This past weekend was a good weekend to be in the woods.  A cold front with some rain came through, a lot of the leaves are off the trees, and the bucks were out chasing does in our neck of the woods.  I don?t know about everyone else, but cold weather, good visibility, a little rain, and the rut gets me excited to hunt!    

Friday I was able to get a climbing stand out on the ridge top that I?ve frequently written about on this blog.  Saturday morning I trekked it up to the ridge and got in the climber (and yes I fell on the way up the hill).  It was a good cold and crisp morning and I had left earlier than normal in order to drive the truck out, unload the 4-wheeler, drive to the section of the woods where I park, get off, trek up the ridge, then climb up a tree in the climber.  This whole process took me about 25 minutes.  I left earlier to factor in time for all of these necessary routines.  Though, reading what I just typed does sound like a good bit of work, but it didn?t seem like it to me.  I guess that?s because I was excited at all the sign that I?ve seen on the specific ridge. 

By nature, I?m not a climbing stand kind of hunter.  Those things make me nervous and I?m never going to get really high up in a tree.  However, I think climbing the tree in the morning darkness kind of impaired my awareness of how high up the tree I was.  When it started getting light, I started realizing how high I was and then started not to like it too much!  I just don?t see how some of you guys can climb 25 feet up a tree and enjoy it.  I wish I could do that, but I?m just flat out too chicken to do it.  Anyway, I?m up a tree in a climbing stand big enough to hold a fatty like myself and about 20 minutes after daylight I heard some movement coming down the ridge across the way.  I saw brown heading down and in about 10 minutes a doe and her 2 fawns (the spots were gone) came strolling through.  The doe wasn?t big enough to satisfy me and by satisfy me I mean that I don?t want to drag a doe through that stiff terrain back to the 4-wheeler unless it?s a good one.  If I?m going to pull the trigger in there, it?s got to be a good one.  Yes, I?ve got some lazy tendencies   Also, I?m not a big fan of pulling the trigger on a doe when she?s still got fawns with her.

She walked around for a few minutes when she saw me hanging off the side of the tree.  She stared and stomped and stomped.  It was funny.  She knew I wasn?t supposed to be there, but she couldn?t exactly figure it out.  It was almost like she was doing the ?Cha Cha Slide? because she would stomp with her right foot, then stomp with her left foot.  She also did the same repeated head-up/head-down movement seeing if I was going to move.   Here again I wasn?t going to shoot, but I was going to try to get some video of them.  I watched the fawns for a while when the mama was stomping just to see how they react to that.  They definitely knew it meant something was wrong because they locked down and were frozen until about 2 minutes later when the mama bounded off waving her white flag at me.  They followed her out so I was not able to get any video of them.  When she got behind me the fawns were off to my side and I think she saw me move to turn the camera on.

I was texting Adam and Will inquiring as to whether they were seeing deer or not and Adam had some action going on at his place.  So with us in two different cities and the Solunar Forecast saying it was a good day to hunt, we definitely felt like the deer were moving.  Over the course of the morning hunt I heard several gun shots in the surrounding area.  The more and more I pay attention to it, the more I think there is a little something to the Solunar Calendar.  The only exception that I think it may have is if there is a storm or some weather that comes in that would alter a deer?s natural instinct to move on a certain day/time.  Thus, the Solunar Calendar can?t predict the weather and the deer?s reaction to the weather, but more so will give you times when they would move given normal conditions.  Though, this may be obvious to you.

An hour and a half later I hear more movement across the ridge again.  I looked over and all I saw was a lot of deer legs moving down the ridge.  4 ? 5 good sized does where in a group heading down the hill.  They went down and I was hoping they would come up on the side where I was, but in the end they exited out another side.  About 5 minutes later is when something happened that I?ve always wanted to see/hear happen in the woods.  I heard more movement on the ridge again.  This time there was a small buck coming through with his head down and he was grunting as he ran.  I?d never heard one grunt out in the woods before and so it was neat to hear and see.  He was definitely trailing the does and he went down the same path they did and exited without me seeing him as well.   So Saturday morning was a good one to experience and I got to see a lot of deer.  Still no shot, but I enjoyed just being out there and seeing all that happen in nature.  I?ll remember that morning for some time to come.

Saturday evening I went hunting near my house and overlooked another valley, but this time I sat on the ground at the base of an oak tree.  I went in early because it was a really nice looking day to be out in the woods.  I sat in there for 3 hours and didn?t see a thing except a lot of squirrels, but I did enjoy being out there again.  The stillness and quiet of the woods gives me time to ponder things?but I still don?t have them figured out yet so I?ll just continue to ponder.  On the way out I tripped over another log and fell again.  That made 2 falls in 2 days.  Talk about a goof troop!  The previous morning fall was a just fall because of the steepness of the hill and slickness of the leaves.  Though, this fall was unwarranted.  I think I had too many layers of pants on which prevented how high I could get my leg up.  My brain calculated that I could make it, but the actual cankle didn?t make it over.  Fall #2.  Fail.

Saturday evening Adam and I went and visited Evans Deer Processing (it?s in Pageland) to check it out.  Todd has a nice place down there so if you are looking for a processor in Pageland around the state line, consider Evan?s Deer Processing.  After this visit we went over to Wilbur?s house to get some Thermacells & Wildlife Energy Drinks.  Why am I writing about this to you?because you should know that Thermacell & Wildlife Energy Drink are sponsoring every competition on the site & they sent us their products which will be given to the competition winners.  So we have branded the competitions on the site with their logos & noted that the winner now gets more prizes!  It?s getting better all the time! 

Sunday morning my dad and I went hunting in a different section of the hunting land.  On the way in we saw some new scrapes and here again we sat for 2 hours and didn?t see anything.  I think the temperature dropped throughout the morning because it seemed way colder when we left than it didn?t when we arrived.  Though, this could simply be my interpretation or misinterpretation because I was warm when I arrived and maybe it took me that long to get cold again, but I do know that it was cold when we left.

Sunday afternoon I went back behind the house again and sat down at the base of a different tree.  I was in some very thick woods this time.  I had seen some good fresh rubs and wanted to just check them out one time.  I always like sitting in a different part of the woods every now and then to get different scenery.   The change in scenery can come back to get you though if you try to walk out in the night!  It?s easy to get turned around, but if you have an IPhone, the GPS feature can really come in handy  There was a light drizzle going on during the second part of the day and I thought it would be a good day to hunt!  I sat there for a long time and didn?t see anything.  Then right when it was getting dark I had a small doe slip through the edge on me.  I only saw her for two steps and with a flicker of her tail she was gone. The darkness came and I headed out and went to the house.  To top off the weekend hunts, when I pulled out into the road to head home there were 2 deer standing in the field in complete darkness in the pouring rain.  Go figure!

Overall the weekend was a good one.  I saw a lot of deer, had some good relaxing time in the woods, and we secured some sponsors for the competitions.  Oh and the Eagles won again against Strom Thurmond so now it?s back to our 4th round foe Abbeville who we seem to always meet deep in the playoffs.  Man this post got long on me.

Regards,

CBP