The rut was at its peak today in 127... looked promising..turned ugly

[huntnnw]

I work graves, I get off work and decide to pack up my gear and hit the stand. My camera has lots of bucks on it in daytime and hell it was opening day!! I have a 45 min drive from house to stand...in this 45 min drive I saw 17 bucks..everyone of them hounding does, saw 2 bruiser 5's and 2 big 4's.. I was quite excited to get in the stand this is looking amazing. I make it up to the road, 2ft of snow. The landowner has a gate on driveway, which I have never seen closed...its closed  crap. Back in August I spoke to him in reguards to archery hunting the area, he has a access road to IEP land, its land locked by private so he gave me permission to hunt.I then head down the road to another land owner I know and ask him why it was locked.. he says its not locked, it looks like it just open it and go in, gives me this landowners number. I head back up the road.... gate is really locked! So I decide to call him, no anwser I leave a message explaining who I am and thats my truck and I walked in. I look for a place to park with out blocking gate, this is where my ass end slides into a 4 ft ditch!! great I am stuck! I now hoof it back to the other landowners place to ask for a shovel, he comes up with a tow strap and yanks me out.This is where I just decide to park at his place and hoof it up the mountain, its now 12:30 mind you I am dressed for sitting in a treestand for 10 deg weather,so I take off all that I can and start walking make it to stand at 1:30! I am wet from sweating not good!! I grab my SD card out of trail cam to look at in stand 700 pics in 2 days,cool. Get all situated open hand warmers, drop one lol.. start viewing pics my camera dies! saw a hundred of them. Wind picks up now and begins to swirl, then the lovely sound of 2 deer blowing at me! That put an end to my night! Time to hoof it out. Just not a good day for me to be in the woods    I did get some good news, when I got to truck the landowner came out, he was just down the road chatting with neighbor, they were watching a 8x8 whitey in the trees, well he describes where it was, its only 300 yards from my stand! He said it was the biggest buck he has seen in 12 years living there! little bright spot in a crappy day!

[huntnnw]

Yep, brings me back for more!!

[DBHAWTHORNE]

I hope you can connect on that big one. You hunting tomorrow? I hunted the big woods in 117 today. Activity has really dropped off just like in 101. The area I am hunting has no other bowhunters hitting it. The big buck I was chasing there has also dropped off the map similar to the split G-2 in 101. Tonight I checked one of my cams down here and there is non-stop daylight activity. Biggest was a 130 class 4x4. Today there was literally only a one hour period without pictures beyond that there was never more than 10 minutes that went by without a photo. I also have three Moose killing my set.

[huntnnw]

YEAH ... I may have to find a new spot... this isnt looking good. The rutting activity to day was epic

[400out]

Sounds like your going back right? take a shovel and a come along and have fun 

[high country]

how much snow was up at your stand?

[MIKEXRAY]

That does suck, funny how fast you best plans can change. Hopefully your next day out is the opposite and everything gets better after leaving the house instead of worse. Good luck next time. Sounds like you have the setup. Mike

[DBHAWTHORNE]

Rutting hard today!!!

[jnevs23]

Huntnw I feel your pain.  I made a deal with the wife,  she takes a day off work and can go spend all my money at the mall and I get to hunt all day.  Sounded perfect until it dumped snow and she can't get around without 4x4.   So I ran a ford focus without studs or chains up mt spokane.  My usual 15 minute hike to my stand turned into a 2 mile uphill hike. Sweated my ass off now I'm freezing in my treestand.  My alfalfa is smoked to the point of me wondering if there is enough there to draw animal in. Deer moving like crazy on the way in but haven't seen an animal from stand.  Can't complain tho I'm hunting

[400out]

Huntnw I feel your pain.  I made a deal with the wife,  she takes a day off work and can go spend all my money at the mall and I get to hunt all day.  Sounded perfect until it dumped snow and she can't get around without 4x4.   So I ran a ford focus without studs or chains up mt spokane.  My usual 15 minute hike to my stand turned into a 2 mile uphill hike. Sweated my ass off now I'm freezing in my treestand.  My alfalfa is smoked to the point of me wondering if there is enough there to draw animal in. Deer moving like crazy on the way in but haven't seen an animal from stand.  Can't complain tho I'm hunting

the wife will love it when you get one in the back of her car 

[jnevs23]

The house that's earshot from my stand just fired up the snowblower and they are yelling back and forth.  Looks like this stand may be shot

[DBHAWTHORNE]

The house that's earshot from my stand just fired up the snowblower and they are yelling back and forth.  Looks like this stand may be shot

The deer are usually used to that stuff in those types of areas. I have areas that are close to houses and the deer go about business as usual.

[jnevs23]

It wasn't too bad until they started shooting some sort of guns.  I was surprised I didn't see much activity. I  Didn't see anything from the stand. I saw 5 doe while walking to another spot, 2 were bedded and I think I jumped 2 others out of beds and one walking alone.  I did manage to see a pretty nice 4x4 and was able to stalk to about 50 yards before he turned and bedded down with a Doe.  I sat on my knees for about 40 min trying everything I could to get his attention, grunted, doe bleat even rattled and he didn't care.  Finally the doe got up and took off and he followed.  Oh well at least I saw one nice buck on a day when everything else went wrong.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

I had five bucks and three does come by this morning in my south spot. The biggest buck was maybe 110 inches. This afternoon I hunted the big woods up north and had a 120 class 4x5, two does and two fawns come in. They were rutting north and south. I won't be hunting in the morning but I will hit it in the afternoon.

[huntnnw]

3ft of snow..got another landowner to let me hike through

[jnevs23]

I made it out today....sort of.  My wife worked Friday and Saturday night so the last two days have been shot for me for hunting.  We don't have any family in town so that makes finding a babysitter pretty tough. So after sitting around pouting all day Saturday and this morning I loaded up my daughter to go for a drive and see some deer.  I threw my bow in just for the hell of it.  I have 460 acres of land to hunt up there but only about 3/4 a mile of it is next to the road.  The chances of road hunting a deer with a bow is slim anyway but with 3/4 a mile it's very unlikely. 

[jnevs23]

(must have hit the wrong button) Anyway the deer were moving like crazy up around Mt. Spokane.  Once i finally get to the area I can hunt I'm driving down the road and I have permission on the left side but not the right.  Sure enough on the left side there are 2 doe with a pretty nice 4 pt behind them.  So i get out and take a couple pictures...does trot off and the buck follows.  I get back into the car and start fumbling to get my release on while motoring down the road.  Then in my rearview I see something move.  The doe's run across the road to the land I can hunt and the buck follows.  I throw it in reverse and the buck is standing broadside at 25 yards.  I get my release on pull out my bow nock and arrow and he's still standing there like a dummy.  Only problem was he had a bush covering the front shoulder.  I draw and start walking back trying to get an angle...I'm 2-3 steps from a clear shot and the doe's take off and he follows.  What are the chances.   The picture is kinda crappy I took it of the viewer on my camera with my phone.