Ben's 2022 Semi-live Hunt Log

I'm finally done with Marching Band Season for my daughter so I will have a little bit of freedom to hunt again. I'll get out for a morning hunt this Sunday. And I might get out for a full day or even a couple days the first weekend in November.

I have a wedding in Rapid City SD November 12th, which I would love to turn into some kind of hunting trip, but I will only have enough time to fly in and fly back out the next day. Should be a great trip though.

Yesterday I bought my license to archery hunt deer in Ohio. My buddy has some family land we can hunt. We should be able to see a lot of deer running around out there according to his uncle. Stay tuned I should have some updates coming over the next few weeks.
 
I was out Sunday morning and I had a lone deer walk by my stand at 20 yards or less about 10 minutes before legal shooting light... Couldn't tell what it was but I think it was a buck.

About an hour later I saw a doe and two fawns about 60 yards away on the other side of the creek. I think an afternoon hunt would have been pretty active but I could only hunt until about 10.

I got back to my car and noticed that a small clump of willows about 40 yards away had a bunch of fresh rubs. I'll be out next weekend for both morning and evening hunts. Looking forward to the action heating up.
 
I got out to the stand on Saturday at about 2:30. The rain was pretty much over but it was still very gusty. I tried going up in the tree, but it was too wild for me so I built a little bit of a ground blind. I'm glad I took the time to do that, could probably use some more work, but it is a start in case I want to use it again in the future.

I had set up a trail cam on some rubs and I was able to pull the card and I was pretty excited to see 3 pictures of this big boy.

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He had been within 20-30 yards of my stand 3 times in the week since I had been there. Unfortunately they were all night time visits. But at least I had something to daydream about until legal shooting light was out. No deer were seen but I saw a lot of neat birds, including a group of 4 sandhill cranes.

I stayed with my parents overnight which was nice. And I got out well before sunlight on Sunday. I saw a fawn of some sort on the other side of the creek at sunrise, deep in the brush and quickly lost to my sight. Then I saw a young buck cruising along in that same area, but he was moving too quickly for me to even register before he was too far away for me to see him.

And then there was nothing but birds and some squirrel antics until sunset. I saw a fork about 200 yards north of me, but he was pretty intent on getting further away.

WIth 10 minutes of legal shooting light left on the clock a 3 pointer (2 on one side and a spike on the other) popped out of the willows about 40 yards south of me. I grunted at him and he came right to my tree. He even spent a decent amount of time sniffing in my ground blind area. My scent control game must have been on point (insert product sponsorship here).

I could have put an arrow through him but I was just enjoying watching him too much to even reach for my bow.

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I ended up watching him wander off to the north and saw him work a licking branch for a little bit before he disappeared from my view.

It would have been nice to have seen a bit more action but I really enjoyed myself regardless. I think this coming Weeknd would be my opportune time to maybe see that big boy in the daylight, but I have to go to a wedding so I won't get out hunting.

The weekend after that I will be headed to Ohio with a buddy to hunt his uncle's farm, which seems very promising. Won't get back to this stand until the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving. I left my camera up so I will be curious to see if there is anything interesting in the next two weeks.

I'm really interested in whether there are any turkeys that come through there. I believe there is a flock in the neighborhood, but I haven't seen or heard any sign in the 3 days I have hunted it so far.
 
Well while everyone else in Illinois was out hunting the rut with a nice cold front to boot and posting pictures on Facebook of the shooter they met or the target buck they finally put an arrow through, I was on a plane flying to Rapid City, South Dakota for my cousin's wedding.

It was a great time and I am glad I went, but it was hard seeing all the posts knowing that I probably could have had some good hunting this weekend.

My trip was super short. I landed at 10:30 am on Saturday and flew back out at 1:30 pm on Sunday. But I did get to take a short hike and stand on one of those Black Hills.

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I saw a mule deer doe on the drive to the trailhead, so at least I felt like I was a part of the outdoors today. Maybe some day I'll be back in the black hills with a bow in my hand.

Next adventure is a trip to Ohio ti try and get a deer with my buddy Dan. He is a new hunter and I really hope he gets some close encounters with some deer and maybe even gets an arrow in one. This is his second season and last year was not really productive for him.

But we are going to his uncle's farm and the report is that there are a lot of deer running around.
 
