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Day 6

We woke up to snow, which was great, and high winds, which was not great. The forecast called for more snow and a cold north wind. Temperatures were also going to plummet. We're at day 6 and time is running out. So we discussed several options but one of them was appealing to me and that was to hunt the tree belt. This stand is my favorite and the one where I shot that 190" buck two years ago. There was a problem, however. The rancher just opened this pasture up to his cows and the cows ate all the bait. I wasn't having too much luck over bait so I thought that maybe I could hunt here anyways. Bucks love to cruise the south side of the tree belt on a stiff north wind so I thought, what the hell. Given that this stand didn't have bait, I also assumed the cows would be elsewhere.

The weather was brutal, but it sure was beautiful this morning

At first light I saw a couple of does and one small buck. It was slow. Then I saw cows coming. I assumed that since there was no more bait here the cows would not come around. That assumption was incorrect. They all came through and made a racket - fighting and breaking stuff. I absolutely hate hunting around cows and made a mistake hunting here. They eventually moved on and 30 minutes later a hot doe came by followed by a small buck. He played hide-and-go-seek with her around my stand. It was fun to watch. She was able to ditch him and came back around the stand. Then I heard a grunt behind me and a mature buck ran in then pushed her out. I couldn't even tell if he was a shooter it happened so fast. I caught him on video. When I watched it later, he was a mature buck and potentially a shooter. It was hard to tell by the video.

This buck came out of nowhere and was only under me for a second before he ran the doe off. They are chasing hard today!

The wind was howling at 30mph and the temperatures were in the low twenties. It was brutal cold with that wind. I stayed until 10:30 and when the cows reappeared I called the morning hunt quits.

I totally blew it this afternoon.

The wind was brutal all day. It was bitter cold and the wind never layed down. So I wasn't all that anxious to climb back into a stand and freeze my ass off. I bundled up as well as I could and we left the house at 3PM. A little later than normal but we didn't expect there to be much movement in this wind. When Kent and I arrived at the stand it was 3:30 and we both knew it was stupid to hunt in this wind. It wasn't so much about the cold, I don't know that I could make an ethical shot. The nearly constant 30mph wind would more than likely drift my arrow. At the last minute we decided to go to the South Pasture ground blind. I had hunted there a few days ago because there is a giant non-typical in there. The wind was good for that blind and it would be far more comfortable and the shot would not be cross-wind. Kent and I headed there even though it was getting late.

The blind is in a slight depression, so you have to crest a hill before dropping down to the blind. As we did that, 3 bucks ran off. A dink, a shooter 8 or 10, and the giant non-typical. Crap! Had we come straight here I would have killed the non-typical.

I sat in the blind for two hours and only a couple of does showed up.

This hunt is now down to the wire. I am heading right back to that blind for my last morning.