Raining...to hunt or not to hunt

During the fall, I spend more time on the internet looking at the weather than checking my email. Why? I am constantly evaluating if the precipitation forecast, wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, and temperature will be appropriate for certain archery hunting stand locations. I can deal with and overcome any situation of wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, and temperatures. What I cannot deal with or rather, what I will not deal with is rain. Now I know a number of waterfowl hunters reading this blog are laughing, but as an avid archer rain is not good.

It is not that I melt when I get wet. I could setup a ground blind or purchase a tree umbrella. There are very good products on the market to shelter you from the elements. As every ethical archer strives for a clean, efficient lethal shot, every archer should also be concerned with the ultimate recovery of the game. This is where I have determined over the years that I cannot deal with rain. Sometimes just a split second allows the deer to “jump the string” or “take a step”, which causes the 310+ fps arrow to miss the perfect shot. These imperfect shots, and even perfect shots for that matter, can allow a deer to travel well out of sight and require an archer to follow the trail of the deer. Generally, you need to allow that ever precious commodity of time to pass to allow the deer to bed down and expire. In the rain, time is not something you have. Every minute of waiting is another minute allowed to the rain to wash away the trail. If you cannot track and recover your game, then why would you shoot? That is one of the most common ethical question many hunters have to answer, whether they realize it or not.

In a light drizzle, I will hunt with the objective of harvesting a whitetail. In 2004, I used the

light rain to help cover my approach into the woods, the setup of my tree stand, and finally the cover of any movement or noise when the deer approached. This strategy allowed me to watch a 10 pointers walk directly under my stand. My arrow traveled exactly 9 feet and the buck traveled 45 yards. As you can see from the picture, it was still a light drizzle when I took pictures in the field.

In steady average rain, I will do my best to get out, more for scouting than harvesting. This year the second weekend of MN firearm season was raining throughout the morning. I woke up at 3 AM, loaded up my truck and headed up north. I took my Ameristep Brickhouse Ground blind and Browning 7mm Medallion A-Bolt to the same ridge that my friend Shawn took a beautiful 10 pointer one week earlier. Sitting through the early morning rain was comfortable in the blind, but unproductive. It was apparent that not many deer were moving as very few shots were heard in my audible range. Had a deer appeared during the early steady rain, I would have probably just taken a picture. However, as the morning went on, the rain let up to a light drizzle. This was exactly what I wanted, wet leaves, rain dripping from trees, and a slight breeze. This was PERFECT conditions to still hunt. I took this opportunity to slowly move through the thickets and bedding areas. My steps were quiet, any noises were covered, and my movement was blended with the brush movement caused by the wind. Unfortunately, the whitetails were nowhere to be found. This was the ending of my firearm season in Minnesota. The following weekend was opening day of Wisconsin firearm season and I would be joining fellow Block Outdoors Team member Dan Block and our family and friends at our WI hunting cabin.

Finally, the last type of rain condition is a heavy rain. This is when I stop checking the weather and start checking my email J. This is true when archery hunting and firearm hunting.

These are my general rules with rain. Hunt whenever possible to successfully harvest and recover a whitetail. If either cannot be done, just scout or update your blogs.

Minnesota Firearm Opener

The rut can be a very exciting time of the season to hunt.  It can also be a very disappointing and frustrating time of year.  I have read and heard hunting reports from a number of individuals over the past 2 weeks, some of excitement of bucks searching and chasing does and yet others stressing distaste for the lack of deer seen.  This past weekend was Minnesota Firearm season opener.  It runs for the next 2 weeks throughout most of the state.

