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- Apr 1, 2014
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I attended all of my Whitetail Workshops and here's a 9 point I took on October 19th
It was October 19th and I had not yet hunted any of my locations in southern Michigan but had hunted 4 times up north by home and had one nice 8 point pass by me at 6 yards while moving along the edge of a standing cornfield heading to the apple tree I was perched next to in my sling. The great thing about hunting along standing corn during early season and into the lull is that the hunts don’t in any manner interfere or effect my rut phase hunting locations that I don’t hunt until the pre-rut phase which begins in late October.
The October lull was winding down and in the previous 2 days I had a couple friends tell me that they had seen mature bucks chasing does and that meant that in some areas there were some does entering their estrus cycles a bit earlier than when the majority of does do during peak rut, which is normal.
It was still too early however to hunt my best 2 spots up north as I typically begin hunting them around October 25th, so I planned an evening hunt and the plan was to check a secondary location at the back of a standing cornfield that had two scrapes opened up during my pre-season speed tour. I had gone in to hunt this location earlier in the season but the scrapes had become inactive so I went elsewhere, if they were active now, I would hunt there. I would also carry my hip boots and if the scrapes were inactive, cross a nearby river with them and hunt a tree 15 yards from its bank.
Neither location is a destination feeding location but rather secure transition routes from different bedding areas to the same standing cornfield. One transition route leads to the cornfield from the east and the other from the south after it crosses the river and continues about 30 yards through tall marsh grass before butting up to the standing cornfield edge. With my scent control regimen wind direction is irrelevant and of no concern so either location would be fine.
After dressing in my mini-van I grabbed my hip boots and headed through the standing corn perpendicular to the rows towards the large red oak that bordered the cornfield and swamp to the east. It was windy enough to mask my noise of walking through the corn and early enough that I kept my eye out for bedded deer within the rows and about halfway through I saw a big doe securely bedded down a row about 15 yards away. Don’t know what it is about the intrigue of standing corn but it’s always cool to see deer comfortably bedded in it and I watched her for a few moments before moving on.
As I neared the oak the corn began to get a bit sparse as the deer and raccoons had it eaten down pretty good. Once at it the scrapes were still inactive so it was time for plan B. I walked south down the edge of the cornfield and when it turned west I went straight and over the slight bank and through the tall marsh weeds to the river. After changing into my hip boots I crossed the 40 foot wide shallow river and then put my Muck boots back on and folded the hip boots over and laid them under a log next to the river.
While the walk to my tree was only 15 yards, I saw 3 fresh runway scrapes on the main runway to the east of the multi-trunked maple I would be perched in. I had hunted this free permission property for 11 seasons and in all those years there had never been scrapes in this area. This area consisted of about 4 acres of nasty dense bedding area to the southeast and timber with dense understudy and deadfalls to the southwest and the river to the north of them where I was at ran east/west.
I prepared this particular maple in March because over the years these bedding areas were getting denser and attracting and holding more deer and there was a well-used runway 12 yards to the east of it that ran directly south between the 2 bedding areas. When I walked that runway in the spring there were small secondary runways from both bedding areas that fed into it and it continued north to the river and across into the crop field. The maple location was perfect for several reasons. I can access it through the field for an evening hunt without spooking deer, as long as the field is in standing corn I can exit through it without spooking deer, and I wouldn’t intrude with either bedding area because it’s along the river’s edge.
It was a beautiful evening for being on a lake somewhere getting a tan as the temperature was 71 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I was set-up early enough to take a quick nap, so while nicely perched in my sling, I did just that for about half an hour.
At 4:40 I heard something moving to the south and within moments a big doe came into view and ran by down the 12 yard runway, crossed the river, ran through the 30 yards buffer of tall marsh grasses on the other side and into the standing corn without stopping. She had no fawns with her and I’ve been hunting long enough to know that mature does without fawns are much too cautious to randomly run through areas with reckless abandon unless being chased by something.
