Just came in the door from the drive home. Glad we left before it got really cold. Was -11F when we left this morning and the wind was howling. And the forecast is for even colder this week. Was only -7F when I pulled into the driveway.
Wish Buschy would have had the chance to take a good buck. He tried hard. We all tried hard. This five days of hunting were the most draining and brutal five days I have ever spent.
When you are filming, the meter is running, so to speak. So, you hunt all day long, everyday, no matter the conditions. Buschy was probably happy to see us leaving.
Those of you who have allowed us to impose on your hunts and film them know how cumbersome the filming process can be. Your setup is first and foremost for the benefit of filming, with the hunting considerations of the setup being secondary. That makes the tactics you normally would use, and are probably most effective, much more difficult to implement. In this instance, Buschy is a master at the spot and stalk, but trying to do that in crunchy/squeaky snow, along with a cameraman and tripod over your shoulder, makes the difficult task of spot and stalk all the more difficult.
Now that we are "out from under foot," I have no doubt that in the next two weeks, Buschy will be posting his normal late year ND Mule Deer pics that he shot with a bow.
I suspect Dinkshooter and KHunter will agree that spot and stalk archery hunts under those conditions at the tail end of the rut are about as difficult as you can look for. Every night I thought about how cold it must have been in that tent, even with a good wood stove. Tough guys, no doubt.
I am very excited to see this episode air. I do think it is the best episode we have filmed, when considering the context in which it unfolded. That being archery mule deer, post-rut, after two weeks of rifle season, in air temps and windchills that never got above 0F, and to take a buck on public land, is something I don't think we could replicate.
As hard as these conditions are on the hunters, it is even more brutal for the cameraguys. Troy was the sole cameraman on this hunt. He has to operate that camera bare-handed or with very thin gloves, whenever the camera is running. And when you are trying to keep up with the footprints of Greg "Cross Country" Busch, you will be carrying all that clumsy camera gear for a lot of miles. Thanks Troy. You are a machine.
Thanks Buschy for offering me the first shot when an opportunity arose. You put up with a lot of unusual accommodations for the sake of filming. You hunted as hard as a person can hunt in five days. I hope you like the final product when it is edited.