Hunting Trip 11/6 through 11/8/2014

Like many of you I spent as much time as possible in the woods this past week with the full moon and rut kicking in.  Before I tell you about my couple days in the woods, I will say that I have heard  and even seen that many people have either harvested or got real close to harvesting a buck this past week. There is also more than enough evidence that rut is happening, with dead deer all along the local roads.  This is just the time of year and I want to congratulate those whom were lucky enough to harvest a deer this past week.

I'll start with Thursday:

Thursday started out bad, it poured rain from 10 PM Wednesday until around 9 AM Thursday. This meant I was not going to sit in the woods early in the morning in the rain. That is the one thing that will keep me out of the woods. So, after the rain ended I hit the Loch Raven woods for the day. I sat one spot for a while and after not seeing anything at all, I headed to a new spot for the evening hunt... Well, lets just say Thursday summed up sorta how I have felt about this season.  Awful weather, limited deer movement and me sitting in a tree enjoying nature and not working.  That being said, I saw not a thing while on stand Thursday evening expect for birds. I did however, jump a 4 point and doe bedded on my way to my stand.

Friday:

Much better weather, at least for the morning hunt. Got in very early to my one spot in Loch Raven, had a deer run past me before I even see what or where it was. I only know what heard and it was running and it went down the hill from me around 5:50 AM. About 5 or 10 minutes later as I settled into my treestand for a pre-dawn nap I heard something walk from the same place headed to the same place I had heard the deer run a few minutes earlier. I was like alright, finally deer are up and moving and it's going to be a great morning.  Around 6:10, only a few minutes later I hear a 3rd deer coming from down the hill in the clearing from me but this one is walking and is headed right for me.  Now, it's right at legal shooting time, but it's still dark pretty dark I could see a shadow of the deer walking towards me but couldn't tell what it was. I quickly got my binoculars up and started trying to see what it was as it was now about 25 yards away headed right for me.  It turned out to be a small buck, maybe little bowl 6 as it appeared.  He walked 4 yards under me never even stopped nothing just man on a mission steady walking.

Well, that's 3 deer in the first 30 minutes on stand, now yes they were mostly before day break, but I thought this meant good things for the day. Well.....  I got my hopes up a little too soon.  After having that small buck walk by my stand shortly after 6 AM things got quite, I saw tons of blue jays, 2 foxes and countless other types of birds and squirrels.  Nothing else moved until around 10 AM, yes I sat for 4 hours not really seeing or hearing a thing, not even way off..  When I had a little 3 point buck walk about 30 - 35 yards away from me again, man on a mission. He stopped a couple times to eat, and once to look in my direction but never looked at me, and he kept on going across the hill and then down over the other side.  Then it got quite again.  Around 11:30 AM it was deemed lunch time and the wind was really starting to kick up.  I went to get down out of my stand, had lowered my bow, and packed most of my gear up when I look into the clearing off to my left and 80 yards away here comes a decent size what looks like doe. I went figures, all I have wanted was a doe to walk by for days of hunting for some meat in the freezer and now that my bow is on the ground she is going to walk right by.. Well, the deer did walk right by, 15 yards right behind me where I could have shot it 2 or 3 different places.  The good news for me, this was a very  young little tiny buck that was just up and moving for the same reason any other buck was moving.  Looking for women!  I didn't see his little 1 inch long spikes until he got 20 yards and closer to me, but then I felt better my bow was on the ground because I wouldn't shoot him anyway.  That was the end of the morning hunt.

The afternoon was a little less umm comfortable.  I went to a new area of Loch Raven then where I was in the morning and waited, got in nice and early thought I might catch a buck moving early, or a doe.  Yeah, 2 o'clock came and went, 3 then 4 o'clock and nothing was moving at all but the wind. I sure was windy, I don't like being in a tree when it's that windy, but I stuck it out in hopes the deer still may be moving..  Well, 5 o'clock came around and still nothing had moved, I hadn't even seen a squirrel and I was getting tired, and tired of the wind, and slightly frustrated as I cannot seem to win this season.   Well, just as I was ready to call it quits 10 minutes early, so about 5:15 PM, it was getting dark but I could still see some, but I was ready to call it a night.  I looked off and 300 yards away  I see this deer running out of this one section of woods headed right for me. I couldn't tell what it was so I grabbed my bow and I got ready.  I kept an eye out behind it thinking  maybe it was a doe being chased and the buck would follow.  Well, the deer came running for me, stopped 60 yards away looked around, bolted again toward me, stopped again 15 yards away looked around and looked at me, and turned around and bolted back the way it came in the first place.  Turned out to be a small fawn and I have no idea what spooked it and why it looked at me, but it was super scared and running a lot anyway. I wasn't going to shoot a fawn that small, but I wish I knew what spooked it, maybe another hunter or a fox? who knows!  That was the end of Friday..

Saturday:

The best weather day of the 3 and wouldn't you know it I had to do some work in the morning...  I did however make sure I got home and back out hunting for the afternoon. I decided to go sit on our private land in hopes that the one 8 pointer may follow the few does come up to eat on a regular basis and maybe this would happen before dark.  Well, it was a slow evening, I had a button buck walk by early, like 4:40PM and he went out to eat.  It started to get late and I heard more deer coming and I was thinking to myself, does, I bet a buck follows them tonight!  Well, I got half of that right.. Two large does came down, avoided me, and entered our food plot about 45 yards away and then went and joined the button buck... That was around 5 PM, nothing else came down over the hill and when the does and button buck had left the area I got down and called it a day.  That was my full moon weekend.  Nothing too exciting, not even a sighting of a decent buck.  Not even a shot at a doe.  Just some nice time in a treestand blending with nature.  I enjoyed the time very much, but look forward to more days that evolve seeing more deer!

