Venison Collection Endeavor 2010 by Fletch

[Fletch]

11/14 am

Went with my bro down to the hole. Sat for 2.5 hours and saw zip. My bro saw one big tom and a grey fox.

[Fletch]

11/14 pm 61

Nice and toasty! Took a boook to watch tonight. Got in earlt since the leaves sound like potato chips. Sat four three hours and zip. It did start raining about the last hour but temp did not drop much.

[Fletch]

11/15 am 43

Sat out back for 3 hours this morn. It rained most of the night and stopped before dawn. This gave me good hopes for deer movement since it was so warm yesterday and raining all night. Bumped one off the crick on the way in, err. At 7:50am I see one out front left just on the edge of the pines. Buck and a nice one too, maybe an 8 and big bodied, he is no 1.5. He is going across at about 65 yards right to left. I gave him some can, nothin, some grunts, nothin! Even as a last ditch a snort wheez, nothin. He would stop and listen and the just keep going.

I am just getting set to start packing up at 9:30 am and I catch a flag through the sapplings out front right. It seems to be headed away so I hit the can a couple times. He comes back left out about the same route as the big one. This one looks like a 4 point 1.5 yr. old. He does not want to come in either and strolls off.

Maybe tomorrow. :

[Fletch]

11/16 am

Out behind the house again in the ladder stand. Little quiet with the wet leaves. At 7:50am, again, I spot movement off to my left and see one coming in. It looks like a 3 or 4 pointer and it stays out and no interest in can call. Then about 8:50am I hear crashing off to my left and sounds like deer running. I stand up and grab my bow and I see a doe first and then a nice buck about 30 yards behind her. She stops and so does he and he starts making a scrape. I am hoping they keep coming but she turns a bit away heading away across in front of me. I have a couple small lanes he can hit. They start moving again and just before he hits one lane I grunt and he stops but one step to late and his vitals are blocked. Crud :  He starts moving again and he is I think about 30 yards and he hits lane 2 and I let one fly and it hits but looks low. He jumps and runs away a bit and I am hitting the can and he stops and turns broadside at about 45 yards or so. Past my comfy zone but 4 holes beats 2!   I let #2 fly and it looked on but I did not see it hit. He took off again into the pines and I could see him standing in there for a few minutes and then walking. Not good I am thinking. I sit for 45 minutes and see another doe way out left go by. I get down and the leaves are drying out so I sneak up a bit but do not want to bust him out. I look a bit and can not see either arrow. I decide to back out and go home and work and come back early afternoon which will give me a few hours before the rain.

Back at the hit spot at 3pm and arrow 1 hit and arrow 2 must have went under him. I have a very good blood trail and follow slowly but the leaves are dry and crunchy. I follow the trail about 80 to 100 yards and jump him and can not get a shot. I check the bed and not much blood but confirming a low hit. I wait about 15 minutes and slowly follow up and he is bleeding a lot again. I follow another 100 yards or so and it is getting dim out and starting to rain and I lose the trail cold. ugh

I have tomorrow off for a docs appointment so will be back after that to start a grid.

Sleepless in Phoenix.

[First-light]

Fletch,

I hope you find him. The hunt sounded real exciting, you can't beat bow season! I think you will find him, positive thinking and when your ready to give up start all over again. The spot you have said to yourself over and over again "he would never go that way" give it a shot. Good luck.

[Fletch]

11/17 recovery mission

Back looking at noon I decide to start to the right off last blood and cover 400 yards in each direction 200 at a pop. I head out over a first ridge and see another one with pine past that. I am not familiar back hear it is a neighbors property I have permision to track a wounded deer but not hunt so I have not been over here. I decide to hit the second ridge with the pines and cut along it and work back. I get to the pines and cut up on top and about 50 yards through I see antlers and he is dead. I check the GPS and 800 yards from my yard to drag ugh. He went about 250 to 300 yards from my stand. Well two hours later I have him to one of my trails and go get the zero turn lawn mower and pull him the rest of the way! Sorry no ATV yet! A real nice 8 point dressed out 158 pounds.

I am a very happy camper right now! I will get up picks later.

[First-light]

Way to go Fletch!!!! Me want pictures!

[Fletch]

And pictures you will have!

[Zem18]

Way to go brother!!! You always seem to get it done. That is a beauty. Congrats on your persistence. I need to get me one of those jobs to allow me more time in the field. Need a helper? LOL.

[First-light]

Great pictures! That is one nice buck, was it gut shot?

[Fletch]

Hit it low and got some liver and swear I clipped a lung from the looks of it when dressing it out. I got lucky another inch lower and ...  I misjudged how far he was.

[First-light]

I once hit a big buck in the liver, takes a while for them to die. Let's do it again Saturday!

[Fletch]

Thanks guys!

Burt I think with the gun I will be putting it through the shoulders. Dropping in site is a good thing!! Especially when the pumkin army is out!!

Good luck out there.

[Fletch]

Well I am finished for the bow season so I will put up some stats on my season. I just used my bow hunts.

Just a bit over 74 hours in the stand, a total of 49 deer sightings. 19 bucks, 12 does, 13 fawns and 5 unknown gender.

