Happy and sad to fill my last buck tag this afternoon. It took a little work to get him out of the ravine, but I was able to go up the hill a little and bring the 4 wheeler down to it. Definitely need to get a sled so my wife doesn't need to come and help because it was a struggle this time getting him up on the 4 wheeler even with her help. We had to push it up, she held it and I tied it off, then went back and pushed it up more, finally got it all the way on.
An observation tonight:
I got to the blind around 3:20 and a button buck came out of the woods around 3:40pm and was munching for around 15 minutes and his head popped up a few times looking south into the wind. I've always understood that deer walk into the wind to test it, but he came in from the east and I was in the blind north of him on the north side of the field with the wind coming from the south. Now, to complicate what I thought I was told, the 8 point I took, 130 yards, came from the south walking in WITH the wind.
When I came out of the blind around 4pm to find the 8 point, another buck from south south west of the field snorted at me. Surprisingly, this big dude decided to walk out and across the field within 100 yards of us when we came out of the woods after loading up the 8 point to pick up the heavy coat I left. He was huge, but it was dusk enough to not be able to see the rack. Also coming from where he was was a young doe, but she crossed west to east across the trail to the house. Traffic jam in the field up there this evening!
Last Thursday evening just as the storm was moving in, I saw a doe and triplets and two turkey in the same field. No doe in the field this evening until we were leaving. Two mature doe out front of the house when I was coming up the lane on the way back from the butcher.
So, the questions:
If two bucks come out of the woods from different side and at different times and NOT with the wind, are they having a buck convention, suggesting, if there's plenty of light, I should hold tight and wait for another larger buck to join them? Especially if they're not going anywhere, just munching. It was around 3:55pm and sunny when the 8 point came out so there was plenty of time to be patient.
Any thoughts on why none of them paid attention to the wind? Even the huge buck at dusk was walking across the field with the wind.
When is the second rut in NW TN? Are they getting back into bachelor groups at this point? We've been here 14 months and this is the first hunting I've done here so there's a lot to learn.
I think I found our first scrape today and we found where they are traveling heavily in a shallow ravine up into the field. The path is about 18" wide and mud packed, no leaves in it. Very cool to find this. The turkey came out of this area on the east side of the field.
Pictures:
This dude was heavY!
He got his rack on the ground side wrapped around a sapling:
Button buck was the first deer to come out 3:40, came out of the woods to the east where the buck ran after being hit. This stand is on the south side of the field:
An observation tonight:
I got to the blind around 3:20 and a button buck came out of the woods around 3:40pm and was munching for around 15 minutes and his head popped up a few times looking south into the wind. I've always understood that deer walk into the wind to test it, but he came in from the east and I was in the blind north of him on the north side of the field with the wind coming from the south. Now, to complicate what I thought I was told, the 8 point I took, 130 yards, came from the south walking in WITH the wind.
When I came out of the blind around 4pm to find the 8 point, another buck from south south west of the field snorted at me. Surprisingly, this big dude decided to walk out and across the field within 100 yards of us when we came out of the woods after loading up the 8 point to pick up the heavy coat I left. He was huge, but it was dusk enough to not be able to see the rack. Also coming from where he was was a young doe, but she crossed west to east across the trail to the house. Traffic jam in the field up there this evening!
Last Thursday evening just as the storm was moving in, I saw a doe and triplets and two turkey in the same field. No doe in the field this evening until we were leaving. Two mature doe out front of the house when I was coming up the lane on the way back from the butcher.
So, the questions:
If two bucks come out of the woods from different side and at different times and NOT with the wind, are they having a buck convention, suggesting, if there's plenty of light, I should hold tight and wait for another larger buck to join them? Especially if they're not going anywhere, just munching. It was around 3:55pm and sunny when the 8 point came out so there was plenty of time to be patient.
Any thoughts on why none of them paid attention to the wind? Even the huge buck at dusk was walking across the field with the wind.
When is the second rut in NW TN? Are they getting back into bachelor groups at this point? We've been here 14 months and this is the first hunting I've done here so there's a lot to learn.
I think I found our first scrape today and we found where they are traveling heavily in a shallow ravine up into the field. The path is about 18" wide and mud packed, no leaves in it. Very cool to find this. The turkey came out of this area on the east side of the field.
Pictures:
This dude was heavY!
He got his rack on the ground side wrapped around a sapling:
Button buck was the first deer to come out 3:40, came out of the woods to the east where the buck ran after being hit. This stand is on the south side of the field:
