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and on the spot pictures -- by Robert Hoague
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Nolan Writers Camp Hunt - October | Wade
Nolan Writers Camp Hunt - November |
November
2006 Deerhunts
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At Home - 2006
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CamTrakker Pics on Nov
3
Just checking to be sure
the deer are out there. They are. GO...
Start Of The Rut (Oct 4 &
5)
Saturday Morning
another bomber walked steadily by at 80 yards. Later I saw two solo does,
a young 8-pt and a spike. The spike was the only one that ate in the food
plot. Robbie saw the same 8-pt. My hunting buddy Robbie Cramer is down
and he also saw two does together.
Saturday Afternoon at
Secret Stand #8 I saw a bomber, wide and heavy beamed buck walking behind
a doe. They were moving my way. An 8-pt scooted out of the trees and when
the doe saw it she changed directions. The bomber cut off the 8-pt and
it fell in behind the bigger buck and the newly formed trio trio went into
the nearby trees.
Walking
In The Moonlight
Nov 4 - my CamTrakker
got the buck above and a very similar buck.. Plus more deer. GO....
Sunday Morning The
8-pt that has a broken right main beam (in the above CamTrakker pics) walked
by close enough, but I didn't. The spike buck returned but didn't stop.
He walked so close to my blind he had me wondering if he was going to bump
into me. Another solo bomber made the 80 yard walk. Also 3 solo does that
were on the move. Things definitely look promising. Robbie zipped.
Sunday afternoon I
started packing for my trip to Illinois on Monday. Robbie saw 6 does, 5
in a group and a solo.
Wade
Nolan Writers Camp #2 at Dream Woods Adventures
Southern
Illinois Bowhunt and Writers Camp at Dream
Woods Adventures
Day #1
It poured rain last night
and we had a much needed temperature drop. The day began with a meeting
and Mike Jordan gave us the show and tell about ATSKO deerhunting products.
GO...
Mike
Jordan checks Lon Lauber's bow for UV.
After the meetings we, of
course, went bowhunting for deer. GO...
Day #2
I grunted at the 8-pt and
it stopped and turned my way. More...
Dana Brackins introduced
the new Carbon Express NANO-XR High Precision
arrows
and Gorilla Treestands new ground blinds. GO...
Day #3
Alan
Ainsworth showed us NULLO, a pill that eliminates odor causing bacteria!
GO...
Today
I put up a ground blind and after a colossal sunrise I got a little deer
action. GO...
Day #4
 
Jay
Liechty does broadhead tests. GO...
And
my hunt report and Joe Doty switches to a left handed bow and gets it done.
GO...
INTERVIEWS With The Writers
Interviews with outdoor writers
Lon Lauber, Joe Bell, C.J. Winard & Rick Combs. GO...
Day #5 - Last Day
The last day in Illinois.
And a word about Brenda Doty and her contribution to the camp. GO...
Interviews
   
Interviews
with the Whitetail University Brian Richare and Bruce Ryan, plus Greg Griffith
and Doug Doty of Dream Woods Adventures. GO...
BACK
HOME FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON
Nov 19 - He's
Back
Remember
the June Big Boy buck from 3 years ago. I saw him Sunday -- heavier beams,
taller tines and wider. He was dogging a doe. I'm gonna do a little dogging
myself this week.
Bucks Thanksgiving
Weekend
Camtrakker buck pics over
the weekend. GO...
November CamTrakker
Pics
Pictures from my food plot.
GO...
Nov 27 - Morning:
One doe at daybreak and 4 does between 9 and 9:30.
Afternoon: I went
to the Point. And I was the only animal there.
Hey Baby!
A lone doe hung out at the
far edge of my food plot. Waiting perhaps? When a nice buck cruised the
area and went to her things got real interesting. To
The Pics And More..
ElimiTrax: What
is it? Does It Work?
 