As I mentioned in my first blogs, this was the first year I really put forth a solid effort in preparing my property for deer season.  There were tons of tasks and I was always looking for help, not only for the labor, but also for the companionship in the woods.  The outdoors is wonderful to experience by yourself, but it is much more memorable when sharing the experience with someone else.  My college friend Shawn jumped on the opportunity to help me this summer with some of the “chores” around my property.  He made a couple day trips with me and of course I immediately invited him to bow hunt with me during for the archery opener.  He helped me with my doe I harvested that weekend and we had a great time playing cards and talking hunting stories.  Neither of us were successful during the archery season in getting a shot at a buck, and personal events at my house threatened the opportunity to firearm hunt my property for the first time.
However, I made a late decision to head up bright and early Saturday morning to my property to meet and head out to the woods to enjoy the woods on the opener.  Shawn was a little hesitant.  He asked me “how much is a firearm license?”  I quickly responded it is like $30 dollars ($27 to be exact) and it would be a great donation to the DNR if we don’t see anything.  I offered to let him stay and hunt the next day if I had to head back home on Saturday night and he eventually agreed to head up and we both agreed, if the deer activity was good and we both did not tag out, we would stay the night and hunt Sunday morning as well.

These decisions found me waking up at 3am on Saturday morning getting dressed and packing the final things into the truck.  At 3:44 I was driving out of my driveway.  Around 4:30, I called Shawn to see where he was and after a little discussion we realized I was 15 minutes ahead of him.  When I arrived at the parking area at 5:20, I quickly unpacked the ATV and started getting my hunting clothes on.  Shawn pulled up as I was putting on my boots and we quickly exchanged greetings and now we were both quickly dressing.  We realized we should have set out another 30 minutes sooner.  We drove the ATV over the low area to the camp site.  We offered “good luck” to each other and separated to the different directions.

On the drive up, I decided I wanted to hunt my food plot as it was near their bedding area and had thicker poplar thickets surrounding it.  I was being strategic in thinking the bucks may still be seeking, not chasing, and this will provide me an excellent opportunity to harvest that big 8 pointers I have on trail camera.  The other spot I was contemplating was a beautiful hardwood ridge with lowland forest swamps to the southeast, west, and north east.  There are plenty of natural funnels and ridges, and a lot of viewing of majestic oaks.  Not to mention tons of grey squirrels (they hide when .22s are in hand I found out this fall).  This spot I recommended to Shawn.  I would be easy to find in the dark and personally probably the best spot to be sitting if the bucks are chasing.

Legal shooting time was 6:29 officially, and at 6:31 a small doe appeared racing through my food plot from the north to the south and ran past me at about 10 yards.  I knew it was game time.  They were chasing and I had a hot doe already.  I may be heading home at noon!!  A minute or two later I heard the running of deer from the north and very deep grunts.  I was standing up and focusing to the north.  I saw movement to the north east of the food plot in the thick poplar.  This is where my past experiences and knowledge caused my only opportunity to fade away.  The wind was out of the west.  Big buck prefer cover and will generally travel downwind of food sources to scent check for estrous does.  I had my Browning A-Bolt 7mm rifle shouldered and I quickly was trying to find horns on the running deer as it was passing by my stand.  As I was realizing it had no horns I heard hooves pounding the ground behind me in the food plot.  I quickly turned to my right to see a decent buck exiting my food plot 10 yard way.  I swung my rifle around and caught him in my scope, but I also had a circle full of brush.  He won this round I told myself.

It wasn’t a minute and I heard a rifle shot in the direction of where Shawn should be sitting and those deer just ran that way.  I was sure he shot him.  Good I told myself while at the same time I was kicking myself for being fooled.  I reached for my cell phone to see if Shawn had emailed me to tell me a deer was down.  Wouldn’t you know it…I left it in the truck.  Now normally I would just forget it, but Shawn and I discussed shooting a doe with his bonus tag and first one to shoot needed to email the other.  I quickly became disappointed as that meant I was out of the game on does.  An hour passed and no more deer, no more noise of deer running, nothing.  Then “BANG” much closer and in Shawn’s direction.  It was then obvious the 6:35 shot was not his, but this one most definitely was.  7:30 and either a doe or buck was down.  You can hear in the crack of the shot if the hunter was successful (within some accuracy) as I heard the thud at the end of the sound.  Either there is a hole in my prize oaks or a deer is down.  But I didn’t have my phone.  I realized there that modern technology has made me reliant on too many of the conveniences of the concrete jungle.  I waited a half hour and then decided it was time to still hunt back to my truck and retrieve my phone.  If the bucks were chasing, it wouldn’t matter.  In fact, still hunting during the chasing phase of the rut can be very productive.


