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Jake's Journal

Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
I'm at work on a morning I would rather be in a tree stand. With that being said, I'm going to document my season so far, starting with my spring scouting, summer scouting, and my season as it progresses.

This will be my first season hunting strictly public land and I'm no Booner hunter, and I'm fairly new to the game of targeting bucks. I also am not using trail cameras this year so it may be a boring thread but I hope to document all sightings, weather, mistakes made, wins, losses, etc... and maybe have something I can reference in future seasons.
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
I've been consistently involved with archery for about 13 years and hunting off on and on for 8. I've taken some deer with my bow and 1 with a gun. Never a buck, though.

Last year, during the rut, I was fortunate enough to be invited to hunt my friend's family farm for a day. I packed in with my climber, found a decent looking spot near a field, and settled in. About an hour later, I had the first of nearly a dozen doe start trickling through. It wasn't long after that, a 4 point came cruising through with his nose to the ground. Until this point in the year I had been trying to hunt the local public land and had only had one deer in shooting range and less than a dozen in sight. Seeing all of these deer had me pumped! 20 minutes later I heard some rustling and sticks snapping in the distance. I had forgotten my binoculars in the truck so I couldn't see what was going on down the hollow.

The noise started getting closer until I was able to make out the form of a buck rubbing his antlers on a small tree and then making his way toward me. My heart immediately started pounding and I stood up so I would be ready to make a shot if one presented it's self.
Within a few minutes he was less than 20 yards from my stand on the other side of a thick patch of brush that ran from below me to the field edge. I could see that he was a mature deer, either 3.5 or 4.5, with a good rack. He was no B&C but probably around 130.

He stayed there, working a scrape that I didn't know was there, and rubbing on a few small trees for several minutes before making his way up to the field. I was hooked. That one encounter was all it took. I decided I would dedicate a lot more time to this sport that I already get a lot of enjoyment from.
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
After my first encounter with a mature buck, the beginning of the addiction, I started reading. I read every forum I could find. I tried to find the most popular references to books and videos from people that weren't out to push advertising down your throat and bought them. I joined the forums and started asking questions. The one piece of advice I kept coming across from the reputable authors, hunters, and forum members was the importance of post and preseason scouting.

About this time I started having to travel for work and wasn't able to spend much more time in the woods that season. The travel continued after season and into the early spring. I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to get in the woods and start scouting after the season ended. This seems to be one of, if not the most, critical part of scouting. I kept my head up and started hitting the woods as soon as work allowed, which was late March time frame.

I glassed fields in the evenings, walks hills in the mornings. Found travel corridors and pinch points, last years rubs, secluded patches of white oaks, funnels, etc... All of these things I knew absolutely nothing about a few months ago. I saw more deer sign than I had in my 6-8 years of hunting prior to that. I was pumped! I found trees that looked to be absolutely perfect kill spots, and they were, except for the wind....

That was the other thing I found in ALL of my research. The importance of hunting the wind. This lead me to thermals and the effect of obstructions, openings, hills and bodies of water on the direction of wind. after finding the predominant wind directions and doing my best to account for thermals and swirling I picked out a bunch of trees as possible climbing trees, but decided I would remain open to other trees in the areas based on wind and other intel. Then I had to try to find good entry and exit routes based on wind, time of day and so on. This proved to be even harder than finding the right trees. So, I did my best with what I know and have learned and found my entry/exits.

I continued scouting both on foot and on maps and aerial photos, made a few tweaks to a few spots and travel routes, and eagerly awaited the opener.
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
This will be a brief overview of my first two weeks of season, observations and deer sightings.

I managed to get out for a couple of hours after work on opening day. I saw a Doe and 2 fawns. Deer on my first sit!!! I took that as a promising start to the season, and so far, I haven't been disappointed.

between opening day and now I've only not seen deer on 2 sits.

I had 1 encounter with a mature 8 point last week. I went in to do an observation sit on a long transition line where a swampy/grassy bottom meets a large patch of hard woods. I knew that some bucks were bucks were bedding on or near that thick transition line from the sign and worn in beds that I found there when scouting. I hoped to find out where exactly the deer were heading from there, what time they started moving, and honestly I was very curious to find out what caliber of bucks were making all those rubs.

