It has been an extremely long stessful week for me, but I got a chance to relax in The IL woods this evening. Last Saturday my Aunt had a stroke, she passed away on Wednesday. My father-in-law had to have part of his lung removed last fall and we found out Monday he was having surgery again on Tuesday. And to top it off my Dad had surgery yesterday on his knee from a car wreck a few weeks ago. With the issues going on I have had relatives in and out of the house all week and we have made countless trips to the local hospital.
Anyway I finaly had to get away from it all this afternoon before I lost my sanity!
I decided to hunt a spot that I had been saving for closer to the rut. It has been good to me in the past and even though I knew the rut is still a bit off I needed to be in a "special place" today. This area is on public land not far from my home, this particular spot is a QDM area with a 4 point on one side rule in effect. There is always good deer on it but it recieves alot of pressure close to the parking areas. This particular spot is a good 30 minute walk and I have never seen another hunter near it.
It is a nice edge where an old clearcut meets mature hardwoods. The hardwoods along the edge have huge red and white oaks scattered along it. The white oaks are not producing this year but the reds are loaded and dropping like crazy! The deer typicaly bed in the old clearcut then move into the edge to feed on acorns before going down the ridge to some local corn fields.
As I got near the tree I had in mind I couldn't help but smile when I saw this!
A pretty good scrape for this early in the season and the overhanging limb was chewed to pieces.
The tree I had in mind was only 12 steps or so from this scrape, there were a lot of rubs scattered around near where the clearcut met the hardwoods.
I attached my climber to the maple and when I was about 10 feet up I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze and a little button buck slowly worked his way out of a thicket. My bow and camera where still on the ground of course! (button bucks get a free pass from me anyway). He fed around on acorns for what seemed like forever but in reality was probably only 5 minutes or so then went right back where he had come from. After he was out of sight I managed to get on up the tree and pull my bow and pack up. Things were really looking good! I was settled in nicely by 1:00 P.M.
Several squirrels kept me company along with the fall colors and it wasn't long before I was getting in a relaxed mode for the first time in a while.
Time flew by for me and it seemed like the shadows were getting long in no time at all, when movement got my attention again. A nice buck was working over a sapling just inside the thicket. He worked that rub for a good while and just hung out right inside the thick stuff. I watched him for 20 minutes or so and he kept in the same 30 yard strech the whole time.
A doe with a pair of yearlings came out of the thicket just to the right of him and begin feeding on acorns 20 yards in front of me. The doe was very tempting but I wanted to see what this buck had in mind! The doe and yearlings slowly fed closer to me and eventualy one of the yearlings was almost directly under me. They eventualy worked there way past me and down the ridge. The buck was still making rubs just inside the thicket!
I had plenty of time to size him up so to speak. He had 5 long times on his left side and four on his right. I figured he was a 140 class deer gross for sure!
When light was almost completley gone the buck came out of the thicket, made a hard right and slipped to the north, staying around 35 yards away! By this time it's probably a good thing he did not come in range because I was a nervous wreck!
Any way this little hunt was a real good stress reliever for me during this rough week, I'm hoping to set up in the same area tomorrow evening. and possibly Monday after the funeral. Maybe I'll get a proper picture of him to show the gang yet! (preferably with me in it)
After walking out in the dark I spent awhile in the parking area picking up trash (by flashlight) that had been left there. I just picked up the entire lot a week ago and it was already covered again I almost filled a wal-mart bag with rubbish most of it packages from Doe-n-heat bottles! The sad thing about the garbage is that there was a collection can just feet away that was nearly empty. I hate litterbugs, but I always take the time to pick up after them!
Topic: An Illinois evening in the woods. (Read 695 times)
