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LIVE from the saddle 2025

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I reminded myself this afternoon why I don't like to climb white oaks. Nasty trees to climb. I followed the sign from three does I saw crossing the road yesterday down into a little valley about 400 yards in. The white oak acorns were raining in there and the ground was torn up. I climbed one of the oaks. The 2 bad things about hill country is firstly that the trees are usually either giants or twigs. That's what I had to choose from today. Secondly, the elevation means that though I climbed to about 20 feet in the tree, to one side of me the ground was 8 feet below me and on the other, it was like 40 feet down.

No deer seen tonight. One tree shucked of bark.
 

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Strange weather this morning. Alarm went off and I noticed ice on the door frame as I went outside. Checked the temp and it was 33 in the camper, 23 on the truck thermometer. Half hour later as I'm walking out of camp it's raining on me. Still cold, just raining.

Set up on an open draw in the midst of really thick beech scruff that I located summer scouting. Hope something walks by, it was a long walk getting here.
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Got out yesterday afternoon...saw a fork buck and decided to let him pass due to MN 1 buck rule....I have my eye on a better one at my golf course later this year.. But even after deciding he stayed around a long time and I got a really bad case of buck fever and both legs were shaking so badly the little buck kept looking up in my direction, but he never spooked! Maybe cuz it was the first deer I've seen while in the tree this year...Screenshot_20251102_101549_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20251102_101543_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20251102_101521_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20251102_101538_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20251102_101534_Gallery.jpg
 
A very surprisingly dead sit. I expected a lot more. Can't sit the afternoon but had awesome unexpected guests. Saw 3 birds flying over me. Paid them no mind just assumed some buzzards.

Then they starting to make noise and I knew immediately I heard merica. 2 adults and a young did circles above me for a few minutes.
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Was a pretty good morning, right up to the point I screwed up anyway. I started with a small spike dogging a doe right under me, and when say right under me I mean right under me. I heard her hoof step on the metal carabiner that was hanging from the pullup rope attached to my saddle. That started a pretty constant parade of does and young bucks for the next hour or so. Then the screw up. . . I heard a deep grunt behind me and looked over my shoulder to see a real nice 8 following a doe straight at me. She broke downhill toward my weak side and went behind a thicket of beech scruff. I focused my attention on the buck and lost track of the doe. I went to position myself for a shot she busted me and ran off with him in hot pursuit. He never had a clue. I should have checked the doe a second time before moving but I thought I was completely out of sight for her. Oh well, that's hunting. Ended the morning with 8 bucks and 5 does. Only the one worth shooting.
 
I went out Saturday morning. I let a doe slip past me because I wasn't quick enough to draw. Then, I drew down on what I thought was a doe but had second thoughts. I looked through the binoculars, and it was indeed a button buck. Almost immediately after, I heard rustling and saw a 2.5-year-old 6-point ambling my way. He came within 15 yards, stopped, and looked right at me. For some reason, I just didn't take him. I'm thinking there's still plenty of time in the rut, and if I'm going to use my two buck tags, I might as well make it worth it.

What was interesting is that neither the button buck nor the 2.5-year-old spooked. The 2.5-year-old kind of looked at me, sniffed the air a bit, then moved down to about 20 yards and started working a scrape and a licking branch. I went straight into "wildlife observer mode"; it was actually pretty cool just watching normal deer behavior.

Both ended up just ambling off without alarm.

I'm now firmly convinced that hanging low (using 2 Novix double mini sticks plus Ez Aiders) and wearing a ghillie top works for me. I'm clearly in some kind of bubble where even if deer see me, they don't associate something at that height with danger. My scent is low enough to the ground that they're not picking up any sense of imminent threat. A fat squirrel? A clumsy owl? I don't know what they think I am, but they're not running out of there scared.

What's wild is they stop and give me a reasonable broadside shot opportunity. No stamping of feet, no blowing, no bob and weave of the head, just a look, like they're focusing in trying to see something, but can't.

More like this:

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Gotta believe that as the leaves fall this gets less effective; I just want put a few more does and one decent buck down before that happens.
 
