Bow Hunting the Rut in ND

Well its over, but not done. My 4 day Hunt chasing ND Rutting Whitetails is over without harvesting a deer, but man did I have some good encounters. The best day of the hunt was of course my last day as the hard core chasing started that night, I had 2 different chases going on and my buddy Paul had one as we finally got the right wind to sit in our good stands on the last night. Prior to Sunday I saw one chase on Thursday morning that was not really a chase, but a shooter buck was trailing a doe with his nose to the ground @ about 55 yards. He was pushing her, but not really chasing her. Overall it was a tad slower then the past, but I believe that was mainly due to the SE winds we had most of the trip. Allowing us very minimal time to sit in our prime Rut Stands. Most of the corn was harvested, but a few large fields still remained right between the 2 main farms we were hunting. So hopefully by this weekend the corn will be entirely off. Friday @ noon kicked off ND’s Rifle Hunting Opener and I did not hear many shots on Friday. I saw a ton of deer the first and last day of the hunt with a little lull in the middle. A lull up there may be 5-10 deer a sitting, so still not too bad of action. A good sitting up there one can see 25 deer plus come by your stand and that is what Sunday brought.

Sunday morning I sat in the pines in the ladder stand we have located between a food source and a few bedding areas. A good rut stand because the does coming back to bed, you are sort of located between 3 different bedding areas so you can catch bucks running between them all day. I had two different bucks right at first light that circled me and had to check out my scent wick I had placed out 24 yards from my stand. Both were very nice bucks in the 120-130” class and it was apparent that one was higher up on the hierarchy as the other one quickly scuffled off. Then came the onslaught of deer as the sunrise occurred I saw deer pretty much nonstop for the next hour and a half. Including a nice 7 pointer that came through 3 different times at various distances checking the aforementioned bedding areas around and leaving his presence at numerous licking sticks and scrapes along the way. Click below for a video of the last encounter I had with this deer. He has nice mass, nice brows, G2‘s and a decent spread, he is just missing more tines. Not sure but I’m guessing this deer at 2.5 years old.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF A BUCK ENCOUNTER

After the morning sit I went back to the house ate a quick breakfast and got in the kayak to make my way down river as the wind had finally changed and was out of the West, allowing me to get back into our Rut Stands. These stands are along the river and great morning and afternoon stands. They are on secure heavily traveled trails between bedding areas and about 125 yards off the food source. I got settled in about 1 pm and the action was pretty slow as only a few does meandered my way. The wind had switched which was good, but man it was warm on Sunday. As evening approached deer started to move and man they were every where. Soon I hear the sweet music of rustling leaves and grunting as a chase was coming my way. This doe comes barreling by my stand with 3 bucks hot on her tail. 2 of those bucks were decent and one was a small fork. From then on it was constant action again. A few minutes after sunset a shot rang out from the food source as the former landowners daughter took a shot and cleared the fields. I quickly rose to my feet as I knew deer would start to funnel by me and I saw some decent bucks off in the distance. I grabbed the can and my grunt call and began to try to persuade one to come closer. I grabbed ones attention as he slowly started my way. I was losing light fast and between my grunt tube and the can I had this buck worked up into a frenzy as he was snort wheezing me and grunting. I was giving him the business right back and shooting light was almost gone as he was about 40 yards out in a thicket. I could here him move even closer, but know legal shooting time was past. I never got a great look at this buck to know which one it was, but I seen enough that I wanted to shoot him. Now it was dark and I had a wound up testosterone burning buck below me that I did not want to spook away, but yet still had 30 yards to make it to the river bank and thought about the stories posted here about bucks kicking guys butts and goring them. I did not want to be another statistic, but did not want to spook the buck either. Man was he pissed, I could hear him breathing and wheezing, he made my hair stand up. I ended up climbing down after about 10 minutes and was able to pick up a branch and throw it in another direction. That landed and I could hear the buck take a few steps the other way and I slowly started to make my way out of the woods with my red flashlight bulb on. I slowly made it to the bank with no problem where I met my buddy Paul and we boated across the river and told stories about the chases and events of the evening. This is the part of the hunt I love.

I said it is over, but I still have this weekend to chase those rutting ND whitetails and hoping they are still chasing themselves. I had some nice close encounters with some nice bucks that just did not quite qaulify as a shooter for me or the farm I was on. I had some nice 4×5’s and 4×4’s that I just elected to pass on, knowing that 3 bucks had my attention up there. This coming weekend I will be heading back up with my Dad & Stacie in hopes of putting some meat in the freezer and still looking for Mr. Big. As we have rifle and bow tags to fill. Hopefully we can put some down and crossing my fingers that one of them has some nice bone on top of his head. Not to mention I have a few more weekends of late season to tag one of those 3 deer I have had my eye on all year. After this weekend I will be headed to SD to chase some Muleys and SD Whitetail around over on the South West side of the State as Stacie and I will be spending Thanksgiving at her parent’s house. Until next time have a great hunt and be safe!

Click Here for a video of Does and this weeks targets piling into the food plot

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE