Like many of you I spent as much time as possible in the woods this past week with the full moon and rut kicking in. Before I tell you about my couple days in the woods, I will say that I have heard and even seen that many people have either harvested or got real close to harvesting a buck this past week. There is also more than enough evidence that rut is happening, with dead deer all along the local roads. This is just the time of year and I want to congratulate those whom were lucky enough to harvest a deer this past week.
I'll start with Thursday:
Thursday started out bad, it poured rain from 10 PM Wednesday until around 9 AM Thursday. This meant I was not going to sit in the woods early in the morning in the rain. That is the one thing that will keep me out of the woods. So, after the rain ended I hit the Loch Raven woods for the day. I sat one spot for a while and after not seeing anything at all, I headed to a new spot for the evening hunt... Well, lets just say Thursday summed up sorta how I have felt about this season. Awful weather, limited deer movement and me sitting in a tree enjoying nature and not working. That being said, I saw not a thing while on stand Thursday evening expect for birds. I did however, jump a 4 point and doe bedded on my way to my stand.
Friday:
Much better weather, at least for the morning hunt. Got in very early to my one spot in Loch Raven, had a deer run past me before I even see what or where it was. I only know what heard and it was running and it went down the hill from me around 5:50 AM. About 5 or 10 minutes later as I settled into my treestand for a pre-dawn nap I heard something walk from the same place headed to the same place I had heard the deer run a few minutes earlier. I was like alright, finally deer are up and moving and it's going to be a great morning. Around 6:10, only a few minutes later I hear a 3rd deer coming from down the hill in the clearing from me but this one is walking and is headed right for me. Now, it's right at legal shooting time, but it's still dark pretty dark I could see a shadow of the deer walking towards me but couldn't tell what it was. I quickly got my binoculars up and started trying to see what it was as it was now about 25 yards away headed right for me. It turned out to be a small buck, maybe little bowl 6 as it appeared. He walked 4 yards under me never even stopped nothing just man on a mission steady walking.
Well, that's 3 deer in the first 30 minutes on stand, now yes they were mostly before day break, but I thought this meant good things for the day. Well..... I got my hopes up a little too soon. After having that small buck walk by my stand shortly after 6 AM things got quite, I saw tons of blue jays, 2 foxes and countless other types of birds and squirrels. Nothing else moved until around 10 AM, yes I sat for 4 hours not really seeing or hearing a thing, not even way off.. When I had a little 3 point buck walk about 30 - 35 yards away from me again, man on a mission. He stopped a couple times to eat, and once to look in my direction but never looked at me, and he kept on going across the hill and then down over the other side. Then it got quite again. Around 11:30 AM it was deemed lunch time and the wind was really starting to kick up. I went to get down out of my stand, had lowered my bow, and packed most of my gear up when I look into the clearing off to my left and 80 yards away here comes a decent size what looks like doe. I went figures, all I have wanted was a doe to walk by for days of hunting for some meat in the freezer and now that my bow is on the ground she is going to walk right by.. Well, the deer did walk right by, 15 yards right behind me where I could have shot it 2 or 3 different places. The good news for me, this was a very young little tiny buck that was just up and moving for the same reason any other buck was moving. Looking for women! I didn't see his little 1 inch long spikes until he got 20 yards and closer to me, but then I felt better my bow was on the ground because I wouldn't shoot him anyway. That was the end of the morning hunt.
The afternoon was a little less umm comfortable. I went to a new area of Loch Raven then where I was in the morning and waited, got in nice and early thought I might catch a buck moving early, or a doe. Yeah, 2 o'clock came and went, 3 then 4 o'clock and nothing was moving at all but the wind. I sure was windy, I don't like being in a tree when it's that windy, but I stuck it out in hopes the deer still may be moving.. Well, 5 o'clock came around and still nothing had moved, I hadn't even seen a squirrel and I was getting tired, and tired of the wind, and slightly frustrated as I cannot seem to win this season. Well, just as I was ready to call it quits 10 minutes early, so about 5:15 PM, it was getting dark but I could still see some, but I was ready to call it a night. I looked off and 300 yards away I see this deer running out of this one section of woods headed right for me. I couldn't tell what it was so I grabbed my bow and I got ready. I kept an eye out behind it thinking maybe it was a doe being chased and the buck would follow. Well, the deer came running for me, stopped 60 yards away looked around, bolted again toward me, stopped again 15 yards away looked around and looked at me, and turned around and bolted back the way it came in the first place. Turned out to be a small fawn and I have no idea what spooked it and why it looked at me, but it was super scared and running a lot anyway. I wasn't going to shoot a fawn that small, but I wish I knew what spooked it, maybe another hunter or a fox? who knows! That was the end of Friday..
Saturday:
The best weather day of the 3 and wouldn't you know it I had to do some work in the morning... I did however make sure I got home and back out hunting for the afternoon. I decided to go sit on our private land in hopes that the one 8 pointer may follow the few does come up to eat on a regular basis and maybe this would happen before dark. Well, it was a slow evening, I had a button buck walk by early, like 4:40PM and he went out to eat. It started to get late and I heard more deer coming and I was thinking to myself, does, I bet a buck follows them tonight! Well, I got half of that right.. Two large does came down, avoided me, and entered our food plot about 45 yards away and then went and joined the button buck... That was around 5 PM, nothing else came down over the hill and when the does and button buck had left the area I got down and called it a day. That was my full moon weekend. Nothing too exciting, not even a sighting of a decent buck. Not even a shot at a doe. Just some nice time in a treestand blending with nature. I enjoyed the time very much, but look forward to more days that evolve seeing more deer!
I'm heading down to Maryland's eastern shore for a few days of hunting early this week and will be back later in the week to get back to hunting central Maryland.
Anyone have success this past week or weekend? I saw lots of people out hunting on my way too or from hunting this week. We would love to see some pictures of trophies taken this past week / weekend!
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