November 2008

Date: 11/15/2008
Location: Fairfield County, CT
Hours Hunted: Sunrise – Sunset
Temperature: 52 degrees
Wind: From SE at 12mph
Weather: Rain and Fog
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 85% of Full
Deer Sighted: 15 bucks, 6 does

This morning I snuck along a lake to get back into a peninsula the deer bed in, but the wind is usually in their favor – not so today. It wasn’t long after I settled in my tree between two trails that I started seeing deer. The problem was the deer were using the trail behind me and picking up my scent. After 2 does, a four pointer and two spikes picked up my scent, I climbed down and moved 50 yards to where the deer would be unable to get downwind of me because of a fence that served as a natural barrier – it was the perfect set up. The tree I climbed into had a tree not more than 10ft away full of dead brown leaves to help break up my outline and keep me out of the deer’s line of sight.

My plan worked and the deer continued passing through – well running through as the bucks chased the does around in this tiny 20 acre bedding area. The deer seemed to just circle the area all day long as I saw several of the bucks over and over again, but in all there were probably 7 or 8 different bucks in the area – almost all were yearlings, two of them were 2 1/2 year old bucks, but no shooter bucks showed up.

While a few of the young bucks gave me shot opportunities, none of the does did so the only thing to take an arrow to the lungs was a red fox that happened to walk right under my tree. The fox stopped quartering away at 12 yards and my Rage 2-blade went through the fox and buried completely into the ground. The red fox made it about 20 yards before toppling over – got my first red fox with a bow.

Date: 11/14/2008
Location: Fairfield County, CT
Hours Hunted: Sunrise – 8:15am
Temperature: 55 degrees
Wind: S at 5mph
Weather: Cloudy
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 95% of Full
Deer Sighted: No deer

I went out this morning in hopes of catching a big 8 pointer chasing does. I went to a swamp edge where the deer was living back in August and thought I might see the deer running does in an open field on the other side of a thin strip of swamp. I brought my rattling bag, buck roar, and heat bleat with me on the stand and made four rattling sequences with no success.

The unseasonably warm weather combined with the full moon have been hampering to daytime deer movement lately. Tomorrow the weather calls for more rain and warm temperatures which is not promising, but I plan on sneaking into a bedding area using the noise from the rain and the quietness of the leaves to my advantage. Sunday looks to hold the most hope as the temperatures will drop down to the 30s and 40s along with clear sunny skies – sounds like perfect weather for big bucks to be out chasing does! Hopefully I’m right.

Date: 11/9/2008
Location: Putnam County, NY
Hours Hunted: 3:00pm – Sunset
Temperature: 42 degrees
Wind: WNW at 6mph
Weather: Sunny
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 80% of Full
Deer Sighted: 2 bucks, 2 does

Today I headed to a secluded piece of public land to scout/hunt. I saw a lot of good deer sign and slowly made my way up a ridge to see if I could find a good spot to hang a stand. On my way up I jumped a yearling buck. This buck had a gnarly right antler that made a “U” shape. The buck never saw me so it was not spooked and it began feeding only 40 yards away from me. I was frozen in mid-step, standing in open hardwoods with my bow in my hand, no arrow nocked and no face mask on.

As I watched the buck feed I saw the deer lift its head and look to its left – another buck emerged out of the hardwoods. This was a bigger, more mature whitetail with a nice rack. The larger buck fed towards the smaller buck and then they began sparing. The two bucks fought for a good 15 minutes before the big guy decided to remind the little one who was boss.

The smaller buck continued feeding in my direction and then decided he was going to come check me out and actually came within 10 yards of me standing in the open woods – obviously this deer had not been hunted before. I held my ground, kept my face covered with the brim of my had and never looked the deer in the eye. The buck eventually turned and slowly walked off before trotting about 50 yards away. This was enough to take the big buck with him, but the older animal never saw me.

Now at 60 yards, the big buck turned and fed back in my direction. It had been about 45 minutes since I froze in mid-stride and my legs were starting to shake from holding my body weight up in an awkward position since I was standing on sloping ground. I scanned my surroundings looking for a shooting lane and only had one lane out to about 45 yards, but I would have to crouch down to clear the overhanging limbs in front of me.

As the buck approached the opening I got ready. At full draw I settled the 40 yard pin on the buck’s vitals and let the arrow fly. I hit the deer a little further back than I would have liked, but he only went another 40 yards before toppling over. I now had a great public land buck I was extremely proud of.

Date: 11/7/2008
Location: Fairfield County, CT
Hours Hunted: Sunrise – 9:00am
Temperature: 52 degrees
Wind: WNW at 4mph
Weather: Cloudy
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 66% of Full
Deer Sighted: None

Today I headed to a swamp edge to hunt a stand I had never hunted. I thought now would be a good time to get out to different areas of the property since I’m out of buck tags and need to fill my remaining replacement antlerless tags to obtain another either sex tag in CT. I found a clump of trees where the hardwoods and the swamp funneled together and started my ascent. Not more than 10 feet off the ground I heard noise from behind me. I caught movement as a coyote ran through the woods followed by a second one. These were big dogs and I don’t believe they knew I was there. If I had arrived 10 minutes earlier as originally planned, I might have had time to stop one and take a shot. Although there were two fresh rubs in the area, no deer showed up. I later reviewed my camera that had been in the area for a week and only had one picutre of a deer – time to move to a different location.

Date: 11/1/2008
Location: Fairfield County, CT
Hours Hunted: Sunrise – 10:00am
Temperature: 45 degrees
Wind: WSW at 5mph
Weather: Sunny
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent, 30% of Full
Deer Sighted: 2 does, 1 buck

I headed to the edge of a bedding area where I had identified a tree to climb on a previous outing. Unfortunately, I didn’t inspect the tree up close so when I arrived in the dark I was left in confusion as the tree I had picked the previous week, no longer looked suitable for hunting out of. I had two choices, make due with the trees around or head 100 yards further to a tree I knew I could hunt out of. I decided to use this day as an “observation” day and see what I could see from here.

It wasn’t until around 8:00am when I caught movement behind me as a doe, her fawn and a spike made fed along a ridge behind me. The deer were about 60 yards away and eating under one of my trees. Somehow the doe spotted me – either I was moving too much or the sun reflected off of my binoculars. I do not believe the deer smelled me because I did not walk where they were feeding and my scent was blowing away from the deer, not towards them. The doe continued to snort at me and I hoped that curiosity would get the best of her and she’d come closer to investigate, but instead she bolted, taking the other two deer with her.

I turned back around – the deer had come from behind me – to watch the bedding area in front of me when four longbeards flew down on the opposite hillside. They must have been frightened out of the landowners backyard by the landscapers. I hoped the birds would feed in my direction as I still had one turkey tag left, but they disappeared into the hardwoods.