Heading East tomorrow at 11 am. I have to put in a half day, which means starting at 6 so I can get 5 hours in before I leave...

Hope to get to our spot in Ohio just before last light so we can at least get an eye on where we will be hunting Friday and Saturday.

Still have a bit of packing to do tonight and then I can make a big pile (all in one place) in the garage after my wife leaves for work. So that when the whistle blows I can just move the pile into my buddy's truck and we can hit the road.

Can't wait.
 
Heading East tomorrow at 11 am. I have to put in a half day, which means starting at 6 so I can get 5 hours in before I leave...

Hope to get to our spot in Ohio just before last light so we can at least get an eye on where we will be hunting Friday and Saturday.

Still have a bit of packing to do tonight and then I can make a big pile (all in one place) in the garage after my wife leaves for work. So that when the whistle blows I can just move the pile into my buddy's truck and we can hit the road.

Can't wait.
Looking forward to the updates. I just loaded up the Honda pilot. Were hitting the road tomorrow, headed to Oklahoma for rifle opener this weekend.
 
Looking forward to the updates. I just loaded up the Honda pilot. Were hitting the road tomorrow, headed to Oklahoma for rifle opener this weekend.
Hey a Honda Pilot. I love my Pilot. I'll probably go back to a truck once my girls are out of High School, but my pilot is enough like a truck that I almost don't notice the difference.

Good luck in OK.
 
I got back from Ohio yesterday and I will be busy making meat today, but I wanted to write this up before I get all messy. So here's the story.

We got to my buddy's family farm just after dark on Thursday and his uncle took us on a little drive to show us where the woods are that we could hunt. As we drove into the field we bumped about 6-7 deer that were out in the corn stubble, which I took as a good sign.

We didn't get out of the truck thoug, which meant we would be going in blind the next morning. But I was hoping we could just get to a spot to observe in the morning and then get set up for the rest of the weekend.

As it turned out, we got in that morning and just after sunrise, I decided I would try to sneak a little to the west to try to find the tree stand that my buddy's uncle said he could use. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to stand up, I hear a snort and look up to see a buck at about 30 yards. he has me pegged and goes bounding off.

The noise and the commotion gets my buddy to stand up and look and the buck who ran about 30 yards and turned to look \back sees him and blows and runs off snorting. what a cluster... If we could have gotten there earlier on Thursday we might have had a better idea of where to set up and maybe we would have gotten lucky with that buck instead of bumping him. He didn't get our scent but he certainly decided he didn't like us.

Feeling relatively confident that this corner of the woods was clear, we decided to search around a little to figure out where we wanted to hunt in the evening. My buddy is not a fan of tree stands and the one his uncle had was a little rickety and had a narrow platform, so we created a ground blind for him to hunt out of.

I found a multi-stem elm that I thought I could hunt out of with my saddle. And then we backed out.
 
We were back in the woods around 1:30 that afternoon and I was really happy with the set up I made with my saddle. I have been wanting to get into saddle hunting and I have had the gear for 3 years now, but I've only used it a handful of times. I initially bout the Stepp Ladder system for climbing and always struggled with getting those tied on and came down.

Last year I bought some climbing sticks from Tethrd and this was my first time using them. Really like those. Glad I bought them.

Anyway, I was up in the tree and my buddy was on the ground and nothing was happening until about 3:30 when I look up to see a really nice buck coming my way. He was moving slow and I was able to really get myself ready, but about 35 yards he hung up and started looking east into the corn stubble. I couldn't see anything that should have been concerning, but he decided to go west and now he was at 45-50 yards in some nasty brushy stuff. I grunted and he stopped.

He took another few steps and I snort wheezed and he stopped. but he was in a spot I could barely see him.I waited 10-15 minutes or so, staring at this little spot of brown in the sticks and twigs but nothing moved. Nothing happened. I started telling myself that I was looking at a leaf and I was fooling myself and the buck was long gone. So I leaned back in my saddle a little to take the strain off of standing to rigid and BOOM, that spot of brown turned into a big white tail bounding away from me...

I was felling pretty low about buggering up two buck encounters in one day, but I felt like the best part of the day was yet to come with about 2 hours til last light.
 
With about 45 minutes left before sunset, I see a doe headed my way and then I see another and another deer behind her. I was hoping that one of them would split off and head toward my buddy. This is his second hunting season and I would really like him to get his first deer.

