Bowhunting vacation

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I decided in the afternoon to sit a stand I placed 2 weeks ago. I call it the landmark stand. 

Last year I stood behind an oak tree and saw 13 deer come past this area. I kept it in my mind for this year. It's a forgotten overlooked corner of the property. When I walked in there several weeks ago I knew it needed to have a stand placed there.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

There were trails all over. Several bedding areas within a 100 yards. It's on a hill, corn field is out in front and a ravine down below. We have a food plot and a couple acre butterfly habitat about 100 yards away.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

It was a beautiful spot to sit and the millennium treestand quite comfortable.  I arrived to the stand about 12:30 and had sat for several hours with the squirrels keeping me company.

About 3 pm it started to sprinkle. The forecast said it was supposed to hold off until 5 but it was wrong(again lol)

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The first day we arrived it was pouring out but I went and put a camera up on this spot to get out of the cabin. An hour later i got a photo...

[Cyclic-Rivers]

So there I am sitting and I see a buck walk into the field, looked to be an 8 point. I hadn't seen anything to this point and I couldn't hear much due to the rain. I grunt at him for giggles and a doe busts me. She is standing 10 yards behind me

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I have nicknamed The Stand The Landmark stand, because there's a giant oak tree 18 yards from the stand and a big deer trail comes up out of the valley next to it. There's multiple other friends criss-crossing so we here but the unique thing about this tree is it was standing when the first survey was done on this property hundreds of years ago. It is noted in the original survey record of the property that the survey marker is 12 yards to the east of the tree where you find a pile of stones and a survey marker. Unfortunately 20 years ago the last survey crew came through smashed the original survey Stone and put a notch in the tree and draw the spike into it with a ribbon because it was still a useful landmark. Fortunately that scar is healed on the tree.

You will also see this tree in the picture of the nice buck previously posted. He is standing on the trail that I mentioned and does 12 yards from the stand

For some reason it's saying this photo is too large to post, I may have to go back to edit it

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The evening hunt progresses and I continue to see deer moving from our cornfield to our food plot about 60 yards out for me. I'm beginning to think the stand will be a lot better once the corn completely cut. I did have a 6 pointer walk right past me and I thought I'd have a picture of him on the trail camera as he walked right in front of it. But unfortunately it only caught his tail end. In total I saw at 11 deer this night. Most were much to far but for being a new stand, I expected to learn.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The next morning we woke up to yet again more rain, forecast said it should be letting up around 10 a.m. . It was coming down quite hard

[Gator1]

Following closely thanks for bringing us along.

[chinook907]

Enjoying this thread, thanks.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

About 11 we headed out to our stands. It was still raining but hoped it would stop soon. I sat there until 4 before seeing a deer.  We have a buck that has a spike sticking out to the side. Not sure if it's a broken skull plate or what.  On the other side it's a fork, it's probably only legally a spike but it palmated at the end. More like a spoon than a fork lol.  I took a picture of him but put my phone away because lately the deer have been coming in fast. he ended up being the only deer seen this night.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 shortly after I took the picture, this deer walk through the end of one of my shooting Lanes. I wasn't interested in shooting him in fact I'm kind of curious what he will look like next year. Last time I had a buck that I passed up curious about an antler sticking out to the side, the neighbor shot him. This is what that one looked like

[23feetupandhappy]

I’m enjoying your vacation

Iv had this week off too, it’s been pretty slow....

[cacciatore]

Charlie my condolences, good place for meditation away from noises.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

After such a slow day, my dad, brother and I decided to take a drive and spotlight deer.  We saw some including a couple decent bucks. Most of the deer were bedded down though and in the woods. We thought they would be moving with the amount of poor weather and the forecasted bad weather for the night.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Up to this point I'd had seen the majority of the deer. My dad had some encounters with bucks but didn't get any shots.  My little brother had not seen any deer at all. 

My little brother and I put his stand in a spot that we knew hed see less deer but have more quality deer in range. For the last 2 years  he'd sat 50-60 yards east of where the stand is now.  He used to see a lot of deer but the bigger ones would stay slightly out of his range then disappear into the Bermuda triangle.

His first day was foiled at last light by the neighbor who rents our field. They pulled a pick up into the field only 60 yards from my brother. They didn't know he was there. They stood outside the truck and made a lot of noise. 

My brother was frustrated and told me he was getting out of his stand and headed back to the cabin.  I had advised he should just go a ways and hide somewhere as deer were starting to move. He finally saw deer. 4 were does and one he described as having a large body but couldn't see it well.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The last morning we had a west wind. I wanted to see what the landmark stand would do in the morning. I still feel good about this spot. The wind was stout and darkness broke way to the overcast morning. 

[Kopper1013]

 

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The other reasoning I had to go back to the landmark stand, was because the night before I had seen 11 deer 9 of which were does. With the amount of chasing going on, I knew that there would be some boy noses sniffing around the area. As it turns out I was correct in my assumption.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

While walking into the stand that morning. I noticed a fresh new rub right in front of it period after climbing into the stand I noticed several more in the vicinity around it. Although the one I took a picture of is the smallest of all of them, I wasn't about to put my scent all over the woods for a silly picture