Like always, I posted my trip on my Instagram stories like I’ve been doing since 2020.

Day One – Saturday

It’s really a half day of hunting. I left my house at around 7:45 in the morning to get to the farm, which is about normal. I knew it was going to be warm and that deer movement was going to be slow. I picked up some odds and ends from the Wal-Mart in town before continuing up to the farm, where Dan and Viv already were.

It was warm by the time I got up to the farm. I didn’t head out to the stand until about 3pm because it was so warm, and there was some rain in the area. I decided to take one of the SpyPoint Solar Panels to the camera by the Orchard, as well as go set up the ground blind.

The solar panel went up with no problem. But after heading to the blind that had collapsed, I noticed an issue. Holes were present along the one side, and all the posts were ripped out of the ground. It started to rain harder, and at this point I was regretting not taking the chair for the blind. I set it back up and opened up all the windows to look around.

I looked behind me and saw a black figure in a tree moving around. Dan was at the house so it isn’t him. It started climbing down the tree and I saw a little brown to it. Bear. Mild panic set in because I didn’t have the crossbow cocked; I didn’t have a round in the chamber for my pistol.

Shit.

I stay crouched and cocked the crossbow and racked a round in my pistol in case this thing were to from the woods and investigate further. No dice. It finally stopped raining. I moved to make sure all the footings were better before going to the stand at the water tower for the remaining 2 hours of light, but nothing showed up.

Day 2 – Sunday

It rained all day. Viv left early and Dan and I went to the hangar to grease the wheels on the mowers, change the oil on the field mower, and remove 2 of the 4 batteries. I went to the scrape at my clover plot and made a new licking branch. We sat back at the house and watched football the rest of the day.

Day 3 – Monday

Planning on going out at 6:30 am was a bust because it was still pouring rain. We had coffee while we waited. While I was in the bathroom, Dan yells that theres a buck in the yard. I came out and there he was, probably 60 yards away from the house. We waited and watched his movements to see if we could shoot him, but he went up the road and disappears.

The weather finally broke and we headed out around 1 pm. I went to my old stomping grounds of the crossroads because we had just rehung the stand, and I needed to put tree hangars on it and what not. I put my Fourth Arrow camera arm on the tree hoping to see anything moving but to no avail. We called it a day by 7pm.

Day 4 – Tuesday

We headed out at 6:30 am, but unfortunately I got busted big time. Something to my left at the crossroads was snorting and stomping before taking off.

Does started popping up around 9 am, making life interesting because something was on the move other than squirriels and chipmunks.

Around 10:15 am, I got down and headed back to the cabin after hanging a mock scrape rope. When I got there, I set our discharge bag down and looked behind the house. There was a doe bedded down. I took all my gear off and re-put a broad head arrow back on and did a slow tactical movement to the back of the house in case a buck was there. To my dismay he was not.

After Dan and I had something to eat, Dan saw a brown turd on the runway. Of course a buck was moving across the way at that particular moment.

Around 2:30 pm we headed out, I went to the blind to set up in case I went there again. I brought the tripod and the seat with me. I sat for quite a while, until about 5:30 pm, when the does started coming out from the evergreen by the bottom of the orchard. One of the scents I had blowing in the wind caused the does to start stomping at me. I was highly tempted to shoot one because it was blowing.

Day 5 – Wednesday

I thought I was going to stay out all day, but because it was so windy and cold, I couldn’t. I was at the water tower for the morning and evening sits. In the morning, I could see the does deep in the orchard by the two evergreen trees. I did see a young forky looking buck at around 7:30 am, while it was still somewhat dark. In the evening, around 6:00 pm, three does came out from near the logging road going down to the spring house.

Day 6 – Thursday

I started the day at the crossroads stand and heard something move while I was walking into the stand. Around 8 am, I got down from the stand and went to the mock scrape to pee. I also went to my Spypoint camera to try to get it working again and keep an eye on the scrape. I pulled the camera because it wasn’t turning on and headed back up the stand. Around 9 am, something caused a bunch of does to move from my left back up the mountain. All I could see was their white tails. Around 10 am, our oil delivery for the year arrived and was out in 15 minutes.

