2009 Deer Season Journal

I arrived late on Friday afternoon and wasted little time in heading out to collect camera memory cards and batteries. After checking the cameras I headed to the oldhouse area where I found that the feeder hadn’t been spinning out corn due to a clogged funnel. I beat the side of the can and corn once again spilled out onto the spinner plate. I climbed into the deer condo and watched one doe visit before it finally got dark.

On Saturday morning I climbed into a stand before daylight at the middle plot/feeder location where Ryan had shot his buck the week before. About a half hour later a five point buck showed up, but I had to go back to the house. On my way to the house I jumped a buck that appeared to be an eight point. When I returned about 20 minutes later there was a buck in the woods beyond the feeder, but I couldn’t tell exactly how big it was. After sitting in the stand for a while longer I realized that this feeder had clogged as well so I climbed down and beat on it like I did the night before. I little while later four does and a spike showed up to entertain me.

In the afternoon Ryan and I did some squirrel hunting. We saw a few squirrels and Ryan shot two. We searched for acorns and didn’t have any success.

In the evening I went back to the oldhouse and found that the feeder had clogged again. I’ll have to try to figure out what is going on with these feeders. Clogging funnels have not been a big problem for us in the past so we now have a new mystery to solve. I didn’t see any deer in the evening.

October 17th

Ryan got up at 5:50 AM and got to his stand at about 6:45 AM in the early morning darkness. Within minutes of sitting down the big ten came walking in while it was still too dark to see his site pins. The buck walked around for about ten minutes as the sky lightened. It was looking around and noticed Ryan sitting in his treestand. The deer didn't pay a lot of attention to him, but it walked over the hill to try to get a better look at. The buck then moved over to the mineral lick for a few minutes before leaving.

At around 7:50 a wide racked eight point showed up and milled around. Shortly after, the feeder spun and three does came running in to the feeder. Soon another eight point buck came in from the direction the ten point left and made the other eight point nervous. About five minutes later the big ten point came running in and all of the deer that were at the feeder scattered. The buck was once again staring Ryan down and he started to get buck fever. The ten point walked over to the mineral lick, which allowed me to get my bow off of the hanger and get ready. The buck then walked back in his direction, turned and gave Ryan a broadside shot. The shot hit the buck back, right in front of its rear hip, and the big ten point ran over the hill. Ryan climbed down and found good blood before leaving for help. Ryan wasn't happy with the shot but the decent blood calmed his fears.

Ryan came got me from my treestand and we decided to go ahead and start following the blood trail because of the wet ground. The trail wasn't difficult to follow and we found the big ten point lying about 150 yards from the shot.

This buck was a nice looking nine point last year and we let him walk. It looks like it was well worth it. We rough scored the buck in the 140's gross.

Here are three pictures of Ryan and his buck.