Well the fact I’m writing and posting this in 2024, should tell all the TL:DR (too long: didn’t read) readers that I did not close the deal on a Metro Public Land buck this year. Again. After 2 successful years in a row, I’m on a 2 year window the other way, and that is ok. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be fun!
For those of you still interested in the story, and hopefully an opportunity for both of us to learn something, here we go. As is usually the case, I spend a lot of off-season time and most of the early season (Opener thru early to mid-October) mainly scouting. And I really try to hunt hard the last week or two in October through Gun Opener, with the days around Halloween typically being my personal favorite time to get in close with a big buck. Unfortunately our schedule went haywire pre-Halloween with work obligations, and another round of funk with the kids combining to keep me out of the woods almost entirely during my preferred prime time. And once I was able to get out again, at that point I was kind of starting from scratch, so I probably did more mid-season scouting than I have before. Eventually it kinda paid off…
Pre/Early Season Scouting: In August I jumped an absolute monster that let me follow it for about half a mile before high-tailing to private land and likely a couple counties over, at least. And I had a decent 10 pointer on camera during the summer as well, so optimism was high I’d get one pinned down. Despite some of my other previous big buck spots not showing much this year, and the little bit of sign I did find near the old haunts was clearly not from a buck or bucks I was interested in taking. But the good news was there were some big bucks around, and they were miles apart, so finding sign later would give me a good idea which one I was seeing sign from. This was my first year really using camera’s in my scouting, and to be honest, I really didn’t like it! I don’t want to open up another conversation entirely, so I’ll just say I need to invest in some cell cams, or just keep doing it old school without cameras.
Early November jackpot! I finally found some real serious rubs and scrapes and that area would get my attention for most of the rest of the year. As you can see in the pics this was not a little basket doing this size and height of damage. So that was the great news, the not so great news is this was in a very highly trafficked area by both hunters and walkers, so I was likely not going to be alone in hunting him and when I was in the woods there was a high likelihood of a non-hunter walking their dog thru or bird-watching or pine cone hunting or any other thing that would lead a non-hunting person into the woods. And yes, those are all real examples encountered this year, such is life hunting metro public land.
I didn’t have a pic (yet) or see this buck, but I figured he had to be a shooter. My second weekend gun season plans fell through, so I stayed close to home and hunted hard. Eventually the stars and wind aligned and I had him come down a light trail I wasn’t expecting up to 5 yards thru some brush. I wasn’t sure he was the one as he was broke off on the one side I could see at first glance, but as he came closer I knew he was the one! We had a super intense stare down from 10 yards to 5 yards where he knew something was wrong, but wasn’t sure what it was. As a reminder I typically hunt from the ground, with no blind, so we were basically eye to eye with brush blocking off his body and a good shot. Eventually he had enough and bounded off to 20 yards right down one of my shooting lanes, but he had an eye on me and as soon as I moved to get crosshairs on him, he ran off. Not super spooked though, so I didn’t think he was looking for a new home, and I had a good idea where he was coming from. A few nights later, I was in a different spot a couple hundred yards away and he came in right at last light, but I didn’t see him until 5 minutes after shooting hours. Again I didn’t spook him too bad, so thought I would get another chance at him, and felt I was really narrowing down his home territory. Soon after a friend sent me the attached pic that I’m 99.9% sure is the same buck I was seeing. About this same time I chatted with some other guys that were hunting the same piece, and one of the guys was after the same buck. Thankfully he was cool, and we communicated a lot about who was going where, and when, so we would give each other plenty of space, and hopefully one of us would put him down. Unfortunately neither of us saw him again, or the other 10 pointer I had a pic of earlier in the year was never seen all year.
After about mid-November everything changed. Prior to this I was seeing deer fairly regularly, and could have easily put down a couple baskets, a fork horn and a few does. By the end of November I wasn’t seeing anything and was back to the drawing board. The good, yet frustrating, thing was the amount of sign was still growing by the day and it was clear there were still a ton of deer around, but they were entirely nocturnal or only passing through at night at least. Regardless of weather, barometer or moon phase. Felt like I was zigging when I should have zagged, but in retrospect think I was hunting ghosts that just weren’t there during shooting hours. I also was trying everything, including busting out the old climber but they just went AWOL. I thought they were maybe in the cattails, tried busting thru them and even setup overlooking them a couple nights to glass only to not see any sign of life anywhere out there. Also, thought they were maybe right up against civilization, only to have people walk their dogs right thru the no-hunting zone and into legal hunting areas with nothing being chased out. I chalk this up to late season that I am not accustomed to hunting, and the amount of pressure, both hunter and civilian, that area was getting. One other lesson I learned this year was understanding thermals and wind forecast relationships when hunting river bottoms in bluff country, basically trust your location in proximity to the bluffs over the wind forecast, especially at first and last light. Sorry for the marathon read, but wanted to include as much pertinent info as possible. Anyway it’s about time to start putting miles on for next year, and get a better idea of where they went late season. There’s a couple out there that should be monsters next year!
(pics incoming)