I lose track of two of them because one gets right in close by me. It is a doe fawn, but I know my buddy really wants some venison on the ground, so I try to get ready for a shot, but she crosses in front of me and I have to reposition the bow to the other side of the tree. If I had more experience hunting from a saddle I could have been more stealthy, but this fawn sees something and stops.

I stand still and she decides to do the little dance where they move around hoping to catch some movement and I am unable to draw or do anything really. My buddy could see all of this but she was too far for him to get a shot. Eventually I think she catches my wind and she goes running away and I think we are sunk, but she didn't blow, she just ran.

Now I look up and see that the 3rd deer in the line is a buck and while he isn't huge he appears to be headed my way kind of. I have no idea where that other deer is (the second one in the line). So I'm watching this buck and trying to get ready when a doe (probably that 2nd deer) trots out from my right and is at 20 yard quartering away.

I pull back and let an arrow fly. I hear the thwack and she runs and I am all worried about whether I made a good shot or not but she runs about 50 yards in a big circle and I watch her crumple up.

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It's a good thing I saw her go down too. because there was no blood trail. I guess she was quartering away a little more than I had planned on and my arrow should have been a little further back.

It went in right where you would want it to , but it got stopped by the offside shoulder and snapped off. I deflated one lung and severed one of the main vessels connecting to her heart. There was a pool of blood in her chest cavity but nearly none had come out the wound.

As a wrap up to all of that, in past threads I have mentioned that I had numbered my arrows on their fletchings and so far all of my deer had been killed with arrow number 3. Well, this was arrow number 3's last flight. It snapped off and while I was able to recover the Broadhead I won't be able to reuse the shaft. I've picked out a lovely retirement home for him though. ;)

We did get out the next morning since I till had a tag and my buddy was hoping to fill his. It was bitter cold but the wind had died off a little. As luck would have it, my buddy had a doe come in to about 15 yards. He got to full draw but didn't want to take a straight on shot and when she did turn she was behind a tree. Very exciting for him and he is determined to keep at it next year.

He has an open invitation at his uncle's and he's thinking about investing in a box blind so that he can get up off the ground next year. I think he will eventually be successful and I may or may not be there with him when he is. I'd like to be, but he could totally hunt out there without me with the support of his uncle and cousins.
 
I'll wrap up this hunt with these thoughts on why this hunt was so successful in my eyes:

* My buddy the new hunter had some exciting encounters and is excited to help me cut up my doe.
* He found a deer rich environment that he can hunt and share his experiences with family in the future.
* took my first out of state deer.
* I took my first deer from a saddle.
* Arrow number 3 is a true legend, may he rest in pieces...

I will probably get out to that stand I have been hunting on Saturday or Sunday ofter thanksgiving. Then I have foot surgery that might make hunting a little difficult for a week or so. I have a waterfowl hunt on Dec 10 with a different buddy who is a new hunter. And I will likely have a couple more waterfowl hunts in December.

Still plenty of hunting to be had, but I'm glad I have some venison in hand.
 
I went out to the stand I have been hunting by my parents house on Saturday. It was nice to get back out there after two weeks. Although I head something go running off as I was getting to the little band of shrub trees in front of my stand. I pulled the card from my trail camera and saw that it was a doe.

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The time stamp is an hour ahead since I didn't change it after we fell back. But there goes the doe in.

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Six minutes later she's running out. It is a screen grab from a video so I circled the blur that is the doe running.

I was a little disappointed about that, but then I looked at the rest of the images on the card and I saw Turkeys!!!

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I was thinking there should be turkeys on this property but up until now I hadn't seen them, this was proof positive that they could show up right in front of my stand.

The corn just south of my stand had been picked and that might be why they are now all of sudden in the neighborhood, although they might have been in the area before but they were in the corn and I just never saw them. Either way I am really hopeful for hunting this stand.

There was nothing moving in the morning though and I had plans to meet up with someone for lunch so I got down and headed out around 10.

I was back by 1:30 and not much was going on until about 3:30. I looked up and saw a turkey in the picked corn about 150 yards south. I thought about getting down and moving to set up a ground blind near an old piece of farm equipment by the field edge, but I decided to just stay in my stand. I hadn't brought my stool and there didn't seem to be a lot of great material near the farm equipment to set up a hide.
 
Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

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