The north woods are beautiful and I was a bit surprised to find out I had it almost all to myself. The woods are a bit more open then I’m used to. There are a lot more hardwoods and rolling terrain with many streams running thru the valleys.
I would consider the deer numbers to be good but finding a big one turned out to be a difficult task. I put on a ton of miles driving forest roads searching for big tracks.
One day I found a great looking track and set off after him. He had crossed 2 roads before I started tracking (circling around in front of a track with your truck can sometimes save you a lot of walking). I set a good pace because he was paralleling a road and the hardwoods were fairly open and I didn’t expect him to be still in that type of cover. To my surprise I crested a ridge and there he was 50 yards away bedded under a cedar tree. He never heard or saw me approach. I stood there and watched him chew his cud. His rack didn’t match his track size so I decided to shoot him with my camera instead of my muzzleloader. I actually had to whistle at him to get him to his feet. Though I didn’t shoot him I felt my hunt was a success because I outsmarted a nice big woods buck.
I never did fill my tag but I had a great hunt. During the 9 days that I hunted I passed on one buck, I caught up to a good buck that offered me a 100 yard shot thru whippy regrowth but I didn’t connect. I also bumped a buck that I wasn’t tracking that was a shooter but didn’t get on him quick enough. I also ran into a fawn that let me get to within 20 yds.
I learned a lot and got to put a lot of time in on tracks that were on snow that was many days old. Also the cold weather kept the 5 -6” deep snow sugary which made aging and sizing and keeping with a specific track a challenge.
How big were the "shooters" you ran into?
