got pics of twice last year. He was a big 8 with a sticker on his g2 last year. He is the same again this year, just bigger. That buck I only got pics of a couple times last year in late October then he disappeared, maybe he'll stick around this year. There are numerous small to decent bucks but these 4 seem to be the dominant bucks in the area....but ya never what might show up in November.

                                                                         "Juice"

"Splits"

"Sticker 8"

October 25: Cold fronts, Cold Hunts!!

Anticipation was super high, deer movement has been super slow, for me anyway.  The cold front had me excited Monday (33L, 50H) so I sat all day in the prime conditions.  It was a SW that switched to WNW cold breezy wind that brought a lot of noise to the woods and quieted the bird and squirrel activity in my area, but the deer movement was also quiet, no deer Monday at Bullwinkle's Back Door.  I call it the backdoor because my stand overlooks an opening on the edge of the clear cut that leads to a dark hemlock and laurel thicket creating an edge that is dark on one side and wide open on the other.  Last year, there were 8 rubs and 2 big scrapes within 30 yards of where my stand is currently set showing the clear entry and exit in and out of the clear cut, Bullwinkle's core area.  On Tuesday I sat Bullwinkle's Front Door where I passed the 4 yr old 6 point "6 Pack" last week.  My tree is surrounded by thick laurel and trees that were sparred during the cut.  Behind me is a single logging road fed by 2 different roads and a couple other runs that come out of the clear cut and funnel down where the deer head to and come from the power lines which has 2 different scrapes on it on each side of my stand.  In front of my stand is a big clearing that is fed by 3 cart roads that all funnel to one and a big community scrape.  I can see at least 100 yards into the clear cut from both stands, and am right on top of big scrapes that were opened and hit multiple times since September, but despite the excitement of October 25th, no deer for two days in either stand!  Tomorrow the cold windy front continues with a projected NNW wind and more cold temps.  Instead of changing it up like I want to in order to seek some better action, I'm going right back to the same stand where I was today.  There's just too many ways he could travel by me where I can shoot him and too many of his scrapes near me within range and a W or NW or NNW wind is too perfect for him to swing around the slope in front of me cutting into the wind as he scent checks the bedding area, its a great set up, I can't give up after one day of seeing nothing.  After all, I got patience for days and one of my favorite sayings for hunting and fishing is, "If it sucks, make sure it sucks."  Also, I should note that the scrapes in my area haven't been hit and nothing has shown up on my cameras since last week so I'm being stubborn hunting a seemingly cold spot this week, but its my bucks core area, I'm not leaving yet.  Not to fear the October lull though, I saw doe's on the way to and from hunting off the side of the road, along with a few reports of young bucks being seen Monday evening.  Tuesday morning I heard about a lot of doe movement in the cool breeze, and I heard about a nice buck being taken as well.  Get out there, tomorrow is October 26, I'll be there, it could happen.

10/21 Hunt

Hunted 10/21 despite warm temps, and light rain. About 5PM I had a single deer come down and the old cart rd 35 yards west of me. Not sure if it was a small buck or doe. It was my first sighting from a stand for 2016. Temps dropping overnight. Hoping they're on their feet tomorrow. 

October 19th: I saw a deer!

Finally got a slight improvement in the weather and it paid off this afternoon, but not after a hot nerve wrenching.  It was a very warm morning, 63 degrees for the walk in and morning hunt, calm with a SSW that was supposed to switch to WNW by 9:00 am.  I couldn't avoid sweating slightly despite wearing light camo today, which added to my already diminished expectations for the morning, and then it got worse.  The first hiker of the day arrived at 7:45 am, walking his two dogs down the cart road I come in on, only 70 yards from my stand.  I know the road gets used a little by horse back riders, but I'm hoping this guy isn't a frequent flyer as his dogs were running freely through the woods, luckily they were down wind and weren't too loud.  I bailed early because I couldn't keep my eyes open this morning, the weakness of a daily hunter, something I'm sure you've all experienced before if you've woke up at 3:30 am for multiple days in a row.  I parked my jeep on the shady side of the powerlines I drive into and embarked on a mid day recharge nap in the drivers seat.  In my 3 and half hour slumber (and trust me it was worth it!) I heard a woman and her dog walk by, roughly an hour in between her passing both ways by my jeep, the nerve she had to wake me up, "another yuppy?" I thought.  When I woke up around 2:00 pm I decided it was time to shake off the cobwebs and get going, the wind was supposed to die down and the low for tonight is freakin 45, deer might actually move!  I got settled into my stand by 3:00 pm with the WNW wind blowing steady in my face, the perfect set up today.  At 3:15 pm I heard something walking right behind my stand that made me turn slowly to look, I'd be astonished if a deer was on its feet now, its still above 70 degrees, and then... The 3rd yuppy of the day.  This guy walking by himself down the cart road I enter on, which its important to note my camera has been watching for over a month with zero human activity, walks right by me.  I yelled to him to stop him from going into the bedding area I'm waiting for my buck to walk out of, and he waves and keeps walking.  Then I asked him "where you headed?" so he points forward and keeps walking.  I actually got lucky that he was down wind of the bedding area and did in fact turn down wind of me instead of walking up into the bedding area.  I was so close to getting down, but I figured with the sound being covered by the wind and his scent staying down wind of everything, I may be ok.  The wind died by 5:30 pm, but was softly and quietly blowing out of the WNW still, then I heard something making noise on the slope out in front of me above the cut clearing I'm over looking.  As I starred in that direction, my heart jumped as I watch a branch start flying around, BUCK.  I raised my binoculars and could see the body and legs standing behind the flailing branch, he took a few steps forward and I could see a nice rack as wide as his ears.  Likely not my buck I thought, but with the fading light my heart was pounding because I didn't know for sure.  When he stepped out into the clear cut, I could finally recognize the familiar buck, I named 6 Pack.  He slowly worked down into the open cut, staging there and feeding on acorns until it got dark when I packed up and slipped out, likely within 50 yards of him, but I stayed down wind and he didn't take off.  He must have thought he won, fortunately for him I'm after something bigger because I let 6 Pack walk at 35 yards broadside while he was eating. Everything worked out in my favor to end the day, and to end the warm front as tomorrow brings a 45 degree morning, finally some weather that will bring more deer movement and higher hopes, on to tomorrow. 

