Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
This week our high school football team had a Thursday night game and on the way back from the game we saw about 6 deer in various places along the road. I thought this was a good sign since the deer were moving, but I had hoped they wouldn?t move all night and thus not be out in the morning.
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I think I stepped on and broke every stick possible on the way into the woods. I hate to make a lot of noise on the way in, but today I wasn?t too successful at the quiet entry that I hoped for. I headed back to the same stand from last week where I saw the does. I had taken some corn out there and nobody had been back since. I finally got situated in my stand and waited on the sun to rise. While waiting, I sent a few text messages to friends who were also up early. The old man gives me a hard time about texting while hunting, but it does help to pass time.
Soon it was light enough to see well in the woods. I noticed some movement over my right shoulder to the corn pile that is at my 5 o?clock. A deer? This early? Yep, that's exactly what it was. The white?ish-grey ring around this deer?s eyes really stood out to me for some reason. Maybe it was the contrast from the dark that surrounded everything in the forest with the light color around the deer?s eyes. I slowly began to turn to get into better position. As I turned I could see the deer moving its head up and down. I got to where I was in a semi-comfortable position and then I saw antlers on the deer?s head. Because of the lighting, it was difficult to see exactly how many points were on the rack, but I knew that it was a buck. The rush started to come over me as the deer continued to eat corn. Soon enough I was able to make out how many points were on the rack and it was a 6 point with an extremely high rack. It had a good body too. I?ve seen some 6 points that were measly looking characters, but this one was thick for his size. I?m guessing he would have gone around 140 lbs. Maybe he?s been eating enough corn around there to keep him healthy!
On this track of land, we are not shooting any bucks unless they meet certain criteria. This buck did not meet the criteria because it wasn?t old enough and the rack wasn't big enough. So, I knew I wasn?t going to shoot this one, but I didn?t know if he was by himself. After holding in this semi-comfortable position for a while, it started to become not-so-comfortable. I?m sure all hunters know what it?s like to be locked frozen in an awkward position and trying to hold it for a long period of time. With the deer 20 ? 30 yards away, I didn?t want to spook him even though I knew I wasn?t going to shoot him. So, I slowly started to move when he had his head down. There were also a few trees that were between him and me. I rotated and moved until I got into a relaxed position. Once I got back comfortable and just sat quietly.
The squirrels had started to move about the forrest. They say the "woods wake up" when all the birds, animals, and random sounds you hear in the woods start to come out and move. The woods was definitely awake by this point! Nearly 20 minutes had gone by and I turned slowly back around and the buck was still there! I then reached for my camera and got it out of my pocket and turned it on. ( I should mention here that I love the zipper pockets in these pants that are made for easy access once you sit down.) If I wasn?t going to shoot him, I might as well take a picture to post here on the blog. I turned and got the camera ready and he had no clue. Though, I could barely see him because of the trees. I could clearly see his hind end and legs, but his head was behind a large pine tree. I held and held with the camera up. I waited on him to take a step, but he never did. The squirrels were getting closer to me. The buck heard the squirrels and started peeping around?.up and down he went with his head...up and down...several times at random intervals. He was staring dead at me, but heard the squirrel that was in the tree beside me. The squirrels didn?t spook him though. Sidenote: I?m always amazed at how loud squirrels are in the woods in contrast to how quiet deer are. Many times I hear a noise and think it?s a deer, but it?ll turn out to be a squirrel. Deer are stealth creatures! So, I held the camera for about 5 minutes and even took a picture, but it was too blurry to post. You couldn?t really make anything out about the picture other than leaves. So the deer eventually walked back into the woods.
I sat there for about an hour after that hoping to see him again or hoping to see some does come through. Nothing happened though and that was it. There was still some corn left out there, so I?ll be back in the near future hoping to cross paths with a big one.
Also, I wanted to make note that the Solunar Forecast said that these few days were good days for deer hunting and, as you just read, I did see a deer today. I?m not sure how much stock I place in the Solunar forecast, but I?m going to watch it closely on the site this year and compare when I see deer in contrast to the phases of the moon. More to come on that later.
To give you some visuals, I took a few pictures before leaving the stand so as to help you picture what I?m seeing in the woods.
Here's my vantage point
The inverted view...that's a good looking pine tree there!
The stand in the woods