I'm back in WI and in the tree here. If you followed the season last year you know I hunted one big mature buck all season right through close in January. I did get around 10 pics of him after dark. I never laid eyes on the actual deer. He was living on a big chunk of private ground and wasn't getting off of it on to the little chunk I could hunt until after dark, and he was returning before daylight.
We shed hunted hard all the way up to the private with no luck.
He showed back up on camera October 22nd this year. He lost most of his two big G2 splits, but he gained some tine length.
It was actually a Catch-22 having that Iowa tag. This buck will score better, than my Iowa deer did. However that Iowa tag has more opportunity, as this buck gives me a very limited area to hunt him.
So trail cam's showed I should have sat last Wednesday morning. The stand is set on a little piece of high ground (triple bottleneck) between a little triangle of water. It's a perfect setup for NW wind and a natural pinch. There is a big perennial scrape there every year. Well I got only my second daylight pic of that buck last Wed at 8:30, working the scrape. It's an 11 yard broadside shot.
I'm back in the tree. It's 16° with a 19 mile an hour Northwest Wind hitting me right in the face. I am really excited about this spot. I set it over two years ago and have yet to hunt it. I've actually never hunted this chunk, although I've scouted it on and off for 20 years. This is a spot that is really good from late October through around November 10. There is a little bottle neck right here connecting a big corn field to the north and a bunch of hardwoods to the south. They seem to cruise through here during the rut. We'll see.
Fingers have warmed up enough to type. 1 small buck an hour before dark. Single digits to zero for the forecast tonight. Will be back in the tree about noon tomorrow.