I had been on stand about 2 hours. It was still early, only about 6 p.m. so I wasn't really expecting much movement with as warm as it was. I had the wind across my face from right to left and staying pretty consistent and that worked well for the spot. I hear a stick snap behind me, assume its a squirrel or turkey but I decided to slowly peek around the tree anyway. At first I didn't see anything but then I saw some movement in a patch of small bushes. I pulled out my binoculars and was able to spot an antler! I couldn't believe a buck on public land was moving around this early in the day! There was another deer that never would come out from behind that little patch but the one I had spotted started slowly working its way toward the one shooting lane that I had from this tree (I hadn't really expected anything to come out that close to me and was planning to do more glassing than shooting). At this point my heart is pounding in my chest... I'm trying to will this deer out into that shooting lane with all of my being. He gets about two body lengths from the lane. There was a giant cherry tree that split into three trunks on the edge of the shooting lane between the buck and me. It was perfect. As soon as his head was behind that tree I was going to draw and when he stepped out, put an arrow in him!! He stopped... looked around a little, ate a few leaves off of a small tree, turned around and slowly started making his way back to the transition line. I was devastated and beaming at the same time! He was up wind of me and didn't scent me, I was under 20 yards from a mature buck on public land. My scouting is paying off!


Last night I made it back out to another spot that I hoped would be a good early season spot. This spot is within 100-150 yards of some crops that the DNR planted waaay back in the woods. I had planned to abandon this spot before or maybe shortly after the rut when the crowds start showing up and hanging a stand in every tree on every field edge.
The wind was decent when I got there but not great so I got as high as I could in the tree. The wind started shifting shortly after that and I started to think about leaving before I blew the spot out but decided to stick it out anyway. I saw 3 doe at about 5 pm and had a 4 point trot through a little while later. Right before dark I had a flock of turkeys work their way up the hill past me and then come flying back through woods to roost. That's the first time I've witnessed turkey roosting. A very cool experience and I have to say.. they are not very graceful creatures lol. they sounded like someone had crash landed a small aircraft about 30 yards from me.
 
finelyshedded

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
32,855
274
SW Ohio
Very nice write up Jake! You've absorbed a lot of good info and are putting it to the test and learning a lot through your own experiences! Keep it up man!!! Great work!!! Good luck TOO!:smiley_clap:
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
Well, today is my Friday. I drive through the public land that I'm hunting this year on my way to work. I spotted a pretty respectable buck crossing the road into a small swampy bottom with a couple of thick patches of red brush. If the wind is right this evening i'm going to try to sneak in there and set up on the trail he used. Since this isn't one of my primary spots and I didn't see a ton of sign in there while scouting, I will take a doe from here if given the chance. I haven't had any venison in over a year and I'm starting to get the itch....
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
I got off work at 2 today and rushed home to spend a few minutes with my kids and hit the stand. Everything was going great, I got all of my stuff ready to throw in the truck and go before I went to bed last night.

I headed out with plans to hunt a buck I had never seen before this morning in a place I had only walked through once several months ago. I was excited to get in and get set up and see what the night would bring. As I rounded the last bend before the wide spot in the road I had planned to park on i noticed a truck was already there and another hunter was heading in the general direction that I had planned to enter. On to plan B. I turned and headed toward the only other spot I have that I'm willing to hunt right now that works with this wind direction. There's a car parked in the pull off. Now what?

I pull up my hunt onyx app and look for the little tacks I labeled "potential". Find a few close by, 1 works with a North wind. I pull in, get dressed and head up a hill toward a ridge. About 3/4 of the way up I come to a small bench that wasn't visible on the topo maps. The wind was coming straight down the ridge and into my face. The point above me looked like a perfect doe bedding area. Wind to their backs and able to see down the hill for a good ways. The bench looks to be an IDEAL rut cruising spot. A buck could easily walk this bench winding the doe beds above and the thermals in the morning would bring scent of anything below him.

I almost backed out and saved that first hunt for the rut. I was too far in to go home so I found a great tree on the edge of the bench. A cluster of maples with one the size of a telephone pole in the middle. Tons of cover on the other smaller trees and able to get 20 plus feet in the big one.

About 20 minutes after getting settled in I hear some shotgun blasts a couple of hundred yards away, then some more. Squirrel hunter. A few minutes later I had 5 or 6 doe bolt past right under my stand. Those were the only deer I saw tonight, but I'm really excited about this spot. I think I will be in there a couple of hours before daylight on the first day of my vacation in November.
 
Jake_C

Jake_C

Junior Member
456
0
Columbiana County
Last night I decided to hit my back yard stand for the last couple hours of light. I didn't see any deer but I did see a ton of squirrels and one red fox. I got skunked but still had an enjoyable sit and I think that's what it's all about.

I would love to be sitting in a tree waiting on the sun to rise but yesterday my truck started making some crazy noises, I'm thinking wheel bearing or my caliper is coming loose, so I need to take care of that, mow the 4 acres I call my lawn, and then at 4 pm I have a phone interview for a HUGE promotion within my current company. So, it looks like I'll be sitting this one out.
 
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