Limpets 25 season

[limpet]

As I sit on my glassing spot waiting for enough light to start my California archery deer season I figured I’d start a live hunt. After work Thursday I drive to the trailhead while checking my roadside spots and some trail cameras with nothing to show for it except a few bears. I cowboy camped in my truck bed and woke up to discover a mouse has gotten into my truck and found my food bags. Thankfully it only got into my trail mix for one day but chewed a bunch of holes in my tp.
After a sweaty slow hike in I got to camp and setup and got water. Around noon I started to glass around when I spotted my first buck. A nice 3x3 was wading in a pond eating algae and underwater grasses with a few does. After awhile he climbed out of the pond into thick timber where I lost him. A few hours later I look in the same spot and see a small 4x4 doing the same thing. After he went into the timber I took a siesta as the sun was getting a bit much. I started glassing again around 6 when the 3x3 from earlier in the day and a few does were out feeding in the pond. I spent some time glassing a face and picked up a bear. When I came back to look at the pond there was now a massive 3x4 also out feeding. I observed him and the 3x3 feed until 15 minutes before dark. With any luck these bucks will follow the same pattern today and I think I’ll be able to get within bow range. Wish me luck.

 

[limpet]

Saturday was opening day. None of the bucks from Friday showed themselves but I was able to turn up a forky, a 3x4 and another unknown large framed buck just before he dove over the ridge. It rained for a few hours in the morning and was overcast all day. I think this may have thrown their patterns off. The wind switched directions as well making a stalk impossible anyways.
Sunday so far has been overcast with swirling winds. I got an hour of glassing in before I got socked in with fog. No deer seen so far but I can hear does blowing at something and I saw a bear eating chokecherries where the bucks were Friday afternoon. I plan on swapping SD cards in a camera here in a bit then hiking over the next ridge to check the next basin.

 

[limpet]

Late response. Sunday I went on a walk about that started as a grouse chase from camp. I wound up hiking across the ridge to the edge of what I’ve named the abyss. I wound up with a bear at 25 yards and a 3x3 at 55 with no shot. The bigger bucks started feeding out around 5 but a bear came out and chased them out of the pond for the night. I called it a trip and packed out. When I got to my truck I discovered field mice and digger squirrels made my truck home for the weekend. When I started my truck I was greeted to a low brake fluid alarm. Turns out they chewed up the sensor wires under the hood along with a bunch of other wires and making nests in the air filter box, cabin air filter, and the ac/heater fan. Needless to say under my truck is going to look like a tom and Jerry episode with a carpet of traps. I got quoted $1,500 in repairs so if anyone has rodent tips I’m all ears.


I headed out for a quick hunt after work for bears. I saw a few deer but no bucks or bear sign. I’m heading out again tonight to look for a buck that gave me the slip a few years ago or any bear that gets in range.

 

[RyanH]

That’s super neat to see the deer eating underwater like that.

As far as the rodent problem, try propping your hood open with a 4x6 block or anything that size. Something about the opening seems to help keep them away.

 

[sshhh]

Peppermint essential oil for packrats and rodents. Farmers use it.

I have been woken up to packrats in my engine bay while I sleep in my cab on numerous occasions, one being damn near the size of a soccer ball and had on eyeball..... thing looked like it came from hell. Another time drove for kms and the thing wouldnt leave managed to stab it with a stick numerous times before it finally ****** off.

Have not had an incident since I started doing the peppermint oil. I get 3 large pill/prescription medication bottles, drills holes in the sidewalls, soak cotton balls with peppermint oil and put them inside the bottles and put the cap on. Get a plastic food container for transport and double ziploc them because they will stink! And other animals dont like it as well (game). I put 3 or 4 of these in each corner of my engine compartment and going on 3 years now it has to do something. Can be PITA putting em in and remembering to take em out but worth not getting my truck damaged.

I have heard good things about propping hood open/ventilation. Lights too. Heard even better things about all 3 but so far all I do is the peppermint oil described above and zero incidents in 3 years now.

 

[sshhh]

The oil stays strong for a long time 6+ months so you dont have to replace the cotton balls very often either.