I live and hunt in the Adirondacks of New York. I belong to a club which has access to 9k acres of land. I have been hunting for the past 4 years and constantly wonder why I hadn't started sooner. What I love most about where I live is we have one week of early muzzleloader from about Oct 15 - 21 (give or take a day here & there) and then Rifle season opens from Oct 22 until the first full weekend in December. Thats right... six weeks of being in the woods. While my wife hates it I love it and slowly she's getting used to it.
Anyway Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) I went down to go out, planning on doing some drives with my buddy and his brother and sister. His sister calls about 6:30 am and says the weather is too nasty and she'll wait an hour to see if it subsides (it was, I drove through it - nasty band of snow - I made through but going was real slow). My buddy is not too happy in this kink in his plans and tells me "Don't let us hold you up. Go out where you wanted to go." At this point I was planning on spending the most of the day doing drives across the club. I was dressed and ready to go out so feeling the end of the season coming and not wanting to waste anymore time I decided to go out. I told him I had my radio and to call me when they finally got into the woods. I told him where I was going and the only thing he told me was to focus on the spruces as most of the sign he was seeing was in and around spruce thickets.
I got into the woods after daylight and decided to see if I could track something due to the new snow.Having a GPS I turned it on and decided to go for a walk. I wasn't having much luck coming across a track here and there. I walked about 2/3 to 3/4 mile over land I had never seen, sitting here and there. Anyway I came across a little knob that was surrounded by spruces and other conifers. I figured this is good a spot as any and I set up shop. I looked at my watch and it was 9 am. I got out my Primos "Can Call" and let it go 15 - 20 times, waited ten or so minutes and hit it again. At about 9:20 I heard something to my right and looked over to see 4 does moving towards me about 20 yards out. Two had their tails up and the other two didn't. They moved across never picking up on my presence. I waited anoter 15 minutes and hit the call again. I no sooner put it down and noticed movement from where the does cames from and see a deer's back. I look over and it moves and it is another doe. I sit tight and this on comes within 15 yards of me and decides to come directly up on the knob not 20 feet from me. With the wind blowing in my face I figure I've been made but she never gives any indication that she knows I'm there.
I let another 15 or so minutes go by and hit the call again. At this point the cold is getting to me and my foot is aspleep but I say I've got to stick it out another 15 minutes. I lean back to zip my coat up, scan the woods, and as I come across I see deer, then horns - broadside facing my left about 35 yards out. I raise my gun for the moment of truth. I put the cross hairs on the shoulder and touch one off. He turned away from me and took off. My first thought was I missed but I sat tight until I could no longer. I went to where he was standing and didn't immediately see any blood. I started getting discouraged when I saw a tiny pice of tissue and a real fine spray pattern of blood. Then my day got much brighter. I wasn't sure where I hit him as I had doubt about my rifle sighting due to slipping and banging the butt of the gun. I starting tracking the blood which was here and there, but not much of it. I told myself to relax and wait a half hour, he was wounded but you know the excitement. I saw a large log he went over and decided to sit tight and mark the blood trail on the GPS. As I waited for the GPS to lock in I looked to my left into the spuce thicket and there he lay - 9 points and about 160 lbs (two scales, two different weights & we'll save that for another day). Remington 740 Woodsmaster in 30-06, 150 grain Core-Lockt
Sorry for the long post but two days later and I'm still pumped. The only greater high was when my daughter was born.
Anyway Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) I went down to go out, planning on doing some drives with my buddy and his brother and sister. His sister calls about 6:30 am and says the weather is too nasty and she'll wait an hour to see if it subsides (it was, I drove through it - nasty band of snow - I made through but going was real slow). My buddy is not too happy in this kink in his plans and tells me "Don't let us hold you up. Go out where you wanted to go." At this point I was planning on spending the most of the day doing drives across the club. I was dressed and ready to go out so feeling the end of the season coming and not wanting to waste anymore time I decided to go out. I told him I had my radio and to call me when they finally got into the woods. I told him where I was going and the only thing he told me was to focus on the spruces as most of the sign he was seeing was in and around spruce thickets.
I got into the woods after daylight and decided to see if I could track something due to the new snow.Having a GPS I turned it on and decided to go for a walk. I wasn't having much luck coming across a track here and there. I walked about 2/3 to 3/4 mile over land I had never seen, sitting here and there. Anyway I came across a little knob that was surrounded by spruces and other conifers. I figured this is good a spot as any and I set up shop. I looked at my watch and it was 9 am. I got out my Primos "Can Call" and let it go 15 - 20 times, waited ten or so minutes and hit it again. At about 9:20 I heard something to my right and looked over to see 4 does moving towards me about 20 yards out. Two had their tails up and the other two didn't. They moved across never picking up on my presence. I waited anoter 15 minutes and hit the call again. I no sooner put it down and noticed movement from where the does cames from and see a deer's back. I look over and it moves and it is another doe. I sit tight and this on comes within 15 yards of me and decides to come directly up on the knob not 20 feet from me. With the wind blowing in my face I figure I've been made but she never gives any indication that she knows I'm there.
I let another 15 or so minutes go by and hit the call again. At this point the cold is getting to me and my foot is aspleep but I say I've got to stick it out another 15 minutes. I lean back to zip my coat up, scan the woods, and as I come across I see deer, then horns - broadside facing my left about 35 yards out. I raise my gun for the moment of truth. I put the cross hairs on the shoulder and touch one off. He turned away from me and took off. My first thought was I missed but I sat tight until I could no longer. I went to where he was standing and didn't immediately see any blood. I started getting discouraged when I saw a tiny pice of tissue and a real fine spray pattern of blood. Then my day got much brighter. I wasn't sure where I hit him as I had doubt about my rifle sighting due to slipping and banging the butt of the gun. I starting tracking the blood which was here and there, but not much of it. I told myself to relax and wait a half hour, he was wounded but you know the excitement. I saw a large log he went over and decided to sit tight and mark the blood trail on the GPS. As I waited for the GPS to lock in I looked to my left into the spuce thicket and there he lay - 9 points and about 160 lbs (two scales, two different weights & we'll save that for another day). Remington 740 Woodsmaster in 30-06, 150 grain Core-Lockt
Sorry for the long post but two days later and I'm still pumped. The only greater high was when my daughter was born.