Deer report follow up of yesterday's both morning and evening hunts.
6 in the morning, one being a good buck. 4 within bow range.
6 in the evening, one being a good buck. 5 within bow range.
While hiking back home under the moonlight, I had an encounter with a wildlife species that I have never seen before in Ohio first hand. I though it was a young coyote at first. I was about to shoot it as it was coming straight to me. The animal got within 10 yards of me as I let out a squeak noise with my lips, which it stopped immediately, turned sideways. That's when I hit the animal with my headlamp while taking aim with the bow. To my surprise, I quickly realized that I was looking at a beautiful mature Grey Fox rather than a young coyote. I immediately backed off on the bow, and the fox simply walked away as if it didn't have a care in the world. I don't think it knew what I was really. It was a rather cool encounter. I was downwind of him the entire time and seen him coming down along the creek approximately 50 yards up ahead of me when I first spotted it coming towards me.
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Now for today's deer report:
I started off hunting out of my 'Northwestern Stand' As soon as it became legal time, the West wind picked right up, higher than what was originally forecasted. I climbed down quite early due to the fact that tree is truly unsafe now to hunt out of and most likely damaged more severally over the summer storms, perhaps during both of the two different tornados that came through previously within the year. There are several other down trees all around it as well.
Anyhow, around 7:00 a.m., while still in the stand, I spotted two deer along the Lower CRP filed to the East, very much below me, approximately 70-90 yards away. One headed towards my home, and the other headed towards the top of the South Ridge, to the cup area of the South upper field.
I thought I'd attempt to put a stalk on that deer headed South, which was a large bodied deer, last seen at 7:10 a.m., just before it walked into the thick honeysuckles.
The rest of this morning's hunt, I documented with photographs and created a short video of the still hunt, the recon, plus trying to find another tree for me to relocate 'Northwestern Stand' hang-on to.
Hope you all enjoy, and best of luck to all those that are hunting today!
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Video description:
First annual 'Still Hunt' of the 2021/22 deer hunting season. Due to the higher wind speed than what was forecasted, I climbed down early because the tree that I was hunting out of is one that I no longer trust. It has been severally damaged by the two different tornado storms that occurred over the previous summer, with several other trees surrounding it that are also down over the recent summer. Earlier, I spotted two deer right along the lower CRP field between 7 & 7:10 a.m. approximately 90 yards away, the second one being a large bodied deer that I suspected it of being a good buck, but I was not certain. Once down on the ground, I knocked an arrow and took off, headed SE through the South field towards the cup area, which was the direction that deer was originally headed about a half hour earlier. Along the way I also gathered as much intelligence as I could regarding fresh deer signs, and all the while looking for another tree for my 'Northwestern Stand' to be relocated to. All the photographs are in chronological order by timestamp as I continued making a large loop of the area that I hunt primarily nearest to my home. I did discover several deer scrapes within the South field, right along the field/wooded edge. Once I started to cut through the wooded area at the very back of the South field, I came upon a very fresh deer scrape that I believe was made within hours of my discovering it. As I continued onward, back up the South Ridge, through some extremely thick honeysuckle patches, I heard some movement. I stopped right in the middle of that patch, knelt down and tried to see if I could see legs of a deer, which I did. The deer was within 20 yards of me, standing there, facing my direction, coming down the same path the I was going up on. Seconds later, the deer blew, turned around and bound off. I believe it was a real good buck and his steps sounded quite heavy as he left the area. Once I got down to the bottom of the South Ridge and into the Lower CRP field, I tried to look for that deer with my binoculars or any deer movement, which I did not see any. It took me longer than what I tried to do to get to the bottom of that ridge. BTW, this is the first time that the Lower CRP field, nearest to my home as ever been cut down. I have not hunted out any of the two CRP tree-stands yet this season, but I will be rather soon, especially now after seeing the two deer within it this morning from my 'Northwestern Stand'. So, I continued onward, turning towards the adjacent and much larger CRP field to the East. That is the field that I often setup a ground blind for deer gun season, and I do a couple of sets for coyote hunting as well during the winter months when the field is cut down, like it is now. I continued to travel North to the main creek bottom, and then turn West, headed to my home. Along the way, I took several photographs of Buck tree rubs that are always there each year, at the very same spots and locations. My 'Northern CRP Stand' and my climber is located on each side of the main creek. The climber being on top of the North Ridge, right above the creek shelf. The buck tree rubs lead to major bedding area, which my 'Northern CRP Stand' is just West by about 35-40 yards of the most popular for the bigger bucks. The video concludes with me arriving at the back of my property, which the feed station is located on the West side of the main creek, just off the creek bank. There are a ton of buck tree rubs that surround the feed station area along with a few deer scrapes as well. I was done with my morning still hunt by 9:30 a.m. on 11/19/2021