While I never expect much action this early in the season or this early on an evening hunt by a mature buck in a pressured area, just to blow my expectations, sure enough a mature buck was in pursuit. Other than noticing he had a descent rack, he didn’t give me any time to scrutinize its size. He approached rapidly and came to an abrupt stop at one of the scrapes. When he stopped so abruptly I couldn’t help but notice his mass of muscles and fat jiggle on his big body.
I had taken my Mathews bow off its hanger and when he momentarily stopped to scent check the scrape he was slightly quartering away. I came to full draw and released the G5 100-grain Striker that was attached to a Maxima Red arrow. The hit was perfectly placed about 6 inches behind the shoulder which would angle the arrow right thought the boiler room.
He turned and ran back along the same runway and then broke east and went into the more dense area of brush, tall weeds, briars and deadfalls. It was so early that I went back to my van and took off my ScentLok clothing and changed into some lighter stuff and called a couple buddies to help me get him out. One of them didn’t own waders so he waited by the cornfield with the versa-cart until we hopefully found him and brought him back across the river.
Although he traveled a couple hundred yards before expiring, it only took about 10 minutes to find the 9 point as my 2 year old grandson could have followed his blood trail. Body wise he was big and was at least a 3 ½ year old and in that area not many bucks survive to reach that age bracket but he was a little light on the antler side which is also normal for northern Michigan’s sandy soil areas. This was one of those times when as a hunter I had to make a snap decision between age criteria and antler criteria and this time age won out.
Sadly I have to admit that when I walked up to this beautiful buck that I was taken by his body size but was a bit disappointed in his antler size. What an ungrateful bastard I can be as sometimes I tend to forget what hunting is all about and how thankful I should be. It was a great hunt and I needed to be kicked, slapped, punched or had a serious talking to and the property owner was obliging to do so, talking to that is as he's lived and hunted there his entire 66 years of life and has never taken a buck that big with gun or bow.
GOOD HUNTING and BE SAFE
It was October 19th and I had not yet hunted any of my locations in southern Michigan but had hunted 4 times up north by home and had one nice 8 point pass by me at 6 yards while moving along the edge of a standing cornfield heading to the apple tree I was perched next to in my sling. The great thing about hunting along standing corn during early season and into the lull is that the hunts don’t in any manner interfere or effect my rut phase hunting locations that I don’t hunt until the pre-rut phase which begins in late October.
The October lull was winding down and in the previous 2 days I had a couple friends tell me that they had seen mature bucks chasing does and that meant that in some areas there were some does entering their estrus cycles a bit earlier than when the majority of does do during peak rut, which is normal.
It was still too early however to hunt my best 2 spots up north as I typically begin hunting them around October 25th, so I planned an evening hunt and the plan was to check a secondary location at the back of a standing cornfield that had two scrapes opened up during my pre-season speed tour. I had gone in to hunt this location earlier in the season but the scrapes had become inactive so I went elsewhere, if they were active now, I would hunt there. I would also carry my hip boots and if the scrapes were inactive, cross a nearby river with them and hunt a tree 15 yards from its bank.
Neither location is a destination feeding location but rather secure transition routes from different bedding areas to the same standing cornfield. One transition route leads to the cornfield from the east and the other from the south after it crosses the river and continues about 30 yards through tall marsh grass before butting up to the standing cornfield edge. With my scent control regimen wind direction is irrelevant and of no concern so either location would be fine.
After dressing in my mini-van I grabbed my hip boots and headed through the standing corn perpendicular to the rows towards the large red oak that bordered the cornfield and swamp to the east. It was windy enough to mask my noise of walking through the corn and early enough that I kept my eye out for bedded deer within the rows and about halfway through I saw a big doe securely bedded down a row about 15 yards away. Don’t know what it is about the intrigue of standing corn but it’s always cool to see deer comfortably bedded in it and I watched her for a few moments before moving on.
