Almost time!

I finally started getting a lot of deer on camera this week. There are 8 in this photo:


It sure does make things more exciting to see what is in the area where we are hunting.

I even got a photo of a for kicking another doe in the face. Only a 4 pointer & button buck so far...


We got notification yesterday that we didn't get picked for the Blanton Creek quota hunt. I guess at least we'll get to add another priority to use in the future.

I'm planning to purchase my broadheads today - decided on the Rage chisel tip 2-blade. My shooting is getting much better and I'm even comfortable & consistent out to 30 yards.

Saturday morning should be fun!

Getting ready for the 2012 Season

Last week I got my bow out and shot a lot of arrows. After about 75 shots I ended up frustrated and unable to consistently hit where I was aiming. I decided it was time to replace my arrows so this past Saturday I drove out to Southern Shooters & bought a half dozen Beman Bowhunter 400's with 2" vanes. That afternoon I got to shoot them & get the sight adjusted slightly, due to a lighter arrow and changing from a 90 grain field point to a 100 grain field point.

I shot ok on Saturday with the new arrows and this evening I hit much better at 20 yards. Like Daddy said I just need practice so the plan is to shoot a few rounds each evening between now and opening day.

I also got my camera put out this evening and Walker and I checked our ladder stand where we missed the 10 pointer last year.

Two bucks have been seen this year so I'm hoping they are the two 10 pointers we got on camera last year, just a little bigger. Hopefully this week we'll get them on camera...

Scouting at Blanton Creek WMA...

This past Saturday, October 8 my buddy Chris and I went down to Blanton Creek to find a spot to hunt during the next weekend's Adult/Child hunt. The cool thing about this hunt was not only are we planning to camp out, but you can use a rifle a week earlier than the regular gun season starts.

So we looked around in several places finding lots of acorn trees that were dropping, but only one rub and no place that we felt extremely confident about. We pretty much narrowed it down to two places, either a thinned out area of pines that would give us viewing in greater distances, or a hardwood ridge with a few white oak acorn trees that were dropping. We were there about 3 hours and went home tired & sweaty.

I really wanted to find something better to hunt for the weekend so Walker would have a better chance at seeing something during the hunt so I decided to go back down to Blanton Creek Monday evening after school. It had been raining all day and I decided at the last minute to go ahead & go anyway, even if it was sprinkling.

I had a place in mind that I wanted to look and I went straight to that spot. I parked & walked in and found a good trail running along side a creek bottom. The creek turned right but the hollow made a bend in the opposite direction, to the left so I followed it. After about 100 yards I found this:

I kept walking, looking for a good place for us to be able to hunt on the ground, either sitting at a tree or in a ground blind. I saw several great places for tee stands, but nothing great for the ground.

I saw several places where armadillos must have been rooting, and I even saw one armadillo.





Finally, after walking about 600 yards I found something to get really excited about. It was one of the biggest rubs I had ever found myself, and it was on a cedar tree about the size of my bicep (no jokes please...).

A little more looking about 20 yards from the big rub was this, with a very clear hoof print and fresh droppings in it:

At this point I was pretty excited and started looking around at where we might get to hunt in this area. In the direction I was walking I could look up to the left to see a hardwood ridge, but it was really too thick to be able to see much. To my right was a thick area about 20 yards wide, which opened into an area of thinned out pines.

If I turned around from this spot and walked 20 yards I would be looking into the hardwood bottom where the big rub is and where we plan to hunt this weekend:

So needless to say Walker & I are really excited about this coming weekend. The fact that we are camping out and that we are going to have a group that we are hunting with will only add to the experience and the fun. Hopefully one of us will have some luck this weekend and see some deer. And just maybe it'll be us seeing the buck that made the big rub on the cedar tree...

New stand location, 1st buck on camera, & ready for the weekend

Last night I went to check my camera since I last moved it and it looks like I've got it in the right location this time. Where it's at now I can get photos of deer coming from 3 different directions. Even though it was a small one, I was excited that I had finally gotten a picture of a buck on camera (the one in the middle).

I decided to move my stand location for the first time this year and I'm excited to try it out Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll get a shot opportunity, and even better would be if I saw a buck.

Hunt #4 - Finally a buck!

October 8th was my fourth hunt of the season and it ended up being the most exciting. I had moved my stand location to a spot where I could have a shot at deer coming from three different trails so I was anticipating some action. 

I was also excited because a few days prior I had gotten a spike on camera and I was hoping to see him. Even if the only buck I saw was that spike, it would still be exciting since all I had been seeing were doe.

So I was sitting down hunting by 6:40 a.m. and everything was quiet. Not quiet as cold as in previous weeks, and a slight wind blowing. The action started around 8 a.m. when I could see a doe and a yearling feeding on acorns about 75 yards away. I was completely focused on them and after a few minutes I noticed that the yearling kept looking in my direction - not at me but towards the area I was in. Finally I glanced to my right, and there were two deer standing 20 yards from my tree, one of which was the spike in the photo above. The doe with him was kind of small and I decided that I wouldn't shoot either one of them, but they both gave me several opportunities and it was very tempting. I was very happy that none of the deer smelled me at all, so I was thinking that washing my camo in the scent free detergent and taking my shower with scent-free shampoo & soap must be working.

About 20 minutes after the spike & doe left the doe & yearling that had been feeding about 75 yards away circled around in the woods and came out right near my stand and gave a great 15-20 yard shot, but I decided not to take it.

I ended up getting down at 9:30 a.m. to go do some scouting at the Blanton Creek Wildlife Management Area for the Adult - Child hunt that was coming up the following weekend. It was a fun morning...

Hunt #3 - Lots of Action...

Saturday morning was my 3rd hunt of the season and it was pretty exciting. I knew several days in advance that it was going to be a cool morning and I was looking forward to that. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't gotten much on my trail camera during the week, but still I was hoping for the best.

I left the house at 6:15 a.m. and at 6:30 a.m. I was making my way to my stand. I was able to go in quiet & undetected and by 6:45 a.m. I was ready. At 7:45 a.m. I heard several footsteps in the leaves and the sound of broken twigs on the ground and I knew deer were coming. They came out of the woods in front of me and to the right about 40 yards, but I didn't have a shot in that direction. I counted 5 deer and one of them had antlers. It looked to be about a 4 pointer and I was excited to see something other than a doe, but it wasn't the big 8 pointer I was hoping for. As they slowly walked away I decided to grunt at them to see what they would do. The buck looked up and back in my direction, and at this point he was at least 50 yards from me. The buck took a few steps in my direction and I started to get excited, but he stopped and turned back in the other direction. A few minutes later I heard steps coming in front of me, and out walked a decent sized doe and two young deer. I had a nice 10 yard shot at the doe, but decided there was too much action going on and I was hoping to still have a chance to see the big 8 pointer. Things quieted down until about 8:45 when I saw a doe feeding to my left. I could see it feeding and it appeared to be making its way in my direction but it got spooked from noises coming from the closest house near where I was hunting and ran in the opposite direction.

I decided to get down at 9:30 and try to find out if there were any new rubs in the area where I saw the last one. I hadn't walked 75 yards until I looked up to see two doe trotting straight towards me, stopping at about 20 yards. I reached for an arrow and they ran away. I walked a little further and saw several more deer running the other direction. I couldn't help but think that if I had stayed in the stand they might have came by.

It was a fun, exciting morning and I'm looking forward to the next hunt...