Well, I was down to Madelia over the past weekend and the weather really made things tough. It was Hot was putting it mildly. Sitting in the stand in the middle of October with temps in the 70’s and mosquito’s is not what I call fun or normal. With that being said I still did get a chance to sit a few times and saw decent deer movement considering the above-mentioned factors. Read on to see how my weekend in the stand went. It started pretty early on Saturday morning as my alarm lock went off at 3:30 am only after getting a sleep sometime just after midnight. 
After loading the dog into the truck and then a quick shower to start my scent free ritual I hit the road down to Madelia by 4 am to meet Stacie’s brother Tyler on the farm by 6 am. I got settled in plenty of time and waited for first light. The action was pretty slow early, as I saw one small eight pointer right at first light. Then it was pretty still until after 8 am as I saw deer pretty much constantly for the next 30 minutes. I ended up seeing 2 does and 3 bucks that morning with that first 8 point being the biggest. I thought two deer was the same one, but after looking at video footage I saw it was a spike instead of the doe I thought I just saw. I also checked my trail camera that had been out for almost 4 weeks and was surprised to see many different bucks on it, including many pics of the decent 4×5 that probably grosses in the low 120’s.
After a few hours of chasing birds with Tyler, my buddy Jason and Maggie they left and I began to think about future hunts here and trying to think of a few more stand placements, which is hard due to the chunk mainly being CRP fields with one narrow strip of wood sin it.. Instead of checking into my hotel room and showering, I decided to hang a new set where Tyler had saw a pretty decent buck and a few does piling out of the corner of the corn field into the CRP and by two lone trees on the edge of the property line. He observed this from his stand while hunting that morning. I also remembered a sighting I had seen with a very nice buck that bedded below that tree on the hill side with the same Southerly wind forecasted for Sunday morning. After gaining permission to shoot into the adjacent owned CRP field I got my stand hung and shooting lanes cleared. I then returned to the truck and began my make shift shower by the truck and started my scent free ritual once again to get ready for the evening sit. For the evening I chose the same stand as that morning. With the temps being in the mid to high 70’s it was tough to stay cool on the walk in. Not being to confident in my scent control I put out a few trophy leafs in the Trials End 307 scent on the down wind side to help mask any of my scent. The down wind side was the CRP field. After a couple of doe fawn encounters, I started to lose light. I was fighting the mosquito’s off with a club when something popped out of the corn and into the CRP field on my down wind side. It was a doe that heard the coons playing below me and also probably smelled me or the trophy leaf. She was alert to something but her curiosity over came her as she took her time coming in but came two within 15 yards of my stand. So my guess is the trophy leaf is what she smelled. She finally gave up and went into the woods. Just a minute or so later of camera light was gone I heard footsteps coming from the direction I saw the doe last. Finally, I made out an image as he popped into my shooting lane. Yes, I said him. 
Not knowing what it was exactly, but had seen enough horn to make me draw my bow as this buck in the low light condition. This deer had turned and now was coming even closer a sit passes my stand and stops less then 15 yards from me broad side. I could now make him out and see it was the 4×5 that I had trail video clips in velvet and trial cam pics of him hard horned. My heart was a pumping, but knew this was not the buck I wanted to harvest. He stood there nose high smelling the corn field that stood in front of him, before he decided to enter the field and disappear into the darkness. What a way to end a very long tiresome day. 
After waiting a good amount of time to make sure that buck was out of the area I got down and made my way back to the truck. It was time to check in to my hotel room and grab something to eat. For the last few years when I stay down in Madelia, I have been staying at the Americ Inn there. It is a great clean place to stay and always feels so “homey” there. Best of all they are pet friendly and Rufus gets to stay in the room with us. They have a restaurant /bar across the street and they also have Pizza that you can order right there at the Hotel. Not to mention the complimentary breakfast they serve, the great hospitality, service, pool, hot tub, sauna, video games, along with a guest washer dryer and high speed internet access. All things I have taken advantage of during my stays there.
Sundays morning sit I sat in my new set up and was greeted with a huge SE wind and after a few issues of people and cars on the road I never saw any deer up close, but did see a vehicle spin about 3-4 deer back into the corn as they were just about to cross the road in my direction. Well, that is it for this past weekend. The deer movement was not all that bad considering the temps and weather. This week I plan on fishing and hopefully hitting the stand once before I head to SD for the Pheasant opener next weekend at Stacie ‘s Family Farms.. My next big deer trip is planned to go back to Madelia the last weekend of October to chase some pre rut Whitetail and will probably be toting the decoy with. So that has me pretty pumped up for that. I’m sure it will be hard pressed to leave the dog home after our tough outing this past weekend down there. So, I’m sure Rufus will be making the trip and looking for some revenge on some Roosters that will have fewer places to hide in 2 weeks. Until then be safe, courteous and make sure you introduce someone new to the outdoors this year. 
EDIT: Sorry for the late report. I’m having trouble converting my new Camera Files over to be able to post them here. I will not be able/ have time to figure it out this week. Hopefully next week I hope to have some pics and video with my Hunting Report.