Its been a little while since I have posted anything but to honest there has not been a lot to post on. I have had a relativley slow season when compared to the last 2-3 seasons. I have seen some smaller bucks and have actually passed on a 3pt, 4pt, 5pt, 6pt and an 8pt. All have been in my shooting lanes and within 30 yards but just not old enough. The 8 point was a really nice deer for a 1.5 so hopefully he makes it until next year. I have seen shooters, just not close enough or it was too dark when I have seen them. The last encounter was probably my best this year. It was a very steady rain and I was hunting in a ground blind near an area I call the sanctuary. About 45 minutes til dar I spotted a deer stand up in the middle of a bunch of briars. I could barley see him but caught his tail flick then he turned his head I noticed he was a nice buck. However, instead of heading up the hill to the cut corn and to me he exited out the back and went to the apples trees. That bummed me out but it was good to see him.
Julie has gotten out a lot more than she did last year and it has paid off for her. She was out with me late October and she was abel to see the 9 point pictured above. He was within 30-35 yards just on a good run, so no shot opportunity on him. She also had a great chance at a big 10 point we call Tommy Boy. His picture is above as well. She had some turkeys behind her making a lot of racket so she kind of started not paying attention to them. Then when she looked over her right shoulder there he was working along the field edge behind some big sasafras trees. He stayed right behind those trees until he got 20 yards from her and turned strait out into the corn field that made him work his way away from her. She tried grunting him back but he kept on going. She needed him to take 2 more steps along those trees and she would of had a shot. She played it cool though and you can't control where they walk so that was a great encounter for her. She also had a couple doe with in 10 yards that she passed. So she has had a great year.
There have been a couple of success stories this year. One was Scott Gruppen he shot a really nice 8pt during gun season. He has had a bunch of encounters with bucks this year. Just like year's past and has passed on some smaller guys. It's always nice to see it pay off for people. The other was Ross Graveling who shot a really nice 9 pt in Illinois. He had multiple encounters with this buck the days prior to shooting it and had him at 40 yards in his food plot the day before he killed him. They moved his stand and the rest is history. Both of these guys showed patience and the ability to adjust to the deer they were seeing and it paid off big time. So big Congrats to Scott and Ross.
For the rest of the year I am planning on hunting whenever possible but time is running short and with the lack of snow and cold temps, my late season plans are not producing the encounters like I had planned. Nothing ever goes according to plan but this year for me this has been the rule of thumb. October was very slow and I didn't see a doe until November and that was in Borculo at my mom's. I finally saw one down in Gobles the week after that, this is compared to around 30 the year before. It was so strange. My theory is that it was a very tough winter last year and a lot of the smaller does didn't make it. What it did do though was get the bucks up on their feet because they had to work for their women this year. We have never seen as many bucks in years prior as we did this year. That is why we are out there so it is hard to complain, it just has made for some really long sits with seeing no deer. In fact Julie put in an all-day sit without seeing anything, you want to talk about frustrating, but she did it and I was very proud.
So we will keep at it for the rest of the year, but I am not going to get my hopes up to much, so we will see what happens.
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