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October 20th 2007
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We headed to our hunting property as soon as Ryan got home from school and jumped into our hunting clothes. I arrived at my treestand at about 6:00 PM where there were already several deer and turkeys. One of the deer was a buck, a four point that we have been seeing on our digital trial cameras.
Of course they all ran off as I made my way to my stand.
At about 6:30 a button buck came along and stayed until I left. It was fun seeing how much I could do without spooking the button buck. I was about to take my last step onto the ground before the young deer saw me and ran.
This is the botton buck that enjoyed Friday evening with me.
Ryan had gone into the woods below the hayfield where we had put the bucket feeder and I had put a treestand a few days prior.
He had told me that he was just going to sit in the woods and see what came along and that he didn’t want me going in to the treestand since I might spook the deer. He ended up using a grapevine to climb into my stand. I should have taken a picture of the strawberry he got on his stomach sliding back down out of the tree. That will teach him to use that stand!
He got to watch two does mill about for his efforts.
Saturday morning found us both in stands at a feeder that is also near a large mineral lick and a food plot. Shortly after daylight a small three point buck came to visit and stayed for quite a while. Later, the wide nine point buck showed up in the woods about twenty yards below Ryan. He was facing us the whole time and stopped and stayed there for at least 15 minutes. I was about 35 yards from the buck and he was standing in a place where he was looking straight up the hill at me. Eventually he turned and walked back over the hill. I grunted at him but he didn't pay any attention to it.
A short time later the three point was over in the food plot and I noticed another nine point walk up into the food plot. He entered the food plot and then just as soon as he had come he turned and trotted back into the woods. There was a heavy breeze blowing out of the SSW and it was blowing our scent right in his direction. The three point didn't budge.
The feeder was supposed to spin at 8:00 AM but by 8:20 it hadn't yet spun so I decided to climb down and see what was going on. Just before my foot hit the ground the feeder spun. I went back up that tree faster than a squirrel....Well I went back up the tree.
A few minutes later the three point showed up and had a snack before running off.
We waited until about 9:30 and I climbed down and started checking cameras.
This is the nine point buck that we saw Saturday morning along with the four point buck that was at this feeder on Friday evening when I showed up.
On Saturday evening I went below the hayfield with my treesteps, no vine climbing for me. I entered the woods just before 5:00 PM and jumped two deer on my way in. By about 6:00 two does showed up and they were both very jumpy and were my only visitors.
Ryan went back to the same stand location where we were at in the morning and was entertained by a spike most of the evening. At one point the young buck even took a nap about forty yards from him. It's amazing how some deer can be so jumpy while others (young bucks) can be so at ease.
On both Friday evening and Saturday evening I ended up with one of my arrows on the ground below my treestand. I think that from now on I'm going to just leave an arrow on the ground to save me from watching it fall. I'll also get to pick which one I leave on the ground.
Our first weekend of bow hunting is in the books. The weather was too warm, the breeze/wind made the deer jumpy and we saw no evidence that the bucks were paying any attention to does yet. That was the bad news. On the other hand, we saw five bucks, had great weather and we were outside in the woods, so it was a good weekend.
Ryan wanted me to put the bucket feeder in a certain location but I failed to listen so he took the matter into his own hands. He made a feeder out of wood and used an old spinner that I had repaired a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure how much that feeder weighs but it sure seems heavy. We didn't fill it with corn, I wasn't sure we could lift it or whether or not we could find a tree that would hold it up.
We finally got it hoisted into a tree, we'll see if the tree is uprooted next week.
I made a lot of fun of that feeder, I suspect he’ll shoot a big deer there and make me look bad!