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Look at me in my saddle! I'm hunting a spot with an older preset of my buddy's. It's been in the tree so long I don't trust it.
Nobody hunts up here because it seems like a dead end cause of the steep creek bluffs. But I know they sneak through here. Thers a scrape in front of me and about 6 fresh rubs strung out along the trail.
Just the spot for a big one to stage in.
 
Swing and a miss tonight. I went out and scouted this morning. I had one area in mind and deer crossing the road in front of me changed my plan. I followed them where I thought there were going and found a hot feed tree and had a doe bump off the hill overlooking the tree. That's ok, spot one found. I went back around and went in from where the deer from earlier came from. I scouted that area years ago when I first started hunting this place and so I knew how it laid out back there. Sure enough there was another white oak dropping with pretty good sign. Spot 2 found.

I then drove down to another area and parked and ate lunch, I had another area in mind to hunt for the evening but i decided to run in and scout and see if some oaks were dropping back in there. They were not, but on a hunch I went into a dense little pine thicket on top of a finger ridge and back in a corner I found the hottest sign I have seen so far this season. The ground under the tree was destroyed. The funny thing is it is a red oak too. I walked back the 500 yards to the truck, gathered my stuff and went back in and set up.

About 4 pm I had a doe come in to some white oaks down the draw. She was about 50 yards out and well below my position. After a while she began to work her way up the draw. The squirrels were working that red oak hard and it was raining acorns. She came in to about 20 yards and turned quartering away a bit. I took the opportunity and took a shot. The arrow went right under her armpit and sunk up in the ground. A clean miss. She trotted down the hill nervously but soon started coming back up the little finger ridge I was on. I fumbled around and got another arrow on the string. I thought she was going to come in but she never gave me a shot. Meanwhile, another doe had come from my left front and crossed in front of me while i was preoccupied with doe #1. They worked off down the ridge and disappeared. I do know they came back though as one blew at me from about 75 yards out in the dark as I was coming down. I'll be back over there soon.

When I went over to retrieve my arrow it was stuck good. The broadhead had buried up to the base of the threads in a tree root. I had to unscrew it and I marked the spot and I'll go back and get it out later.
 

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This is a spot that no matter how much I scout, I cannot find the right tree. I know it's a great "spot". My cameras and sign prove it. But it's kinda meandering, and I can't ever know if I picked the correct tree or not.

I think it's more of a 257 weatherby location than arrow location lol. 1000051411.jpg
 
bigmike23 said:
This is a spot that no matter how much I scout, I cannot find the right tree. I know it's a great "spot". My cameras and sign prove it. But it's kinda meandering, and I can't ever know if I picked the correct tree or not.

I think it's more of a 257 weatherby location than arrow location lol. View attachment 122491
Click to expand...

Now you know how us stickbow guys feel at EVERY spot. :tearsofjoy:
 
I've been in the saddle since 2pm. It's pretty windy out with a 15ish mph W wind. This is the same area that I shot my 8pt this past October 2. That reminds me... I should put a post up about that LOL.

I've got 2 hrs left for my hunt. Hopefully things start to get moving.

David IMG_20251104_152541356_HDR.jpgView attachment 122505

Sent from my moto g power - 2025 using Tapatalk
 
Took my daughter out for a midday sit today. 15 minutes in the tree and we had a spike cruise by followed by a doe and little one a few minutes later. I made her hike about a mile to the spot to stay a couple hours because I thought it gave us our best chance of seeing deer and the plan worked out nicely. I told her she won't have to hike that far every time she goes. She was a trooper but she is 10 and her patience wears quickly. She had fun swinging in her saddle but she wanted to see more deer shortly after the other ones left lol.
 
Got over 150 pics today from cell cams. 148 of which were due to Mach 2 winds blowing everything around. The other 2 were 2 does. These 60-degree temps really slowed movement. 2 Co workers, both on vacation, had it rough the last two days, as did my cousin. So at least I'm not alone.

Tomorrow looks like another hot November turd. But the day after is a 20-degree drop and back into great movement weather for the next week at least. I'm sleeping in tomorrow. Grabbing a Pecan crunch latte, then hitting the gym to help with burnout.
 
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