During our lunch break I fixed the camera. When we went back out, I ran back down to the crossroads and re set up the camera. I went back up the mountain to the water tower stand. By this time, I’m wasn’t really sweating, but I was hot from all the movement. It was 2:30 pm at this point. At 5 pm I heard crunching behind me, like something was eating. I keep hearing the crunching before whatever it was decided to look somewhere else, and moved from behind me to somewhere to my left and then continued to my left and into the distance. I think it was potentially a doe, because by 5:30 pm, about 8 does entered the orchard by the two evergreen trees. They moved towards me, but by about 6 pm or so, they headed to the massive clover plot that we have set up. At the same time this young one or two year old buck that was a forky six point came out from behind me at the logging road. It walked up the road, taking stops in the food plot to eat, showing no interest in the does that were to his left. He continued up the road more and walked out of sight as he went towards the house. I finally decided to get out of the stand by 6:30 pm, and gathered up my gear while heading towards the runway. As I’m getting up to the runway, I could see 2 deer running around, one chasing the other, and a bunch of other does just watching until they decided to run off. I think I counted about 11 when they took off.

Day 7 – Friday

Decided to use Dad’s old stand by the hangar since I’ve been seeing bucks and does run around it most of the week. Thinking that the trend would continue, I figured that was the best option. I could hear does blowing in the distance by our neighbors property, but couldn’t see them at all. Unfortunately, it was not the best option because a couple spikes were over by the water tower and the clover plots that are over there, and a turkey came out from the logging road. It was starting to get warm, and Dan and I decided to get down and head back to the house.

I decided this was the day I would bury my father, and told Dan to get the shovels and I was going to go get the rock that is his marker. Carrying a 70 pound rock from the orchard to the the spot behind what was the barn was quite the undertaking, because I covered at least 200 yards of varying elevations.

The afternoon I went back to the water tower to see if anything would come near me then, thinking maybe my father might have decided we did what he wished. Does came by deep in the orchard and close to me in the stand, but nothing that was able to really be shot.

Day 8 – Saturday

Final day of hunting. I decided to do both sits at the water tower, because my gear was all set up there, from Fourth Arrow, and I didn’t need to do much. Around 9 am, something was running around behind me, grunting as it did, so I thought finally we were getting some rut activity. Well, by 11 am, Dan texted me that he was heading back because Molly had a tick in her arm and was going to go help her get it out. As he was getting ready to walk back, one of the black bears on the property was apparently just hanging out about 20 yards from where he was. It realized he was there and took off. We headed back out at about 2:30 pm, and sat the rest of the afternoon waiting for something. It was a long afternoon, until finally at pretty much last light, does moved through the orchard. And then, behind me, I heard movement. Two does come out followed by a really young buck. He was a 6 pointer, but clearly not more than 2 years old because he had no body to him. As Dan started to head in, the bear came out again and was in the middle of the runway but heard Dan, and took off, scaring all the does and the buck by me away. As we were walking in together, Dan was telling me how we can’t be disappointed really. We see more bucks and deer in the course of a week and while we are maintaining the property than most people see in a year. We have built this place into a sanctuary and the deer have everything they need right there for them: food, cover, water, it is all there. I can’t disagree with him, because we work on Viv’s property to keep it maintained for her, but also at the same time, do a lot of work in the wildlife management area for the property. We make sure there is enough food, trying to ensure no predators go after the fawns, and letting everything be good for the deer. We got back, had what was remaining of our food for dinner for the week, drank beer and watched football.

Day 9 – Sunday

It started the night before by putting all my hunting gear on the porch to let it all air out, before packing it up and putting it in my truck. I went to the hangar first, and got in the Kubota UTV to bring our peace offering to the deer at our ‘feed’ spot. I brought 2 mineral blocks, a bag of corn, and protein from Rack Getter. I moved on to make sure some cameras were still operational, including putting a solar pack on the back corner camera, then went and got the blind that was now dead, and went back to the hangar. We pulled the batteries remaining on the ATV and UTV, and put them in our trucks before going back to the house, winterizing the place and locking up. With the 3 hour drive home, I thought about how the week was, but most importantly I got home to my little Mere.

Reflections

It sucks to not get a mature buck for the third year in a row, but at the same time it is not a bad thing. The bucks we have roaming our property are, for the most part, 3 years old or more now. For me personally, I feel like I have pressure put on me to get something, mainly because I work for various hunting-related companies, and a member of the staff should be getting a buck every year. At the same time though, I only get one week to hunt every year while most people have places that are actually closer to their homes and are able to go hunt every chance they get.

So now the off season will be spent going over gear, camera footage and cleaning cameras. And I’ll probably make a few more blog posts in the next year than what I have been doing.