One deer sighting every 1.51 hours

One buck sighting every 3.89 hours

16 of the 19 buck sightings were of 1.5 year olds

I had a very enjoyable bow season some highlights were the grey fox and the eagle and of course the nice 8 point I was lucky enough to get.

I will be hunting with the gun now and as we all know after day 1 it gets tough especially when you hunt public land a lot like we do. I have been invited to hunt a private camp on the opener and they do real well there so I am looking forward to it.

Good luck and be safe out there.

[burmjohn]

Fletch,

Congrats on that buck and I enjoyed reading your journal...

[First-light]

Good luck Fletch!

[Fletch]

Well I know it is gun season!! My hunting has gone to heck!

Went down to Caz for the opener there were 5 of us hunting the am. 4 saw 0 and my uncle saw two and shot a BB. Not what I would call a good opening morning! In the afternoon we put a couple of guys poking around to get the deer up and everyone saw deer. I saw 3 flats but no shots, my uncle got a 7.

Sunday am there were 4 of us out and again no one saw anything. Deer were moving all night in the full moon.

Came home and hunted out back with my brothere and brother in law for evening watch. I saw one flat too far out and jumped a couple coming out.

My brother in law did get a nice doe down in Tully Saturday morning.

[Fletch]

11/22 48

Out behind the house this morn for 3.5 hours. Saw zip. Got out before the thunder and lightning!

The weather this week just looks like crap. Wind, rain, thunderstorms, rain, wind....

Might just go back to work!

[Fletch]

11/22 50

Out again behind the house in the pm. Sat for 2.5 hours and saw zip and got wet.

[fasteddie]

Fletch , I didn't want to go through 5 pages to look but , what does the area look like "out behind the house " ?  I know I used to hunt way out on my sister in law's pproperty and got deer but with all the rain it is like a swamp / marsh . The deer have been running closer to the house and barn which is what hunter's wouldn't expect . They have crossed the field within 30 yards of her house .

[Fletch]

"out behind the house" is a 700 acre or so block of woods. I only own 12 but have permission to hunt a neighbors as well of around 30 something. Always pretty good in bow. Hit or miss in gun but nice for a close spot.

It is basically hardwoods with a lot of thick stuff. A few pines. No real swamp to close to me.

[Fletch]

11/23

Got up before dawn and it was dry out. Put the dog out and got dressed. By the time I got out of the bathroom it was pouring.   Hung around the house until 9:30 or so and it stoped raining. My Dad came over and sat behind the house. I want over to 3 rivers state land and did a little sneakin. I put up one doe but passed the one shot I could of taken because I was not sure of her size. She did not look too big and I did not want to pop a button.

Went over to the hole for last watch and sat 2 hours and got blown to heck. Zero deer sighted.

This weather is killin me!

[Fletch]

11/24 30

My brother and I hunted the hole this morning. Nice cold morning, the wind had died and had a dusting of snow. This is rifle area and I would love to get one with that. Neither of us saw a thing....

We then decided to take a drive and hit Montezuma. First for us both. We hit the check station and signed in and got car pass and permits. Cruised around for a bit and found a spot to try. Well that was somethin! The trail we took bordered the woods but had a 12 foot wide ditch 3 feet deep with water between us and the woods. About 2 miles later we finally found a couple spots to get into the woods. I went one way and my bro the other. He finds a good looking area and is looking for a tree to use his climber in and hears a snap and turns to see a big 8 or 10 point, he pulled up but could not get a shot as it walked away. ugh Lots of tracks but we saw nothing else. We need to do more footwork here. That drag would of killed me!

Back at it in the morn. Have a great Turkey Day everyone!

[Fletch]

10/25 am

Back in the hole with my brother and brother in law. We sat for two hours and saw nothing. We then did three drives there after that and did not kick up one deer.

We then headed over behind my inlaws place to do a drive there. We had my brother get set up in a stand and my brother and I worked along a beaver pond to get down to where we start the drive. Easing along I saw a deer lying down in the bottom and at first I thought it was dead. I puleed up and saw it was a buck, heck it was only 30 yards away if that. I saw him blink and thought he was either wounded or did not hear us until it was to late and hunkered down hoping we would pass by but I figured wounded so I let him have it. Ended up he had been shot most likely opening weekend through the front legs. The one was not too bad a bit more than a graze but the other was bad. Broken right in half above the knee. Not the big buck I was holding that last buck tag for but I am very happy I took him and saved him the bad time he would have had. He was a 2.5 year old 5 point with no brows. A bit thinned out from rut and probably the injury he weighed 138 dressed. Dragged him out and then ate a lot!!

I will get up a pic in a bit.

[Fletch]

11/26

Slept in this morning and that felt good!

Got out in the afternoon behind the house with my brother for 2 hours. Neither of us saw a thing. Did pull the game cam. Had some does and 4 bucks on it. A spike a 4 a 6 and a pig of a 5 point not a big rack but body on roids. His pick was at 10:30 am Sunday. Love to have my Dad get a crack at one of them.

We might try an expedition to Howland Island tomorrow. I gotta find a doe somewhere.