Nothing going on this weekend so my buddy and I loaded up our truck campers and headed to one of our favorite public hunting areas.
When we arrived I knew it was cold but after letting the themometer sit out for a little while I soon understood why I was cold. It was 14 degrees! Now I have lived in Alaska and I know what really cold is but on the other hand once you get acclimatized to winter days in the mid 40's and the temp drops to 14 I get cold.
The next morning we hiked into our area and I took 1 ridge and Casey took another. Got my climber up the tree and waited about 30 minutes before it got light.
Just after daylight I heard a gobble about a hundred yards behind me. Shortly after several turkey flew down from their roost. They didn't head my way but towards Casey.
As I spent the morning watching squierrels I was thinking how nice and quite it was and slowly was drawn into a blissful relaxed state of mind. Suddenly I heard two bucks lightly sparring not far away behind me and I refocused.
After a few minutes I heard one of them coming towards me. I stood up and got ready. Dang if it wasn't Casey fooling around with a rattleing bag. It sure sounded real to me.
We headed back for some lunch and to wait for a guy that I met here to show up at the campers.
I had talked to Ugly Jake on the phone and had invited him to hunt with us and he said he would meet us at the campers at lunchtime.
Once he arrived and everyone got to know each other we did a little scouting and then went on the afternoon hunt. Casey didn't see anything but Ugly Jake spent his time sneaking around like a cat and saw a doe but didn't get a shot.
I found a real nasty thicket and decided to hang my stand on the edge of it. As I was easing along trying to avoid the millions of stickers I saw a nice 4 point shed in front of me. I was excited as I have only found 1 other shed in my life. I slipped it into my pack and continued on. There was a nice pine tree that would offer a good stand but when I got about 20 yards from it I started a stampede. 3 deer were bedded there and they waited until they were under foot to bust out of there like a covey of quail.
After dark we met back at the camper for elk burgers and jumbalia. As we ate we got to know each other better. I found out Ugly Jake and I had both been stationed in Alaska and had even hunted in the same mountains. Pretty small world.
I invited Ugly Jake to sleep on my couch and we listened to coon dogs trailing as we drifted off to sleep. I tried to stay awake long enough to hear them tree but the sandman got me first.
The next morning Ugly Jake went with me. I would put my stand up on one side of a big block of woods and he would ease through to see if he could push any deer my way. I'm telling you he moves like a cat. He came up to my treestand and I never heard or saw him until he was 20 yards away.
Nobody got a deer but we had seen some plus I made another friend. Not a bad weekend at all despite the freezing weather.
Topic: Late season hunt (Read 319 times)
