After @Weldabeast request I thought I would write up a recent successful hunt. We will call it a success even though I didn’t release an arrow because I could have, on about 8 different deer.
Last Saturday evening my dad and I parked at the beginning of the light orange line in the NE corner of the pic at about 2:30pm. We walked the light orange line in until we split at the intersection of the light orange and dark orange lines. He continued down the light orange line about 200 yards and set up in an oak with heavy sign underneath. He saw 8 deer that evening but, no shots.
My plan was to walk the south edge of an older clear cut and look for a hot oak along the edge. The wind was coming out of the NW. I wasn’t sure of the age of the clear cut and when I got to it I realized it was a little older than I like but, it did have a higher stem count than the surrounding area so I decided to keep going.
I found one oak with some feeding sign underneath (first oak symbol) but it wasn’t enough to get me to stop. I ended up walking the entire south boundary of the clear cut without finding anything that got me too excited.
When I turned and started heading up the west side of the clear cut I found a few fresh rubs but, I also noticed the wind was now being sucked up the draw, coming out of the SW, which essentially had me walking with the wind at my back. I decided to cut through the clear cut on an old road in an effort to get back to the main road, jump to the other side and see what I could find over there.
About halfway back to the main road I ran into a patch of mature white oak trees that were surrounded by clear cut on 3 sides and pines on the fourth (second oak symbol) Probably 10-15 mature trees that were loaded with acorns. You can see the small patch of mature timber in the pic below.
Although their wasn’t heavy feeding sign on the ground I’ve seen situations in the past when there are so many acorns on the ground the deer don’t really have to dig for them and just walk around picking them up off the top of the leaves, leaving little disturbance.
It was 4pm at this time so I decided to climb a tree 15 yards from the oak that seemed to have the most sign under it. I started drilling my first bolt and looked up to see a young doe walking in. I froze, she got nervous and eventually trotted off. By the time I was drilling my third bolt three different does had walked in from 3 different directions with the same results.
I eventually got set up and ended up having 14 different deer, all does, come in between 4pm and 7:15pm. I never had more than 3 deer around me at one time but they all hung out for several minutes and munched in acorns so it was basically a constant parade of deer for three hours. Seven or 8 of these deer were sub 15 yards and broadside. I drew, anchored and went through my entire shot process on one old doe but just never released the arrow because I’ve already filled my one archery doe tag. That doe Is dead. She just doesn’t know it.
Last Saturday evening my dad and I parked at the beginning of the light orange line in the NE corner of the pic at about 2:30pm. We walked the light orange line in until we split at the intersection of the light orange and dark orange lines. He continued down the light orange line about 200 yards and set up in an oak with heavy sign underneath. He saw 8 deer that evening but, no shots.
My plan was to walk the south edge of an older clear cut and look for a hot oak along the edge. The wind was coming out of the NW. I wasn’t sure of the age of the clear cut and when I got to it I realized it was a little older than I like but, it did have a higher stem count than the surrounding area so I decided to keep going.
I found one oak with some feeding sign underneath (first oak symbol) but it wasn’t enough to get me to stop. I ended up walking the entire south boundary of the clear cut without finding anything that got me too excited.
When I turned and started heading up the west side of the clear cut I found a few fresh rubs but, I also noticed the wind was now being sucked up the draw, coming out of the SW, which essentially had me walking with the wind at my back. I decided to cut through the clear cut on an old road in an effort to get back to the main road, jump to the other side and see what I could find over there.
About halfway back to the main road I ran into a patch of mature white oak trees that were surrounded by clear cut on 3 sides and pines on the fourth (second oak symbol) Probably 10-15 mature trees that were loaded with acorns. You can see the small patch of mature timber in the pic below.
Although their wasn’t heavy feeding sign on the ground I’ve seen situations in the past when there are so many acorns on the ground the deer don’t really have to dig for them and just walk around picking them up off the top of the leaves, leaving little disturbance.
It was 4pm at this time so I decided to climb a tree 15 yards from the oak that seemed to have the most sign under it. I started drilling my first bolt and looked up to see a young doe walking in. I froze, she got nervous and eventually trotted off. By the time I was drilling my third bolt three different does had walked in from 3 different directions with the same results.
I eventually got set up and ended up having 14 different deer, all does, come in between 4pm and 7:15pm. I never had more than 3 deer around me at one time but they all hung out for several minutes and munched in acorns so it was basically a constant parade of deer for three hours. Seven or 8 of these deer were sub 15 yards and broadside. I drew, anchored and went through my entire shot process on one old doe but just never released the arrow because I’ve already filled my one archery doe tag. That doe Is dead. She just doesn’t know it.
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