ERussell's Ramblings 2012

[erussell]

So I finally dragged my carcass out of bed around 3pm today and made my way outside to the porch to wake up. It was a bit warmer than im use to for a first day of bow and a bit windy but nice. Decided to not go out and puttered around the lawn blowing leaves and making a general nuisance of myself to anyone who was bow hunting behind my house Im sure. Atleast I didn't decide to target practice like my neighbor did last yr. He started shooting about 8 am in the morning and didnt stop till noon. But after 24 yrs of bowhunting 1st days dont really mean alot anymore especially now that Bow starts oct 1st. Most of the areas I hunt are wood lots or mountain sides, ( main reason i didnt go out. dont want to sweat to death hiking up the hill ) no fields or agriculture to hunt so my hunting really doesnt start till the rut kicks in and it gets really cold. Side note my dad went out tonight for 4 hours and didnt see a thing along with 4 of my friends who between them all saw 1 spike. Hope to get out this weekend and see what the kids spook up with their pop guns.

Edited October 2, 2012 by erussell

[erussell]

Broke out the gillie suit today and washed it and hung it out to dry and de scent for a few days. Did a little re arranging of the burlap on the arm to keep my bowstring from hitting it and added a button on front to close the front flap a little better. Most of my stands are set up for the pre rut and rut so I really dont want to go messing them up right now, and its still to warm to go dragging my climber up the mountains. So I hope to get out this weekend and do a little blowdown hunting along a few beat down trail along the creek. Nothing like pegging a deer on the ground on their own turf. Works well if the wind is right. Sometimes I dont even use the Gillie, just stand behind a big tree and keep it between me and the deer. They really get a suprised look on thier face when you step out from behind the tree at full draw.

[Fletch]

I hear you about the warm weather and not too excited about the early start. I as well have no farm areas to hunt and do not want to hog up my areas until the bucks strat moving. Opening afternoon I was out and it was 67 and skeeters all over! Cmon frost!!

[erussell]

I hear you about the warm weather and not too excited about the early start. I as well have no farm areas to hunt and do not want to hog up my areas until the bucks strat moving. Opening afternoon I was out and it was 67 and skeeters all over! Cmon frost!!

Yeah everyone ive talked to hasnt shot a thing yet and are seeing very little movement in the evenings. Mornings are a little better but not by much. I noticed all the deer are piling into the yards of the neighbors so they must be feeling some pressure already.

I'm going to hold back and be patient, cooler weather coming soon. Still shooting for this weekend to ground hunt some of the low land areas and leave the hills for later.

Edited October 4, 2012 by erussell

[erussell]

So as I was sitting around Saturday afternoon pondering where to hunt that evening. I recalled a nice strip of oaks on the edge of a revine over on some stateland. I had scouted it twice last yr but with no Acorns I never hunted it. I noticed while I was there the last time that the wind was a little squirrly since it was at the base of a hill in a valley between two mountains. It was hard to get a fix on what direction the wind needed to be to hunt it. Well with the acorns dropping like crazy I decided to take the long walk back and don the gillie suite and hunt off the ground with my back to the ravine. So I finally get there about 6pm find the trail which was not easy with all the leaves set up with the wind in my face and settle into some brush and sit and wait. Well I was there 15 min and im startledby a grunt to my right. I check the wind because I was not even contemplating that they would come right up out of the revine behind me!!!! Suddenlly there are deer all over the place running around in cicrles to my right. I make out two small bucks a spike and another one I can just see antler but cant really tell what it is. Plus a doe and two fawns. Well the bucks harrass the doe for a while and thrash some brush off to my right about 40 yrds out, The doe heads down the trail with her fawns behind her. I draw back as they are about to hit an opening and the spike rushes them and they stop right in the opening but the doe is in the middle and a fawn on either side of her covering her vitals, of coarse why not. Well they walk out of the shooting lane and stop. They look at something to there right and I let down the bow. Well then here comes the spike on my side of the trail and he stops 10 yrds in front of me. Watching the doe. Then came the ever so slight change of wind. The whole time its blowing in my face then bang one gust comes from behind and these deer looked like someone slammed them with a baseball bat. There heads wipped right in my direction and I new it was over. They couldnt see me but they new I was there. And they melted into the undergrowth like ghosts. Well I didnt get the shot but it was alot of fun to have deer that close to you on the ground. The interesting thing about this spot is I found it in the winter time while out walking about. I noticed the funnel between the hill and the ravine the ton of rubs and tracks and trails and said to my self I will definetly be back to this spot come hunting season and it turned out to be a good spot. Ill give it a few weeks and maybe go back.

[erussell]

Didnt get out tonight like I wanted to, but did a quick scout behind my house and found a dead doe with a slug through the guts. Looks like from yesterday.

[erussell]

So I went out Saturday morning in the freezing cold. I fully intended on getting in a stand up on the mountain in a stand of oak's. But about 200 yrds from my stand I ran into a group of doe in another stand of oaks that busted out in all directions making all sorts of noise. I stood there contemplating wether or not to just give up and go home as the wind was in the wrong direction to hunt this stand. Instead I went back to the main trail and dropped all unneccesary equipment and stripped off my jacket and sweater and just went with the t-shirt and longjohns. And started a slow stalk up the opposite side of the mountain. It didnt take long to run into some deer wandering around under another oak tree. I tried a few doe and fawn bleats which got there attention but none ever presented me with a shot and then they moved on. About 20 min later I caught more movement and saw a doe feeding along a trail. I hid in some small trees and grass and waited till she walked by about 25 yrds away and sealed the deal with an arrow thru the lungs. Spent the day cutting her up and havent gone back out yet. But have a freezer full of meat.