As I neared the oak the corn began to get a bit sparse as the deer and raccoons had it eaten down pretty good. Once at it the scrapes were still inactive so it was time for plan B. I walked south down the edge of the cornfield and when it turned west I went straight and over the slight bank and through the tall marsh weeds to the river. After changing into my hip boots I crossed the 40 foot wide shallow river and then put my Muck boots back on and folded the hip boots over and laid them under a log next to the river.
While the walk to my tree was only 15 yards, I saw 3 fresh runway scrapes on the main runway to the east of the multi-trunked maple I would be perched in. I had hunted this free permission property for 11 seasons and in all those years there had never been scrapes in this area. This area consisted of about 4 acres of nasty dense bedding area to the southeast and timber with dense understudy and deadfalls to the southwest and the river to the north of them where I was at ran east/west.
I prepared this particular maple in March because over the years these bedding areas were getting denser and attracting and holding more deer and there was a well-used runway 12 yards to the east of it that ran directly south between the 2 bedding areas. When I walked that runway in the spring there were small secondary runways from both bedding areas that fed into it and it continued north to the river and across into the crop field. The maple location was perfect for several reasons. I can access it through the field for an evening hunt without spooking deer, as long as the field is in standing corn I can exit through it without spooking deer, and I wouldn’t intrude with either bedding area because it’s along the river’s edge.
It was a beautiful evening for being on a lake somewhere getting a tan as the temperature was 71 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I was set-up early enough to take a quick nap, so while nicely perched in my sling, I did just that for about half an hour.
At 4:40 I heard something moving to the south and within moments a big doe came into view and ran by down the 12 yard runway, crossed the river, ran through the 30 yards buffer of tall marsh grasses on the other side and into the standing corn without stopping. She had no fawns with her and I’ve been hunting long enough to know that mature does without fawns are much too cautious to randomly run through areas with reckless abandon unless being chased by something.
While I never expect much action this early in the season or this early on an evening hunt by a mature buck in a pressured area, just to blow my expectations, sure enough a mature buck was in pursuit. Other than noticing he had a descent rack, he didn’t give me any time to scrutinize its size. He approached rapidly and came to an abrupt stop at one of the scrapes. When he stopped so abruptly I couldn’t help but notice his mass of muscles and fat jiggle on his big body.
I had taken my Mathews bow off its hanger and when he momentarily stopped to scent check the scrape he was slightly quartering away. I came to full draw and released the G5 100-grain Striker that was attached to a Maxima Red arrow. The hit was perfectly placed about 6 inches behind the shoulder which would angle the arrow right thought the boiler room.
He turned and ran back along the same runway and then broke east and went into the more dense area of brush, tall weeds, briars and deadfalls. It was so early that I went back to my van and took off my ScentLok clothing and changed into some lighter stuff and called a couple buddies to help me get him out. One of them didn’t own waders so he waited by the cornfield with the versa-cart until we hopefully found him and brought him back across the river.
Although he traveled a couple hundred yards before expiring, it only took about 10 minutes to find the 9 point as my 2 year old grandson could have followed his blood trail. Body wise he was big and was at least a 3 ½ year old and in that area not many bucks survive to reach that age bracket but he was a little light on the antler side which is also normal for northern Michigan’s sandy soil areas. This was one of those times when as a hunter I had to make a snap decision between age criteria and antler criteria and this time age won out.
Sadly I have to admit that when I walked up to this beautiful buck that I was taken by his body size but was a bit disappointed in his antler size. What an ungrateful bastard I can be as sometimes I tend to forget what hunting is all about and how thankful I should be. It was a great hunt and I needed to be kicked, slapped, punched or had a serious talking to and the property owner was obliging to do so, talking to that is as he's lived and hunted there his entire 66 years of life and has never taken a buck that big with gun or bow.
GOOD HUNTING and BE SAFE