2008 Deer Season Journal

November was the opening day of buck season here in West Virginia and I spent all week being outsmarted by deer.

There were two bucks that I wanted to get a look at and hopefully get a shot. Needless to say I didn’t see or get a shot at either of these bucks. One of these bucks is an odd racked seven point buck that we have been seeing off and on for three years. He’s been an infrequent visitor to our cameras. The other buck is a mainframe eight point that has double split brow tines. This buck only showed up at our cameras on about three occasions, but he looked like a deer I would have been glad to hang on my wall.

We did have one fun evening. On Thursday evening I sat in a blind looking out over a portion of the hayfield watching for a doe and hoping to see a trophy buck. A few does and some young deer showed up, with the does all silhouetted against the skyline. Finally one of the larger does dropped down the hill a little and I got a shot. At the shot there wasn’t any sign that I had hit her and she ran over the hill out of sight. I left the blind and stared in their direction when I saw four deer running, all of them looking real healthy. One of the does started back up the hill, so I sat down and squeezed off a shot. As the doe ran off I saw her front leg dragging so I knew I had hit her in the shoulder or had just broken her leg. Ryan joined my in the search and we soon found a good blood trail. After a good 75 yards blood trail we saw here lying inside the woodline and Ryan took the last shot.

The doe weighed 95 pounds, which is the heaviest doe we have ever shot on our property. This is a good sign that we may be starting to help our local deer with our food plot efforts, especially since this was a very poor year for acorns.

This is a picture of our record doe and the three guys who helped me get her out of the woods.

November 15th

The temperature was a pleasant 50 degrees as I left the house on Saturday morning but the rain sent me to the confines of our deer condo for another morning sit. The deer condo wasn’t made as a bow hunting stand but in wet weather it just seems to draw me in.

My father-in-law had a better idea. He stayed in bed until the rain slacked off before he decided to take a walk in the damp quiet woods.

Able to slip slowly and quietly through the woods he saw a deer moving his way and was eventually able to take a shot at a young doe. The deer only traveled about 50 yards dying only a few yards from one of our four wheeler paths. He was quite surprised to lift the deer’s back leg and find that it was a buck. He was quite disgusted and Ryan and I got a good laugh out of it.

By evening the temperatures had dipped into the forties, the wind had kicked up and a light rain had returned. In this fine weather I climbed into a treestand and promptly had water running inside the back of my pants. I was fine in the moving tree until I stood up to leave and thought that the whole world was moving. I did get to see a button buck and a small eight point for my efforts.

In recap of our Saturday hunt, the bucks are no longer in their feeding patterns, which is making them very unpredictable. I am a little surprised that we aren’t at least seeing bucks cruising or chasing does.

November 11th

The weather last week was too warm and now only one week later the temperatures were about 30 degrees colder. On Tuesday morning it was 27 degrees when I headed out the door.

The bucks are in their period of acting rut funny. Hunting at the normal feeding sites was of limited use on this day. This was also evident when we saw, from the kitchen table, the ten point buck walking through the hayfield at 10:00AM. This was our biggest excitement as Ryan tried to put on a stalk as it meandered through the field. As is usual any time we try to get close to a deer in this field, the buck busted him and ran off.

This crazy buck activity was also noticeable in our digital trail camera pictures for the week. We saw one buck that we had never seen before and the regulars were also infrequent visitors.

Ryan went hunting and shot two squirrels in the evening. I sat in a tree stand thinking I should have went with Ryan and helped him chase squirrels.

November 4th

This was a great day, too warm if you could find a fault with daytime temperatures reaching about 70 degrees.

We saw several bucks on this day and saw some interesting things.

I went to the middle food plot/feeder stand and saw five young bucks. At one point, after the bucks had left, I used the "Great Big Can" estrus call. Two bucks came running in looking for the doe that was bawling. That was a first for me!

The odd racked seven point I was looking for didn't show up, but he did show up at the apple trees back at the house. Ryan saw him right after he crawled out of bed and tried to chase him my way but to no avail.

This is a picture of this buck under those apple trees from the previous week.

October 25th

Our second hunting excursion saw rain dampen the morning hours. It hadn’t rained much at all for several weeks and the day I finally had the opportunity to hunt we finally got rain.

Since it was raining I spent the morning in our new deer condo. During this hunt I saw five bucks and at least six does and fawns. The big nine point was the biggest but he never came close enough to tempt me. The other bucks included two eight pointers, a six point and a five point.

In the evening I went to the treestand Ryan had shot his buck out of last week and was soon entertained by a doe. Later a six point buck came in and eventually moved about 30 yards behind me and laid down for a rest.

Within another half hour a small six point and a spike came in, later followed by an eight point buck that has small brow tines but decent width. Later, the resting six point came back as well.

Saturday was one of those days when the deer were out feeding throughout the entire day.

October 18th

Our 2008 deer season opened on October 18th. My daughter had a soccer game that day but Ryan made to our hunting property and had his mind made up to get a shot at the buck we call sticker point.

He was out of bed just after 5 o’clock and in his treestand shortly afterward. After a long sit in the dark deer began filtering in.

A small 8 point came first, then followed by sticker point and the big nine point.

He finally got a chance to take a shot and cleanly missed under sticker point’s belly. He had fallen back to an old habit and jerked his release.

For some reason the deer didn’t run, but while he was trying to get his glove on and try for another shot the nine point saw him and they scattered.

After about fifteen minutes a six point came in and sticker point showed up gave him another opportunity. He didn’t waste this second opportunity and put his arrow right behind the buck’s shoulder.

Sticker point ran out through the woods and then turned back eventually piling up about 50 yards from Ryan’s treestand.

We had been watching this buck for three years. We first saw him as a seven point with stickers on his bases, last year as a nine point with stickers and now this year he is a wide mainframe eight point with a sticker off of one G2 and three sticker points protruding from his bases. The inside spread is 17 ¾ inches and he weighed 133 pounds. This is the heaviest deer we have weighed since we started recording weights in 1994. Since we had been watching this buck for three years we know that he is at least 3 ½ years old and most likely 4 ½.