Once I retrieved my phone, I checked my emails and sure enough, “Buck Down” was the message of the latest email.  He got him.  Now which “him” was my next question.  I instilled a management philosophy for my property that young hunters or new hunters who had not shot bucks in the past had the opportunity to take any deer their license would legally allow them to take.  However, for hunters of more experience, I desire they only shoot the bucks with horns around the width of the ears or mature whitetails.  This philosophy is to ensure there are plenty of bucks for the young and new hunters and also to provide the bucks an opportunity to live a deer season and provide a better bounty in future years.  For me to go one or more years without shooting a buck does not bother me, as just being outdoors is reward enough.  Now this philosophy will only be so-so beneficial as adjoining landowners are not following the same philosophy, as is their right.

Well the only way I was going to find out would be to call him.  As I talked to him, he told me the story and that he could count 5 points on one side from his tree and that he has yet to get down to see his trophy.  I told him to get down and have his personal time experiencing the success of his hunt and I would still hunt to his stand an hour later.  An hour passed and I started my still hunting route to his stand.  On my way I stopped and talked with my neighbor to the north in his stand.  He had seen two does by traveling together.  These had to be the does with Shawn’s buck I determined.  I approached Shawn in his stand and asked him where his buck was.  He pointed behind me and I turned and the first words out of my mouth were “That is a BIG buck!”  But I was not referring to the horns, but rather the body size.  It was huge.  Later dressed out and weighed in at 195 lbs.  I asked him, if he had gotten down and seen his buck and he said no.  Well I took out my camcorder and videoed him climbing down, telling the quick event, and then his reactions to seeing his largest buck ever lying on the ground.  It was an AWESOME experience for me as well.  I was very excited and happy for his success.  It was a beautiful buck and hopefully a sign of future success on my property.


We both walked back to camp to get the ATV and from there began the “work”.  Shawn patiently took his time field dressing the buck while I held the legs.  We took a ton of pictures and loaded the buck up in the dump bucket trailer.  When we got back to camp we weighed him, and then left his hanging to drain and cool down.  Shawn answered a number of phone calls and text messages of congratulations.  We then decided we were staying the night since the rutting activity seemed to be strong.  We setup camp and headed back out to the woods for the evening hunt.  It was a quiet evening in the woods and neither of us saw a deer, but I don’t think Shawn was too concerned.  I am sure he was replaying the morning over and over in his head.  We had an early evening due to being awake since 3am and with the anticipation of the morning hunt.  The next morning we received a little rain and again went without seeing a deer.  But what a wonderful morning to be in the woods, as is every day you get to sit patiently in God’s creation.


As we spent Sunday morning packing up camp for the season, I realized how blessed we are to have the opportunity to be outdoors and most of all being able to share wonderful experiences and success of others.  This weekend will remain in my memories for years to come as this was the weekend the first buck was taken from my property.

Hunting the Rut

There have been numerous books, articles, seminars, etc. about the rut.  When it occurs, why it occurs when it does, and when the best time to hunt certain locations.  I have to say I probably have read 80% of the material on the topic.  The one report that has held fairly accurate to myself and my experiences in Wisconsin and Minnesota have been the rut predictions provided by the journalist of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine.

This year they predicted the peak seeking phase will occur 2-3 days before the rutting moon which was November 2nd.  If you read the posts on Talk Hunting.com or even read the outdoor section of newspapers in the Midwest, everybody started talking about the rut kicking in around the end of October.  What most people don't consider is the multiple "phases" a rut has.

There is the "seeking" phase where the bucks start getting more active, utilizing scrapes and rubs and are filmed on people trail cameras closer to daylight or during daylight, where before they were mostly nocturnal.  The next phase is the "chasing" phase where the does start coming into estrous and bucks (sometimes multiple) are actively chasing these does until the does chose their suitor.  This is the most common phase of the rut for most hunters as this is when they will see bucks and does running all over the place and it gets quite exciting.  The final phase is the "breeding" or tending phase of the rut.  This can be a "where did all the bucks go?" time among many hunters.  Does and bucks tend to be less mobile.  This is typically a short period of time in which the buck will breed the doe.  Then the buck is off and looking for the next estrous doe.

