My running last week was just normal for this time of year I guess. I ran on all 5 work days and took the weekend off to hunt. My runs were all on the same 5 mile route. Each run was less than 30 seconds one side or the other of 40 minutes . I see on my Odometer I surpassed the 27,000 mile mark. Totals through last week.
WTD 25
MTD 84
YTD 1840
ODO 27006
Hunting:
I wasn’t sure how the weekend hunting was going to go. The horse farm I have permission to hunt on had an adult camp going on last weekend. I only have restrictions when riders may be out there riding some of the trails along the woods. I totally understand that as the last thing they would want is for a horse to be spooked by my walking out of the woods and throwing a rider. I had a backup plan for places to go, but was really looking forward to getting out on this property.
Saturday in the early afternoon I ran a bunch of squash out to the owner and checked how things were going. Because it had rained there were no riders outside. They were all in the inside area in their riding barn. She told me I could go ahead and hunt if I wanted to. I got out there sometime after 4:30 and settled in. Looking around from my stand I could see two scrapes in the same place they have been the last few years and could tell by no leaves in them they had been recently worked over. The woods was fairly quiet. There wasn’t even a lot of squirrel activity compared to usual. The evening passed fairly quietly until about 5:45. A couple of raccoons came in and started chattering away and eating acorns. I had never seen a raccoon eat an acorn before. They were quite noisy cracking them open and chewing them down.
About 6:10 I started hearing footsteps across the drainage ditch moving from west to east towards me. I watched as a deer passed through the ditch and right up to one of the scrapes I’m hunting over. I quickly identified it as a shooter buck, what I thought was a 10 point. I listened as he sniffed at the scrape and scuffed the ground a bit. I couldn’t pull back my bow right at that moment and risk the deer detecting a sound or movement. It walked east behind a large buckthorn clump and as it did that, I drew back. I got my anchor point and sights all lined up and when the deer stopped 15 yards out quartering away from me I released the arrow. I looked at my watch, it was 6:15. After analyzing the deer’s reaction I knew I had hit him good but maybe a little far back. I left the woods after 30 minutes sitting quiet and went home to wait and have some supper. I returned to the woods at about 8:30 to search. I found my arrow right away and a good blood trail. The blood was dark though so I suspected a liver hit. Still with all the blood I expected to see it laying there just ahead in the light given by my flashlight. I followed the trail across a drainage ditch where the blood suddenly stopped. After a frustrating and bewildering search for most of an hour on my hands and knees, I marked last blood and left the woods.
After a sleepless night listening to the rain pour down, I rounded up a friend (Pat) to help me track on Sunday. We went out around noon after the heavy rain quit. There was no sign of any blood, even the heavy blood trail I had followed the night before was completely gone. We decided to start grid searching. Back and forth we went with nothing at all found for two hours. Pat’s son Patrick came out with a friend just about when we were going to call it quits to help us look one more time. We went to where last blood had been. Patrick looked where the last blood had been and said "if I were a deer I would go this way" and he took off. Within 15 minutes he yelled "found it". We had been within 50 feet of it at one point. It was down near one of the neighbors ladder stands in a meadow north of the ditch he crossed. Absolutely incredible tracking skills on that boy. To me there is no question it was more than luck. I am still amazed when I think about how he pulled this off, it was almost magical.
As suspected the liver was shredded. The exit hole looked good though on a quartering away shot. I’m shocked it went that far. I gutted the deer and the boys dragged it out for me even though I wouldn’t have minded doing it. Took the deer in to be registered and then took it home to wash it out good and get some ice on it. I loaded up the chest cavity with ice and hung the deer up in my tree along the side of the house over night. In the morning I brought it in to the processor. I would have had to take the day off from work if I was to do it myself and felt it worth it to have someone else do it for me this time.
Not that this is a bad deer at all, but my initial thoughts when I first saw it was that this deer was bigger. That maybe it was the 8 point that gave me fits last year from this stand, but a year older. Afterward, I don't think this is the same deer as last year. There is no question the buck I saw last year was bigger than this deer. Still overall I am pleased with this one. It’s incredible when everything comes together as this hunt did. It could have ended so differently. To go from excitement of seeing such an animal and thinking I had a good hit, to dismay when the trail was lost, to the sick feeling as rain fell all night and into the morning, to frustration over not finding anything with all the searching, to elation when the deer was found was quite a hunt to remember.
Now I’m looking forward to hunting for the true trophy and can be as patient as at any time in my hunting career. I’m also going to focus my efforts during upcoming gun seasons to be able to make sure my daughter Kylli gets a crack at a good one.
Gardening:
It sure had been warm and dry this October. It is still warm around here, but at least we finally got a fair amount of rain. Just in time to save me a lot of work. I noticed Sunday that some of the day lilies and Russian sage are blooming again after the rains. A sure sign of how warm it has been. The leaves have been falling at a leisurely pace this year. This has allowed me to keep up with the cleanup fairly well. Although there is something to be said about taking care of them all at once too. All the leaves have been going on the garden so far. Today we are getting a massive wind storm expected to last at least 24 hours along with a little rain that will likely take care of whatever leaves are left. This coming weekend will likely be the time to finish up any remaining lawn chores including putting away furniture.
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