October 16 Bow Hunt

Well, I finally got back out last night. This time I hunted a unique area. It is a treeline that connects a piece of woods with a swamp. This treeline widens at a point, though, and becomes about 100 yards across. It is more of a woods at that point, but I still think of it as a treeline.

This treeline runs north to a woods and south to a swamp. It is bordered on the east and west by crop fields. This year there is corn on the west side, and an empty, harvested wheat field on the east side. There is some grass sprouting in the field on the east, and this is attracting some deer currently. This treeline is a real hotspot, for a bunch of reasons. First, it connects bedding to food (deer moving north from the swamp). Second, it connects two different food sources. (for deer moving east-west). Third, at the section where the treeline widens, there are a lot of acorn-bearing oaks.

So I walked in and sat down on a 5 gallon pail on the westernmost edge of the treeline at the wide point. My back was to the harvested wheat field. I had some trees of varying sizes in front of me and a large tree behind me. I got in early, just in case the hunters moon had deer on the move. I got in about 3PM for the evening hunt. I saw nothing but squirrels until close to dark.

But about one half hour before dark, there were deer all around. I spotted them coming directly to me. I knew that they were going to spot me. They got too close. There were 5 deer that I could tell had no horns, but there were others (5 or so more) back about 50 yards that I couldn't make out well enough to say. The leads doe closed to 5 yards, spotted me, and started the footstomping/head-bobbing game. I sat stone still. I was wearing full camoflauge, with all parts covered, including my face. The wind was out of the west, and I had taken a bunch of precautions with regard to my scent. So I know she didn't smell me. But she was concerned, and after about 10 minutes, finally started snorting. She ran off a few yards, then came back, head-bobbed, foot-stomped, and snorted some more. I could have shot here both times. And, with all the snorting, I was getting tempted.

It is tough to hunt on the ground. I needed more brush around me. I didn't expect them to get that close. I had a trail about 20 yards upwind, and I was hoping a buck would walk that trail. I had plenty of trees to give me the chance to draw my bow. Of course, with ten or so deer around, it would be hard to get the draw in any case.

I can say that I saw no sign of rutting action. Just normal early-season feeding movement.

This treeline is also very hot with a gun. Deer will travel down it to get away from the hunting pressure to the south. I shot a buck November 16, 2001 at 2:30PM that came in from the south. His picture is at the top of this post. You can see the treeline I am talking about in the back of the picture. You can even see the wide section. In the right-rear of the picture you can see the swamp. The woods that the treeline connects to on the north is not visible. My nephew is the gunslinger in the picture.