My son decided to skip on 10 Nov due to rain forecasted to hit around 7am. With him sitting out, I got to sit in the killing tree and my daughter accompanied me and sat in her stand. Our target buck appeared on a camera about 9pm on the 9th about 125 yards from my daughter's stand. About 6:45am my daughter texted me that she saw a deer and questioned whether it was multiple because of all of the racket it was making. She later said that the buck was rubbing everything in sight and was strutting through the woods like he was king. She went text silent, which let me know she was focused on the task at hand. Not knowing the situation, I hit my grunt call in hopes that if it was something the other side of her, it would pull it out within range. Not two minutes later, I heard her CVA bark and got the OMG text. Once she confirmed that the buck was down, I started climbing down in hopes we could exit in advance of the impending rain. I could see her wide smile from 50 yards away as I approached. At first, she thought she had taken our #1 target buck. I was hoping that was true. When I got to it, I noticed that it wasn't our #1 buck, but an equally nice one none the less. This is easily her largest harvested with a muzzleloader and I couldn't have been happier to been there to enjoy the hunt.
On Veterans Day, we were all three in our stands before daylight in hopes that our #1 buck would make his first daylight appearance of the season. As if it was planned, that is exactly what happened. Here is our target buck an hour into daylight in front of a camera that has three hunters within 250 yards of it, with my daughter being within 125 yards.
As if the buck knew, this is one of two cameras I have that aren't visible from one of our stands. This camera is on the other side of a thicket so we can tell when there is movement in the area that we can't see. My daughter was beside herself when she saw the photo arrive. As much as she willed it to happen, the buck presented her with only a glimpse of its legs as it traversed through the thicket. So close, yet so far away.
Sunday afternoon I was on my own so I sat in the killing tree. It was an uneventful sit with only three deer seen. At first I thought one of them was a doe and her yearling, but since I got to hang out with them for more than an hour I learned that was not the case. This one is what I've come to refer to as a SOB.
It's this type of deer that makes our early antlerless-only season so difficult. Identifying antlerless deer can be harder sometimes.Yesterday, my son wimped out on the cold temps (25F) so I climbed up to the top of the mountain to my stand. I saw a total of ten deer, three being antlered bucks. The largest was only a 5pt, but at least two of them appeared to be out trolling around searching for doe. Our #1 buck had not appeared on a camera since our lone daylight sighting.
Today, I went back to work for my last two days prior to Thanksgiving. My son decided to skip hunting. Well, it was hit loss. Just before 10:30am this morning, our #1 buck walked right across the top of our ridge likely visible from my daughter's stand and walked practically under the killing tree where my son would have been sitting.
The gun season opens on Saturday, so we'll be putting in some longer hours in the stand the rest of the week. Our dance partner still appears to be in the area, it's just a matter of syncing our schedules.
Good luck to the others out there dancing the dance.
