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Whitetail Deer Hunting Season Journal
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Once again we arrived Friday evening and hurried out to gather our digital scouting cameras so we could look at the pictures. We also put out our new Cuddeback trail camera to try to get some pictures with it on Saturday morning.
The pictures revealed to us that at least three bucks had shed one or more of their antlers already. This makes doe hunting a little more challenging. Shooting a button buck isn't high on my priority list but shooting an older buck that had already dropped its antlers would really ruin my day.
I was finally able to pry, scrape and coerce Ryan out of bed for a morning hunt since we had to leave before dark to be back home for the New Years Eve festivities.
We left the house just after daylight hoping to catch a doe feeding in the hayfield. We have been foiled many times before trying to get a shot at a doe in the hayfield but since we are using a rifle on this day we don't have to get as close.
As we were approaching the hayfield we heard deer running in the woods to our right and saw their tails moving through the woods. Amazingly enough, instead of continuing on through the woods they turned left and crossed the field about 70 yards in front of us. Of course they never broke stride and just put on a good show for us. The morning was starting with a flurry of activity.
We continued out across the crest of the field to see if the deer had stopped in the woods and noticed a deer coming up into the field at the far end. It was well over 150 yards away and walking. Through my binoculars it looked like a large deer but I couldn't see any antlers. It never slowed long enough for us to get a better look and visibility was poor since it still wasn't very bright outside.
We went out to look over the other side of the hill because, as you probably know, there is always going to be a deer just over the next hill. Of course there wasn't.
When we looked back where we had just left a doe was standing there looking at us. I raised the binoculars and confirmed that she was a doe, but before Ryan could get off a shot she had an eyeful of us and started bounding over the hill. We got a few glimpses of her in the woods but never good enough to take a shot.
We seldom do well chasing the does around in this field but we always have fun.
Our next move was to walk out to one of our feeders and see what was going on.
We jumped a couple of deer as we approached the old logging road and they headed over the hill. There wasn't a shot I was going to look over that hill to try to shoot a deer today. I learned my lesson on that hill last year.
We moved in stealth mode to the feeder and saw that there were deer eating. Eventually, through the brush we were able to see that it was a seven point buck and a small buck with only one antler left. We stayed behind the brush for about a half hour hoping a doe would show up and were entertained by the larger buck chasing the smaller buck off but they both eventually left.
We retrieved the new camera and headed back to the hayfield. I guess we were just gluttons for punishment.
We sat along the edge of the field where we thought we had a good vantage point. Ryan fell back and went to sleep. We didn't see any deer and it was no mystery with all of the snoring. Finally as the time approached 10:00 we headed back to the house, one of us well rested.
We spent the rest of the day filling and moving feeders, putting our digital scouting cameras back out, looking for shed antlers and planning our food plot expansions for the coming spring.
We did find one shed antler. It was one side of a spike or the other side of the three point that we had seen in the morning.
I forgot to take a picture of the antler where I found it so I threw it down in the field to take a picture of it. Notice I didn't put anything beside it to show how big it was. I didn't have anything small enough in my fanny pack to make this antler look big. Actually it measures close to 8 inches from base to tip using the Pope and Young scoring system.
We also had some fun messing with a opossum that we found in a fallen tree near the bucket feeder. He looked like he just couldn't wait till we left.
Since deer season has now ended I have to look back and reflect on how the season went. I would have to say that I was somewhat disappointed even though I shot two bucks myself for the first time in over ten years. The antlers on the bucks that we had watched for a couple of years just didn't put on the mass and size that we had hoped for and one of those bucks became a recluse that we never saw and only got a few pictures of.
I'm blaming the lack of antler mass and size on nutrition. We had a very dry summer. I'm going to increase my food plot efforts in 2006 and try to fill the nutritional void a little more.
Return from the December 31st Journal to the 2005 Deer Season Journal Index.