Well what does this mean to me?  Is that what you are asking right now?  Well for me personally in Minnesota it means the most exciting phase of the rut is starting this weekend November 7th which happens to be the firearm opener in Minnesota.  The chasing phase should continue at peak levels for the next 4 days and then start to decline.  This will be my first time I have hunted the peak rut period with a firearm versus my bow.  Unfortunately, I will only get out on Saturday and if I am not successful with a decent buck, then the DNR has my donation for the year.  But that donation will be well worth it, and supporting what I love.

Well the next question some people have asked me is..."didn't you hunt most of the peak seeking phase last week/weekend?"  The answer is yes I did put in many hours in the stand (blogs about the evenings to come in the next few days).  However, the weather (one of the key rut suppressors) did not cooperate.  It was windy (17-35 mph), and rainy (most of the time), and of course the full rutting moon did not help either.  This kept the deer less active during the day time and more active at night.  I did see some young deer, but I did not see the mature deer I was hoping to see moving around.  But that is why they call it hunting not harvesting.  Nothing is a guarantee.  However, if you consider the ability and opportunity to spend time in the outdoors a success, you will never be unsuccessful.

If you have failed to get out of the concrete forest to enjoy this wonderful time of year, don't fret as 3-4 weeks after a does first comes into estrous they will come into estrous again IF they have not been successfully breed.  Which means you will see another "mini" rut during the last days of November (WI Firearm season) and early December.  This rut will not be nearly as explosive as fewer does will need to be breed and much human pressure in the woods will have occurred, causing more nocturnal activity.

I hope this information was beneficial to you, and I wish everyone the best of luck chasing after their bucks.  I hope you enjoyed the bucks I caught on film in the days leading up to my "successful" trips to the woods last weekend.  These are the bucks I will hopefully be looking at in the upcoming days/weeks/months.

Shrubs for Ruffed Grouse

Three weekends ago my friend Andy and I explored some tax forfeited public land and state forest land for what many sports news articles have said was to be a good year for the ruffed grouse population.  This was the first time either of us had been on this land, so it was something we both looked forward to.  Exploring new woods means seeing some of God’s creation for the very first time...the way the hills flow, the trees branch out, and the wetlands rapidly appear (I have wet foot to prove this one!!).  It was AWESOME.  This was also the first time in 9 years I did not have my yellow lab Remington with me in the woods when I was shouldering a shotgun.  But his departure is another story for another day.  We saw no grouse, chased one squirrel to its den tree, and had a great nature walk.  It was at this time I gradually became educated as well.  As we were walking through the edge of the before mentioned wetland, Andy pointed to a small tree (really a shrub) and said, “Be on the lookout, grouse love these” as he was holding out these small berries.  I honestly never saw them before…most of my past grouse hunting experience was around poplar and pines.

The next weekend, my wife and I took our daughter Rachel (2 ½) and 12 week old black lab Winchester (Winnie) out to our land to grab pictures from the trail cameras, maybe surprise a squirrel or grouse, and to just get out in the snowy woods.  We had just received 1-2 inches and it was still not completely melted, this is the PERFECT condition to quickly see the deer movement and activities.  Rachel had a complete blast trotting around in the woods, riding on the ATV, and looking (hands cupped around her eyes) for deer and turkeys.  Another great surprise was the way Winnie moved through the woods.  She’s going to be a very good hunter…as long as I keep working with her and getting her out that is.  If you have ever had a hunting companion, you know what I am talking about.  The nose is to the ground, quickly turning on a dime because they caught scent of an animal, tail back…not really wagging, yet excited just the same.  It was great.  We also took this opportunity to look at the neighboring property as they are considering selling their 40 acres and we of course are considering buying it.  You can never have too much of God’s creation to enjoy during our time on earth.  Some people invest in mutual funds and have paper in safes, I like to invest in land and use it.  Rate of return is about the same, but land is much more rewarding.

After our time in the woods, I sat down on my couch and opened up the outdoor section of the sports pages to read this week’s articles.  The article which caught my eye second was “Think maroon when hunting ruffed grouse” (the first was the large picture of a yellow lab with a pheasant in his mouth).  The article was about grey dogwood shrubs.  As I read this, I thought back to when Andy mentioned that shrub and the grouse’s fixation with them.  I was sold…time to plant grey dogwoods on my property for the grouse and my falls will be filled with fun.

