Rutcation Report #1
OK week 1 of my Rutcation is done. Unfortunately it has been an up and down week. Mother nature has stepped in and made herself felt in a big way. Firstly we have had East or North East winds here all week. This is a big issue as my best spots are west oriented. We get East winds here, but they never last more than a day or two - this is really uncommon. Secondly between all the rain and the beaver activity several of my alternate wind spots are fully flooded out. This has left me in a spot where I was hunting some locations on suboptimal winds.
Regardless of the wind and weather we pushed really hard this week. All day sits 3 days and another two half day hunts. On Tuesday morning around 10 am I had does come out and pass me at about 80 yards. Thankfully there was a buck on their trail, and I called him in on my grunt tube. That is where the good news ends... As he came in, I felt like he was at the last decent shooting window (it is pretty thick in this area). I should have been more confident that he would come closer, but I elected to let fly. The buck was a nice 8 pointer, not huge but nothing to turn your nose up at. After the buck ran off, I noted the compass bearing and took a deep breath. Sure enough mother nature had other plans... Not a minute later, another buck emerged in the bush slightly downwind of me. Here is where you crossbow haters are going go bananas. The second buck ends up full broadside at 10 yrds for an eternity. Without being able to reload my bow, my only option was to hope that the buck would exit South towards my partner (which he did, but they never crossed paths). At that moment I wasn't upset because the second buck was a smaller 6 pointer, and I am not a greedy hunter. Unfortunately between the light branches and me punching the trigger, I had shot low and missed. We searched extensively for any signs of blood or fur and found nothing. Since the buck was in 12" of water the bolt was lost. 5 deer seen, 1 shot, 0 taken. 1-0 Mother Nature.
Day 2 I relocated and hunted this isolated grove of black walnuts. I love this spot. It is really difficult to get to both physically and navigationally, but I made it in before dawn. While I was as quiet as I could be, the flooded timber is just not quiet to walk in. Anyhow just as I got to my tree, I spooked a deer. Regardless I climbed, and setup for the day and again contested with suboptimal wind. Anyhow a couple of hours later I hear sloshing in the water, and it is a nice big bodied buck coming right up behind me. While I can see his body, it is through a screen of cedars that I don't want to try to shoot through. Bottom line, he catches wind of me and diverts off his course and disappears.
Day 3 got climbed up at 6:30am in another area, this time in good wind. This is not however the area where the primary scrape is that I want to be hunting. At 4:30pm I climbed down having seen nothing - totally defeated.
Day 4 Had shadows of deer at dusk, but nothing close enough to shoot.
Final score - Mother Nature 7, Mike 0.
Tomorrow morning I make my way up into the north for a week of rifle hunting...