***Great spot for a ruffie to read the morning paper.
*** This rub was high and wide even though it's on a small tree. Big bucks sometimes pick on little trees. Little bucks don't usually pick on big trees.
***I was onto this buck on bare ground. He made this rub and I jumped him 50 yards from here. Plenty of time to hunt him that day after jumping him. Miles of public to work with, no hunters. [glow=red]But no snow.[/glow] He was in the same area again the next day, bedded high. I should have put my Lone Wolf in the area where I jumped him and hunted him the very next morning or I should have still-hunted over the ridge from the prevailing wind side and poked around -- he was bedded on the leeward side watching down the next morning - this was his home turf. They weren't traveling much yet. However, you could hear a pin drop in the woods that next day. It would have been a miracle to get that buck. He wasn't a stupid one. I needed snow to have a chance.
*** Some matching sheds I picked up
*** Cool looking deciduous conifer getting ready to drop its needles.
*** Here's a good story that includes the "toilet paper trick" for tracking a crippled deer. I was "only going to shoot one for the wall" this year. But on day 13 in a row of hunting dark-to-dark, in the rain, snow, cold etc., and passing up bucks... I was making a long tending grunt "fogging the mirror" into a True Talker and making the short/whiny adult doe blats with a can, together in a long sequence, on a dead silent afternoon. Anyway, I think he wanted to kill me for hitting on his doe in heat. ... he came charging in, his rack was outside the ears, and he looked like he had a big body... without thinking much about it I shot him. Apparently even though the sight picture looked OK - I made a bad shot. Snow got me going in the right direction because I could follow his tracks. Then he went in an area with bare ground only, slowing things way down. But he had started bleeding a little so I knew he was injured. At that point my dad had joined me and I said - "stay or go, I'm pushing this buck and I'm not giving up." I had extra batteries, good flashlights, wool clothes on etc... Leaving him overnight was not an option if I was going to get this buck. 33 degrees, rain, etc. I decided to push him as hard as I could to see if I could make something to happen with that injury. As luck would have it, and I still can't believe it, [glow=red]he stabbed his face[/glow] on a stick badly in the dark and stood there a while and I made up some ground... then I had a better blood trail to pick up the pace and push him for a while.
Anyway, Dan if you read this - I used the [glow=red]toilet paper on branches trick[/glow] so I could mark last blood and make arcs in the woods looking for next blood. I'm so thankful that tip came to mind when I needed it. That's all I had to mark last blood on the bare ground. It made a huge difference and is something I'll never forget. My dad thought that was really smart too.
Anyway... I kept pushing the buck and all of a sudden all broke loose and there was blood everywhere and not far, a dead deer. I think I clipped a single lung and he just didn't leave a blood trail. I don't think I hit any branches or anything though I guess I don't know for sure. Anyway, he went around 3/4 of a mile thru nasty stuff and that is a long way with little blood and no snow... It took over 2.5 hours of tracking.
So though it's not going on the wall and when I shot this buck I had some buyers remorse..., after winging him and finding him after a difficult track I'm as proud of this buck as any buck I've ever shot.
I have 5 more days to hunt for a trophy in MN. If my wife is able to hang onto her tag after next weekend then we'll do some double-team tracking in the big woods of NE Minnesota in the snow with our muzzleloaders. I still have my Ontario tag but probably won't make it back up there. I didn't shoot a deer there. I had some 4x4s and 3x3s at 20 yards, and other cruft bucks, but let them go. They weren't moving much. They just starting to make good sign on the last couple days. There were a lot of hunters in some areas but fortunately those guys stick close to their baits. I still-hunted for 8 days dark to dark ... Which is fun. Learned some stuff. Ate a tag.
Also, my childhood hunting partner / first cousin moved to Florida 22 years ago. That was a huge bummer. This year he was able to come deer hunting for the first time in 22 years. He only had three days. He let a fork-horn buck go in a snow storm, while still-hunting. He only wanted an 8 point or better, even after 22 years of not shooting a deer. The next day he shot his 8 point buck. He probably doesn't want his picture on here but it's pretty much like the one I shot ... so, in my mind, this season has been a total success.
