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November 13th Update
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I had thought that since I was seeing more deer on my way to work and everyone was complaining about them on the roads, that we would have a real good day. There was also some rain moving in for the evening. An oncoming weather change and the start of the rut, it doesn't get any better than this.
The only problem was that someone forgot to tell the deer.
The daytime highs reached well into the 50's. This may have kept movement suppressed some, but there was barely any movement.
In the morning I got to my stand at 6:30AM at which time deer were already there and hurried off when I arrived. From that time until about 9:30 I did not see another deer.
I sat out again around noon for another hour and again saw no activity, but at least the warm weather made for pleasant sitting.
I thought for sure that the evening would bring a ton of deer activity so I was in my stand by 2:15PM.
A 3 point showed up at about 2:30 and spent a little time getting a snack before wandering off. The next deer did not show up until almost 5:00. I saw and heard them running in the woods out in front of me and knew that the chase was on. Eventually they worked their way over to me where I saw it was a long spike chasing the doe. About 5 minutes later the same duo came past again with another spike involved in the chase. The second spike wasn't too serious as he quickly veered in another direction.
Over the next 20 minutes or so I heard two other chasing episodes but never saw any of the deer involved except for a brief glimpse.
The wind had shifted and began moving from me over to the direction of the feeder and clover patch. The last doe that showed up winded me and didn't stick around long. A light rain rounded out the day.
I did see one of the nine points that we have pictures of when I got back to the hayfield. He is a nice looking buck in person but still looks young. He has not yet picked up much body mass. He could be in trouble in rifle season. Most hunters will not take the time to age him.
This 9 point shows a lot of promise.
The one thing that we did find out was that some small woodpeckers were draining the corn from our feeders. We had noticed that something was causing corn to come out of the feeders. There had been a good bit of corn on the ground when there should not have been on previous visits. They were landing on the feeder and taking corn. The problem was that when they took one piece it was like taking out the last straw and more corn would fall out. I put the varmint cage back on and laughed as they flew up to the feeder and slammed on the brakes. One did manage to get inside of the cage, but after having a hard time getting back out he didn't go back in. If they stay our of the varmint cages we should be OK.
November 13th
Once again I was in my treestand before 6:30. A couple of deer were in the woods below the stand and ran off as I approached the stand. At around 7:00 a young doe came in followed by a spike. A little while later a mature doe came up out of the woods from behind me. I was trying to get a shot at her but she either stayed behind trees or was facing me for the first several minutes. Finally she turned broadside giving me an opportunity. When I started to draw my bow one of them must have seen me, and they startled. The doe moved away a few yards and turned broadside again. Since she had moved away some I decided to use the 20 yard pin. That was my mistake, thinking, the shot went right over her back.
The next couple of hours were spent watching three spikes and the young doe hang around. At this time I could see a spike in the woods below me that didn't have any interest in the deer grunt or doe bleat. By 9:30 I was cold and had seen enough. After being humiliated by a doe, we got to do some fun things in the woods. Since rifle season starts one week from Monday we moved our treestands into what we call rifle position. For rifle hunting we don't need to be within 30 yards and we like to be able to see as much territory as we can. I enjoy picking out new stand spots. I guess it's like a new beginning.
We also downloaded the latest scouting camera pictures and did some work on the feeders. It was interesting to see that we were not getting as many pictures of the bucks that we had been seeing.
One of the feeders was leaning a good bit, which made it even worse when the woodpeckers started stealing corn. Ryan and I straightened it out.
In the evening we spent some time in one of our rifle treestands, until Ryan got too cold. After scaring away a spike and what we believe was the same doe that put one over on me earlier, we headed back to the hayfield.
As usual deer began filtering into the hayfield as the sun started to set. Similar to last week when we were trying to get a shot for Megan, we chased them around for a short time.
Eventually a doe presented a 30 yard broadside shot. Unlike earlier in the morning the shot found the mark just like in the backyard at home. The Wasp Jackhammer broadhead did a lot of damage and the doe only ran about 50 yards and was dead before we got to her.
Since light was fading fast we jumped into the field dressing process and finished as darkness fell. Since she didn't run far, we had a short drag and were weighing her in short order.
She was an older deer and weighed in at 66 pounds. This has been about the average weight for does on our property over the last few years. I would like to see the bodyweights a little heavier. The best way for this to happen is for us to kill as many does as we can and remove as many appetites from our local deer herd.
On Sunday we received the cape back from the doe that Ryan shot last week. Ryan and I skinned it out and put it in the freezer. We may mount this doe this winter to practice our taxidermy skills. This all depends on what we shoot during rifle season. I also have a buck cape left from last year from a buck that my father-in-law shot. It's fun to do but it takes me a long time since I'm still a novice.
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