Steve Bartylla will bring you along as he bowhunts Wisconsin's Bluff Country Outfitters

Bowhunting Bluff County Outfitters

Day 1 11/12
Conditions: light rain, temps in the mid 30ies.

I arrived at stand #1 at about 2 in the afternoon. I placed a doe decoy at the edge of the field, sprayed Special Golden Estrus around it and juiced my mock scrape with Mega Tarsal Plus. A half hour before dark I saw 2 unidentifiable deer traveling about 70 yards to the southeast. I stashed the decoy and will hunt this stand again in the morning.

After changing in the field, I drove to camp, unloaded and feasted. One of my favorite aspects of hunting Bluff Country Outfitters is dinnertime. Sitting around the table, listening to the day’s tales is always fascinating. In all the times I have been there, I have never sat through dinner once without hearing at least one story of a close encounter with a trophy that had occurred that day. I find it impossible not to get pumped for "tomorrow’s" hunt after hearing the other hunter’s experiences for the day.

That evening there were 6 guys in camp, 1 from Arkansas, 1 from Missouri, 3 from Indiana and 1 of my Wisconsin brethren, Ron Wells, from Stratford. Ron and I got paired together in one of the 3 bunkhouses so I will log his hunt as well.

Ron had spent the morning sitting a wooded ridge point, surrounded on 3 sides by beans. He had seen a fork and 2 does in morning browsing through the area. The afternoon saw a young 8pt cruising for does and two does crossing to next finger.

Ron Wells agreed to allow me to cover his hunt as well. Between the two of us I am sure we will have some encounters with monsters to write about.

Tomorrow: one of those just plain cool experiences

| Scouting | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 |
  For those looking for every advantage in understanding whitetail deer, Steve Bartylla's column Becoming A Student Of Whitetail Deer is a must read.