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Season Recap (long read)

Creamer

Creamer

Active Member
1,664
87
Athens
I'm never killing a deer on opening morning again.

The season started off so promising. I was shooting my new bow really well. Trail cameras were producing some good deer. Hopes and prospects were high. Opening morning, an hour into the season, I made a great shot on a public land doe and put early meat in the freezer. Life was good. I could relax, the pressure was off immediately and I could focus on finding a buck over the rest of the season.

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I'll be honest, I am a bit superstitious. Catching a fish on the first cast on an outing always seems to be a sign of bad luck to come. Catching a fish at the boat ramp, also bad. Killing a deer on opening morning on Sit 1? I had no idea how horrible luck would be for me the remainder of the season. The first big stroke of bad fortune came after scouting a new chunk of public ground. I found great, fresh buck sign. Large buck sign. I came back the following weekend to hunt and had little Captain Dickhead here walk almost right to my tree.

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I could hear other deer slowly filtering my way to reach the cluster of dropping white oaks. My assumption is they were bucks, also. I was right. Mr. Dickhead walked from my tree over to the approaching deer. I heard a tickle of antlers, then all hell broke loose and I watched as Dickhead got chased off by the largest buck I have seen to date on public ground. He was inside 40 yards before the spike decided to go say hi. Shortly after, I passed this great 8 pointer at 20-22 yards because I was holding out hope the larger deer would work back my way. He never did.

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No harm done, I snuck out quietly and came back the following week when I had good wind. When I parked this time, there was another truck in the parking area. As I started up the bank to the oak flat, I saw the guy. He was set up in a horrible spot halfway up the bank, treestand exposed badly with no cover around him. I couldn't possibly get around him without blowing the place out, and I wouldn't have felt right about cutting deer off from him. Due to hunting pressure that followed, I didn't hunt that location again. I hung a cell camera after gun season hoping the deer would start using the adjacent thicket again and maybe I could get back on them. In a week, I got ZERO photos. Pressure blew them out of there. Lesson learned, I'll get on that location earlier next season.

Contd.
 
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My one piece of private I had access to early in the year, where I have a feeder, was producing a lot of deer photos. Just one problem, almost all of them at night. I've hunted that place for 5+ years and that is very unusual for the property. I sat it twice in my ground blind prior to gun season, with zero deer sighted. It would become a horrible trend there, with 4 total sits and a total of 0 deer sighted. I was seeing 6-10 per sit on public. Figure that one out.


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The rut was upon us and I had really high hopes for one chunk of public where I had multiple shooter bucks on camera in the fall. There were plenty of viable options there to shoot.

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The location is a pinch point between bedding areas that bucks were cruising a lot last fall and I killed last year's buck there. In several sits, I was a small buck magnet. Next year I'll keep track of passed bucks better. My best guess, from that location alone, I passed roughly 7-9 bucks waiting on one of the larger deer. One sit alone I passed 4 different bucks that I aged at 2.5. Each trip in was productive, just not for the right deer. Frustrated, I tweaked my location a bit to be closer to one of the bedding areas, thinking deer were possibly just out of sight from where I had been hunting. It was a move I made too late. My first hunt there I saw 2 big shooters. The first was a wide, heavy 8 that I did not have on camera who skirted below me just out of range. Shortly after he left, this deer showed up walking right to me.

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He wasn't as big as the other deer, but I thought he was 3.5 and big enough. He was on a steady walk right to me. I was going to have a 12-14 yard shot once he cleared into a lane. He stopped to nibble on a green vine on a sapling at 15 yards, strongly quartered to me. It wasn't a shot I wanted to take at that angle. As he picked his head up to the leaves on the vine, I knew he was going to spot me. And he did. He locked on, and I was hoping for a nervous side step so I could get a quick shot off. It didn't happen. He bounded 30 yards before stopping and was out of range, stopped briefly, then walked away. A 1.7 mile hike hours before dark, and he stopped 3-4 steps short of offering me the shot I needed.