My Field Test results after
90 days use. GO...
Nov 29 -
Morning Hunt
As it slowly struggled to
get daylight this morning, and I struggled to keep my eyelids open, a buck
walked up close. Low light pictures are always a challenge and I changed
settings on my camera and took several pictures. A couple came out ok and
one is below..
Daylight improved and a
lone doe came to the opposite end of my food plot. It hung out for about
10 minutes and them walked away.
My eyelids got the best
of me for a short while and when my head bobbed forward I came back to
life. A doe was in front of me and a 7-point was walking around it.
The doe ignored the buck
but she left to my right and out of my view. He tagged along. At 9:00 I
was ready to call it a day and got my stuff together. Before quitting any
hunt I always count to 100 slowly. So I started counting.
A buck walked out of the
woods. I got my camera back out and took its pic.
He walked right to me and
stopped.
A nice 8-point. A 2 1/2
year old. He's a little thin so he has been busy chasing does around.
I guess he wanted to be
sure I got a good picture because he walked even closer. Then he walked
on past the left side of my blind. I waited half an hour and counted to
100 again. This time nothing happened and I went to the house.
Nov 29
- Afternoon Hunt - Paul's Corner
Earlier my bud Robbie Cramer
and I set up a Eastman Outfitters pop up blind at the break between the
woods and a coastal field. From my kitchen window I see deer using this
area all the time -- it is only 300 yards from my house. I hunted there
this afternoon.
Cold weather started coming
in and it clouded up. At 4:23 a buck came to a scrape 30 yards from the
blind and worked the limbs and ground. Then it walked right by me. It was
the 8-point with the broken right main beam.
He was on the other side
of the only tree between us and I got this picture.
The Broken 8 continued toward
the the boundary fence 40 yards away and I poked the camera through a slit
in the mesh and pointed it in the buck's general direction. Click. I got
him. Or at least the front of him.
The wind got up. The temperature
dropped. So did the hunting, dropped that is.
Nov 30 - Morning
Hunt
The temperature was right
at freezing when I went to the food plot blind. Overcast skies made daylight
come slowly and a very large bodied buck with lots of points walked steadily
along the trees beyond the food plot, he was 75 yards away. He stooped
one time and quickly surveyed the food plot area. I had him focused in
my 10 power Nikon binoculars and saw chocolate antlers with 10 heavier
than usual points, long ones ... and lots of width. He had a very long
and heavy body too. But ... no does here. He kept on going and passed right
by the blind I set up a couple of days ago (I call it the Tin Door Blind
and will catch you up on that -- with pictures -- over the weekend.)
Around 7:30 I caught a distant
view of a second buck coming on a trail that passes 7 yards from the same
blind. I locked the Nikons on him and counted 8 long tines. Almost ivory
colored. Not as wide as the first buck but wide none the less.
I got my BowTech. So far
this season I have not put my Fletcher Flathead release to use but now
I hooked it on my string loop. This looked like it was gonna be it.
Fifty yards from me he turned
left and strolled into the trees and walked parallel to the food plot,
just inside the edge of the woods. 70 plus yards away he stepped into the
open and I grabbed the camera. The pic was blurry but it gives you
the idea.
Once again, this morning,
a mature buck cruised the food plot looking for does. No does, then move
on. (Where are those does when you really want them to be there?)
A small spike buck came to
the food plot and chomped down oats for awhile. White flakes appeared in
the air. It was snowing!
At 9:00 I went to the house.
Debbie and I drove to Watson's and ate lunch. Afterward I did some big
moving to try to get 20 yards from one of these big bucks. (I took pictures
and will come back to tell you what I found and what changes I made.)
Nov 30 - Down
By The River
Last year in December I hunted
on a ledge above the river It turned out, unexpectedly, to be a travel
funnel for bucks on the lookout for does ... and it also was a frequent
last stop for wild turkeys before they roosted. (The extra height of the
ledge made it easier to fly up into the trees along the river.) Before
I left for Illinois I put a Double Bull Matrix there to let the deer and
wild turkeys get used to it.
This afternoon I hunted there
for the first time. Before getting in the blind I put out a HotTrails
doe in rut scent candle. I lit the candle, snapped it in its small carrying
lantern and hunt the lantern on a limb. In the picture below you can see
both the ground blind and the HotTrails.
Blind on the left. HotTrails
on the right.
The HotTrails lantern
is hanging from a cedar limb.
Once inside the blind I began
adjusting the mesh to create shooting windows. Woops!
A doe popped out from around
the closest tree to me. It clearly had its attention on the HotTrails.
But at that moment I had an issue, my face was in the window the doe was
standing in front of. So I froze.
The doe turned its head and
looked at what it could see of my face from 5 yards. Without keeping its
eye on me it back peddled behind the tree and then looked at me. By this
time I had slowly eased my face out of view. The doe studied on things.
Shook its tail. And casually walked away.
A view through the mesh
window of the Matrix ground blind.
The doe had definitely been
interested in the HotTrails scent. I wonder what it would have done if
it had not been seen me.
An hour before dark a wild
turkey walked out of the near by trees to the right. I took its picture.
It continued walking and
I took another.
More wild turkeys were with
the hen and they began filing by on the other side of the trees. I tried
for more pictures but my camera kept focusing on closer limb parts and
this pic below is the only god one.
Over ten minutes passed
before I saw them again. A group gathered on the same ledge I was on. They
were 43 yrds per the Nikon Laser 880 Rangefinder. They were silent in the
trees but now they made soft yelps and many other turkey vocalizations.
In the pic below you can see the evening sunlight beaming through the trees.
It was truly beautiful.
Soon more joined them and
I saw 3 gobblers with nice beards. One of the questions people often ask
me is how do you tell a hen from a gobbler? With providing the answer in
mind, I took this picture of a hen and a gobbler.
Then I zoomed in as they
walked along. They say a picture is a thousand words. If that is so I think
you can see the difference between these two birds.
A 2 1/2 year old gobbler
on the left and a hen on the right.
At roost time the birds walked
my way and the closest gobbler passed at 27 yards. Minutes later I heard
them flying up.
I waited until almost dark
and gathered up my gear. At home Debbie cooked up venison steaks and red
eye gravy on rice. It was delicious. A super end to a good day hunting.
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