Tuesday 10/18: Summer is here!

What a beautiful day to be out on a boat, fishing, swimming, or riding with the top down, not so much for deer hunting.  Some how I avoided sweating on two trips into the stand today, it was a balmy 60 degrees this morning which stayed decent with cloud cover and a breeze until the sun came out, then it was summer time weather, killing my high hopes and deer movement.  I sat downwind of my bucks bedding area this morning with a southerly wind that blowing a lot out of the east, luckily that still keeps my wind out of the clear cut bedding area.  In the afternoon, with my buddy freed up and 80 degree temps, we figured it'd be worth a shot sitting our food plot in hopes of dropping a doe tonight in front of the video camera.  The morning turned up no deer, but it was encouraging as I sat my new stand set for the first time, very scenic, very hidden and while I thought the acorns were light in the area, they were actually pouring down around me all morning long, which has me looking forward to more sits there.  When I got down at 11:00 am to check my camera and leave the woods, I found huge fresh tracks in the mock scrape I opened the Thursday before while I was checking the camera, and then I found fresh urine in my bucks scrape in front of my stand, could he have been through since Thursday?  Yeah, he came through alright, at 6:08 pm yesterday, he's still killable and I'm only a step behind him.  My first thought was "should have been there", but in reality if I wasn't helping my friend track his deer I wouldn't have been in that stand anyway.  So the fact I got the 3rd daytime pic of my buck in 3 weeks right near my stand is certainly encouraging for the weeks to come.  He's still in his core area, and he seems to be sneaking around during daylight as often as he did during the summer, the next couple weeks could be key if I want to get him down before he's running doe's and traveling everywhere.  The food plot turned up some encouraging turkeys, a nice tom with a 10"+ beard and 1"+ hooks hanging with a few hens, and then 17 hens later on were seen, looking good for the future crop of turkeys.  We saw no deer, just two random people from the neighborhood walking our field coming to check out the food plot, that generally doesn't mix well with hunting success.  The wind was sketchy at best all day today, only blowing South about half the time, I hope the westerly winds coming tomorrow settle in more consistently, I'll be down wind of my buck for the next 3 days rain or shine.

View from my stand overlooking the clear cut.

One of my favorite spots to sit in Western MA, my food plot.

My buck Bullwinkle surviving opening day while I helped my buddy blood trail a deer.

Excited for 2016 Deer Season

The 2016 season is finally here. 

Despite having limb delaminate a few weeks back(luckily it was covered under warranty and was quickly replaced by grrr gear), sight issues (got a sight and some help from BK (reducing noise), and being busy at work things are coming together. The bow is dialed in and shooting as well as it ever has with me at the release. 

Going into the 2016 season I have three target bucks. #1 is the slammer I saw last year. #2 is a mature 10(pictured)and #3 is a decent 8(pictured). However my area often produces bucks during the rut that I have never got a trail picture of before. 

With any luck( and all you guys know I've got a little) it won't be long before we're into some good rutting action.

Persistence would describe 2015. In hoping 2016 provides opportunities a little quicker. 

