Long story short, today sucked balls. I rolled out around 10 and went to the same piece of public I shot my buck on to scout a bit more. Rain was supposed to be done by 10, but decided to start back up again at 11 when I was a mile back in there. The northern end of this area is significantly more aggressive with the terrain and access wasn’t nearly as easy. I hoofed it to a hilltop, and bumped a lone deer bedded on the other side with the wind in its favor. I had 30 yards to make the crest, so I figured fuck it I’ll hit my grunt tube every 3rd or 4th step. I got just shy of the top when I heard the deer coming back up at me. I nocked an arrow and knelt down. The deer stopped, so I did another couple grunts and tried to sound like a buck making a scrape. The deer moved a little closer, but it got silent. I sat there crouched for probably 10 minutes, and figured it probably took off and I didn’t hear it. The wind was stiff enough i assumed my scent was blowing over it. So I stood up and approached the far side of the crest and naturally a 3x3 was standing there at 40 yards looking right at me. He took off into the unknown of the bottom. I continued along the hill top and found 3 fresh scrapes going across the saddle. I stumble fugged around for a couple more hours without any more deer sign or action before I went back to my truck then camp. Stopped to bullshit with my dad after he got back from scouting then planned to go deeper on where I hunted last night. I made it 1/4 mile back and saw a brand new pop up blind that wasn’t there yesterday. I rerouted and went another 1/4-1/2 mile and low and behold there’s another brand new pop up blind that was also not there yesterday. So I bailed, drove around, scouted some shitty DNR planted winter wheat fields and found decent sign, but it’s so close to the road that I thought I’d be an idiot to waste my opening day there. I ended up sitting on the ground in a wide open stand of pines like a complete moron, with literally 0 expectations of even seeing a deer, but I’m up here to hunt so that’s what I’m gonna do. Never even nocked an arrow
Met my dad at our buddies place for a couple beers, we’re now back at camp packing our lunches and snackies for tomorrow and about to start brats for dinner. Not sure what to expect as far as deer movement and hunting pressure goes tomorrow, but trading in the bow for a rifle feels damn good, especially with the number of close calls I’ve had.
We meant to put up a buck pole, obviously that still hasn’t happened yet