Then last weekend as I was sitting in my two-man wrap around Gorilla ladder stand looking over my food plot I saw a grouse fly down and land in the corner of the clearing in the bushes.  MAROON BUSHES!!!  Wait a minute, I thought to myself, I have seen grouse there a ton of times (never with a shotgun) and it is because of that BUSH!  Well I got down after my morning hunt and walked over to check out this miraculous shrub.  It had maroon leaves alright, but upon researching tonight, it was not a grey dogwood.  A dogwood has a round berry which is white.  This shrub had dangly mini grape cluster type seeds/fruit.  If anybody knows what this shrub is called, comment below or email me.  I will add a picture in a few weeks (when I am back up there) I am VERY curious and have not been able to find it online.  Well needless to say, I plan on planting more of these shrubs AND grey dogwoods on my property.  I love grouse…not just to hunt and eat, but to listen to their drumming in the spring and to be surprised during my walks in the wild…nothing like a good flush on a quiet still hunt to get your heart pumping.  Overall, I had 3 good weekends of getting away from the asphalt and concrete and enjoying God’s great creations with friends, family, and in solitude…the trifecta.

-----------------UPDATE (11/1/2009)-----------------
I took a good look at the bush I was talking about on the edge of my food plot and I was wrong.  It is a common useless bush.  I have a picture of the seeds (not posted), but once I noticed they were not gone I had to be incorrect.  I then noticed them all over the place on transitions from lowland to poplar thickets or clearings.  Nothing special.  Just pure coincidence of the grouse and that lone bush.  Just goes to show you even the most knowledgeable can be deceived if their desires overrule their common sense.  :)

Wolves

The topic of wolves and their presence throughout the northern USA is always a topic of debate. Which specific topic varies based on the individuals talking.

Among farmers the debate is heavily around their livestock. Among homeowners the debate is about their safety and the safety of their canine friends. Within the political arena, the debate is around "endangered" versus "managed". And with hunters the debate is about the affects on wildlife populations.

About 9 years ago, I was positive I saw a wolf during a deer drive as I was sneaking through the woods during WI whitetail firearm season. In our deer cabin in northern WI, the topic has come up in discussions with other hunters and especially when we see tracks in the snow which we debate over whether it is a large coyote or wolf. Until recently, we never added to the discussion the topic of their impact to the deer herd, it was always about the fact that the wolf packs introduced were finally making their way to our area of WI. Maybe that was due to the lack of deer population which already existed due to the lack of forestry management in the National forests.

The WI DNR does a very good job in recording and publicizing the impact to our canine friends and the safety precautions hunters and homeowners need to make in wolf populated areas. Prior to heavy populations of people in the United States, wolves were very prevalent throughout the northern states. As humans moved westerly and northerly, wolves were killed to protect livestock, people, wildlife, and for their hides. This caused the wolf populations to decrease to a danger of extinction. Here is where the debate starts. Some people would say "Good" as what benefits do wolves play in a nation of people and hunters. Human hunters are decent predators to wildlife populations; however, before human civilization, wolves were necessary to maintain healthy wildlife herds to avoid disease and over population. But there is just as large of a group of people (mostly those who do not live in wolf populated areas) who feel this majestic animal requires protection (which I do not disagree with) to keep them from becoming extinct. However, I am also in the opinion that human, livestock, pets, and wildlife preservation is more important and as wolf packs grow so does the safety of those four categories of living beings.

