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A Tease of Fall & the Bow Opener |
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Written by Webmaster
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October 4,2006
In my last entry entitled "The Change is Coming" I talked about how Fall was right around the corner and cooler temps were on the way. The good news is I was right!
Shortly after I wrote that blog entry we had a cool front blow through. We had temperatures ranging from highs in the upper 80's to the upper 70's and lows down into the upper 40's for much of late September. Then a strange thing happened, on September 30th the temperature soared back up into the 90's and the wind switched to the South. Did I mention that September 30th was also opening day of archery season? So now you know the bad news. The even worse news is that the heat has stuck around all week.
Friday I was looking for an excuse not to go hunting Saturday morning because I knew how miserable it would be on the stand. However, I couldn't come up with any real good excuses. Long story short, it was warm Saturday morning but bearable, the deer didn't move but the squirrels did. Actually, I was almost attacked by a squirrel who was not happy that I was in "his" tree. He came so close I had to stand up, break a tree limb off and wave it in the air trying to get him to leave me alone. He didn't back down but thankfully he later decided to move up higher in the tree to bark and fuss at me. I talked to 6 buddies who hunted Saturday morning in four separate parts of the county and between them all there were only three deer seen in total. I decided that 92 degrees was a little to warm for me to hunt on Saturday evening and I sat at the house.
This week the number of trail camera photos I've been getting has dramatically dropped. I was getting between 80-180 photos per night, per camera but starting on Friday night those numbers really fell off and haven't come back up yet. Interestingly enough though, I have gotten photos of a big 10pt I've passed up for the last three years and also a wild looking non-typical buck that defies words. These photos can be seen in the Photo Gallery under this year's Trail Camera section. The 10pt is a very nice buck and is finally mature. His rack did grow some this year but not near as much as I would have hoped for. I'm afraid the drought has had an affect on rack size here this year but I still think it will be a good year, just not as good as it should have been. I have been getting photo after photo of this big 10pt most every night and even some morning daylight photos. This buck is still in his summer pattern because he is staying in a very small area and coming back to my corn 5-10 times a night with as little as 20 minutes but not more than 2 hours between visits. I think he is bedding up on the ridge near where my camera is set up and moving down into the creek bottom oak flat to feed. I believe he is staying very close to the 10-15 acre area that I'm getting his photo in.
I've decided I would shoot the 10pt this year, as he is finally mature. One morning this week I attempted to hunt him but I was unsuccessful and the hunt was miserable. It was 74 degrees, 100% humidity and foggy when I got out of my truck at 6:10 a.m. By the time I got my climbing stand to the top of that tree I was soaking wet and I'm sure I smelled like a hog. Needless to say I didn't see any deer and I won't be going back until it cools off. There is no need for me to tip off this buck now.
The best news of the season so far is that my brother got photos of the big split G-2 buck from last season. I'm a little sad to say that one G-2 has no split this year and the other one still has the split but it is very short compared to last year. The good news is that he did grow a little in his main beams and all his typical points, especially in a G-4 that was very short last year. All in all, he gained several inches and will most likely score around 150 +/- B&C. He is definitely on the short list of shooters again this year. I just wish I'd been able to get a clean shot on him last year when I had him within bow range. However, I'm just thankful he's still around this year.
So, we've had an uneventful first week of bow hunting, a decrease in trail camera photos, the reappearance of some of last year's nice bucks, and one hot dry week. So I was right in my last entry, the change was coming. Sadly it came and went! It will be back soon enough though and that cool air in September is actually uncharacteristic for us and the current weather seems to be norm over the last several years. In a few days I'm sure we'll have a front blow thru and push those temperatures down into the mid to low 80's during the day and the upper 50's at night. The deer movement will increase and things will start to heat up. But between now and then.....I guess we have to wait on the change......again.
- Jason
P.S. - Click Here to go to the 2006 Trail Camera photos
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