12-16-2017, 03:53 AM
So, I never got a chance to report the results of the woods weekend, but suffice it to say that success was had!
I was skunked Friday evening, and then again Saturday morning, probably due to the fact that I have very little experience hunting pasture lowlands and never got very well concealed. I'm sure the deer were looking at me laughing at my feeble attempts to locate and design a good shooting position... Oh well, I learned some good lessons about what I should look for in so far as lay of the land is concerned. In my defense I'd never been to this place until about 1PM Friday afternoon, and what scouting I could do in two or so hours would have to do for that night and the next morning's hunts. Needless to say, it wasn't enough time, even with the ride through the lead cowboy offered. It was a perfect ride around the property lines, and across the bluff feeding the cows and heifers he wanted to get to along the way. If it wasn't a 3.5 mile hike, I would have pitched a tent up there and probably had my pick of rather amazing shooting lanes(in any direction). But I am older than I was the last time I walked that far across open terrain, and the 23 degree wind chill that was coming after the sun was down wasn't on my side. The 19 degrees that was coming for the following morning was even more unsettling as I do not at this point have enough good quality gear for that kind of weather. The pack I had would mean I was more limited to the general location of the camper where I was to stay the night. So, not to be deterred - I "hunted" my selected spots.
That evenings hunt spot was a wooded dam containing a stock pond of a pasture that had been freshly liberated of the group of cows calling it home. It was visible from the bluff above and I had decided that given the wind, the terrain, and the ability to conceal in one of several cedar trees I had imagined that the deer would have been moving in for water that evening or even feeding on the grasses down from the bluff. Neither was true. I had placed myself right, with the wind in my face, the trails all on the far side of the pond leading down. It just wasn't to be. I ranged the trees around the pond at 75-125 yards, the foot of the bluff at 270, and the pasture left and right in the 300s. I whipped out my phone, looked up the drops for ELD-M in my Ballistics-AE and decided that anything beyond 250 would get a simple two mill hold. At less than 400, that means 5" target impact zone, if my calculations are correct, and my assumptions are still clean. I went to bed surprised that I hadn't even heard a grunt, much less seeing anything. (I blame it on my bleat call, as it is about 7 years old, and probably has less use than your VCR does in that same span...) Seriously though, I will go back there. There were tracks all over the pond, I looked via headlamp after sunset, still thinking that I'd scare something up. Never happened.
That morning I was up and out of the camper at 4. The moon was out, and it looked like daylight. It was horrendously bright. Bad news. Any moving Mr and Mrs deer were doing was going on whilst the world slept, and would long since be over when the "legal shooting hours" would begin. Here in KS, that is 30 mins prior to sunrise and after sunset. Sunrise was scheduled for somewhere around 0620. At 5 I was climbing the hill in the Sun-Moonlight into a rather stiff oncoming COLD wind that made my eyes water like the fountain free. I could see fine as bright as it was, I even left the headlamp in the camper and took my flashlight along in a pocket just in case I found myself in the shadows of the three trees that were in the area I was headed. I think it's still in my jacket, I need to go get that thing before it gets lost and replaced - again... The sunrise was absolutely amazing, folks. There is something about Kansas sunrises and sunsets - you can see them from left to right as far as the eye can see - at eye level. There are places in western OK, and western TX that I have seen sunrises similar, but none as beautiful as the ones you see when you're at home. There must be something to that I recon. I digress. The wind was good ol' Kansas prairie cleaner wind. Dust bowl wind. Cold, dry, and steady; and gusting - it's always gusty. Not a good way to find yourself on top of a hill, with little cover, and with your belly on a rock that when you laid on it an hour ago was non-existent. I never found that rock, but dang did it eat a hole in my breast bone... The morning hunt was wickedly and immediately interrupted by nature when it came calling at the back door with a hammer at 830. Which was actually fine because I was tired of seeing nothing but leaf-less tree branches move in the wind. Wherever the deer had gone, they were down and out before I arrived.
That meant that after answering nature's morning ritualistic visit, I had some time to really scout. Yeah, right. 5000 acres, and still fairly clueless about the terrain? I need to go back next spring and summer and spend some time with my eldest son crawling around looking for sheds and picking ticks. Anyhoo... I took off with my rifle and a bottle of water and started south. With the wind. I figured if I could scare something up, being pasture ground, I could reach a ways when they stopped to sniff... I sound so overconfident... I stopped about 600 yards south of the camper, bedded myself down, and looked East across the creekbed, and let loose on the doe-P to watch downwind for sign of movement or sounds of earnest bachelors. Neither was to occur. I've never had success "winding" deer into the open. But, I figured that since I didn't have enough time to make a better plan... two hours of this and I was done. Being noon, I was ready to get up and move. I went back to the camper and hopped in the truck, Larue riding shotgun and ready. If I saw a hustler in the open I could dive out, range, and decide. Better yet, if Mr Coyote made the mistake of being out and about... Upon my travels, I stumbled upon a set of round bails, about 200 or so, in three lines at an old homestead that was now more of a "stead". The trees made a rectangle around what was obviously at one time where a house sat, and was being used now as a sickle bar and disc parking lot. Perfect. Bails meant more concealment, and they just so happened to be adjacent to a feed plot of new wheat. I was confident I'd found my evening spot. I don't know why, (the cowboy had told me to try this place if I had no luck anywhere else...) but I was confident it would bear fruit.
