Day 3
Got pimped into helping with some office work so I took the early morning off. Late morning we set a hang on stand for the old guys on the edge of a big corn field. For the evening I went on another scout/hunt walk. I checked out some willow patches that had some sign but nothing “big”. I bumped a few does out of them too. (might be worth getting back to later in the week if the rut starts picking up.) I made a big move after that and started checking another section of creek. Creeping I stopped at a good looking community scrape and just crouched down to look and think for a minute. Suddenly I heard something walking and it was getting closer. I got an arrow nocked shifted to get a better angle on the trail the sound was coming from and slowly stood up to peek over the tall grass. It was a badger and he did not look happy that I was on “his” trail. “get out of here” I shouted in a whisper. He just stood there looking at me like I was the inferior species. Eventually he decided he didn’t want to fight the guy pointing a bow his way and turned around.
Continuing my walk in the overgrown hedgerow between the river and AG I spotted a doe that had already spotted me. I was already at 40 yards and with a new doe tag in my pocket decided to see if I could close the gap and get a shot. I got inside 30 but it was too brush for a shot. By that point she’d had enough and bounded over the hump down to the river. She didn’t seem all the smart so I continued creeping over, hoping she’d be standing there looking. As I peeked over I expecting to see her on my right. I don’t remember if I saw the doe or not but in my peripheral I saw a different deer to my left. It was a monster buck just standing in some leg deep willow along the bank about 50 yards away. We made eye contact then he whirled and crossed the 20 yard creek in two bounds and was gone. I poked around on the bank looking at his tracks. It looks like he had just crossed when I bumped into him. With about 30 min left of light I figured I’d give him some space and try and get on him in the morning. I scouted along the bank looking for a crossing trail and found a few candidates. Thinking he might still be on a bed to food pattern I found a ground set that would let me shoot the better of the two trails and planned to be in bright and early the next morning.
Lessons Learned: N/A
Questions: N/A
Day 4
In the black dark me and my friend hiked along the river to get to the crossing. As we got closer, I decided to flip my headlight from white to red. While I was messing with my headlamp, I stepped into a beaver hole along the bank and only stopped when my other knee hit the ground next to the hole. The hole was barely bigger than my boot and the statistical chance of this occurring had to be like 0.0001%. None of that matters though when your whole leg is soaked. I got set in a carved out hole in the willow patch overlooking the crossing and waited for daylight. I saw two coyotes running the opposite bank but no deer and no big buck. By 10 I was wet cold and ready to get a life change. We got back to the truck and ran to the B&B for so I could get some dry clothes.
For the afternoon hunt we went to a coulee type spot with a few cedar trees and a cut corn field above. Not a lot of sign where I was. My friend’s area had water and better sign. I ended up doing a big walk hoping to bump some deer to figure out how they were using the area, but never did.
Lessons Learned: I’m guessing the sign I saw was night time activity or even sign from when the corn was standing. Water is the source of life and I was never within 500 yards of it. I’m 75% confident in this and will focus my e-scouting to ensure water availability.
Questions: Curious to get other KS hunters thoughts on more arid spots. My thinking is that they’ll bed as close to water as cover and pressure allow.
Got pimped into helping with some office work so I took the early morning off. Late morning we set a hang on stand for the old guys on the edge of a big corn field. For the evening I went on another scout/hunt walk. I checked out some willow patches that had some sign but nothing “big”. I bumped a few does out of them too. (might be worth getting back to later in the week if the rut starts picking up.) I made a big move after that and started checking another section of creek. Creeping I stopped at a good looking community scrape and just crouched down to look and think for a minute. Suddenly I heard something walking and it was getting closer. I got an arrow nocked shifted to get a better angle on the trail the sound was coming from and slowly stood up to peek over the tall grass. It was a badger and he did not look happy that I was on “his” trail. “get out of here” I shouted in a whisper. He just stood there looking at me like I was the inferior species. Eventually he decided he didn’t want to fight the guy pointing a bow his way and turned around.
Continuing my walk in the overgrown hedgerow between the river and AG I spotted a doe that had already spotted me. I was already at 40 yards and with a new doe tag in my pocket decided to see if I could close the gap and get a shot. I got inside 30 but it was too brush for a shot. By that point she’d had enough and bounded over the hump down to the river. She didn’t seem all the smart so I continued creeping over, hoping she’d be standing there looking. As I peeked over I expecting to see her on my right. I don’t remember if I saw the doe or not but in my peripheral I saw a different deer to my left. It was a monster buck just standing in some leg deep willow along the bank about 50 yards away. We made eye contact then he whirled and crossed the 20 yard creek in two bounds and was gone. I poked around on the bank looking at his tracks. It looks like he had just crossed when I bumped into him. With about 30 min left of light I figured I’d give him some space and try and get on him in the morning. I scouted along the bank looking for a crossing trail and found a few candidates. Thinking he might still be on a bed to food pattern I found a ground set that would let me shoot the better of the two trails and planned to be in bright and early the next morning.
Lessons Learned: N/A
Questions: N/A
Day 4
In the black dark me and my friend hiked along the river to get to the crossing. As we got closer, I decided to flip my headlight from white to red. While I was messing with my headlamp, I stepped into a beaver hole along the bank and only stopped when my other knee hit the ground next to the hole. The hole was barely bigger than my boot and the statistical chance of this occurring had to be like 0.0001%. None of that matters though when your whole leg is soaked. I got set in a carved out hole in the willow patch overlooking the crossing and waited for daylight. I saw two coyotes running the opposite bank but no deer and no big buck. By 10 I was wet cold and ready to get a life change. We got back to the truck and ran to the B&B for so I could get some dry clothes.
For the afternoon hunt we went to a coulee type spot with a few cedar trees and a cut corn field above. Not a lot of sign where I was. My friend’s area had water and better sign. I ended up doing a big walk hoping to bump some deer to figure out how they were using the area, but never did.
Lessons Learned: I’m guessing the sign I saw was night time activity or even sign from when the corn was standing. Water is the source of life and I was never within 500 yards of it. I’m 75% confident in this and will focus my e-scouting to ensure water availability.
Questions: Curious to get other KS hunters thoughts on more arid spots. My thinking is that they’ll bed as close to water as cover and pressure allow.
