My Favorite Time of Year

Apples, pumpkins, change of color, hunting season. 

A close second is dogwoods, redbuds and turkey season.  We'll talk about that in the Spring.

This weekend, Dave was off to Michigan and Joan was off to FL for Kristen's shower.  Luckily, Creigh was available to come keep me company for my first archery hunt of the season.  Dave had been out last weekend for the opener (while I was in Utah) and he saw a few deer but didn't have a shot.

This was Creigh's first time out for an archery hunt.  We got to the farm Friday afternoon about 3:00.  The weather was not very cooperative - raining, blowing and in the 50's.  After taking a few warm up shots, Creigh went to the barn stand and I decided to hunt the ground blind by the orchard.  The apples are pretty irresistable at this time of year.  Sunset was 7:17 so we figured that we could hunt until 7:45.

I sat and shivered in the ground blind for a couple hours.  Eventually, I gave up and walked in for a some additional layers.  Creigh was dressed a little on the light side and I was imagining him shivering out there in the wind and rain.

At about 6:30, the rain stopped, the wind died down and the sun came out.  I still didn't see anything until 7:25 (after sunset).  Two does came out in the field to eat oats and soybeans.  I watched them as the light disappeared and then decided it was about time to go in.  As I packed up to sneak back to the barn, two deer busted me and I didn't even know that they were out there.  All I could see was big bodies and white tails bounding down below the driveway.  The two does in the field didn't even move.

When Creigh came in, he was pretty pumped.  At 6:30, he was leaning back on the stool holding his phone and he looked up to find the "high 8" buck standing off to his left at 25 yards.  He took some photos and then he spooked and moved out into the middle of the clover field.  He wandered around for a while eventually coming back to the treeline on the right, walking out toward the 100 yard stand, turning up toward the firepit/orchard and stopping with his nose in the wind.  My guess is that he got a wiff of me (northwest wind) and he turned and headed down below the pond.

Creigh also saw 3 does, a small 4 point buck and another "medium" sized buck.  He got a few shots with his phone but not with his bow.  Most of the deer seemed to follow the same path as the "high 8" down toward the 100 yard stand and then up to the firepit.

Creigh's phone shot (above) and trailcams of the same buck (below)

These are some of the does that  Creigh caught on his phone camera.

On Saturday morning, I went out to the driveway stand and Creigh went back to the barn stand.  I didn't see a thing and Creigh had a young buck out in the field.  After the morning hunt, we had breakfast, checked all the cameras (most needed batteries) and then harvested some pumpkins.  While touring around the trails, we pushed a number of deer including one buck that ran down the trail in front of us.  A friend of mine from work stopped by and we loaded about 20 pumpkins up for him to take to his Dad's place for a Fall festival.  There are still alot of pumpkins to harvest and some of them appear to still be growing.

Creigh left in the afternoon to head back for social engagements.  I decided to hunt the ground blind again.  At 6:30, the "high 8" showed up under the apple trees on the other side of the the fence (at about 25 yards).  He ate a few apples and then seemed to spook. He ran to the middle of the soybean field and stopped to graze for awhile.  I tried to take his picture since he was out of bow range (not a very good shot).  He ate there a while and then moved to the main field to eat clover.  He stayed out there until dark (another hour).

At about 7:15, a 4 point and a button buck worked into the orchard field.  They seemed to prefer the oats.  I was hoping to see the bucks that busted me the night before but I never did.  As light diminished, several more deer worked into the orchard field but I couldn't tell what they were.  The button buck worked his way under the apple trees and ended up standing 15 yards in front of me.  He never did bust me and he wandered off.

On Sunday morning, I headed to the barn field stand.  As usual, I was a few minutes late on the walk out. 

I only saw one deer and he was a little 4 point all the way up by the sunflowers.  When I got down from the stand, I walked down to the pond and that 4 point was grazing near the remains of the hi-rise stand.

I did chores most of the day.  I worked on a second batch of jerky (started the first batch the night before), picked more pumpkins, picked apples (I'm late this year - they're almost gone), put the tape back up around the prizewinner pumpkin, cleared some trails, checked the camera that I got working again, got my Utah stuff unloaded and put away, and loaded up the Expedition.  I got stung by a bee on my pinkie finger as I was scooping up hunting clothes from Utah.  I'm not sure why a bee thought that was a good place to be.

At about 4:30, I decided to head out to the driveway stand.  As I left the barn, I saw the 4 point and the button buck in the pond field.  I started up the driveway and then I noticed a deer standing in the driveway plot.   I kneeled down and watched her for awhile.  She seemed very focused on the woods behind the stand.  Eventually another large doe joined her out in the field.  At this point, I gave up on getting into the driveway stand and headed back to the ground blind at the orchard.

There was no real action until after 7:00 when I noticed two bucks at the far end of the main field.  One of them was a 4 point and the other was the "mutant buck",  It has a large nice rack on the right side but a vertical forkhorn on the left side.  This is a trailcam shot of him.

They stayed on that end of the field and at about 7:20, three does worked into the orchard field from the firepit area.  They grazed on the oats and brassica until one of the does became alert looking almost directly at me.  I realized that the doe was watching something coming up out of the weeds below the pines.  It turned out to be the "high 8" and it was walking right in front of the groundblind at 15 yards.  I reached for the bow and he immediately busted me and started squawking and running.  I never came close to getting a shot.  He ran to the main field and stopped to pose for me.  He really is a very nice looking buck and he has been within bow range of a hunter during daylight for each of the last three nights.  Tempting fate.  Or skeptical of the hunter's skills.

The bucks are all out of velvet but there's only a little evidence of rubbing.  Something (coyote or raccoon) decided that it should mark the territory right in front of the porch.

I miss my old truck sometimes.  I loaded as much as possible into the Expedition.  Half were unloaded at home and the other half will go to Lexington.  Next week, I should have a similiar load.