I made it up for the hunt.
I scouted Thurs and hunted Fri-Sat.
From glassing fields weds pm and thurs am, it was very apparent that shooting a buck in a bean field was not likely to happen easily. So I dove into the timber. I put over 30 miles on the boots in those 3 days. I found a ton of deer sign but didn’t find deer. Like, no deer
Figured they were in those spots all summer and got bumped off that stuff squirrel opener the weekend prior. But now knowing what the deer were keying in on, I found some similar spots on the map that looked more difficult to access. Found an area that was a long ways in and you had to cross water from any direction and decided I would still hunt my way in opening morning.
Bumped into two bucks bedded up under a persimmon tree next to a blowdown first thing in the morning. One stud and another really nice buck. They got up and ran a half circle headed back deeper into the timber where I just came from. About 200-300 yards back I had noticed a good funnel that had a huge blowdown near it that was all grown up with briars. I figured they would run to that blowdown and then stop to watch their back trail(otherwise open timber). So I dropped back and ran a loop away from them and circled to get the wind and flank them there. When I got to the spot I set up on an erosion bank and glassed up into the blowdown and seen a flicker. There they stood about 80 yards away on the edge of that blowdown staring back to where they came from.
I put the big deer in the scope, he was hard quarter away so I took the safety off and tried to settle the crosshairs on his hip. I was breathing too heavy from running and couldn’t get situated with a rest and he walked into the blowdown. I got my knee up to rest on and put the scope back to the opening and the second buck stepped in and I settled the crosshairs and started to squeeze. I stopped myself, I got greedy. I had the wind right and I thought if I just drop into the ditch it is quiet walking and it will take me right beside the blowdown and I will peak up and shoot the big one…
Well I go to slip down into the ditch and hold onto a big root to keep my balance so I don’t make noise and as soon as I grab that root, CRACK! It snaps off and I slide down the bank and look up to see two tails and racks bounding deeper into oblivion. I was sick. What an opportunity to blunder. Now they had the wind at their back and a lot more thick cover to work with where they headed, no way for me to loop and have a chance of relocating them. They won. I tucked my tail…
But at least now I knew where these bucks were holding up and how they were using the area. So I pointed my nose into the wind and moved ahead. Covered a few hundred yards and about 150 yards ahead I see a big patch of browse similar looking to where I jumped the first bucks, so I start to put the sneak on. I figured I would get into a little patch of brush right in front of me about 50 yards and then watch the larger brush line up ahead another 50 yards. Well about that time I see bucks getting up and scattering out of that little patch of brush from behind a log. The wind had swirled a bit and they were looking in all directions not sure where I was. One buck steps out into an opening about 60 yards and I throw up on him, he’s about a 100” 8pt and I knew I saw a big rack on at least one when they got up so I just waited. He slipped off and I see a bigger 8 coming for the lane but he takes off on a dead run and I didn’t want to pop a shot at him blurring thru the lane, the third buck split off and never offered a good look and I think he was the biggest of them all.
Now I am really laughing at myself. Didn’t learn my lesson the first time and got greedy again. But 5 racked bucks in the first couple hours of hunting I figured I would just hunt hard the rest of the day and the next and I would get my chance. But unfortunately the person I went on the trip with was not in the same mindset. He just was not physically able to keep up with covering ground to get it done. It was just too hot. We ended up going back to nap at the hotel and wait for the evening hunt.
For the evening we went to glass a secluded bean field to setup on some bucks we found Thursday afternoon.
Unfortunately the wind was just too finicky, finally it swirled enough times and blew out some does. Bucks never showed.
Next morning we went to setup on the bedding areas I jumped the bachelor groups out of the prior morning. They never showed.
That evening we watched some secluded ag surrounded by CRP. The person I was with did exactly what I told him not to do and walked to the upwind side of the crp and blew the deer out.
If I do the hunt next year I will be going solo or bringing someone different… oh I didn’t mention the person I went with didn’t tell me until on the drive up that he ‘forgot’ to take Monday off work which is why we were only able to hunt Fri-Sat.
So my conclusion is if you think you will drive there from out of state and expect to just shoot a big deer in a bean field or catch a buck on a lazy summer pattern you are wasting your time. Finding a public bean field that isn’t surrounded by orange is tough. And those deer were as on edge as any deer I have hunted anywhere, at any time of year. Your chances are better going to hunt one of your typical early season bow hunting states that doesn’t have squirrel opener the weekend before and resident ‘free’ hunting day on the same weekend as the velvet hunt.
It was a fun hunt, great way to shake the rust off and I want to do it again, especially since I scouted so much and gained so much intel. But for me, hunting in 100° weather is normal and there wasn’t half the biting insects as what I am used to
Also man is it nice hunting swamps that don’t have alligators.
But all in all it was not really what I was expecting, not that I was expecting it to be easy, but I wasn’t expecting the amount of pressure that was there. The bucks were already pretty locked in with solid bedding and acting nocturnal. This was unlike any other early season hunt I had been on.
