The Start of Gun Season

For Thanksgiving, Joan and I went to Amy's house in Peoria, IL.  We drove to the farm on Sunday (gun season opened Monday morning).

Dave was in IN/MI for Thanksgiving and he managed to get some hunting done in Michigan.  He dropped two does on Friday morning.

125 pound field dressed doe is a well fed animal.  Should go a long way to filling the freezer.












Kristen and Leo drove from FL to Knoxville TN on Friday.  On Saturday, they drove the rest of the way to the farm.  Dave drove down from MI to meet them and they did some archery hunting together on Saturday and Sunday.  Dave headed home on Sunday afternoon and I arrived at the farm in time to spend Sunday evening in a stand.  I had a spike and two does in front of me but chose not to take the shot.  Here's the spike - photo from my phone.

On the Monday morning opener of gun season, it was 25 degrees at sunrise.  I hunted from the ladder stand and only saw 3 does who ran by in the field in a panic.  Kristen hunted the driveway stand.  She had two small does in the field in front of her and was considering taking one when a stampede came by.  About 12 does came running across the field from an adjoining property and it cleared all of the deer out.  I'm guessing that they had a drive going on or something.  There were quite a few shots on adjoining properties.  Leo hunted the barn stand and had 3 does pass thru the field at about 100 yards or so.  He took a shot at one and had a clean miss.  We came in for breakfast at about 9:30.

We went back out for a mid-day hunt and didn't see anything.  Kristen had a headache so Chloe tried to comfort her.

The weather kept getting warmer all day and it was in the high 50's by afternoon.  There was a light south wind.  I hunted the high rise stand, and there was no movement until close to last light.  Two spike bucks came out into the main field at about 150 yards.  When it was almost completely dark, I could make out two does entering the bottom of the new pond clearing.  Kristen and Leo also had almost no activity.

Overnight, it started to rain.  It is supposed to rain all day long and into the night.  We went out to stands this morning and there was a short pause in the rain.  There were pretty good winds and it is warm.  I had 3 does wander thru the new pond clearing and then they went into the woods heading up to the barn stand.  Kristen was hunting there so I let them go hoping that she would get a shot and/or other deer were on their way out.  Neither happened.  Leo saw one spike buck at the driveway.

It is pouring rain and the radar/forecast says it may continue all day.  Overnight it is supposed to get cold and that may finally get the deer moving.  Unfortunately, Kristen and Leo are running out of time and haven't tagged a deer yet.  We'll see waht happens....