Maine's Opening Day! First one in, Last one out.

Look what came in the mail today...

I got my first taste of opening day in Maine. It was a lot like Michigan. I got up at 5am and was in my stand by 6am and it was light out by 6:30ish. I was the only car in the lot when I showed up; first one in. I figured I would get in early before everyone else so they might push something my way.


Sunrise...finally.

 

I sat until 9am and didn't see a thing. I heard about 2 or 3 different shooters in the same piece of land I'm hunting. I don't know if all hunters up here can't shoot but every single time someone shot this morning or this evening it followed with at least one more shot. At 9am I was hungry and tired of sitting still so I decided to head for home for a hot lunch and come back. On my way to the trail head there were about 4 other sets of boot tracks from other hunters that joined the woods after me. I never heard any of them enter which was nice. I did hear one ATV drop someone off. There were deer tracks in the sand of the trail all pointing to my spot. No idea where the deer went. A lot of them were big buck tracks.             

Most of the buck tracks I found later were much bigger than this one. But, this one is a dandy.

Before I got to the end of the trail I decided it was still too early to leave so I found a trail that had no boot tracks and followed it a while. I am glad I did. I heard a grunt to my left and looked over to see 5 or 6 big does in some thick cover but coming my way. The grunting got louder and I could not pick out the buck but he was going nuts breaking branches and crashing around grunting. The does paid him no attention and unfortunately gave all of that to me. The front one stopped and used her 6th sense to decide to steer the crowd the other way. I can't shoot a doe anyway but I was looking forward to the buck at the end of the parade. I tried a few grunts but nothing ever stepped out. I went back to the car to find a ton of deer tracks and a few big buck tracks right in the parking lot. Guess I should have stayed there and let everybody chase them out to me. There were 4 other cars in the lot at that time. Lunch took about an hour out of my day. When I returned there was only one vehicle left this was around noon. I got up in my stand pretty excited that there was some chasing activity going on even though it was 65 degrees out. About 2:30pm I heard crashing in front of me and some more grunting. Nothing ever came my way though and shortly after some guy came walking under me. He waved and then met up with some other guy he was hunting with behind me. They did an entire lap around me for some reason then took off. I didn't see anything the rest of the night. At least there were no drag marks on the trail from anybody else. I was the only car left when I got out of the woods. First one in, last one out; no deer.

If I can take your picture with an Iphone you are too close dude.

I found an old well while I was walking around that is filled in partially but very cool.

Should have made a wish.

 

Another panoramic shot. I can see about 100 yards down two lanes. Most of my shooting would be within 50 yards.

 

Awesome Bucks.

I got to go out scouting with my brother yesterday. It couldn't have gone any better. Even though I forgot the keys to the security cages and had to make extra trips, had to saw through a cable with my new knife which is now a butter knife, and it rained like crazy all day. We saw some awesome deer all over and got some decent pics. My best camera's infrared is not working apparenly so 113 pics that would have been of awesome deer were washed out. Also, I had to send one in to be either fixed or replaced and haven't heard anything about it in 3 weeks. Don't trust Gander Mountain's warranty process, I am out one of my best cams because of it. I recently got a Gerber Instant. Its an awesome knife with assisted opening that shoots open with one hand use. The lock I had on the cable that held one of my treestands had rusted shut so I had to saw through half inch cable with the knife. It now has no blade at all but it got the job done. We will see how well the Gerber lifetime warranty works.

Trail Cam Check.

I checked my cams again for the last time until I get back from North Dakota. I set one up over a pond close to my stand. Had to fight off two giant beavers and 3 pterodactyls. When I got to the cam it was covered in mud which was not the way I left it. I figured I would have a bunch of beaver pics but there were none.



 

 

 

These are the two good pics from the pond cam.

Here is the pond. Its only 5 feet deep in the middle. Like I said it is home to countless waterfowl and two massive beavers.

Suspiciously covered in mud.

I checked my other camera too and got pics of the same spike and a four point. Not really seeing any good bucks this year which is strange.

The bow is still shooting well. Here is a 40 yard group that was decent. Less than two weeks away from the trip now.

A couple weeks now. New scouting camera pics.

I'm feeling good about my shooting finally. I met with my hunting partner and did some shooting together, it really built my confidence in both of us. Our plan is to shoot straight to Medora then randomly guess a direction and head out. We have some really good maps and the NDTRAX sd cards for our gps's so we should be in good shape no matter what.
I've been getting decent amounts of scouting camera pictures but no big bucks. One two year old six point keeps showing up and a fork horn. Lots of does so the freezer shouldn't be too empty this year.

Some early season pics...

There's not a whole lot I can do towards my bow season right now. I still can't shoot because I'm broke and can't afford arrows or a rest for the new bow yet. I know the season is approaching soon. Whenever I am able to shoot I'm going to need to put in some crazy time. I have had only one camera set up on my parents property over a salt block just to see where the deer are at developmentally. I only got one pic of a buck.