This was somewhere in the vicinity of 2 in the afternoon, and the plan was to be back in hiding in ambush by 4. I headed back to the camper to strip some layers as it had warmed considerably and the cold wind was now a rather warm one and had increased in it's gusto. I laid there taking off two outer layers, and became a little comfortable on the couch. Mistake. I woke with a start at 3:45 and was still without boots, and a layer too far stripped if I was going to be tooth-clatter free an hour before sunset. I hurriedly put on my Carhahrt duck bibs, forgot the camo, threw on the heavy coat, and ran out to Larue sitting there in shotgun laughing at me. Shutup I said and got in and tore off down the road to the bails. I got settled, made sure there were no rocks on the ground, cleaned several shooting lanes, and planted myself behind and between several round bails. It was then that I had an idea. "Hey, lets cover these four bails with doe-P and that will cover my scent!" Folks, if you've ever smelled the cat box when it's too full - yea. I made my little wind-free zone between the bails so full of urine odor that my eyes had a new reason to water. I tell you, sometimes I have some REALLY good ideas...
It worked though. At about 5:10, (10 mins before official sunset) two does walked out from behind the hay bales I am hiding behind 20 yards from me. I was caught so off guard that I just had to sit still and watch them take a few steps, bend down, feed a bit, and move on another 10 yards or so. I was flabbergasted, and at some point I decided that it was so amazing that I had to just watch them, who cared about hunting, this was cool! They are beautiful animals. Their coats had a sheen in the sun, amost as if they were part of the prairie themselves. They had absolutely no idea I was there, watching them both with the fear and infatuation of a cave man watching his first woman. Then, when they got to about 50 yards from me, the reason for the hunting season returned, sanity followed, and I was inclined to realize that sunset was quickly approaching and they were headed behind another group of bales! I started inching my way as quietly as I could, (I move as quietly as a dump truck, with the steady thunder of a bull in a china shop) get my knees under me and get into a kneeling position supporting on the bale adjacent to my position. And of course I was made. DAMN! I got up on my knees, they darted behind the bales, and I put the rifle up just in time to see doe number one parade out from behind the obstruction and stop! I shot when the reticle said go, and immediately was surprised that I saw her jump, turn and run away slightly right toward the tree line that made up the perimeter of the equipment lay down.
I was skunked Friday evening, and then again Saturday morning, probably due to the fact that I have very little experience hunting pasture lowlands and never got very well concealed. I'm sure the deer were looking at me laughing at my feeble attempts to locate and design a good shooting position... Oh well, I learned some good lessons about what I should look for in so far as lay of the land is concerned. In my defense I'd never been to this place until about 1PM Friday afternoon, and what scouting I could do in two or so hours would have to do for that night and the next morning's hunts. Needless to say, it wasn't enough time, even with the ride through the lead cowboy offered. It was a perfect ride around the property lines, and across the bluff feeding the cows and heifers he wanted to get to along the way. If it wasn't a 3.5 mile hike, I would have pitched a tent up there and probably had my pick of rather amazing shooting lanes(in any direction). But I am older than I was the last time I walked that far across open terrain, and the 23 degree wind chill that was coming after the sun was down wasn't on my side. The 19 degrees that was coming for the following morning was even more unsettling as I do not at this point have enough good quality gear for that kind of weather. The pack I had would mean I was more limited to the general location of the camper where I was to stay the night. So, not to be deterred - I "hunted" my selected spots.
That evenings hunt spot was a wooded dam containing a stock pond of a pasture that had been freshly liberated of the group of cows calling it home. It was visible from the bluff above and I had decided that given the wind, the terrain, and the ability to conceal in one of several cedar trees I had imagined that the deer would have been moving in for water that evening or even feeding on the grasses down from the bluff. Neither was true. I had placed myself right, with the wind in my face, the trails all on the far side of the pond leading down. It just wasn't to be. I ranged the trees around the pond at 75-125 yards, the foot of the bluff at 270, and the pasture left and right in the 300s. I whipped out my phone, looked up the drops for ELD-M in my Ballistics-AE and decided that anything beyond 250 would get a simple two mill hold. At less than 400, that means 5" target impact zone, if my calculations are correct, and my assumptions are still clean. I went to bed surprised that I hadn't even heard a grunt, much less seeing anything. (I blame it on my bleat call, as it is about 7 years old, and probably has less use than your VCR does in that same span...) Seriously though, I will go back there. There were tracks all over the pond, I looked via headlamp after sunset, still thinking that I'd scare something up. Never happened.
