Ohio Bound

[vermonster13]

Called Kenny to let him know that new playmates had moved in so he could get excited for Saturday morning's hunt.    

Worked my way up around to where T.J. and I were to meet and he was glowing happily as he told me about his encounter. Always a good sign to see deer, real hard to fill a tag when you don't.

T.J. told me that he would need to leave around Noon  so I talked out a little plan with him that I thought would fill up our morning and maybe give us some opportunities. Every hunt is a learning experience and even more so when hunting together for the first time.

[Shawn Leonard]

I have to go to bed real soon, guess this will wait until tomorrow night for me! Shawn

[vermonster13]

There is a gas-line clear-cut running down one side of the hill and some good horse trails that run out on to it that are real nice for working through these woods. I told him to go about half way down and then work his way slowly across. Said he should be standing or sitting way more than moving, we have all morning to get anywhere. Last year the deer had been  running inside the woodline along here and I told him I had seen three does right off then so be ready.

I worked over to the edge of the road that leads to the top of the property. The wind was good for me to go to the top without being winded and setting up on the high field for a while then work my way down towards T.J.

[vermonster13]

As soon as I went over the edge, a nice sized buck comes trotting out on the horse-trail about 60 yards below me. Looks to be an 8 by the side facing me as he turns and trots down the hill I see one side of his rack is broken off halfway up his ear. I would have tried to take him if I was 25 yards or so closer and he was walking. Would have thought him a real nice 8 or so until too late to know better. Still two buck sightings that soon seemed to be a real good sign.

I set-up by the horse trail for a while to wait and see if any others would follow out. Looking down the hill I saw a big open Earth spot that turned out to be a huge scrape on closer inspection.

[vermonster13]

Two orange clad pheasant hunters appeared at the top of the hill so I needed to change routes. T.J ended up showing up in a place I didn't expect to see him and much earlier than I thought he would. He has pretty much told you what we did with the rest of the time so we'll move onto day two.

I enjoyed my time with T.J. and he is a very good student. In an hour he went from not being able to hit an 8 inch tree at 15 yards to hitting it 8 times in a row from 15-20 yards and within 2 to 4 inches of the called spot every time. It's a joy to work with a fellow who is open and absorbs quickly. he is going to do well in the future.

[vermonster13]

I've been up to 3:30am many times, getting up then not so much. To get where Kenny had planned for us to hunt on day two was a two hour ride and we needed to leave by 4am to get there before light. (Did any of you know it is an 11 hour ride from my house to the hotel in Ohio?) So Kenny was there to pick me up and off we went to where there is supposed to be the bucks Ohio is famous for running around. We were only 16 miles from W. VA he told me upon arrival.

After getting through the gate and then the mile trudge to the hunting grounds Kenny filled me in on where to go for an encounter with Mr. Big hopefully.

I found this where I was to set-up.

 

I was getting excited.

[vermonster13]

After spending the first few hours listening to critters working across the ridge above me and not even seeing a squirrel down on the bottom, I figured it was time to explore some.

[vermonster13]

Here are some pics of the land we hunted that day. I'll get more in depth on the actual hunt tomorrow. Getting a little foggy tonight.

 
 
 

[cjones]

Keep it coming Dave.

[Osagetree]

Love the pics, keep it coming!

[vermonster13]

One tired fellow in this pic.

 

[vermonster13]

SO I worked my way slowly back up the hill to where one of the runs crossed the little road I had come down in on. There was an oak stand along this ridge and plenty of white acorns about. As I worked my way around a bend in the road I saw some movement to my left. Three does were feeding behind some real thick stuff about 8-10 yards over and one of the does was a big one. Looked like she had last years fawn and this years with her and the wind was in my favor. If I could move about another 15 feet I would have a lane.

[vermonster13]

I slowly crouched down and eased up the road to where I could have a chance at a shot. I peeked over the road edge and the does were still slowly feeding towards me. This was getting interesting.

In what took minutes but felt like hours I arrived at the spot. I slowly snuck a look and the two larger does were right in the lane but the smallest one was not there. As I pulled the bow up to take the shot a little black eye looked into my soul and let out the "I see you snort" the other two didn't look to see what, they just exploded out of there. The little one had worked a little more to the left of me and at 5 yards had locked her eye on mine, the other two never knew I was there. In my experience meeting a deers eye/s is as bad as getting winded by them and it proved out yet again this time. Kenny already told you about his encounter with two of the three.

[the Ferret]

see my response to coachy   :mad:

[vermonster13]

I didn't have anymore close encounters that day. I did see three more deer across the bowl in the pictures I posted earlier and jumped one in it's bed where the rub pictured was later in the afternoon.

These are some beautiful woods and somewhere out there is my Mike G armguard! SO far since coming to Ohio I had left my sunglasses in TJ's car and now lost my armguard. 2007 hasn't been my favorite year.

These deer on this property have been hunted some and are quite skittish. Coyote tracks and scat are all over the place. While hunting all these oaks I only saw 2 squirrels and had seen none the first day at the other spot. It was strange not seeing and hearing chipmunks, reds and grays. The Ohio woods are much quieter than my home ones. Though you do get to hear plenty of traffic no matter how deep in you are.

[vermonster13]

Mickey it's all about enjoying the journey, that way the destination doesn't consume you my friend.

[vermonster13]

Here is the property we hunted the final day. Have some things to do and will finish this all up this afternoon.

 
 
 

[vermontrad]

Good story Dave, looking forward to this afternoon....

[vermonster13]

Gas and oil wells are all over the place in Ohio. Makes for some strange smells and sounds when in the woods. The middle picture above is one of the gas wells in the area we were hunting that day.

[vermonster13]

Kenny picked me up at the hotel at 6:00 am and we headed for the piece of public land I had hunted Thursday with TJ and him last year. Our original plan went straight into the dumper as three other fellows were getting there gear ready at where Kenny was going to drop me off. So after a little Pow Wow we decided to work the side the turkeys had gone into the other day.

We worked up through were the birds had roosted previously and could hear them keeing quite a ways off. Kenny decided to set up on the ridge side and see if he could call one in and I would work down to the edge of the swamp and see what was happening.