When I enjoyed the outdoors as a child and young man my only concern was the presence of black bears, but now I also need to be concern with the growing population of wolves. Bears are most dangerous when you are in the presence of a sow and her cub(s). So it is easy to recognize and avoid these situations. Wolves are also most dangerous in the presence of their pups. However, wolves are different. They hunt primarily in packs and when in packs are afraid of very little. "Strength in numbers." That statement is true with all living organisms. My neighbor of my wooded property in northern MN had an interesting experience this fall with a pack of wolves miles away from our land on some public land as they were bear hunting. He was sitting in a tree and heard the howls of wolves in all directions from a distance (miles). As the evening went on, the howling came closer until he was surrounded. Needless to say he felt very uncomfortable and phoned numerous friends to come and assist him to get out of the woods. WOW. That was my first reaction to this story when I heard it. My next reaction was WHY? Why do we continue to protect animals who threaten the lives of us. Again, what is their benefits to our outdoors? After many days of thinking about this, I have come up with nothing. They threaten our neighbors, kill our livestock, dogs, and wildlife. What do they give back to the ecosystem in which we live in? Nature viewing for the people thousands of miles away. They give National Geographic film footage and stories for their magazine. What do they provide to us? Insecurity is what they provide in my opinion. Before laws and special interest organizations, our forefathers eliminated the dangers around them. Why are we reversing those decisions now? I value a human life way more than the life a wolf. I apologize to those readers who disagree, but I also would love for you to give me logical feedback as to why we should continue to tolerate these dangerous animals.

Minnesota recently had delisted the wolf from the endangered species list and had introduced a management plan for regulated hunting seasons. However, due to a "technicality" in how the management documentation was submitted, the special interest groups appealed the delisting and the wolf became a protected animal again...not because the population was too small, not because the management plan was bad, but because of legal/political technicality. You can read here about the events around the Legal Status of wolves in MN. And while we wait for the legal system more livestock and dogs fall victim to these dangerous animals. And I walk through the woods with eyes on the back of my head.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the species of animal. It is a beautiful and majestic animal. One of power and grace. And I do enjoy seeing wolves in controlled environments (zoo, nature reserve, etc.). I would just prefer they did not exist in the wild where humans are endangered.

If you have interests or are curious about wolf populations and what the state and the state's DNR (or Fish and Game departments) are doing, check out their websites:

Minnesota
Idaho
Montana
Wisconsin
Michigan
Wyoming
Washington
Oregon
Colorado
North and South Dakota do not have information on Wolves.

And for information from one of the many special interest groups, here is the Defenders of Wildlife about wolves.

MN Archery Season Opener - Part 2

My Saturday morning cell phone alarm woke me up to 52 degree temperatures, a breakfast bar, banana, and some orange juice. I am a big advocate of scent free and was still "struggling" with the fact I could not shower before heading out into the woods. What I did have though was 3 year old Hunter Specialties Body and Hair Scent elimination lotion. I used this liberally and with the use of Primos Silver spray I was all set to head to the tree stand. The night before Shawn and I discussed how the location of the camp site and our presence may impact the deer movement. After walking only 80 yards from the campsite I kicked up a deer, which was heavy on the hoof and it did not know exactly what I was as it was very dark and it did not run away. It trotted 40-50 yards, stopped, and then slowly walked in front of me. I was already 15 minutes later than I wanted to be, so I kept my light just dim enough to see the ground and kept moving hoping this would let the deer think it went undetected.

When I reached my stand I quietly ascended the 17 feet to my hang on stand, hooked my hunter safety systems harness to the tree, pulled my bow up, hung it in the tree in front of me, and setup my camcorder. Now it was time for one of God's gifts, the beautiful awakening of the woods as squirrels and birds come to life and make the woods come alive. After an hour in the stand, the sun rose above the horizon and peeked through the tree tops. These two events made waking up at 5 am all worth it. If you have never experience what I have just described, you need to make it a "todo" for this year. Even if you don't hunt or fish, make a camping trip into a public park or state forest and experience the morning orchestra of the woods, there is little in life that compares.

Saturday morning and evening was uneventful for whitetail deer, but I wish I had my .22 rifle as the grey squirrels seemed to be everywhere taking full advantage of the plentiful acorn crop this year. In fact Saturday evening, one squirrel climbed down the tree in front of me and stopped abruptly at 4 feet from my head. If I had only turned the camera on...as I reached to turn it on, it spooked and ran back up the tree.