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I decided to try a new spot I had e-scouted on Google Maps and OnX, another deep dive into public ground. On my first attempt, I went into the area I had ID'd on the maps and looked for sign, and found plenty. Some rubs, several scrapes, I was feeling good about the decision. As I was hanging my saddle platform, I caught movement on the bench below me. It was a slammer of an 8-pointer, tall and bleach-white antlers. I'd guesstimate him in the high 130's, minimum. I scrambled thinking what do I do? Nothing. I could do nothing because my bow was still on the ground with my pack. I got the platform up ASAP and scrambled to get my gear. It was too late, he was gone and I never saw him again. I had a good sit, seeing that buck and several does that passed me inside 20 yards. On the walk out, I found some more older sign that told me I was a few weeks late finding this spot. Gun season was in a day or two.

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After gun season, I donated some time to try to kill a doe on a friend's property. He lives out of town but comes in to hunt each year, and gave me free run after he went back home. I put out corn in a spot he suggested and had deer activity quickly. Lots of small bucks and several does, often in daylight. The one little nuance was that this spot he wanted me to hunt was fairly close to the neighbor's double wide.

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The first hunt in there I had a pair of 1.5 year old bucks in my lap for 30 minutes. Like I said, I was a small buck magnet all season. The next sit, I had a pair of does working my way early in the afternoon, when I heard the front door of the trailer fly open. The deer were maybe 100 yards out. The following conversation/shouting match took place between a guy and I assume his wife/girlfriend.

Guy: I'll be back after a while!
Woman: Well you goin to the store!?
Guy: I don't know, why!?
Woman: Cuz if you go to the store I need shit! You gotta tell me!
Guy: Well hell I don't know, I'll let you know if I do, aight!?
*double wide door slams*

The whole time I'm watching the deer thinking "Shut up people. Shut up. Shut the fuck up!" The does had frozen while this unfolded, and on the slam of the door, they trotted back down the hill away from me and never returned. Why can't people do their shouting INSIDE the damn trailer!? I moved locations on his property and put out a little more corn, only to find a herd of bucks (mostly small) and does that were primarily nocturnal. My hunts there resulted in 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks in range, no does. Small. Buck. Magnet.
 
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So another buddy was wanting me to come to his place and try to kill a doe there. I took him up on the offer and hunted a stand he thought was a great morning setup to catch does coming back from his plots to a bedding area. At first light, I had 4 does working up the trail across some CRP coming right to me. I was in a pinch created by an opening in an old fence. The trail they were on forked about 40 yards away from me, they were either going to come right to my tree or take the split and skirt just out of range. Wouldn't you know it...they took the fork.


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His other location he thought would be great was a small plot near a creek. It had relatively easy access but finding a tree was tough. I looked for the most heavily used creek crossing and found a tree that was right at the max size I could get my sticks and platform in. I was in between two heavy trails leading to the food with a good wind. It felt right. About 30 minutes before dark, I heard splashing. A good ways away. I watched as a large group of deer filed out into the field about 100 yards away, with a couple of them acting as if they were going to walk the field/creek edge in. That would put them inside 20 yards of my setup. Partway to me, they veered off into the CRP junk and filtered their way into the plot. I had to watch them at 50-60 yards for the rest of the evening.

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With not much time to go, I moved a camera to what Dan Infalt would call a "fat chick" location. I knew deer used it, wasn't sure what deer, and it was a location you'd never be caught dead hunting by your buddies. Close to parking, close to access, close to hiking, none of it made sense. And I immediately found a shooter buck.

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My hopes heightened when he soon showed in shooting light and then again later that night. Could I possibly luck into a slammer public buck in the last few weeks of season? He was dropping off a thick point you can't access without bumping deer to feed on honey locust pods. Work stood in the way of getting in there and hunting for several days. And then, the pics stopped. He never showed again. Gone.

