Love reading and hearing about all those great bucks you guys have in Iowa. Here is another harvest report, but from NY for you fellows.
I went out Wednesday with intentions of sitting until about mid day. The forecast was for rain throughout most of the day. The morning started out overcast with temperatures in the lower 40's. The previous two mornings were slow due to the onset of the full moon. That being said I wasn't in any real hurry to get in the stand.
I arrived at my hunting property just before 7:00 AM and made it into the stand before 7:30 AM. Having sat in this stand twice before I noticed that the majority of the deer were using the center of the ridge I was set up on. That put them about 60 yards out. I brought a Summit climber with me to possibly scout out a new tree closer to their travel corridor.
Between 8 and 10 I had 12 doe and one decent 8 pointer working the ridge in that same area I had been seeing the deer. The buck wasn't too interested in the grunt call or bleat can. He eventually worked his way to the south and left. That was the last deer I saw from the stand. Just past 10 o'clock it began to rain lightly. I waited until 11 and got out of the stand.
I worked my way to the east along the ridge to see what the attraction was for all the deer that I was seeing moving towards the south side of the finger ridge I was on. After about 200 yards I worked my way over to the south and found that there was quite a few beech nuts in the area. The buck sign that I found though really got my attention.
There were rubs and scrapes for as far as I could see. One of the scrapes was still fresh. When I say fresh, I'm estimating that it wasn't any more than an hour or two old. Not having seeing any deer for the past hour and looking at the radar on my phone I knew it was going to pour for the next couple of hours. I debated on whether to sit it out or just hang the new set and come the following week. Again the forecast was not favorable for my next pass days with temperatures predicted to be in the 60's. The old saying that weather trumps the moon convinced me to retrieve the climber and settle in for an all day sit.
I found an open pocket in the thickly covered ridge. Without much disturbing of the area I had an open area around the tree I selected that afforded me 20 yard shots left and right and 15 yards straight to my front. There was an awful lot of whips that still held a lot of leaves that would make any shot beyond that difficult. Once I climbed up the tree I put the Buck Wing umbrella in and got as comfortable as I could. The forecast said that the rain would end about 4:00 PM. Fortunately it did just that almost to the minute.
My confidence was high that I was going to see something close in this new stand location. Everything was just right. I knew that if I did see anything however, it was going to be right on top of me very quickly. The breeze picked up just slightly from the east and blew right into my face washing down into the ravine behind me. At 4:30 PM I spied a deer 35 yards right in front of me feeding. The deers head was down and I was spot on with my estimation that they would be close before I ever saw them.
I brought the binoculars up and saw that it was a buck. I couldn't tell right off how good it was though as he fed. Eventually the buck picked up his head and I saw the spread of his rack. I thought it was a 9 pointer at first but knew that it was a mature deer from the body size. He was walking straight to me as I retrieved my bow from the hanger. At 30 yards he turned and started to walk to my right. After going 15 feet or so he put his head down and began to feed again. Unfortunately for him he stopped in the worst spot possible for his health.
I had a perfect, unobstructed lane to his chest through the canopy of leaves and saplings. As I drew the bow I estimated him to be 30 yards and settled the appropriate pin on his center chest. I released the arrow and followed the lighted nock as it disappeared into his chest. The buck wheeled and ran back to the west end of the ridge. I heard him crash just out of sight only a few seconds later. I gathered up my gear and took up the trail a little bit later and found my buck 50 yards up the ridge.
He dressed out at 185 pounds and sported 8 points. His inside spread was 18.5 inches. It took some brute force but my brother in-law and I got him out of the woods in short order. The best lesson I learned from this hunt was to believe in my experience and trust my gut. I had been seeing most of my deer movement the previous 2 days from 10-1 with the full moon. When I saw that my deer weren't moving from 10:00 AM on and the weather that was moving in was going to put them down for the day, I decided to stick it out. After 4 hours in the pouring rain with no sightings, I knew those deer would have to get up and feed before dark. Maybe it was a little bit lucky and maybe a little bit of experience. Either way I found this hunt to be pretty rewarding for the effort I put in. Here are a couple of cell phone pics from the woods.