Sunday morning, much like Saturday morning came too quick and early, leaving both Shawn and I a little tired. But we were determined to make our last hunt for the weekend eventful. This morning I did not hear a deer on the way to my stand; however, Shawn surprised a singleton deer out of its bed 25 yards from his tree stand. As hard as he tried to not spook it, he was unsuccessful. As the morning went on, after the sun rose I was slightly disappointed in not seeing anything yet. Trail camera footage suggested I would see something on one of the mornings. I made a small plea to God to just allow me to see one deer and wouldn't you know it, 10 minutes later here came an early fawn all by itself. Unfortunately she surprised me by sneaking up on me and getting within 20 yards of me before I saw her. This meant I was unable to get my camcorder turned on and focused on her, so I sat back and took in the sights of watching her and her behavior. She did not behave like an ignorant fawn, yet couldn't have been more than 65 pounds. She was traveling the runway from the south and when she hit my shooting lane she turned toward my stand and literally brushed up against my tree as she fed on the undergrowth of the lowland pocket I was nestled in. After 10 minutes she was out of sight and I could no longer hear her. First thought was, maybe I will see more action this morning, and second thought was maybe that was the extent of my weekend hunt.

Twenty minutes later I heard a fawn bleat coming from where she left me and I heard running back and forth on the hardwood ridge, just out of sight. There is a significant coyote population and I thought maybe that fawn was being chased, so I quickly turned on my camcorder and got ready to possibly save her from the coyote. Soon the animals making the racket started moving on the runway in front of me and much to my pleasure the first animal I saw was a nice doe. She was followed by 2 fawns, then another doe and fawn, then another nice doe and finally that singleton fawn. The fawns were spreading out and playing, but the does were traveling on the runway no more than 6 yards from the base of my tree. I looked up at my camera and realized the does were barely in the picture, so I slowly reached up and aimed the camera down to capture all the deer activity. I then realized I needed to get my bow up and draw as the last doe was about to cross my shooting lane and the camera footage. I slowly drew back, waited for the doe to clear the trees, and released the arrow. Perfect shot behind the front shoulder and I watched her run off and listened for any noise which would indicate the success of my hunt. I heard a number of "crashes" and determined she was down. At that point the adrenaline kicked in and I felt my body doing a little shaking. What a feeling, it is the same feeling every hunter says, the day it stops is the day they stop hunting. In my unit I can take a doe or a buck with my archery tag and I purchased an additional bonus tag for an antlerless deer. So I waited 30 minutes for possibly more deer activity and to ensure the doe had time to settle down.

I lowered my bow to the ground and slowly climbed down out of the tree. I recovered my arrow and slowly followed the blood trail. The doe made a number of zig zags and at one point a deer kicked up from a bed and took off running. My first thought was "crap I didn't have a good of a shot as I thought, then I saw the deer and it was that singleton doe fawn again. I continued on the track and came up to the doe next to a large tree. At this time, I said my thanks to God for the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and to allow me to have a successful and safe hunt. She was a beautiful deer which dressed out around 125 lbs. It was only 8:15 when I got back to camp, so I waited until Shawn was done hunting so we could go recover the doe, pack up camp, and head home.

The rest of the evening was spent processing the deer. I used my grinder to coarse grind the sausage and hamburger meat for January meat processing with UNJ staff member Dan Block. I used my food saver to seal the two roasts (3.5 lbs each), the steaks, and the ground meat. Fresh venison on the grill was the immediate reward for all my efforts. What a way to start the Minnesota Archery season, and what a nice doe to be the first deer taken on my property. I have 15 more weeks of archery hunting to hopefully get the opportunity for a good buck.

Twas the Night before MN Archery Opener

For a little 4-1-1 about me I would like to detail this past weekend and in doing so I will be providing background history so you will quickly learn what, why, and who I am. This past weekend was Minnesota’s Archery and Small game opener. Being the avid bow hunter and archery advocate, I was so excited for the weekend that I took Friday off of work to travel up north to my property and get camp all setup and ready for the next morning. It will be a 2 part blog, with the first part providing my background and hunt setup and the second part describing my hunts.

I’ve been hunting since I got my first pellet gun at age 6, deer hunting since age 12, and bow hunting since I was 15 and will never stop. However, my father does not bow hunt which has left me making 70% of my bow hunting outings by myself. That has never been an issue for me as I enjoy the solitude and reflection archery provides away from the hectic activities of our “everyday” lives, but there is something about meeting back at camp to tell the stories of the day and of the days which have gone by. This weekend was different. An old college friend Shawn and I recently reconnected via Facebook (say what you want about this social network…but it does bring friends together) and we only live 15 minutes apart. His enthusiasm and love of the outdoors has quickly allowed us to become hunting partners (even if he does beat me in Cribbage).

