Bow Hunting the Pre Rut in North Dakota

Unbelievable….. is the only word to describe this past weekends hunts in North Dakota. Looking at the weather forecasted and the SE winds I would have never thought this past weekend would have turned out the way it did. Friday afternoon Stacie and I headed to our good friends Paul and Miranda’s farm to do some pre rut hunting in North Dakota. This would be Stacie’s first experience chasing North Dakota Pre Rut whitetails and what an experience she was about to receive.

We arrived in Kindred, ND just about 3:30 and quickly started our pre hunt scent cleansing ritual. Having a NE wind, we decided on a ladder stand on Paul’s farm along the river bank hoping to intercept some deer on their travel route from their bed to the many corn fields that were still standing around the property. What I first noticed was the high flood water they were experiencing from all the moisture made our difficult walk even more treacherous as we scaled the sides of theriver bank to the stand. After bumping a doe, two fawns next to our stand and then a buck across the river from our stand we got settled in as the Halloween evening was just about upon us. Something about hunting Halloween gets me excited. I have never harvested a buck on the scary night, but have come close numerous times. We heard and saw some action on the other river bank, but our side was kind of quiet and prime time was here but still no action on our side of the river. Until the last 20 minutes of shooting light, that is when I heard some commotion off in the distance what sounded like our side of the river. A lil’ time passed and I could barley make out the faint sound of solo footsteps coming our way right along the river bank. I finally picked up movement with the light slowly starting to fade. I turned my camera on, but camera light was pretty much gone as I quickly brought up my Nikon’s to get a better look at the deer approaching. It did not take me long to figure this buck out as fast as I brought them up I put them back down and whispered to Stacie to stand up it was a “Shooter”. She steadily rose to her feet as the buck was slowly closing the distance. I brought my optics back up to get a better look at him as he is now stopped browsing and about 30 yards from us. I’m now staring down a 140-145” 5×5 whitetail as he begins to move again coming right at us. Stacie starts to draw her bow back as I whisper “not yet” as the buck stops just out of our shooting lane. I could feel her excitement and hear her breathe quicken as the buck is taking his sweet time. She regains her composure just in time as the buck starts to move again and she comes to full draw on her Mathews DXT as the buck turns and enters her shooting lane @ 20 yards broadside. I try to stop him with a few mouth grunts to no avail. The buck finally does stop for a short time out of her shooting lane. He then begins to move again as I stop him with another mouth grunt. My wife now is bearing down on this 140” + class buck @ 22 yards. Shooting light quickly fading away as she touches off her trigger as I watch her Maxima arrow fly towards this north Dakota brute and my heart sinks as I watch it deflect to the right and down. I’m guessing a small branch or limb. This buck is still unaware of what just happen as I instruct Stacie to nock another arrow. This buck does not present another shot and after a few grunt and bleat calls, we watch it slip into the Haloween darkness of the North Dakota woods with buck fever setting in on both of us. I absolutely lost it as the shakes set in big time. I could tell she was feeling it too as we conversed on her miss, but a bit of disgust was also eating her up as I tried to console her and explain that it was a tough shot in the low light and I did not see the branch either from my view point. That did not seem to help as I then proceeded to tell her the first 2 shots I ever took, I also hit a branch and defelcted and never harvested my deer. I then told her it was all right and we would have another chance, but knowing the pain she was feeling as shot opportunities do not come along that often at 140-145” deer. I figured what a better way for a girl to forget about something bad then to go shopping??? So we got back to the house and headed into town and hit the Scheel’s in Fargo for some therapy.

Saturday morning quickly came as the SE wind found us in a ladder stand at The Pines, a tree farm with corn on it this year. I noticed that the temp had dived down into the low 30’s which had me excited as we were getting dressed away from the truck. We made our way into the stand as I hung my stand and camera equipment and got settled in. Right at sunrise I noticed a very large bodied deer in an opening about 200 yards away. I grabbed the estrous can and gave it a few bleats. This deer now had turned and started to head our way. Stacie again rises to her feet and now is in the middle of her 2nd buck encounter in just a few hours of hunting. This buck works a scrape line all the way too us as he stopped, rubbed, scraped, urinated, scent gland the overhanging branches about every 30 -50 yards along the way. We see this buck is a heavy horned 3.5 year old 4×4 and definitely a shooter for Stacie. This buck is putting on a show trying to un nerve my wife as he freshens his scrape line. He now is getting close and is in the open at about 34 yards as I finally picked him up on camera, but just too far for Stacie’s comfort zone. He comes closer working another scrape and is in some real thick stuff, but no shot opportunity. He some how finagles through a bush that I thought he would have to go around and put him 23 yards and give Stacie a shot. He skirts through other brush and freshens one last scrape as he is now starting to head away from us. I quickly hit the grunt tube but it seems to have no effect, so then I give him a snort wheeze which he stops and then gets nervous as he picks up his pace and starts to scoots out of the area. Quickly I hit the can a few times in desperation, but to no avail. What a great encounter as agian I could tell Stacie’s heart was a thumping and legs a lil wobbly. Staice is on board, on that roller coaster of a ride that we call bow hunting and the ups and downs of it that come with it. The highs and lows can change in a matter of seconds, where it ends up no one knows. The rest of the morning just a few does, fawns and a small buck come through. In fact that Saturday evening and Sunday morning was pretty much the same in that stand with just small bucks, does and fawns and not much rut activity witnessed at all.

