Friday, Nov. 10, 2023

 

  I approached today with a lot of optimism. However, the optimism turned sour when Brian pulled over on the side of the road to drop me off and I looked at the thermometer in the car. It read a balmy 19 degrees. Where did that come from? As I stood in the ditch, I wondered how the day would go without any long underwear, one under layer on the top and non-insulated boots. Maybe I should've looked at the weather report. 

  The 3/4 of a mile walk to the stand was frigid. My hands turned numb as I made my way from one hedgerow to the next. When I climbed into the stand, I felt good about my chances. Something about this tree tells me I might get a chance. 

  Shortly after the sun came up, things began warming up. I could hear deer crashing through the bushes but never saw them. It didn't take long for the sun to hit me in the face... and it actually got my feet. It warmed up quickly, so I really didn't pay the price for my ignorance. Around 10 a.m., my boredom finally took a jolt of reality when I could see two bucks headed my way. I took a few pictures and a short video of them. While one was a pretty decent buck, it wasn't what I wanted to put my tag on. Although I'll probably go home with tag soup, it will surely taste good. 

  I saw another buck about an hour later, then things calmed down, and we decided to go check a camera we hung a week ago. Upon getting to it, I felt another dose of optimism charge through my body. There were three shooters on it, and they had all been there in the last two days. 

  After finding a tree to climb, I settled in for the afternoon's hunt. I had a shooter chase a doe by me, but it never allowed a shot. I also had a small spike chase a doe around for a bit. Then, a half-rack, busted up buck wandered around in front of me for quite a while. At dark, as I was lowering my gear, another nice 8 pointer prevented me from getting out of the stand until well after dark. Overall, it was a great day. 

 Nobody else saw much of anything today. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Day

Image
   The alarm jarred me out of sleep. It was December 8, 2024, the last day of Northern Zone rifle season in New York. I had been going straight-out since mid-October, never missing a day and out of bed every morning before 4:30. Although I had loved every minute of every day, my body was finally beginning to feel the aches and pains associated with bushwhacking through swamps, scaling cliffs, climbing mountains, and crossing rivers. With the exception of two travel days, I had found myself in the woods every day from sun-up until sundown. While I've heard many others say they've done the same, I've often doubted it because I know how difficult a task it is to accomplish.    The embers in the wood stove shone brightly as I cracked the door open and stacked a few pieces of wood on top of the burning coals. Although the fire was just about gone, the fresh flow of air gave it some life, and there was a slim chance of hope that the newly added wood would catch fire and bu...
Read more

Monday, Nov. 27, 2023

  Winter came with a vengeance last night. When I got up this morning, I didn't expect to see what I saw when I looked outside. I figured every expert tracker would be in the woods, but knowing how most deer react after a big snowfall, I decided it wasn't for me. I've always noticed that some deer do move the day of the storm as the storm tapers off, but usually the deer will move much more 24-48 hours after the storm blows out. I've studied this for years, and it has held true in every area I've ever hunted.    Although I wasn't hunting today, I did get out later in the day to ride a few roads to look around. In my travels, I met a young man walking down the road. He looked bushed, as I'm sure he was due to the amount of snow that came down. There was about 10-12 inches of new snow on top of the few inches that still remained from the other day.    Although I wasn't going to go out, I decided to check a place out for my dad shortly before dark. I knew i...
Read more

End of the Year Flurry

  Near the end of the season, I was overwhelmed with a flurry of personal things that didn't allow me to keep active with the journal, and I apologize for my negligence in not getting back to it until now. Near the end of the season, I saw many things that really let me down when it comes to social media and the way certain hunters try to portray themselves. I just wish people could tell the truth about what they're doing. If people claim to be trackers, how come they very rarely kill deer before huge storms roll in at the end of the seasons across New York and New England and dump large amounts of snow, causing the deer to migrate and head to winter yards? As I've always said, and I still stand behind it, snow makes bad hunters good hunters. If you can kill deer at any time of the season with and without snow and everywhere you go, you probably have a pretty good idea about deer behavior and how to find them.    By the time late muzzleloader season ended in the Northern ...
Read more