As I mentioned, we were going to be hunting my private property. My wife and I purchased this 80 acre track in central MN in November of 2007. It has 48 acres of beautiful hardwoods (oaks, basswood, maple, poplar, etc.), an acre or two of open clearings (2 which have become food plots), 15 acres of muskeg and small tamarack lowland, and 15 acres of mature tamarack and spruce. This provides many “edge” scenarios which we all know are a whitetail’s favorite location. There is a gravel road on the eastern border and private land owners on all other sides. Public land is less than a mile away. There is no cabin, just a pop-up camper and a nice camping site which Dan Block, my cousin and Up North Journal Staff member, helped setup this spring. It's definitely not the Holiday Inn, but I'd rather rough it anyways as that adds to the atmosphere of the hunt and the stories which are told.

As I arrive at the parking spot on Friday morning with my Honda Rubicon ATV in tow, I realize that this weekend will be my first opportunity to experience my property. This year I kept my boat covered and focused all my free time to preparing the property for archery season. Camp site prep, ATV trail creation through the muskeg/tamarack swamp, food plots, 4 trail cameras, mineral licks, stand setups, etc. If it wasn’t for God and my family, hunting would be my life. But since there is God and family, hunting is just a part of my life.

I quickly unloaded my ATV from my trail, hooked the trailer to the ATV, and loaded all my supplies on to the trailer. This is the most efficient way of carrying my supplies over 800 feet of muskeg swamp. This is only possible due to a 50 year old “road” that is barely visible, but does provide enough foundation to not sink into the muck. As I setup camp, I learn that mice which had found my camper a few weeks earlier, have chewed holes in the canvas and screens. After hours of duct tape and bleach cleaning of EVERYTHING, I was ready to head out to hang my Lone Wolf Alpha stand and pull the 3 weeks of pictures from my 4 cameras.

I loaded up my gear and drove around the property on my “new” ATV trail which Shawn and I created 7 weeks ago. First stop was my Whitetail Institute 30-06 mineral lick and stand location. On the way there I realized that there are a TON of acorns and that I should have brought my hard hat. As I arrive at the site, I notice that the hardwoods are starting to change colors and some trees were already dropping their leaves. Luckily my stand is nestled among multiple trees with thick lowland cover all around so I have foreground and background cover for when the majestic whitetail comes meandering by. Stand up, safety harness strap installed, and camcorder arm installed and waiting for my first attempt at self videoing my hunts.

Now what about deer activity? I use Stealth Cam Rogue IR digital Infrared cameras with the setting for 1 picture every 5 minutes. So if a deer does hang around for a while I do get different views of the same animal. The camera at my stand location had 68 pictures mostly does, fawns, squirrels, and a small buck. The next camera on a north/south runway had 38 pictures (does, fawns, a different small buck, and a pine martin); however, this was for only 9 days as the pine martin decided to chew my Stealth Cam 12 volt battery cable. I guess it didn’t like to have its picture taken. Next stop my food plot camera…113 pictures. There were a TON of does, fawns, and turkeys and one nice 8 pointer. Last location is the east/west runway from the food plot through a funnel area and Shawn’s stand location. This camera had only 4 pictures of animals…a small 8 pointer, the large 8 pointer, the top of a deer’s back, and a deer in the distance. I guess if you are only going to have a few pictures, at least they were of decent bucks.

Once Shawn arrived and was settled in, we discussed our hunting plans for the next morning and when we anticipated getting back from our stands in case we need to go looking for each other. Whether you hunt alone or with someone, you should always have a plan so that if an unforeseen accident were to occur, help will be on its way and not waiting nearby. Whether it is a fall from a stand or being treed by a bear, every minute counts. As we started talking old hunting stories, Shawn decided to win a few hands of Cribbage before we headed to bed. It will be a night of little sleep for both of us as we were doing our best impersonation of children on Christmas Eve…who can sleep before the first day of deer season?

To Be Continued…