I'm heading down to Maryland's eastern shore for a few days of hunting early this week and will be back later in the week to get back to hunting central Maryland.

Anyone have success this past week or weekend? I saw lots of people out hunting on my way too or from hunting this week.  We would love to see some pictures of trophies taken this past week / weekend!

12 Responses

  1. Ray
    Hunted Friday and Saturday in calvert county. Sat all day Friday and didn't see a single deer moving all day. Next day I decided to hunt our other farm in a spot I haven't hunted in awhile, we baited some stands so didn't get in the woods till late, finally got up a tree with my climber at 4:04 and got settled in. Squirrels were everywhere and at 4:22 I saw a leg and then an antler down in the bottom so grabbed my grunt tube and grunted at him a couple times to steer him my way, gave me a 33 yards slightly quartering to shot which I took and he did a flip then struggled down to the bottom. Stayed in my stand and had deer moving all around me and had a spike all around the base of my tree trying to find the buck that was grunting at him(me). Got down at 5 and went to retrieve my buck, ran 60 yards with a blood trail you could follow at a run, using 100gr slick tricks with my bowtech 82nd aireborne.
    • admin
      Ray, Awesome day in the woods for you! Congrats on the buck and we look forward to seeing the picture! Nice to hear someone had deer moving all around them. Maybe it's just a public land problem that deer aren't moving. Thanks for sharing your story and picture with us and we wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing more!
  2. Ray
    Was a nice 8 point, about average for the area. We figured he was about 2 1/2 years old, weighed 145 dressed.
    • admin
      Ray's Picture
  3. Clay
    Congratulations on your deer Ray. I went out Saturday afternoon since the south wind was great for my stand location. I got to the woods about 2pm. Nothing was moving for the couple of hours. But about 4 o'clock 2 deer approached and came in to the corn. It turned out to be a small fawn and a small button buck. I decided to just watch them. The fawn stayed for about 10 minutes. The buck was a more greedy he couldn't leave the corn final he left about 30 minutes after he arrived. about 5 or a little before I saw a large deer come out woods I didn't want to look at the antler, and was just trying stay in control of my breathing. He walked out 25 yards from me to my left. I had some tree limbs in my way that I didn't cut because they provided cover for me. The buck was an 8 pointer he walked and 10-15 yards and checked a scrape. I had an opening, but I didn't want to get busted. I was going to let him relax and go to the corn. But he checked the scrape and went back the same way he came. About 5-10 minutes later a 5 or 6 pointer came in downwind from my trail I use, I was going to shoot him but he only offer a shot for about 2 second. He went and checked the same scrape. I waited for another chance but it was dark before I knew it. That's my 2nd time seeing the 8 pointer while I was in my stand. It's only a matter of time, I hope.
    • admin
      Clay, Sounds like a good afternoon in the woods to me! Seems that the bucks when they move it's either later afternoon or early morning. Only heard of a few being killed mid-day thus far. That could be changing any day. Good luck with the 8 pointers, we wish you the best of luck and look forward to the pictures and story to go along with your harvest!
  4. Ray
    Hopefully it works this time trying to post my picture....
    • admin
      Ray, please send us the file, it's a size issue. We can post the picture for you if you send it to us, info@bowhuntingmaryland.com Congrats on your deer!
  5. Clay
    Please keep us posted on the rut especially sighting of bucks moving in the day. I would like to take off work a few days to hunt.
    • admin
      Clay, Generally, that seems to be a tricky subject. I am wondering if we have fallen victim to a trickle rut once again this year and in that case you will just need to be in the right place at the right time and get lucky a hot doe is in your area. That being said here is what I know thus far. I just got back from the eastern shore, either rut hasn't started there or is already done. Based on the sign that I saw, it looks like it hasn't started and the full moon first week of December may be really good down there. Back here in central Maryland, rut is on now, I have had several people tell me they have seen big bucks up chasing does during middle afternoon 1 - 3 PM. However, most of what I have been seeing and the guys I talk to say it's all the little guys that are out cruising during the day scent checking. So, those statements counter each other I know, but that is where I am at. I have plan to spend most of the next few evenings and all day Saturday in the woods so I will let you know if I see something that tells me rut is on full tilt. As of now, it just seems to be if you find a hot doe you might find a big buck. This is generally what they call a trickle rut and it stinks for hunting. However, if this is the case, decent chance we will see more rutting activity again in December after the moon. I also speculate that the warm weather we have had over the past 2 months hasn't had something to do with it. So, lets see if the cold snap that is coming in today coupled with maybe even the chance of snow gets them fired up! Sorry I don't have a better answer at this point, but i'll surely keep you updated!
  6. Clay
    Thank you, appreciate your insight. A buddy told me the same thing last night that I'm at the mercy of a hot doe. If you remember, I had a buck looking a doe on 31 Oct at 8:00am. I believed then that bucks were on there feet. However, last Saturday the bucks didn't start moving until after sunset very close to no shooting light. Good luck!
    • admin
      That is a very accurate assessment. We had pictures of bucks long before dark up until about Nov 2nd. Then gone until this past weekend we started getting small bucks back before dark. No sign the big boys are up and moving other than people that have been telling me they are seeing them. That being said wait until you read my next post. I think if you find that hot doe you may find a big buck, otherwise I think you need to find a bedding area or safe place in their core area to kill a big boy. I don't think they are cruising like we are use to yet. Keep us posted on your hunts and if something changes suddenly we will let ya know!

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