Headed out to Loch Raven this morning. Now that the moon has passed we are starting to see some rutting activity, finally! I got in nice and early and say and waited.... Saw some squirrels early, a fox around 8AM.. But nothing else.... Until about 8:50 AM I see a doe run across the hill out in front of me. Knowing that the some rutting activity was going on, I waited to see if anything was behind her.. Less than a minute later here comes a buck, of course finally something that makes sense (first time this season). I watched the doe continue across the hill and she went over into the thicket, the buck started just walking and then he rubbed a tree and was eating a little. He was a decent 8 point, he also had a fawn with him. Just 3 or 4 minutes into watching him (and trying to grunt him my direction) he put his head up looked over into the other thicket and took off hot on a doe chasing her step for step and he was gone. The other doe came back across the hill and was joined by a button buck, I watched them for 15 - 20 minutes and then finally feed off in the direction the buck and doe had gone off in earlier.. I'll note that had I not been hunting Loch Raven and I was somewhere with a muzzlelaoder on this opening day of late muzzleloader season I would have been able to shoot all of the deer I saw, but my trusty bow and I just couldn't reach out at the 50 - 90 yards where the deer were. I love bow hunting and it's my passion, but man some days I wish I was gun hunting.
That was that, in 10 minutes I saw 4 - 5 deer and that was it. It was nice to see some antlers and see some chasing going on. Makes me hopeful that this coming week may present some good hunting and maybe a chance at a buck for those of us that haven't harvested one yet this season!
With today being opening day of muzzleloader season it should have been a good day for some. Did you do any good? We would love to see some pictures of harvests!
Good luck to everyone this coming week!
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