Throw back Thursday? I hate that saying.

I dug up some decent stuff from my break from blogging. I just thought I would share it.

The video at the top is from a farm my brother got us permission to hunt last year. We hunted it twice and took one doe off of it. There were a ton of deer and lots of bucks but things never really lined up to harvest a monster there. The pics of my Journey are from about the time I gave up on humanity and blogging. I went hunting at a place a guy told me about after all my equipment got stolen in Bald Mountain. I thought I was pulling up on a shallow puddle but it ended up being a sink hole. So I hunted anyway. Long story short; almost got bit by some crazy snake, got chased out of the woods by some nut job on an ATV and some one siphoned all the gas out of my tank as I was stuck in the ditch.



It didn't look that deep.

For gun season I needed to cleanse my soul a little so I headed to the most nostalgic hunting area for me. Its some national forest land in Hale Michigan that my family used to make deer camp on when I was a kid. I decided since my brother and dad couldn't make it up with me because of work, I would "hardcore it" which meant sleeping in my car and hunting every bit of daylight. The first night was COLD. I parked between two school buses in the Hale High School parking lot for safety. I drove to my hunting spot super early as to get dibs on the place I wanted. The area hasn't changed a lot but the trail we used to drive back following my Uncle Art and his chainsaw was now blocked and allowed only foot travel access. That was fine and meant less people probably ventured back to our old spots. I got into the spot I wanted before any sign of daylight. Way too early, but daylight greeted me with the sight of awesome buck sign. Rubs and scrapes all over. That morning a dandy 10 point came in to about 30 yards from me but never offered me a shot as I had my open sight 20 gauge with me. That night after shooting light he came back and put on a show as he scraped a tree 50 yards from me with the moonlight gleaming off his 140+ rack. He ran off a bunch of smaller bucks and I decided to sneak out the back way which gave me a half mile walk instead of 1000 yards to my car. My dad and brother came up that night and we got a hotel room together and stayed two nights. It was so great. I saw a few does one day but the deer had our number that weekend. Still, I will never forget it and would give anything to do it again.

The trunk of a "hardcore solo hunter."

My rations. I was on a TINY budget.

Glorious Hale Michigan.

Big Ole Scrape

Even bigger scrape. And fresh!

My view that first morning.



View behind me.



Switched to the .30/30 the second morning. The buck had protected and made a rub in those birch trees the night before. I sat in a blind with my dad this morning.

I guess if he had showed in the fog it would have been such a beautiful sight my eyes would have exploded.

 Its kind of funny now that I live by the ocean I wish I would have taken advantage of living so close to such great walleye fishing. There are no walleye populations worth fishing for in Maine. My grandpa and me tried a few times but I think I was just bad luck since we never caught much and would more often than not have some kind of equipment failure.

My papa and me heading to the St. Clair River. Little do we know we will be turning around very shortly.

 We can see the Blue Water Bridge but our motor died this night so no fishing.

Nothing but pictures.

I play with Instagram in the tree stand a lot. Here are some regular pics and some I played with.

My best friend and my P.I.C.

Killing Machine.

Sunsets like this are meant to be seen from a treestand not a rear view mirror.

Temperature doesn't matter.

Where I park where I'm hunting now.

Close-up.

Still at it. New pics.

I've been out a few times lately including today. I sat all day today and had a single doe run under me and out of sight at full speed. Its getting colder but I have no idea what stage the rut is in if its still going. Looking on Facebook, guys are still dropping some good deer. Makes me wonder if I should randomly pick another set of woods. Tomorrow I will still hunt all day instead of sitting in a tree stand for 10+ hours. I tried a buck bomb today. I sprayed a trail on my way in and shot it around throughout the day. I didn't detonate the entire thing so I can use it again. Those things have quite a bit of juice in them. Last week I still hunted for about 5 hours. I found some cool stuff; a large cedar swamp that leads to a hardwood section of the woods with nothing but oaks and steep hill after hill, a couple foundations from buildings that used to be there decades ago, and a random blood trail. I hunted the hardwoods for a while and only saw two tree stands. The blood I found led to nothing, I was hoping there was a wounded monster at the end of it but no such luck.

The trail right through a thick cedar swamp.

Random drop of blood. Never found anymore. Must assume it was just a menstruating chickadee.

I love finding old wooden blinds and stands. Makes you wonder what the hunter that built it took from it.

The walls from an old cellar from a building that was probably torn down decades ago.

My brother got redemption a couple days ago with a nice Michigan 5 point.

Never give up!

 

Game Warden Got Me.

