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Nov 30 - Woops ... You never know
Whoosh. A deer snorted behind me. I was washed up and Scent Killered down, I should be ok. Crack. A black blob in the brush to my left turned into a wild hog and walked to what's left of the water at the Point. I was in my new Double Bull In The Sky blind, 5 feet off the ground and 35 yards down from my Point treestand.

The hog finished drinking and walked around the clump of cedar and oak trees that separated us. I cracked a peep hole in the blind's window and watched the hog. It paused about 8 yards away. This was one of those deals, if it went left I was out of luck, if it went right it would pass me. It turned right.

I took the advice I've given to lots of bowhunters, "get your bow back and think it over at full draw." The hog was really close when it got to my shooting window, too close. I could just see it in the window and had to lean hard left and twist my body to get my pin on the vitals and shoot. 

WHOP! and the arrow sort of wobbled lamely over by the hog -- which ran away.

If you've ever shot a BowTech you know they shoot quiet and I'm shooting the Guardian and it is the quietest bow ever. And the arrows don't lamely wobble, they go like rockets. 

I'm thinking something must have broken. Then I noticed the broadhead cut in the fabric under the window of the blind, two layers of fabric, the wall and the window (this is a T-5 not the Matrix). Later I saw a chunk knocked out of the top of a limb outside the window. So shooting that and the blind were the loud noise, not the bow.

In my defense, this was my first time hunting this stand, which is a Double Bull T-5 that I tied and wedged into a thick and squatty cedar tree with a treestand in it. (Don't laugh, I think it will work.)

After the hunt I did some much needed limb trimming to be sure no limbs are in the way when I get my next shot. (See, I really do think this will work.) Then I raised the platform on the treestand six inches and tied the blind to various limbs until I had it more level and adjusted so I could shoot if something got too close.

Nov 28 - Buck Day Wednesday

My setup at the Point was all good this morning as the buck parade came on down. GO...
AND I got the bucks and happenings on video and it is in BowTube. VIDEO...

Nov 27 - Nobody Home But Us 8-points

1. The Hunt: Nothing happened at the Rolled Wire Annex stand and I moved to the food plot just in time to see a nice 8-point. Hunt Report...
2. Game Camera Pics: Before returning home I checked the cameras. The food plot camera didn't work again -- I know that because the 8-point walked right by it and didn't have his picture or any others. But the Rolled Wire had activity. Rolled Wire Pics...

Game Camera Pics: Good News!

A big buck from last year shows up at the food plot camera. TK is back. And the Rolled Wire Annex camera snaps a big one. And more. GO...

November 19 thru 25
Catching up on the hunt results for last week. GO...

Wade Nolan's Whitetail University Writers Camp:
Ohio Rut Hunt

Hunt Report - Floyd's Hunt

Hard hunting got Floyd Jeffcoat in the bucks. GO...

Hunt Report #5 & 6 - A

Colder weather = more bucks. GO..

Hunt Report #4 - A Bomber Comes In

A scrape to my left. A scrape to my right .. with a doe in it. And a set of bomber antlers coming through the thicket toward me. GO...

Hunt Report #3

A little wind. A little rain. And Mike sees a bomber buck. GO...

Off to a good start. Brian and Brandon bring in a 10 and 8 points. GO...

At Home...

More Scrape Watch Pics

Highlights of the latest pics at Scrape Watch. Our wide buck is back again. GO...

Catching Up - Sunday thru Wednesday
It's always cool when the bucks start putting the moves on does. So this weekend and the first of the week were cool. At Scrape Watch I saw more does than bucks and the bucks were young. Although the game camera snagged a pick of a big one. Monday afternoon at the Last Barn was the big hunt. At deer thirty a nice 8-point walked by me. I got 4 seconds of him on video. Ten minutes later I saw a big rack just inside the woods 65 yards away. He was in the opening 45 yards from me as I turned on the video camera and pushed the Record button. 

This was a monster buck. Very long tines. Wide as the dickens. Heavy beams. His brow tines were long and grew straight up. And his body was very large for this area. He stopped and raked overhead branches 30 yards from me, right in front of the camera. I grunted twice and he turned and walked in my direction, still on video. But I left the camera run itself and got my hand on a BowTech moment. The buck walked by on the non-shooting window part of the blind, only 15 yards from me.

Oh no. I realized that the red REC light was not on. I had pushed the Record button before the camera was completely booted up and got no video of this buck. 

A lesson hard learned but I'll watch it from now on. It was totally cool to see this buck and know that he is on the home place. I made a little goof up, but life is still good.

Scrape Watch Update

1. A look at the Scrape Watch from inside the ground blind. GO...
2. Shooting through the mesh in a ground blind has issues, some broadheads just don't work. Here is my solution. GO...

A Buck Looking For Love

Sunday Morning: At the food plot blind I saw an 8-point that put the moves on all the does in sight. 8-Point VIDEO...
Afternoon: Several does and 2 young bucks at the Last Barn.

The Rut? Yep...

SATURDAY
MORNING - I saw 8 does on the hill above the food plot. Robbie zipped at the Hammer Hole but saw two different big bucks on the way back to my house. We wanted to put a ground blind at Robbie's Corner stand and as we pulled up to the gate to unlock it the woods around us exploded with bucks, but they weren't running from us. They were only 20 to 30 yards away and running back and forth after a black hocked doe on a zig zaggy course -- 8 bucks, half of them the right kind, big. And off to the side a second doe jumped the fence into a thick stand of trees and a buck was right on her trail -- a tall rack, wide, with its long brow tines pointed in. Big Boy 10.  The time was 11:42am. 

AFTERNOON - Robbie Cramer hunted the Rock Ledge. A young doe and a button buck browsed in his area for awhile. After they left Robbie heard something approaching in the leaves. Later he told us the story as I videoed it on my new Sony Net Camera so I'll let him tell you what happened in his own words. Robbie On VIDEO...

The boars hide was covered with monster sized cockleburs. They are that rusty colored stuff that is all over the hog. Hundreds of cockleburs were matted into the hair and wouldn't come out without filling our hands with thousands of sharp stickers. So I went back to the truck and got a Rope Ratchet. We hooked it around the hogs chest, behind the front legs, and pulled it out of the woods into a cleared area.

The batteries gave out on both my digital camera and video camera so I shined my truck lights on Robbie and the big boar. But as you can tell it didn't light the hog up as good as my camera does. But the Net Camera gave things a Halloween kinda aurora. It's different but cool.

I went to the Last Barn. Back during the summer I built a ground blind right by the last barn. I used old barn tin for the blind so it would look just like the barn. It turns out that I need to do a little work on it. When the wind blows it makes racket. An even 10 does came through the area, mostly browsing on acorns under some large red oak trees.

At low light time a buck walked by me, it was the Son of the Freak buck and he walked completely past me. Then a gust of wind rattled the tin and he walked back and looked around a tree and stared at the rattling blind. Then he left.

FRIDAY: Robbie Cramer arrived Friday afternoon. He hunted the Point and saw two does but not close enough for a shot.

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