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...

Deer Grunting 101...

I have always carried a grunt call in my hunting bag, but only because Daddy gave me one to carry. I've never really known what kind is best, when is the best time to use a grunter, how long of a grunt to make, etc. The only time I've ever used the grunter I've had is when I'm not seeing anything, or when I was trying to get the attention of a deer I saw. I've also never had any experience rattling, nor had anything to rattle with.

This year I'm planning to buy a grunt call and I've been trying to read and learn more about grunting. I came across the website with a lot of helpful information. The grahpic below lists the different type of grunts, and which are most effective during different times in the season.

Infographic by Mark C. Timney

It also has a deer grunts & tactics section where you can actually listen to examples of the different kinds of grunts, what they mean, and how to do them. The title of the article is Deer Grunting 101 by Mark Timney....here is the link:

http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/features/practical_bowhunter/deergrunting/

I'm definitely going to try some of this tomorrow morning....maybe I'll have some luck.

About the author of Deer Grunting 101 at http://www.bowsite.com/

Mark Timney has been a working journalist for over 15 years and has professional experience in almost every aspect of the field of mass communication. He presently splits his time among a number of jobs: as a freelance magazine writer specializing in outdoor articles; as an adjunct professor of journalism and computer software; and as the head of his own outdoor communications/advertising/public relations/video production business.

Mark has a Ph.D. in Mass Communication/Journalism from Ohio University. He became interested in archery while in graduate school and began writing for several bowhunting/target archery magazines in 1995. His work has been published in Petersen's Bowhunting, 3-D & Target Archery, 3-D Times, Bowhunting World, Archery Business and Bow Masters Magazine. He also conducts archery and bowhunting seminars based upon his articles.

New release, new location for camera & stand...

I had been feeling pretty confident about my stand location for this weekend, especially after having seen 4 deer last week, and the buck being spotted a few days before my Saturday hunt. But after sitting on the stand for five hours Saturday and not seeing a thing, and then finding out the only pictures on the camera were of two doe and me coming to check it, I was disappointed.

The good news is that the landowner where I'm hunting spotted the buck that made the rub I saw the previous week close enough to see that he is a nice 8-pointer. Better than that is we picked out a new tree for my stand based on the travel pattern of the buck and A LOT of tracks on a new trail. Today I moved the camera to near that location and the plan is to check it on Thursday. I sure hope we get a photo of the buck. I also got a picture of the track made by the buck at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

New Scott Release

Old fletchunter release

The other good news for the weekend is that I got a new (different) release. It seems like I have always struggled to be consistent with my shots when shooting my bow and I'm starting to think that some of that was due to my old release. I was using this release when I shot my first doe with a bow back in 1992, so a change was in order.

The new release came from my Daddy (seems like I say that about a lot of my hunting stuff...) when he changed over to a crossbow. It is a single caliper release made by Scott. It only took a few rounds of shots to see that I was going to be able to shoot much more consistent with this release. While the arrows in this picture aren't dead in the bulls-eye, you can see that I almost repeated the shot placement of two of the arrows at 20 yards. And for me this is great. Later in the day we shot again at 30 yards and I had similar results.

As of now it looks like next Saturday will be hunt #3 for the season. Maybe it will be the day that I take my first buck with my bow.