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Approaching the final weekend of season, I still had high hopes. I had a solid plan and took Friday off work so I could hunt Fri-Sun, if needed. I made the long pre-dawn hike in on the public ground where I killed last year's buck one more time. My previous hunt to that area in the snow showed a lot of feeding activity on that bench around some nearby red oaks, and I assumed the deer were kicking the snow and leaves around looking for acorns. There were tons of red oak acorns there in Nov. Sure enough, at dawn, I hear a deer working my way from the saddle in the ridge. It's a buck, and it's big. Another new-to-me deer, a 9-pointer that looked 18+ inches wide with 8-9" G2's. He was on a steady walk right to me. Either side of the tree I was going to have a 12-14 yard shot. The wind was blowing to my south, he was approaching from the east. I was GOLDEN. At 40 yards, I felt the wind swirl and hit the back of my neck. I was fucked. He stopped and checked the wind. Licked his nose. Stood and stared for a minute or so. He took a couple of nervous steps, and I knew at that point, it was over. He turned and calmly walked away. He didn't spook hard but he got something he didn't like. All because the wind swirled at the worst possible moment. You can't tell much from a grainy zoomed in cell phone pic, but this was him as he walked out of my life.

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Saturday, I was going to a spot on a friend's place where I had hung a camera up in the woods between food and bedding. I was getting daily photos of a small group of does walking through this little saddle before dark. I honestly felt this was my best chance to fill that other tag for the weekend. I set up in my tree saddle not 5 yards from the camera and got in clean. Sure enough, about 5pm, I hear deer coming through the crunchy snow. The first doe appears and she walks...below me on a brushy bench. In range but no clean shot. Her tracks were the ONLY tracks on that bench. Why she walked low I will never know. Then came three more. Surely they would come right to me. Wrong. They skirt ABOVE me, 40 yards away and walking through cover. Once again, I was in the middle of deer and had shots at none of them. I had to watch them walk away over the hill and drop down to the food. This is what they had been doing for a week straight...until Saturday.

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Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday. Closing day of season. I went back to private to a friend's place where he had been seeing a lot of does working a little wheat field. The wind was wrong for it. But, our history of hunting the area told both of us that the wind would die down in the evening. Thermal currents would kick in and drop my scent down the hill, away from the deer. Sure enough, like clockwork, the wind died down and as I checked the thermals with some moss from the tree, it was dropping down the hill. Shortly after, I hear deer coming. A big doe, doe fawn, and a button buck. They were doing just what we thought they would do, entering the top and working their way down. Once they cleared a large tree at about 30 yards, there were multiple lanes to try a shot. With the big doe at 20 in the brush beside the plot, the doe fawn was working down towards the first lane. And right on cue, one last "screw you" from mother nature. The wind kicked back up, blowing right to her. ScentLok head to toe, rubber boots, not dressing in my camo until I am 100 yards from the stand, keeping all my under layers clean and showering...none of it mattered. She had me. She trotted back up, the other two followed, and sun set on the 2020-21 season.

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The remainder of the season just felt cursed after the opening day kill. Everything that could go just wrong enough to sink me, did. Over and over. I can't call the season a failure because I learned a ton and I had some great encounters, and I did harvest another deer with trad equipment. But man it feels empty without the full payout of all those close encounters. I passed more deer than I have ever passed, and I'm confident I can get back on the big deer that made it through the season. I'm tired, I'm beat down, and if I could go back out today, I would. Til next year, deer.

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I firmly believe the lessons learned this year will pay off in a big way next year. Timing cost me this year in a couple of instances. Knowing now where I can expect to consistently find deer late in the year will be a huge plus. Also, the rut locations I hunted that I feel like I was just a bit late getting into, I'll time them better next season. Killing last year's buck where I did anchored me to that spot for about a 2 week stretch this year and that was a mistake on my part.
 
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