I spent the weekend in the woods still hunting at a snail's pace and did some sits in a couple high traffic areas as well. I saw 11 doe's this weekend. 3 on Saturday and 8 today. Saturday morning I was still hunting a massive bench in some old growth. I was approaching a random alder thicket very slowly when all of a sudden it exploded with a doe! couldn't stay with her. went to a new spot which is made up of a massive clearcut with various good sized timber stands here and there. I walked into that spot over a mile and hunted some great stuff only to walk back at dark and jump two does right at my truck!
This morning I went in at first light to where I had jumped the doe's last night. My plan was to find an ambush spot where they were in the clear cut. I got to where they were and something about 100 yards to my left caught my eye. it was a doe's tail flipping around. She was shaking last nights rain off and eating. I stayed still and watched while trying to plan how I would get in bow range. Then I saw she was with two other doe's. they must have seen me lift my rangefinder cause they turned and made a run for it into a swampy alder stand.
I started heading down the road that splits the clear cut. My plan was to still hunt through an old growth timber stand a ways down the road that has 10' reprod bordering one side of it. I ended up bumping two more doe's in the cut to my right as I was walking in. so that was five deer in the first half hour or so of hunting!
After not seeing anything in the old growth stand I went back to the truck and drove down some logging roads in the snow to see if I could find a player. I had two doe's run across the road in front of me. They came out of one reprod patch and went into another. I jumped out of the truck and pursued into the reprod patch but it was thick and they were gone.
So I figured since I had seen so many deer in one small area where I was this morning and last night, I should head back and just sit and wait. along the road opposite of where I jumped the two does last night at my truck there are a few fir trees. I found one with really low hanging branches and sat under it. It was a perfect, natural ground blind and I was set up with killer shooting lanes where I thought the deer would come. I sat from 3:30pm to 4:45pm. at 4:45 I watched a single doe cross into the clear cut just like I had planned. Except she had other plans and went away from where I figured she'd come to. I know she didn't see me which was a huge rush because I finally had the upper hand. Too bad she didn't come in closer. When I saw she was heading away I crept out of the blind in pursuit. I saw her go behind a little knob in the cut and then I lost her.
moral of the story is that still hunting is tough! I'm getting a tree stand for sure! I'm pretty stealthy and literally take a couple steps every minute most of the time but every deer I have seen this year while still hunting has seen me before I've seen them. And the only reason I see them is because they bust out of where they were watching me from. Deer would be phenomenal people hunters if they had weapons. Haha.
Thanks for listening to my sob story. I'm glad I saw so many deer this weekend but I'm open to suggestions on how to up my still hunt game.
Thanks,
Drew
