Sat. Morn Sept. 17. 34 Degrees, faint NE wind.
The alarm went off at 5:15. Its was cold enough that I wore longjohns and a stocking cap and used hand warmers. I was hunting the site I have been calling the crossroads site for my deer scent trials. Its been dry for the last few weeks so walking in quietly would be a challenge. When I got within 50 yards of the edge of the woods, I heard a deer busting through the underbrush but it was still dark so I could not see anything. When I got to my stand I hung my bow from the rope and then walked out in front of the stand and placed some of the homemade scent on the back side of a nearby tree and on some of the lower vegetation and then headed up into my ladder stand.
It was cold enough to see my breath which told me the wind was perfect for the direction I expected the deer to come from. I assumed they would be on a neighboring property eating acorns and then would filter back into the woods, cross the small stream and then into a beading area. That?s exactly what happened. At 7:02 I caught the flick of an ear in the distance. I could see it was a doe. I grabbed the camera instead of the bow. The first video is her approach. She eventually gets down wind of the scent.
(You can improve the video quality on Youtube by selecting 720P HD at the bottom right of the viewing pane. Click on where it says 360p)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyIElqyfALQAt the end of the first video she had reached the scent and stops. The second part of the video is after she reaches the scent and starts sniffing and licking the vegetation. It would have been more than long enough to provide a shot but I was not interested in shooting this doe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHeh_lcIM78In the last video, she walks off unharmed and unaware that I was above her and that I opted to shoot her with a camera instead of my bow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7AqraVTU38At around 8:00, another doe approaches from just west of where the first doe was. This put her right in front of my trail camera. I snapped a frame from the video and you can see the bungee cords that hold the trail camera on the tree.
After hunting I pulled the card from the camera. Here is the picture it took as she passed by. Today?s technology is impressive. This doe was being photographed and videoed and she never knew what was going on.
I think she knows she is late getting back to bed and she seems in a hurry. She never gets down wind of the scent but instead passes by it from the up wind side and never stops moving. Both deer splash across the stream and head into a bedding area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHf_ludZEU0I hunt until 10:00 am and then head back to the farm.
When I got to my parent?s house I learned that my 11 year old Nephew had killed his first deer in the first hour of his first bow hunt.
I had posted a picture of him here back in 2008 at age 8 practicing with his bow.
This young fella and his siblings have been raised in a bowhunting family. Here is a picture of him and an archery kill his mom made while pregnant with their little sister.
After I got cleaned up, I headed to a small family get together. At 3:30 I headed back to the woods to sit another stand. While approaching the spot, I rounded a corner on the field road and spotted a doe.
After a brief stare down, she walked away.
The wind was not the best and I should not have sat this stand but instead should have returned to the stand I used in the morning. The evening passed by with a brief sighting of a doe on the other side of the stream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fr-WRA9f_kAt last light I heard a sound behind me and turned to see a spike buck 30 yards to my right rear. It was too dark in the cedars behind me to get a video. After he passed by, I climbed down and headed back to the truck.
The forecast for Sunday was rain with South Winds. Neither are very good for where I hoped to hunt so I slept in after waking to the sound of rainfall. I ate breakfast with my parents and then headed home. While no game was harvested, it was a great opening weekend. As I write this I became aware that I saw several adult does but none of than had fawns with them. Likewise I did not have very many pictures of fawns on the trail cameras either. This has me concerned.