That morning I was up and out of the camper at 4. The moon was out, and it looked like daylight. It was horrendously bright. Bad news. Any moving Mr and Mrs deer were doing was going on whilst the world slept, and would long since be over when the "legal shooting hours" would begin. Here in KS, that is 30 mins prior to sunrise and after sunset. Sunrise was scheduled for somewhere around 0620. At 5 I was climbing the hill in the Sun-Moonlight into a rather stiff oncoming COLD wind that made my eyes water like the fountain free. I could see fine as bright as it was, I even left the headlamp in the camper and took my flashlight along in a pocket just in case I found myself in the shadows of the three trees that were in the area I was headed. I think it's still in my jacket, I need to go get that thing before it gets lost and replaced - again... The sunrise was absolutely amazing, folks. There is something about Kansas sunrises and sunsets - you can see them from left to right as far as the eye can see - at eye level. There are places in western OK, and western TX that I have seen sunrises similar, but none as beautiful as the ones you see when you're at home. There must be something to that I recon. I digress. The wind was good ol' Kansas prairie cleaner wind. Dust bowl wind. Cold, dry, and steady; and gusting - it's always gusty. Not a good way to find yourself on top of a hill, with little cover, and with your belly on a rock that when you laid on it an hour ago was non-existent. I never found that rock, but dang did it eat a hole in my breast bone... The morning hunt was wickedly and immediately interrupted by nature when it came calling at the back door with a hammer at 830. Which was actually fine because I was tired of seeing nothing but leaf-less tree branches move in the wind. Wherever the deer had gone, they were down and out before I arrived.
That meant that after answering nature's morning ritualistic visit, I had some time to really scout. Yeah, right. 5000 acres, and still fairly clueless about the terrain? I need to go back next spring and summer and spend some time with my eldest son crawling around looking for sheds and picking ticks. Anyhoo... I took off with my rifle and a bottle of water and started south. With the wind. I figured if I could scare something up, being pasture ground, I could reach a ways when they stopped to sniff... I sound so overconfident... I stopped about 600 yards south of the camper, bedded myself down, and looked East across the creekbed, and let loose on the doe-P to watch downwind for sign of movement or sounds of earnest bachelors. Neither was to occur. I've never had success "winding" deer into the open. But, I figured that since I didn't have enough time to make a better plan... two hours of this and I was done. Being noon, I was ready to get up and move. I went back to the camper and hopped in the truck, Larue riding shotgun and ready. If I saw a hustler in the open I could dive out, range, and decide. Better yet, if Mr Coyote made the mistake of being out and about... Upon my travels, I stumbled upon a set of round bails, about 200 or so, in three lines at an old homestead that was now more of a "stead". The trees made a rectangle around what was obviously at one time where a house sat, and was being used now as a sickle bar and disc parking lot. Perfect. Bails meant more concealment, and they just so happened to be adjacent to a feed plot of new wheat. I was confident I'd found my evening spot. I don't know why, (the cowboy had told me to try this place if I had no luck anywhere else...) but I was confident it would bear fruit.
This was somewhere in the vicinity of 2 in the afternoon, and the plan was to be back in hiding in ambush by 4. I headed back to the camper to strip some layers as it had warmed considerably and the cold wind was now a rather warm one and had increased in it's gusto. I laid there taking off two outer layers, and became a little comfortable on the couch. Mistake. I woke with a start at 3:45 and was still without boots, and a layer too far stripped if I was going to be tooth-clatter free an hour before sunset. I hurriedly put on my Carhahrt duck bibs, forgot the camo, threw on the heavy coat, and ran out to Larue sitting there in shotgun laughing at me. Shutup I said and got in and tore off down the road to the bails. I got settled, made sure there were no rocks on the ground, cleaned several shooting lanes, and planted myself behind and between several round bails. It was then that I had an idea. "Hey, lets cover these four bails with doe-P and that will cover my scent!" Folks, if you've ever smelled the cat box when it's too full - yea. I made my little wind-free zone between the bails so full of urine odor that my eyes had a new reason to water. I tell you, sometimes I have some REALLY good ideas...
It worked though. At about 5:10, (10 mins before official sunset) two does walked out from behind the hay bales I am hiding behind 20 yards from me. I was caught so off guard that I just had to sit still and watch them take a few steps, bend down, feed a bit, and move on another 10 yards or so. I was flabbergasted, and at some point I decided that it was so amazing that I had to just watch them, who cared about hunting, this was cool! They are beautiful animals. Their coats had a sheen in the sun, amost as if they were part of the prairie themselves. They had absolutely no idea I was there, watching them both with the fear and infatuation of a cave man watching his first woman. Then, when they got to about 50 yards from me, the reason for the hunting season returned, sanity followed, and I was inclined to realize that sunset was quickly approaching and they were headed behind another group of bales! I started inching my way as quietly as I could, (I move as quietly as a dump truck, with the steady thunder of a bull in a china shop) get my knees under me and get into a kneeling position supporting on the bale adjacent to my position. And of course I was made. DAMN! I got up on my knees, they darted behind the bales, and I put the rifle up just in time to see doe number one parade out from behind the obstruction and stop! I shot when the reticle said go, and immediately was surprised that I saw her jump, turn and run away slightly right toward the tree line that made up the perimeter of the equipment lay down.