Evening Hunting Trip 1/4/2014

Decided that with the snow on the ground it was worth a try to do some walking and stalking. I grabbed the crossbow and headed out into the woods with 3 ideas in mind, walking and stalking and getting a deer, scouting for the last few weeks of the season, and also  shed hunting. A  good friend of mine texted me yesterday and said he was out hunting Friday and found a shed.  Clearly the deer are dropping earlier than normal this year and because of that, if you are lucky enough to harvest a buck this late in the season be very careful not to pull too hard or they may pop right off.

Now on to the hunt, I headed out around 3 PM and didn't see a whole lot of anything until almost dark.  I found sign in some places none in others where I normally hunt. It tells me patterns have switch to late winter patterns and that the deer should be herding up. However, what I saw didn't lend to that as I saw 1 fawn around 4:40 by itself eating some honeysuckle about 300 yards away from me.  I kept on and about 10 minutes later I saw another fawn walking on a normal deer trail she was about 200 yards way and walking away from me like she was late for dinner.  Finally around 5:10 PM I was watching the hill that I was at the bottom of and I saw a 4 point buck coming down the hill, he looked like he would come right down to me, but he was about 500 yards away when I saw him.  He got to about 300 yards away and he turned and cut back up the hill and went over the other side of the hill.

That was it as it was getting dark, but I sure didn't see much and not a whole lot of sign very spread out.  Normally this time of year you see beaten trails in the snow as deer tend to herd up and become predictable again.  They normally follow the same routes most days as they are coming from bedding, heading to whatever food source is available and then back to bedding.  The downside to this time of year is they tend to travel further for food as there is much less of it.

Anyone else out in the snow and had success on this last weekend of Muzzleloader season?

 

2013 - 2014 Hunting Season Journal
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  1. Clay
    Afternon hunt on Jan 4th. I went out on Saturday looking to bag a late season buck with my Matthew. I got in my treestand about 3:00pm a little later than I wanted. It was a nice view having the snow on the ground, and tree limbs. I have been seeing a herd of doe come in to feed on the deer block that put out from trail camera pictures. I was hoping that I wouldn’t see them. But about 5:00pm, I saw movement and one small doe approaching followed by larger deer. The lead small doe winded me first but I remained still. I guess, the food was more powerful than their safety. The deer started to pile in I have 5 deer within 7-15 yards. I remained still, as the deer feed. At time they would get jumpy when they would get my wind. Since there was no buck in the group I just use this time to gather facts, and wondering if they could get use to my scent. 3 of the deer left once it became dark, and the other 2 left a little afterward. I was glad because I didn’t want to give away my position. However, once I was about to climb down I heard a snort, and could see a whitetail running back into woods. Don’t know if this was my buck or one of the doe, but it was well pass shooting light anyway. I have meat in the freezer so I didn’t need to take a deer. But, I will add to the freezer if I don’t see a buck by the last week of January.
    Reply
    January 8, 2014

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