My D-16 season started with a brand new deer hunting rifle, and let me tell ya....it was definitely a great start. My first morning out was the first sunday of the season, and after hearing reports that it was a zoo in some of our other spots we decided to go of the grid a little more to avoid opening weekend crowds. We watched a knoll that was loaded with sign and that we knew the deer like to move through but didnt see anything. we decided to chalk that one up to the moon cycle but it wasnt what we were hoping for to start the season.
The second weekend we were only able to go out on sunday due to halloween festivities. We hiked to a spot we had been wanting to check out for a while. After 5 miles in we found another promising spot with water present and good amounts of sign. We found places to attack the spot from and then decided to time our walk out to see what time we would need to leave the truck by. We met up with the rest of our hunting clan at lunch and went to a new spot, that wasnt 10 miles round trip to get into, and sat for the afternoon. Late in the afternoon we spotted a nice mature buck and a doe, but they were just out of range. We waited til we had him in a spot where he could only go two ways to get out of and that we could keep visual on and began a stalk. It was pushing 4:45 and we didnt have a whole lot of time. We cleared about 700 yards of terrain on a trail and got to the knoll we were targeting to get to in about 10 minutes. We would of been in perfect range but with the wind swirling the buck caught our scent and steered of into some thick deadfall. Definitely an exciting hunt and one to remember.
This weekend starts our deer camp. We will be camping tonight through wednesday in plans to leave wednesday evening. Hopefully with the moon cycle declining and the cooler weather we can get a little more action and hopefully put a big buck down.
The second weekend we were only able to go out on sunday due to halloween festivities. We hiked to a spot we had been wanting to check out for a while. After 5 miles in we found another promising spot with water present and good amounts of sign. We found places to attack the spot from and then decided to time our walk out to see what time we would need to leave the truck by. We met up with the rest of our hunting clan at lunch and went to a new spot, that wasnt 10 miles round trip to get into, and sat for the afternoon. Late in the afternoon we spotted a nice mature buck and a doe, but they were just out of range. We waited til we had him in a spot where he could only go two ways to get out of and that we could keep visual on and began a stalk. It was pushing 4:45 and we didnt have a whole lot of time. We cleared about 700 yards of terrain on a trail and got to the knoll we were targeting to get to in about 10 minutes. We would of been in perfect range but with the wind swirling the buck caught our scent and steered of into some thick deadfall. Definitely an exciting hunt and one to remember.
This weekend starts our deer camp. We will be camping tonight through wednesday in plans to leave wednesday evening. Hopefully with the moon cycle declining and the cooler weather we can get a little more action and hopefully put a big buck down.
