November 14, 2006
Is the chase on?
David Boush sent in this shot of the nice 10-pointer he killed Monday morning while hunting the Bent Mountain area.
From my observations bucks still haven't started seriously chasing does yet, but I expect things will blow up any day.
I had a feeling yesterday had potential so I took the day off and hunted pretty much all day. It was pretty slow for me.
I was hunting a place in Botetourt County. I hadn't scouted this year but am pretty familiar with the property so I knew where I wanted to start the day. I got in there well before daylight and hung my Lone Wolf Alpha hang-on stand on a ridge that always gets a lot of traffic. Well, it didn't get any traffic yesterday morning. The acorn crop is better up there than usual -- but there aren't any oaks on that ridge, it's just a travel route between a cornfield and a bedding area -- so that probably is affecting deer travel patterns.
At 10 a.m. I decided to bail on that spot. I pulled the stand and moved down the hill about 150 yards, to a little oak flat. I found a pretty good rub line so I set up again in a tree that I had prepared last winter after the season. Two hours and nothing.
I was having a hard time staying awake so I headed in for a break. On the way back I found an area with lots of rubs, including some on big trees. I had an extra stand and climbing stick in my truck so I decided to hang a stand right away.
I was tempted to rest the spot but during a lunch break I read an article that mentioned how it's so important to hunt a stand immediately because deer that pass through might catch your scent and never return. So I decided to hunt that stand, and was up there by 2:30 p.m. Unlike the other areas, this one at least had lots of squirrel activity so I had to keep alert. Finally, I spotted a doe moving through a thicket about 60 yards away. It was "doe day" by I decided to hold off. About 30 minutes later I heard another deer approaching. It turned out to be a decent eight-point buck. He was on the same path as the doe, but heading the opposite direction. His antler spread was outside the ears but tine length was just fair. I guess he could have been the one tearing up the area, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bigger boy in there. A neighboring landowner who is very selective told me he's seen lots of shooter bucks this year -- and "shooter" to him means BIG -- so I didn't want to burn my one tag (the landowner limits us to one buck a season) on a deer that was probably just a 2-year-old.
Anyway, that was it for the evening. Several other hunters on the place saw shooter bucks but couldn't get shots at them. I'm headed back there this afternoon. It's too warm for my liking but I expect they'll be moving OK later in the day.
Actually, they are still moving. (It's noon as I type this.) A buddy who is hunting just sent me an e-mail from his Blackberry and said he's seen lots of deer today, including several bucks that "will be nice next year."
I think I'll hunt a new stand this evening.
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