[oneidacountyhunter]

congrats

[RTF]

Bowhunting from the ground is the rush of all rushes IMO. Congrats.

[Fletch]

Way to go, meat for the freezer!!

[Nomad]

Nice job! One of my goals is to take one from the ground .

[erussell]

Nice job! One of my goals is to take one from the ground .

It will be one of the most frustrating and exciting things you will ever do. But once you get the hang of it you might not ever get back in a tree. I have killed only a handfull of deer out of a tree with bow. Most have been on the ground. Though I will say with the exception of a few with gun, All my bigger bucks have fallen while sitting in a tree.

[Zem18]

Nice stalk on the doe. Congrats

[erussell]

Wind, wind and more wind and when I thought the wind was going to die down it would blow harder. This weekend was a bust Sat. night had 5 doe run bye my stand to the oaks stop and eat and run on to the next trees. They were jumpy as heck because of the wind. They were running all over the place. Today I didnt see a deer till I pulled in the drive way and the big 8 was standing in the field next to my house in the dark. Figure's!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ive got something for his butt come tommarrow night.

Edited October 22, 2012 by erussell

[erussell]

So I put on the gillie tonight and went across the road in search of the big 8. The leaves were really crunchy so stalking was out. I found a fallen tree and crawled in side it to watch a trail that led to the field. There are 2 well used trails one I was close to the other was about 45 yrds past that. The deer came down the one 45 yrds away. Luckily the big 8 wasnt with them. Oh well maybe next time.

[erussell]

The shed on the right is what I beleive belongs to the buck I amd hunting and when I refer to the big 8. He's even bigger this yr. And next pic is just for scale.

Edited October 23, 2012 by erussell

[erussell]

Frustrating, I dont have one pic of a deer on my cam after leaving it out for 2 weeks. I could have sworn there would be some bucks on it but not even a doe is ridiculious. I hope its not broken. I moved it and will see how it gos.

Edited October 25, 2012 by erussell

[First-light]

Nice job on the stalk!

[erussell]

So I hung my cam on what I like to call the scrapeing tree behind my house. Every yr for the last 10 yrs Bucks make scrapes under this over hanging pine branch. Well last night a decent 6 point came by and started it off for this yr with about 25 pics of him rubbing his face and forehead all over the overhanging branches and kicking up dirt all over the place. Looked like he was working a wood chipper with all the dirt he was kicking up. He still gets a pass for this yr. Looking to see if the big 8 comes in and works over his scrapes. If he does Ill post some pic's. Was down in PA tonight for Haloween and my wifes cousins were showing me their trail cam photo's. Im seriously thinking about getting a PA lic. They have a 12 point, 3 tens and 9 different eight point's all on cam. All very good deer. ANd thats not even including the hundreds of pics of smaller bucks they have on cam. I would be lucky to see that many big bucks in 5 yrs in NY.

[erussell]

Well I'm off on vacationfrom today untill next Sunday and I'm stoked. Weather is perfect,and the Bucks are moving big time. I wont have access to a computer while I'm out So if I get something I won't be able to post till next week, which I fear will come way to fast. But to those in the woods hunting this week good luck and to those not hunting, you cant kill them from the couch.

[erussell]

Well I wish I could post a pic with me sittting next to a nice deer but unfortunately it didnt work out that way. After passing numerous baby bucks I had a really nice buck in the 120's with alot of nice mass spread and tine lenght walk up to the 25 yrd marker and turn broadside asking to be shot. I didnt even notice the little ghost branch in the way. After hitting the branch it hit the deer right square in the shoulder and stopped dead. Broadhead broke off after the deer ran and then it started snowing like crazy. Needless to say after about 6 hrs of poking around through the woods trying to find this buck and maybe get another arrow into him I came up empty handed. I never even found a drop of blood. I took the next 2 days off and shot my bow and when I was certain I was confident in my setup again I went back out. Passed numerous baby bucks again before seeing another even bigger 8 point than the one I had shot days before. This one would only get so close when I would call and then he finally got board and wandered off. The last day I hunted I had about 8 doe coming right to me. They would pass by at about 20 yrds so I got ready to fill out the DMP tag I had. Just as they were about to enter the shooting lane a cat that must have been sleeping on a log out in front of me jumped down and ran off. Needless to say sending all the deer into a snorting frenzy. I am beginning to hate bowhunting. Come on gun season.

[Zem18]

I hear ya on being frustrated with bowhunting but look at it this way, at least you are seeing deer which is half the fun. All the oddball things that happen when hunting are also memories of the hunt. Good luck out there slinging some lead this weekend.

[erussell]

Thanks Zemmer, It was one of the most frustrating bow hunting seasons ever. Well maybe not ever, but I had high expectations and im a little dissapointed in myself. Hope gun is a lot better. Got the triumph and the remi 750 sighted in the other day shooting clover leafs at 100 yrds 2 inches high so well see if mr big bucky sticks his head out. I have till the 26 th of November off and a couple of big racks running around so I hope to down one quick. Unfortunatelly a couple of other people know about them to so I have some home work to do before Saturday.

[First-light]

Good luck saturday!

[erussell]

Same to you!! And for everyone else!!!Knock em down.