Blackbeard's 2015 Hunting Journal
- Thread starter Blackbeard
- Start date
11/04/15- PM. Hunted a stand in a pine thicket overlooking a hollow. Jumped a doe going in, saw 4 more does browsing all evening, then saw a small buck trailing a doe right at dark. On the walk out I stopped to rest for a second and darn near got run over by a deer in the dark pines. Also heard a fawn (spring deer- hate calling them fawns at this point) make one of the weirdest sounds ever. I first I thought it was a crane, yes that's right a bird. Then I saw that it was a deer and decided it was a bleat to its mother. Then it did it again and I thought it sounded more like a real immature grunt. Never heard one like it before. The fawn is in the middle of this photo.
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11/05/15- Had to work a day during my 18 day vacation so spent the day in Columbus in a meeting. Back at it tomorrow. Thank god the weather is changing, this has been one of the worst first weeks of November weather wise in a while.
11/06/15- PM. Hunted a ladder stand in the middle of my overgrown field. Saw one doe about 5:00 then another unknown deer around 5:30 and that was it. Slow evening. It was warm but cloudy with a west wind so kinda surprised there wasn't anymore deer movement.
11/07/15- AM. Hunted a ladderstand on a small ridge that runs out into a swamp. Saw two going in and never saw a single deer while on stand for 3.25 hours. Pretty darn surprising.
11/07/15- PM. Hunted the same ladderstand as this morning. Saw one deer way down in the swamp about 5:15 then had probably a buck come past me after dark right before I started my descent. Really amazed that this spot didn't produce more on NOVEMBER 7 than what I got. Really slow hunting today.
11/08/15-AM. Hunted my north facing stand in a walnut tree in my overgrown field. Heard what I believe was a buck go along the woodline to my east not long after daylight, sounded like he was checking brush for does. Then had a basket rack travel across the field to that same general area. Then watched a spike browse in the field for an hour or more. Then had a decent 8pt come past me on a mission. He was rutted up big time with a huge neck. Just not quite big enough to shoot. He went over to the same area as the other bucks and worked two or three different scrapes. Then a group of 5 coyotes came right apast me and ended up running the spike out of the field. Better morning for sure.
11/07/15- PM. Hunted the same ladderstand as this morning. Saw one deer way down in the swamp about 5:15 then had probably a buck come past me after dark right before I started my descent. Really amazed that this spot didn't produce more on NOVEMBER 7 than what I got. Really slow hunting today.
11/08/15-AM. Hunted my north facing stand in a walnut tree in my overgrown field. Heard what I believe was a buck go along the woodline to my east not long after daylight, sounded like he was checking brush for does. Then had a basket rack travel across the field to that same general area. Then watched a spike browse in the field for an hour or more. Then had a decent 8pt come past me on a mission. He was rutted up big time with a huge neck. Just not quite big enough to shoot. He went over to the same area as the other bucks and worked two or three different scrapes. Then a group of 5 coyotes came right apast me and ended up running the spike out of the field. Better morning for sure.
Big_Holla
Senior Member
11/09/15- AM. Hunted my north facing stand in a walnut tree in my overgrown field. Saw two anterless deer about 100 yards away browsing then had a doe come by me later on. Beautiful morning, COLD, with a brisk east wind.
11/09/15- PM. Hunted a stand in a pine thicket overlooking a hollow. Watched a small 7pt bump a button buck, then the button buck wandered aimlessly around for most of the evening, then I saw two more small bucks before dark.
LOCKDOWN.....
11/09/15- PM. Hunted a stand in a pine thicket overlooking a hollow. Watched a small 7pt bump a button buck, then the button buck wandered aimlessly around for most of the evening, then I saw two more small bucks before dark.
LOCKDOWN.....
11/10/15-AM. My setup this morning was on a ridge in a funnel and I didn't see crap for two hours other than the deer I spooked right when I got there in the dark. So I decided to stalk around and check out some sign since it was quiet walking and the property I was on has nice roads through it. I got to the top of the property and was standing watching a doe eat honeysuckle 150 yards across a pasture and next thing I know I'm watching a nice buck sneak up on this doe. Then I look to my left (downwind) and another decent buck sees me and is approaching me head on like he might want to....this second buck gets to 50 yards and hangs up when he hears the first buck letting out really loud guttural grunts across the field. Eventually they all take off and I'm sitting there shaking my head.
11/11/15- AM. Hunted the ladder in my overgrown field, saw 7 does and 5 different bucks, all the bucks were TOO small to shoot, all of them were either tending does or cruising madly. Now 11:30 and I've had deer around me all 5 hours I've been here. The buck in the photos below put on a show for me awhile ago and went all billy bad ass on two different saplings!
My view early
Billy bad ass
My view early
Billy bad ass
11/11/15-PM. Hunted a new ladder stand of my cousins that I just helped him put up last weekend. It's at the very top of a ridge in the middle of a 160 ac pine thicket. It's tight, only two shooting lanes, one out to 25 one out to 20. Didn't see a thing other than some turkeys.
Hortontoter
Senior Member
11/12/15- AM. Hunted my ladder in my overgrown field, I'm hunting this spot way more than I like to hunt one spot but the wind is right, I'm getting in and out without spooking deer, and this seems to be my best bet for a shooter. Wind gradually picked up as morning went on. No deer first 1.25 minutes then I started seeing buck after buck cruising and checking scrapes. Saw 4 bucks, one may have been a shooter. Had to get down at 9:45 or so, wind was too much to be in an 18 ft ladder.
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Hortontoter
Senior Member
Bet that wind would have bent an arrow today. Glad you at least stayed put in the ladder stand for a while.
11/12/15-PM. Should have stayed at home and played with the kids, saw one deer going in and several deer on the way out, nothing while on stand, it was a windy evening, all deer I saw were holed up on the east side of a hill near some pines for a wind break (imagine that)! Might take tomorrow off, this wind beat me up today.
11/13/15-PM. This wind sucks. Saw a fox early. Then saw the biggest buck I have on camera (10pt) tending a doe 55 yds away from me in the middle of my overgrown field at 8:00. Saw two does at 9:00. Wind got too strong to hunt in at 9:30 headed back to house. Gonna hang a stand this afternoon with my 3 year old.
Fox
10pt
Fox
10pt