The Time is Upon Us...
Hey everyone, It's been a while since I last made a journal entry on HuntOnly, but I've been doing my best to spend a good amount of time in the woods this year. I've been bow hunting pretty hard since the opener in mid September. Up until this week I was hunting food sources, either oaks, cut fields, or food plots. I was having decent success, with seeing plenty of deer, but never one of the bigger bucks I'm after.
Everything has changed greatly in the last two weeks. Starting in the middle of last week (Oct 21) I noticed more and more sign, scrapes and rubs were popping up everywhere. The weekend before that we saw a full moon, and warmer temps that completely shut down deer movement. Since then we've had a good amount of cold weather and the crops have come off the fields. At the end of last week I saw my first decent buck, a shooter by my standards but it was far too dark to take an ethical shot. I hunted Saturday in a terrible rain, but managed to see a few deer and noticed two bucks on the move despite the weather. Wednesday (Oct 29) I hunted and saw a large increase in rubs and buck activity. I usually start my rut calendar with the New moon in late October, and wouldn't you know we had one Tuesday night. Well the hunt Wednesday was particularly good because I was able to see 4 different bucks and even had three of them respond to "The Can" and circle downwind within bow range. I could have shot them had they been within my goals for the season. I also had a young buck chasing a doe around, although I don't think she was quite ready. That being said, I think the next two to three weeks are going to be the best weeks by far to be in the woods, the deer will really be on the move in search of mates, and us hunters can use that to our advantage. So make time to get out there and put a big buck on the ground. Be sure to post pictures in our forums for all to enjoy, and remember, stay Safe!