 

Very little to report. I ended up having Monday off of work so I went out at 1pm. I passed two old guys leaving. I talked to one for a second but he hadn't seen anything recently. I saw nothing again and now figure I have to change my strategy. I was hunting that spot based on buck sign, trail cam pics and the fact that I have a tree stand already up. My new strategy involves using the other hunters to push deer to me or find some crazy deertopia safety spot where no one is hunting. I have seen zero deer tracks since opening day so I assume the deer must be hiding somewhere good. I just have to find it. Its tough with so many guys in the woods. There were more trucks in the parking lot at 1pm Monday than opening day Saturday! When I came back in there were three hunters hanging out in the parking lot. They were jerks. None of them acknowledged me even though I was putting my stuff away 3 feet from them. Guess that's what I get for having a Michigan license plate. I heard one guy say "that must be the guy who put up that stand." So I am assuming it was one of those idiots that put a stand up where I wanted to. So far I have been treated pretty crappy by the other hunters I have run into. But, its the same in Michigan on public land so I guess I should be used to it. I'll just keep being my upbeat friendly self and smother them with friendliness.





Had a perfect wind for the first time all year.

Today was my first day at my awesome new job. I got out a little early and decided to drive over to my hunting spot. When I pulled up there was 2 trucks from guys hunting and one Conservation Officer truck. I pulled in and turned around and the officer was waiting for me when I came back. To my surprise it was Rick Laflamme from Northwoods Law a cool show on Animal Planet. I guess it would have to be but it was pretty cool to see a celebrity. I talked to him for a while and he was very cool. He is a super nice guy!


Rick is the guy on the left.

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.

 

...And that concludes my bow season.

Saturday is my opening day of gun season for deer in Maine. So, today was probably my last bow hunt for the year. I should have went back out to hang a stand the day I picked up my trail camera but I was too lazy. The next day I went out to put one up at noon and somebody had already put a ladder stand up in the maybe 5 hours of daylight between my picking up my camera and the morning in the exact tree I had chosen where my camera was. I wish I could say this is the first time this has happened to me but its definitely not. I guess I have good taste in tree selection. I ended up hanging my stand in a brushier spot about 250 yards from the other guy's. My hope was that he was going to gun hunt the stand and I could take a buck out of there with my bow before then.

My set right now. 20' up in a Gorilla hang on stand. Lots of cover low but not so much in the canopy.

I was right on my assumption as I never saw anyone in the stand the last few days. But, I never saw a deer either. I sat out Tuesday evening but got in late (4:15pm) and there was no wind at all so I am sure I sounded like a truck coming through the woods. I gave the area a day to rest and tried again tonight. I got in stand by 2pm and a slight mist gave me the silence I needed to sneak in. The temperature was in the 40's when I left the house but was in the 50's as I reached my stand. The mist became a down pour though so I got up and decided to scout a little more and maybe I would bump into something. I ended up catching some movement in some thick cedars and followed it for about a half hour. I was never able to catch up to whatever it was. I assume it was a deer but it could have been any big game animal really the vegetation was so thick in there. I never found any better sign than I am currently hunting and I got soaked but I learned the area a little better and I know I didn't disturb anyone and probably not any deer either.

Soaking wet by dark.

I did find some good sized rubs just next to the parking area that showed some promise but I will leave that area to the guys who can't get around as well as me. I have yet to sight in the .30-06 so I guess I will be sporting the 20 gauge on Saturday.

Sweet rub next to the parking area.

I left my climbing sticks in the tree unlocked with the intentions of hunting Wednesday morning but never did. They were still there today which was a refreshing and pleasant surprise. I was too lazy to carry them around so I hid them about 50 yards from my stand to use next time. Hopefully no one finds them. I need to upgrade to a lighter stand and sticks combo soon. Maybe then I won't have to scout and hang stands on separate days and my trees won't get confiscated.


Panoramic view from stand.

 

The view to my right. Pretty thick stuff.

My hail-mary on my last bow hunt.



Nice and warm at home.

 I want to give a shout out to my brother. A few days ago he made a great shot on a bruiser buck and called off work to track the sucker but never found it. It happens to all of us at some point. Remember; patience and persistence is what separates the average hunter from the hardcore bow hunter.

Lastly, keep in mind what you bring back with you from the field. Maine is horrible for ticks. I have found at least one on myself every time I have gone out to the field or even to parks. I think the one time I killed 8 ticks between me and Rusty after a hike in a public park in the city for an hour. Be prepared if you plan on visiting here. Tonight I hunted in cold weather in a down pour and still pulled one off my leg in the shower when I got home, it's unbelievable. My tip is to have a good looking shower partner to check you out after each outing.