Rut Recap
This November has been very mild with above average temperatures almost every day. This weather has been a factor to what has been a difficult rut in my opinion. In speaking with several other hunters, rut activity has been fairly strong in the mornings with the cooler temperatures, but the majority of the activity has been small bucks chasing does. A few hunters have had some big buck encounters, but they have been few and far between. There is a major weather system hitting the Midwest tomorrow which will bring cooler temperatures. Hopefully this cool down and bucks trying to find the last few receptive does will provide some late November action the next 7-10 days.
Hunt 16 November 12 Location Iowa
Temp 50F Wind SSW 10 mph Barometric Pressure 30.17 (falling) Moon Waxing Gibbous
I was back in the wood lot funnel stand for the evening hunt. After a 36 hour bout of the stomach flu, I was finally feeling well enough to get back in the stand. At about 3:45 I saw a buck slowly working his way through the woods from the south. It was the 8 pointer with the crooked right G2. He was walking in my direction when all of a sudden about 100 yards from my stand he bedded down. I contemplated calling to him with a grunt call, but ultimately determined to let him move naturally. I still was not certain that this was the buck that I wanted to harvest. I had set a goal of harvesting a Pope and Young whitetail this year, and this buck was not going to meet that goal. As I watched the buck while he was bedded I decided that I would shoot if he presented me a shot. After being bedded for 30 minutes, the buck rose and continued to work his way closer to me. Next came the moment of truth. The buck slowly walked through my shooting lanes at 23 yards. I was already at full draw from when he previously passed behind a large oak tree. I placed the pin just behind the front shoulder for a heart shot and released the arrow. The arrow did not find its mark. I hit the buck low and forward, high in the upper leg. The buck started walking away while examining the cut in his leg. I frantically knocked another arrow in hopes to get a follow up shot. The buck moved off into some thick brush, not presenting me another shot. For the next 45 minutes I watched the buck lick his wound and then bed down on the edge of the woods. When he bedded down again, I was hopeful that the arrow may have deflected into the body cavity, but that was not the case. At sunset, he got up from his bed and walked across the county road into the other small wood lot. I did not find any blood when I climbed down from my stand, and my arrow only had a little blood and white hair on it. Wounding and losing an animal is a bowhunter's nightmare. The feeling is terrible, but I am confident that in this case the deer will survive as this was barely even a flesh wound.
Hunt 17 November 13 Location Iowa/Minnesota
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| MN Firearm season tag soup |
I went back to the same wood lot for the morning hunt. The plan was to hunt the bedding area stand in hopes that the buck I hit from the night before would be working his way back to his bed. I had early action with a small buck chasing a doe and fawn at sunrise. An hour later another small buck chased another doe into the bedding area's thick brush. After the action slowed, I checked the area where I hit the buck the night before for blood. I only found a couple of tufts of white hair. It was back to Minnesota for the evening to sit in the Oak Flat stand for the final hours of the Minnesota firearm season. Deer movement was non-existent, a common theme for the past 10 days in Minnesota.
KK
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