Monday, Nov. 6, 2023

 


  The heat doesn't want to let up. It got up to about 77 degrees today. God willing, I hope one of these years I can come to the Midwest and not have summertime temperatures. We tried a new area this morning, and I did the best I could in the dark to find a suitable place to sit. While I was climbing the tree, there were deer blowing at me, so I figured I blew the area up for the morning. 

  Shortly after daylight, a buck appeared in front of me out of nowhere. I'm not sure how it got there, but it was a nice, little 8-pointer. I watched it work a scrape for a few minutes. Then, it got a little nervous and kept looking in the direction where I made my entrance before daylight. 

  After a few minutes, I spotted the source of the deer's attention. A really nice 8-pointer was walking toward the scrape. The little 8's hair stood up, and it took a fighting pose. However, the larger deer walked past it and went to the scrape, too. After tearing it up for a few minutes, it decided to go in its way. It was nice to feel like I was in the game for a few minutes. Although I would've shot the bigger 8 in most places, I held off in hopes of anchoring a bigger one to the ground in the coming days. I probably made a mistake by doing that, but I no longer feel the need to kill a deer for the sake of killing it. 

  Brian saw seven bucks this morning and decided to pass a beautiful 8. I'm not sure I could've passed the deer. After watching the video, I couldn't believe he let it walk. Unsure of the animals the area holds, we are hoping for the best. When he saw the video of the deer I passed, he felt better about his decision. 

  Since the heat approached 80 in the afternoon, we decided to do some scouting. We followed a runway that crossed the road and found a killer scrape line within 50 yards of the road. It's a sure-bet kill spot. 

  During the rest of the afternoon, we located two phenomenal places. I think one of us will get it done in one spot when we decided to sit it. It's a gar hole that is almost impenetrable, but we found where it opened up and about 15 runways come together. We marked a tree and got out of there. 

  In the evening, I decided to sit a short distance from there on the edge of an overgrown brush field that had scrapes along the edge of a haul road. The scrapes were pretty impressive. 


    Right before dark, I heard a stick crack and watched a doe work her way through the overgrown mess. Shortly after she disappeared, I spotted another deer and will never forget what I saw. A giant 10 pointer was standing broadside looking in my direction. I ranged him at 41 yards but was unable to get the bow drawn before he walked away and disappeared. It probably would've been the biggest deer I had ever killed if I had been able to get him. 
  
  I feel good about everything that transpired today, but I'm exhausted and that's not good. Jeff had a big 10 pointer come in to about 10 yards this morning, but he could't get a shot before the deer blew and bounded away. 
  
  The heat is supposed to be here until the end of the week. It seems like I just can't escape it anymore. 



My cousin Kyle filled his tag in the Adirondacks back home today. He has had his share of health issues recently, and I was really glad to get the message from him today. Here's a photo. 





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