I went out Wednesday with intentions of sitting until about mid day. The forecast was for rain throughout most of the day. The morning started out overcast with temperatures in the lower 40's. The previous two mornings were slow due to the onset of the full moon. That being said I wasn't in any real hurry to get in the stand.
I arrived at my hunting property just before 7:00 AM and made it into the stand before 7:30 AM. Having sat in this stand twice before I noticed that the majority of the deer were using the center of the ridge I was set up on. That put them about 60 yards out. I brought a Summit climber with me to possibly scout out a new tree closer to their travel corridor.
Between 8 and 10 I had 12 doe and one decent 8 pointer working the ridge in that same area I had been seeing the deer. The buck wasn't too interested in the grunt call or bleat can. He eventually worked his way to the south and left. That was the last deer I saw from the stand. Just past 10 o'clock it began to rain lightly. I waited until 11 and got out of the stand.
I worked my way to the east along the ridge to see what the attraction was for all the deer that I was seeing moving towards the south side of the finger ridge I was on. After about 200 yards I worked my way over to the south and found that there was quite a few beech nuts in the area. The buck sign that I found though really got my attention.
There were rubs and scrapes for as far as I could see. One of the scrapes was still fresh. When I say fresh, I'm estimating that it wasn't any more than an hour or two old. Not having seeing any deer for the past hour and looking at the radar on my phone I knew it was going to pour for the next couple of hours. I debated on whether to sit it out or just hang the new set and come the following week. Again the forecast was not favorable for my next pass days with temperatures predicted to be in the 60's. The old saying that weather trumps the moon convinced me to retrieve the climber and settle in for an all day sit.
I found an open pocket in the thickly covered ridge. Without much disturbing of the area I had an open area around the tree I selected that afforded me 20 yard shots left and right and 15 yards straight to my front. There was an awful lot of whips that still held a lot of leaves that would make any shot beyond that difficult. Once I climbed up the tree I put the Buck Wing umbrella in and got as comfortable as I could. The forecast said that the rain would end about 4:00 PM. Fortunately it did just that almost to the minute.
My confidence was high that I was going to see something close in this new stand location. Everything was just right. I knew that if I did see anything however, it was going to be right on top of me very quickly. The breeze picked up just slightly from the east and blew right into my face washing down into the ravine behind me. At 4:30 PM I spied a deer 35 yards right in front of me feeding. The deers head was down and I was spot on with my estimation that they would be close before I ever saw them.
I brought the binoculars up and saw that it was a buck. I couldn't tell right off how good it was though as he fed. Eventually the buck picked up his head and I saw the spread of his rack. I thought it was a 9 pointer at first but knew that it was a mature deer from the body size. He was walking straight to me as I retrieved my bow from the hanger. At 30 yards he turned and started to walk to my right. After going 15 feet or so he put his head down and began to feed again. Unfortunately for him he stopped in the worst spot possible for his health.
I had a perfect, unobstructed lane to his chest through the canopy of leaves and saplings. As I drew the bow I estimated him to be 30 yards and settled the appropriate pin on his center chest. I released the arrow and followed the lighted nock as it disappeared into his chest. The buck wheeled and ran back to the west end of the ridge. I heard him crash just out of sight only a few seconds later. I gathered up my gear and took up the trail a little bit later and found my buck 50 yards up the ridge.
He dressed out at 185 pounds and sported 8 points. His inside spread was 18.5 inches. It took some brute force but my brother in-law and I got him out of the woods in short order. The best lesson I learned from this hunt was to believe in my experience and trust my gut. I had been seeing most of my deer movement the previous 2 days from 10-1 with the full moon. When I saw that my deer weren't moving from 10:00 AM on and the weather that was moving in was going to put them down for the day, I decided to stick it out. After 4 hours in the pouring rain with no sightings, I knew those deer would have to get up and feed before dark. Maybe it was a little bit lucky and maybe a little bit of experience. Either way I found this hunt to be pretty rewarding for the effort I put in. Here are a couple of cell phone pics from the woods.
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