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DAY 7

Wednesday Morning Hunt

We had watched the weather forecast last evening and hoped that things would change. Temps in the 70's with very light winds. I've been here before and know what happens. Nothing. And that's what happened to us for our last day. We agonized over our stand choices before dawn. My choice was the cedar tree stand north of town. I had one small buck come by just at sunrise and that was the last deer I saw till Kent picked me up at 11. We also picked up Greg and he had a similar experience.

Wednesday Afternoon Hunt

With both of us down to the wire our evening stand choice became that much more critical. Greg went to the Round Bale stand and I went back to the River stand where I've been hunting all week. The wind was perfect, a consistent NE wind worked well here two days ago. It was still very hot. Over 70 and that made me nervous, but just as the sun dipped below the horizon and does started funneling out of the trees I knew I had made a good choice. Does this time of year are like gold. The first group of three came in and fed, followed by a 2nd group of 4, then more does started coming in from the South. It was ridiculous. Before it was too dark to shoot I had 15 does under my tree stand. But not a single buck?

This happens during this time of year. The majority of the does are not yet in heat. So the ones that go early are chased by a bunch of the bucks in the area. If you remember back seven years, to my first live hunt here, you can see a vide of 9 bucks chasing one doe. We think that was going on here the last couple of days. Bad timing for sure, and the heat didn't help either.

My hunt ended and all I could think about now was Greg's hunt. When I got into Kent's truck I found out that Greg saw zip as well. I was really disappointed for Greg. This was Greg's first guided hunt in North America and although he had fun, and saw a lot of deer, he only had a shot at a shooter buck on his first morning. Our hunt is now over and although it was a tougher hunt than usual, it was still a great hunt. I saw my highest scoring buck ever, my biggest bodied buck ever, and I passed up some really nice shooters. Stuff happens. Maybe I'll be back in December. As usual, thanks for following along again this year.