Monday, October 17: MA Opening Day is here

So much scouting time and preparation, anticipation, planning, excitement, early season in two states to get the rust off, opening day is finally here!  And guess what, as with most years, if it wasn't rain, here came the 70+ degree temps, bringing the October lull effect the only way New England can bring it for the 3rd week of October.  My morning was slow, 55 degree walk in, couldn't avoid sweating despite the easy flat walk, barely any wind but just enough thermals to keep my scent high in the trees.  I chose my hottest stand but no deer, no pictures on the camera since last Thursday when I snuck in to check things out, but I did find fresh tracks and I pushed two deer on the way in, I was near deer and in MA, that's not too bad.  One of my buddies had a young 6pt feed by him, another buddy shot a 4pt at 30 yards around 8:00 am.  Other than that I got reports from 5 other guys reporting a whole lot of NO MOVEMENT this morning.  I left my stand at 1:00 pm to help my buddy trail his buck, but it bled very little and left us very little sign to follow in the dry leaves.  I was only able to help gain another 6-7 drops of blood over another 150 yards and we lost his path.  This situation always leaves us with mixed feelings, the thought of burying an arrow in an animal we respect so much leaves us empty handed and feeling wasteful.  Yet I always want to know if there a chance it will survive, maybe it was a flesh wound, maybe the arrow came out, maybe he was barely hurt.  Sometimes I'm not sure if I'd prefer it survived or died for the animals in the woods to scavenge on, which is possibly better than suffering through a likely infection and months of injury which for a whitetail can mean life or death if not fully healthy to evade predators, not to mention inhumane.  That is bow hunting I guess, we win some we lose some but what's most important is that these situations usually leave us in a better state as hunters.  We've now learned our mistakes, and the next encounter things will slow down, the shot will come easy, things will play out like they should, it'll all come together, and the hunter won't make the same mistake.  The next few days look warm and Septemberish, but that's ok because I have plenty of tree stands to hunt and time to hunt them, and I know I can't get one on the couch so I'll be there.  Maybe tomorrow will be the day of Bullwinkle, but if not, we got some nicer weather coming, that will at least raise my confidence above the current thermostat levels!

October 13: The woods are primed for Bullwinkle.

Its October 13th, not a significant date of course, but I'm getting crazy excited for the MA bow season and the woods are priming up for action, depending on your area of course, the results were spotty my last two days in the woods.  My findings from two days of scouting, checking and moving cameras is that you need to get out and check your areas if you're not already prepped for the season. With the leaves changing and beginning to fall you literally have a few days to get out and scout before the ground is covered with fluorescent yellow and orange leaves covering up fresh sign daily and making it challenging to see sign change over time in a given area.   A few of my spots were red hot with multiple fresh scrapes opened up and fresh buck rubs, and each of those spots had bountiful acorn crops in the area, luckily for me my stands have been hung in those areas for weeks and I guessed right.  A few of my spots had little buck sign to speak of, but still had decent activity on the camera with a good mix of day time pics, telling me their still not ramping up too much overall.  And a couple other spots were pretty cold for buck activity, but had plenty of doe's feeding around, which in the big woods is a ticking time bomb for visiting bucks, better things to come.  Like the acorn crop, buck sign has been all or nothing from what I saw, but what's most important to me is gathering more intel on my target buck as I'm constantly wondering what the hell is he up to lately given that he hasn't shown up much on my cameras in September, but he's been busy!  Check out the pics below, some good scrapes and a couple good rubs I found, but most importantly my target buck Bullwinkle, two of which were day time pics of him rummaging around my tree stands.  With as much room as these big woods bucks have to roam, something as simple as a night time picture of a mature Whitetail is huge to have the confidence they use your area.  But to single out a particular buck or two like our cameras allow us to do, and then gather years of intel of which direction he heads, when he heads there, and what he does in certain areas all play a huge role in narrowing down your strategy to hunt them.  This year is the year of Bullwinkle for me, I'm all in, 6 out of the 10 stands I hung this year are for him. 3 stands are surrounding his core area, something that took me 2 years of moving cameras around the outside of a major clear cut that is now 3 years old, prime for browse and cover.  He's not necessarily a "giant" in terms of antlers, but he's well over 200lbs dressed, he's Pope and Young all day, and I have pictures of him dating back to 2012 when he was what I believe is 3 1/2 years old, making him 7 1/2 years old this year.  I know his core area, have tons of day time pictures of him this summer in it, and I know his doe areas from the scouting and hunting I did all last season, which paid off big in my preparation this year.  More often than not this year I've guessed right wherever I hung a camera and he usually walked by it.  Only time will tell this season, I have more intel than ever confirming my game plan and the travel routes in and out of his bedding and doe areas, all I can do is hunt my stands with the right winds and wait him out.  I have all season to hunt, multiple stands for multiple winds, I got nothing but time, time is on my side.  Good luck to all the hunters taking Monday off to hunt, there's nothing the anticipation of opening day, this year more than ever, I don't even have to wait for the rut, my cameras are telling me Bullwinkle is killable during daylight right now, its on, and I'm more excited than ever.

Love when you go check your cam/stand and find a tree snapped in half!

Community Scrape worked up good already 30yds from stand,

Nice tall rub on my brite eye trail... He was here...

The man, the myth, the legend Bullwinkle...

Heading to bed yesterday morning..

 

Coming out of bed yesterday afternoon, 15yds from my stand!

4:15pm?! Why can't MA open earlier??