Now that brings us to Sunday evenings hunt. Helping Paul do some hunting chores during the day we witnessed extremely warm temps for November as it was 73 degrees out. With not much hope for the evening sit with the high temps and the winds still out of the SE not allowing us to sit in our best rut stands I was a lil’ disappointed going into the hunt, but it is the rut you never now. Stacie and I sat on the edge of a food plot on Paul’s farm in a ladder stand at a big oak tree. This behemoth oak did not allow me to set up my camera arm and would be shooting any video free hand which we all know is tough to do. We got settle into our stand after a slow walk out with a perfect wind for the stand we chose. Even being careful and carrying our camo into the tree the 70 degree temps did not have me feeling confident with our scent control. We slowly got dressed in the stand as we finally cooled down and just got totally dressed the action started fast and got even faster through the night. It all started with a huge commotion behind us on the wood edge and into the corn as it sounded like a buck just got pushed out of the area by another. Then all heck, broke loose as we heard the sound all the grunt tube companies are so hot on. The Buck Roar I have seen videos on just echoed through the air and we saw movement across the field in the woods. We were in for it, because for the remainder of the night what we witnessed I still can’t even believe it. Well last night I found out just how tough it is to do free hand a movie camera, and still be range finder guy, grunt tube guy, bleat can guy and shot creator guy. The video quality really suffered last night , but what we witnessed from the stand was un real. Even though the buck was only nice 2.5 4×4, the show he put on for us would have videographers and hunting show people drooling over. This 4×4 came onto the field chasing, feeding, trying to whoop up on the forker. You name it. The whole time grunting and “buck roaring” like nothing I have ever seen. He cleared the field and disappeared back into the woods with a doe. I told Stacie if he comes back out we have to try to get him to come over. Only a few minutes later he shows back up. I estrous bleated him with my Hunter Specialties bleat can a few times and the next thing you know, he is on a dead sprint right at us across the field. My camera skills decline rapidly as I try to get Stacie ready for a shot and grab the range finder. Stacie and I are communicating back and forth as this buck is closing the distance fast. He begins to peel off and go to our left and slows down as he is passing by @ 35 yards and heads into the woods behind us attempting to get down wind of us. I then hear motion from behind us as other deer are approaching, dead down wind of us through the thick woods as I told Stacie to breathe out of her nose and not her mouth as I swing the camera behind us. I again bleat the can as I can hear the buck grunting and roaring the whole time in the wods behind us. The does and fawns I once thought were trouble for us, now became our alias as that buck could hear and see the doe that he thought made the bleat to him as he scatters the doe and fawns and stops 10 yards behind us in the thick cover. THe buck is now smelling the ground where the doe had just vacated. The buck then proceeds to make his way to the field edge and instead of coming out on the trial the doe did he comes on a even closer one and is stopped standing broad side looking right at us at about 20 yards and just a few steps short of where Stacie can shoot him. After a little stand off, justlike that he drops his head and shoots off into the field, not paying attention to the quick mouth grunts I try to leave and heruns this doe back into the woods. This activity goes on until dark, but the buck never gives my wife an ethical shot at him as he is either moving, just out side her comfort zone or behind cover. Oh well that is hunting, but what a hunt it was and sharing it with my wife and showing her first hand why this is sport of bow hunting is such a passion of mine was truly an experience I know I will not forget. To have 3 encounters in 2.5 days of hunting with Shooter bucks for my wife was something I only dreamed about until this weekend. With the warm weather and not favorable winds I would never have thought it would have been that good of a weekend. I’m in a real painful process right now trying to figure out my new camera and trying to convert movie files compatible with what I need to post it here on IDO. Hopefully someday I figure it out! I would like to thank our Hosts Paul & Miranda for another great hunt in ND. I need to run, but IT IS ON LIKE DONKEY KONG BOYS and GIRLS get out in the field as you can’t smack the big one from the couch. I know a lot of big deer are starting to fall, including a few here by IDO Staff and members. Congrats to those guys! Next on my list I will hopefully be sneaking out bow hunting during the week here, but next weekend I will be up with the family for rifle opener just north of McGregor. I’m just waiting for my next ride on that roller coaster of emotions deleivered by buck encounters. Good luck to everyone and we will see you later! Stay tuned right here @ In-Depth Outdoors as the big’uns continue to fall and to keep up to date on all your hunting addicitons!