No Deer Yet

Well I've been out a couple of times since my last post.  Last wednesday I thought I should go out since it looked like rain was in the future.  It turned out to be quite windy so I didn't stay in the stand as long as I normally would.  I decided to investigate the bush further and look for sign.  While walking along the south side of the bush along a corn field that was just being harvested, I came upon four does running towards me from the south east.  I froze in my tracks to see what they would do.  Once they spotted me they stopped but were not alarmed.  They ended up turning south and running along the corn edge.  I estimate that they were about sixty yards away when they spotted me.

Here are some picutures of my stand and the surrounding bush.

The ladder stand is made by Big Dog stands and was only $80 at Meijer in the States.

My new Kifaru Express pack is great for packing in my insulating layers as well as the Excaliber Exocet Crossbow.

There are still some leaves on the trees.

I have some trail tape marking off the ten, twenty, thirty and fourty yard distances.  The crossbow will shoot four inches high at twenty yards, right on at thirty and ten inches low at fourty.  Some of the markers are reflective to make finding the blind in the dark easier.

First Bowhunt of 2010

Made it out this morning for this years first bowhunt.  The property owner is logging out all the ash trees in the bush so I may only be hunting there for a few more days.  This fall I purchased a Kifaru Molle Express backpack for hunting and gave it a try this morning.  The pack has what is called "Palls Webbing" which enables you to attach various other bags or straps to customize your carry options.  I attached the crossbow to the pack as well as a small pouch to carry a thermos of noodles to warm myself up after the hunt.  The weight of the gear rides on the hips as opposed to the shoulders making the walk in much more enjoyable.

I packed up all the gear the night before and woke up at 05:15.  After making my noodle lunch in the thermos and a cup of tea I was out the door at 05:30.  I made it to the farm at 06:00 and enjoyed the walk into to bush as there were a multitude of stars out.  I found the stand with little problem as the reflective tape I put up last year guided my way to the stand.  I was set up and waiting for the hunt to start by 06:45 and started the hunt at 07:08 which was a half hour prior to sunrise.  I gave a single call with my grunt call and sat waiting for the woods to awake.  The squirrels started to climb down from their nests and move about on the forest floor.  My presence didn't seem to bother them at all as they carried out their business of burying nuts and scavenging for the same.  Then at around 7:30 I caught a glimps of a doe in front and to the right of me.  Then there was another and finally one more.  All does but no bucks.  I can only shoot bucks this year as I drew a doe license for the gun hunt up on the peninsula later this fall.  I continued to watch as all three does sniffed the air and looked up at me.  I'm sure they could see me but they didn't startle or seem alarmed.  It looked like one of them that was larger may have been the mother and the other two may have been her fawns.  They all walked within ten yards of my stand, one of them actually bumped my ladder stand with her snout as she looked up at me.  They  eventually walked off to my left out of sight.  Before they were completely gone, I made a grunt call to see if it would startle them, but they were unphased.  There was no more action after that other than the squirrels and birds so I called it quits just after 10 and enjoyed my thermos of noodles.

Doe Harvested

I harvested a doe from my treestand a couple of days ago from the tree stand. I made two short grunts with my call and I noticed it heading towards my stand over my left shoulder. I slowly raised my bow towards it and got halfway up when it stopped and looked up at me. It bobbed it's head and stomped its foot. I remained motionless for what seemed like a couple of minutes while it continued to try and figure me out. When it satisfied itself that I was not a threat it put it's head down and I was able to raise the bow the rest of the way very slowly so that I could take aim. I shot it and it went right down so I did not need to track it.

I hung the deer overnight in the garage after purchasing a gambrel as I was not able to hoist it by myself. Yesterday I processed the deer and cut it up mostly into steaks and stewing meat. I took the time to trim off the fat and sinew so the whole process took most of the day.

Deer Bowhunt

This is my first year bowhunting for deer after receiving an Excalibur Pheonix crossbow for my birthday.  It is equiped with basic peep sights and I am using aluminum Easton bolts with G5 Montec 125grain broadheads.  I purchased a Big Dog BDL-100 Foxhound ladderstand at Meijer's in Fort Gratiot for $60USD.  I will be hunting on a friends farm about twenty minutes away. 

Made it out to the farm this morning and the sky was clear on my walk back to the bush and there were a gazillion stars in the sky. Once in the stand for about a half an hour I heard a crashing sound behind me that I thought must be a dear. I sat motionless but did not hear anything else. I was upset that I didn't get a glimpse of what I was sure must have been a dear to make all that racket. It couldn't have been the squirells that frequent the spot. I could hear what sounded like a turkey call up in the air above me and wondered if that was the source of the noise. Then about forty yards to my right I saw a large bird fly to the ground, crashing through the brush with it's wings. Then another and then another right over my head. There were five in all and they were turkeys. They congregated together and I remained motionless as I tried to see if I could see if they were males or females. They were all males as they each had a beard. I remained motionless for the next half hour as they all passed within my ten metre marker and walked behind my stand. I'm sure they saw me but didn't seemed bothered my my presence.
The wind picked up so after sitting for three hours and not seeing any deer, I decided to go for a walk to see if there was any sign. I met up with Mike who was also walking around after sitting for the morning in his stand.