Today is October 30th, and normally by this time I'm in full swing hunting hard and chasing my hitlist bucks. This year has been far from normal. As many of you know I decided I was going to make some major changes in the way I went about this season. It started with completely changing the backbone of my urban spot by creating two brand new food plots, moving stands to better access the property undetected and stay away from what I found is a major bedding area. In past years I was allowing my wind to blow straight into it. I felt that was the reason I was having such a hard time locating bucks there. I knew they were there, there were plenty of rubs and scrapes (and big ones at that) but I never could seem to lay eyes on the mature deer in the areas. After spending countless hours re-shaping it, planting and hanging stands we were ready to go. If you have followed me at all you know that I succeeded with flying colors in getting my mature deer to move during daylight and move how I wanted them. I've seen both shooters now several times. The only problem is this year the IN DNR implemented the new "earn a buck" rule which requires an urban hunter to first harvest an antlerless deer before harvesting an antlered deer. I have seen neither hide nor hair of one single doe! Even my cameras are barren. I finaly caught one doe last week at 4am on a camera, but that doesn't do me much good. After my last morning sit, I decided to climb down and go for a walk and do some scouting. I found that an old over grown plot I planted was full of clover and there were tons of little tracks all over it. So that night I went back in and sat that spot, again, no sittings. Completely burnt out and frustrated I resulted in a desperate Facebook message that was answered by a good buddy Jon Medjeski, he offered to take me to his secret urban spot where he always sees does. I took him up on it that day! We sat all night and never saw a doe, but guess what we did see? You guessed it, BUCKS! & 2 good ones at that. I just sat there laughing to myself, as I knew if this were any other circumstance or year previous it would be the complete opposite. I would be in search of the elusive mature buck and all I would see would be does. But no, not me. My curse continues. Being that the Pre-rut is showing signs of kicking off and the bucks are definitely getting really aggressive and moving much more, the does tend to vanish this time of year anyway. They are hiding from the harassment of every teenage boy in town! Picture a high school full of teenage boys and only a hand full of girls... the boys would be turning that place upside down trying to find a girl friend, yet the girls would be hiding for the lives! Knowing if they showed face they'd have the whole school chasing them up and down the hallways. It's no different in the woods. The does know that if they walk into an open food plot or break from the cover at anytime there will be 10 young bucks waiting on them. They get run crazy and in fact get plum tired of it when they aren't ready (if you know what I mean) So they tend to lay low, very low, waiting for the right time to emerge and be courted by a much older mature buck who has his priorities right. He's not looking for a long chase and a drawn out relationship. He's just there for the same reason she is. Nuff Said. So, I feel my chances of finding a doe right now are going to be harder than ever which really puts a strain on my urban hunting. I really can't! I love getting out right now and rattling, grunting and seeing what deer I can call in but since I can't in-fear a giant will step out and I wont have a tag to burn on him, I'm stuck sitting at home on days I can't make the trip to the farm or the lease. Now, I did finally sit Ole faithful last weekend for the first time this season. The weather and wind were perfect. We had 3-4 days with above normal temps and then as Friday came, the bottom fell out and a brisk North wind dropped the temps nearly 30 degrees! I solicited a new camera man, buddy Kyle Neal, who graciously gave up his weekend of hunting to film for me. My dad took off to South Dakota for his annual pheasant hunt and I was left flying solo. Kyle and I settled in around 5:00 on Friday. I was so excited for my first sit there this year. As you may know, I made it a point to wait and go into that farm only after I knew the big boys were cruising. I pulled camera cards the week before and had several day time photos and decided it was time to get my butt in a tree. It was a rather slow night until 7:03, when 8 ball and massive, wide 8 point came cruising through the bottom along the creek and began to make several scrapes at about 50 yards. The only problem was there were too many limbs in the way to make any ethical shot. I let him walk a few more steps and began to try and call him back, the first grunt stopped him dead in his tracks. But his body language said he was far from interested. He continued on his way, at that point my heart began to thud, not beat fast, but thud! I grunted again and same results. I tried an estrus bleat and same results, every time moving farther and farther out of range. I decided I would snort wheeze at him as his earlier display of dominance while making his scrapes appeared he was feeling like big man on campus. He turned a 180 and just stood there. We were sitting on the South end of 2 acre clover plot on top of a ridge that is nearly 30 feet above the creek bottom. He would have had no idea there wasn't a deer standing up there that he could not see. I was sure this had him locked in now, but again he non shalauntly turned and continued on his path. I let him cross the creek to about 100 yards and grabbed my rattling horns and lightly hit them together but he never showed up again. As frustrating as it was to have a plan work so well and be slow close only to watch his wide load rear end vanish into the weeds, I was at the same time so jacked up that we had encountered him on the first night in. The evening closed with out another deer. We were back in the same spot the next night in hopes he might do the same thing again and this time we'd be ready for him. We did see 5-6 does and 3-4 younger bucks, each set of does was desperately trying to loose their pursuers as they ran circles, jumped logs, dashed through the creek and hid under fallen trees. It was a fun and exciting sit, but no mature bucks and no sign of 8 ball. Tomorrow is Halloween and I have a obsession with hunting this night. As they say the freaks will come out on Hallow's Eve. This year with it being on a Wednesday, having to work all day, not having a buck tag for my urban spot and it being a NNW wind I might be missing my first Halloween hunt in nearly 10 years. I'm torn with the decision of what to do... I will definitely be back in a tree this weekend and then next Monday November 5th which is also my lovely wife's birthday, will be the start of my hunting vacation. November 3-13 all day every day. I will be hunting Ole Faithful and our Lease depending on the winds and I hope to wrap my IN buck tag around a monster before that time ends. The woods are definitely heating up, I've seen more rubs and scrapes appearing this year than I have in a few years past. It should be fun! The best part is, I DON'T have to shoot a doe first on either one of those properties. I will be adding footage as we get it and I hope to show you some awesome action.
AimSmallMissSmall!
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