Howdy ladies and gents,
Just wanted to share how my deer season has been going this year. It has certainly been a good one.
I have a couple properties that I have hunted for the last few years, one on each side of the Blue Ridge. The property in Roanoke Co. is a little slice of heaven up on Bent Mountain. Let me tell you that there is good reason for their liberal doe days and earn a buck. Tons of does up there. My intentions were to hunt this property during bow season to fill the freezer a bit.
Except that I went and bought a house just before September started. Not a hot idea when you are supposed to be practicing shooting so you can be proficient with your bow before opening day. Projects and adulting got in the way of deer season prep, and I ended up not even hunting the first weekend in October. I finally got to spend some time in the woods on the second weekend. Had a doe at 10 yards but opted not to shoot. The time needed to process a deer was time I could have been working on the house while the weather was still warm enough to stain decks and such.
The third weekend of archery my father came up to hunt. He did the same last year and was able to kill his first archery buck with his crossbow. He doesn't hunt much anymore unless he is going out with me and any time spent with my father is good time, especially in the woods. So I set him up in the same tree as last year where he killed his doe for the morning. After a fruitless morning he opted to sit in the same spot and I took a trip to Walmart to pick up tree steps to be able to hang a stand in a new tree that, I knew, would be dynamite. Sure enough I had several does and a little fork horn come out with two hours left of light and I was able to put an arrow in the biggest doe I have ever seen on the hoof. She took off down the hill and, not so sure of the shot, I decided to wait for my father to get down at dark to go search. He ended up not seeing anything that evening, but we tracked my doe down about 125 yards to where she died in the creek. This picture was taken the following morning.
Attachment:
rsz_1rsz_20151017_090657 (2).jpg [ 239.33 KiB | Viewed 2751 times ]
With morning action still being slow in the warm weather we opted to sleep in and quarter my deer before going out for an evening hunt. I was itching to get Dad in the tree I had just killed in but knew it would be about impossible. Its not exactly the easiest tree to get into. Dad has dubbed it the "monkey tree". But I was able to hang a ladder stand about 40 yards away where I knew the deer that went by my tree would head to. Like clockwork the deer came back out and offered Dad a broadside shot at 10 yards with his crossbow. I made him do a little blood trailing and we found her about 100 yards from the shot. Another big ole doe, and we were both sitting pretty with some good venison for the freezers.
Attachment:
rsz_img_1325_1 (2).jpg [ 235.88 KiB | Viewed 2751 times ]
The following weekend my long time hunting buddy came up from Richmond to hunt the same property. The first night he had a close encounter with a group of does in the "monkey" tree but was never quite comfortable with the shot so he never took it. After some confidence building practice the next morning, he climbed the same tree and was offered a chance at redemption. His big doe only went 75 yards before piling up in the thickest green briar patch I have ever had to crawl through. Three deer from the same spot within a week!
Attachment:
rsz_20151024_205608 (2).jpg [ 107.88 KiB | Viewed 2751 times ]
So then it was time to do some hunting for myself. There is a property in Powhatan County that I hold near and dear that I've hunted for over ten years now. It has some big deer on it and I was amped up about getting to hunt it on the last day of archery. I did bump a big, wide 8 that was locked down with a doe, but didn't see much else in the way of deer or rutting activity. After not seeing a scrape or rub on the Roanoke property all of October, I was wondering if I was ever going to see much. Just felt like everything was a little late, especially with all the hype about an early rut due to the October Harvest moon.
The muzzleloader opener found me with a couple buddies on a big chunk of (new to me) public land in Caroline County that they had been hunting since the previous year. This property is big and has a lot of land to learn. After a week's worth of virtual scouting we pinpointed a couple places to explore that would prove to be good pinch points. My buddy (same one who killed the doe with me in Roanoke) killed himself a nice five point that evening. We were learning how to hunt this new property and our excitement about it was ever growing.
Sunday and the following Friday I hunted the Powhatan property again. Saw some deer and had some cool encounters, including watching a button buck dog a mature doe back and forth across a field for an hour until they ended up passing by me within five yards, but never saw a buck worth taking. Rubs and scrapes were finally becoming visible and I knew the second weekend of ML would be good with the coming cold front. A doctor's appointment in Richmond on Monday the 9th and with Veteran's day being a holiday for State employees, I decided to take that Tuesday off, as well, to give myself my very first "rutcation".
The action on Saturday the 7th proved to be as damp as the weather. Just nothing moving and we didn't see deer all day in the Caroline Co. public land. Sunday I had a wedding to go to and opted to sleep in, though I kicked myself for it all day with how perfect the weather was. Monday the 9th I hunted the morning in Caroline Co. and didn't see a deer aside from the bunches on the drive in.
I was getting discouraged. I knew deer were there but they just weren't moving. The weather had been terrible and I had spent much more time wet than dry. The forecast for Tuesday the 10th was rain. All day. Again. I opted to sleep a little and get to the Caroline Co. property at daybreak to do more exploring. With the soaked ground making the walking silent, I still hunted through some woods with more buck sign than I had seen cumulatively through the whole season. It just felt right. At 8:40 I sat down on a creek bottom with a couple of draws intersecting. I had seen a smaller buck crossing through this spot an hour before and, after exploring a bit more without finding any spots that impressed me, I sat back down with the plan of staying till 1:00. I had an evening spot picked out that was just chewed up with buck sign and looked well used by does, as well, so I was excited about my evening sit.
At 8:43 I had sent a text on the running group message my father, cousin and buddy have going letting them know what I found and that I had "never felt more in the presence of big deer than I do now". A Facebook notification caught my eye and I checked it out. While reading through a thread I heard something to my right and looked up to see a doe come running up the creek bottom. I immediately set my phone down and picked up my gun, knowing that either a buck or coyote had to be on her heels. The buck was right behind her and pushing her hard. It took but a glance to know that the buck was worth shooting. Luckily, the doe took him up the other side of the draw and back down again, bringing him broadside at 50 yards. My shot was quick and I ducked right to see around the smoke. After a long moment, the doe took off down the bottom. The buck followed, hunched up hard. I knew I had hit him but wasn't sure where or how well. Though hunched hard, he followed the doe out of my sight about 60 yards down the draw. With wet leaves and a steady drizzle I knew blood trailing would be next to impossible, and a quick call to my buddy confirmed that I needed to go after him immediately. I was nervous. I had shot several deer with the muzzleloader and none had gone more than fifteen feet. I didn't want to bump him.
So I slipped along slowly with the wet leaves and soft ground allowing for my silent movement and easily visible tracks from the buck and doe. I went forty yards from impact without blood and began glassing ahead of me every few steps. Another ten yards and I saw a body laying on the ground another forty yards ahead.
This is my second big, mature buck and my first buck in four years after passing on many young ones. He is 4.5 year old eight with a 19" outside spread and just shy of 8" G2s. The pictures can be a little misleading as the body is only 99 lb dressed, but he really is almost as wide as he looks. I am very thankful for his small body size, as the 3/4 mile drag out by myself was no picnic.
I'll have to post the pics in a reply....
