For me, its back to work today so I ended my WI gun season a day and half early. We had some great moments and this is by far the most enjoyable season (excluding my girls taking their first bucks in past years)that I’ve had in probably 15 years or more.
Just a few highlights:
Opening day – saw about 35 deer (few repeats of same deer included). 2 shooter bucks that never presented an ethical opportunity. Olivia had 7 or 8 bucks under the crosshairs and passed. An abundance of 1.5 year old bucks and fawns.
Day 2 – Chaos. Don’t know how else to describe it. Before shooting time, we had countless deer grazing in the fields. At shooting time, we had deer milling around us in almost 360 degrees. I take responsibility for Olivia shooting a young buck. Had a nice shooter and a young deer milling through the saplings. Seeing the racks amongst the landscape was very difficult as the racks blended into the snow, grass, and weeds in our tree planting. In the time I took my eyes off the two bucks and stepped out of Olivia’s way to shoot, the two bucks changed positions and I called out the wrong deer. She questioned me a couple times and I was very persistent. She made a perfect heart shot at 316yrds and dumped it in its tracks. 4 hours later, one of the shooter bucks we wanted made the fatal mistake of following a doe into our field. I dumped him at 320 yrds – nearly on top of Olivia’s buck. Saw 35-40 deer by noon and called it a day with both buck tags filled.
Worked Monday and Tuesday. Pulled a couple trail cams from the border of my sanctuary and dang, did I feel rewarded. From the direction deer were traveling and the secondary trails being used, it was obvious the deer knew EXACTLY where to go under pressure. As the neighbors made a number of drives on bordering land, the cams shown that the deer were escaping their properties and pouring into the sanctuary area we have.
Wed I sat out in a different stand with just the camera. Saw 14 deer total including 4 bucks. All small 1.5’s again. Check a few of the trail cams and see the majority of big bucks are all nocturnal and still around.
Thursday – A friend came up and sat in my tower for the day while I butchered my deer. Steady pouring rain from dark to dark. He saw 6 does and 1 sub-buck.
Friday I sat out with the camera again. Just a few fawns crossing the field until the last half hour of the day. 13 deer came up out of my sanctuary and into an alphafa field. 1 good size young buck. Huge rack with no mass. He still had that tiny fawn shaped head and guessing he was a 1.5…maybe 2.5 at most. Very little body size, but he was already sporting 10pnts and 16-17′ spread with a very thin pencil like rack.
Saturday, sat out with my neice’s husband. Dead morning. A few deer crossed our field 1/2 hour before shooting time into a bedding area. Neighbors made a drive through their land and we watched deer sneaking out around their posters and into my land. Was so cool to see how they used the landscape to sneak around about 1000 yrds to get into the plot i use as a sanctuary. Was also very self-explanatory to Jarod why I designated that area as a sanctuary and Keep Out mentality. At noon, we had a bunch of does and fawns grazing in the field. About every 10 to 15 seconds they would lift their heads and look back into the woods. I cautioned Jarod to be ready as I knew from their body language more deer were present. After glassing the wood edge for a few minutes, I spotted a nice shooter buch about 15 yrds into the woods eating acorns. As Jarod got into position for a shot, a second buck came into view in his scope. Before he could get a shot off, both bucks lowered their heads and engaged into a hell of a fight. The #1 buck we were looking for was there and had survived so far. So now, if he can just stay put in the safe zone of my woods for 24 more hours and avoid a mistake in late season bow hunting – he’ll be a real stud next year.
So, that was my season. After crying, whining, complaining, $!tching, and everything else I could do over the last 10 years to get most of my neighbors to stop shooting so many does, it has finally paid off. Last year we averaged seeing 5 deer per day (includes a couple of days of nothing). This year about 18 per day with seeing deer everyday.
It’s too bad that the vast majority of friends that I chatted with had circumstances much worse. A few took some really nice bucks ands others didn’t get to see squat. The common thing discussed was number of does and bucks being nocturnal. A lot of us experienced bucks going back to primarily nocturnal the week or so prior to gun season. But, seeing deer in areas of heavy doe harvests was brutal. I don’t understand it and question the level of greed. If you only see a few deer, why take does? Bucks don’t drop fawns, they are only the sperm donor. Yet I see time and time again guys taking does from areas of low deer numbers. Is the fairy deer mother just going to deliver a new herd? I realize (just like on my farm) there are localized pockets of deer where it is understandable to take a few does. We’ll probably take a couple off our place next year. I just can’t imagine only seeing 4 or 5 deer all week and then shooting a doe. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyways – I hope everyone had a safe and successful hunt. Now, its finally time to get back to predator hunting.
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