Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My truck told me it was 19 degrees out when I pulled up and got out at 0550 am, and I believed it. I was hunting this one section of woods with a bedding area to my right about 30 yards away and had another area below me about 100 yards on the other side of some power lines. On the way in the woods I missed a few of my markers, got off course, and ended up out on the power lines. Drat... Had to make it back up the hill and find my tree. By now it was just starting to get grey light. Around 8 am I noticed a deer standing in the old road bed 80 yards below me and heading up the hill. It probably came from the lower bedding area. Once it got closer I saw it was a young fork horn.  I decided I was going to let him pass and grow up a bit. He walks under my stand and into the bedding area to my right. About 5 min later I hear some commotion from where he just walked and I turn all the way around to see 6 does filing out of the thick stuff followed by the fork horn about 20 yards behind.  With 7 sets of eyes running around I didn't even have the chance to pick up my bow, and forget and drawing on one of them. They were feeding on acorns from the red/pin oaks and there still seem to be a fair amount of those on the ground.  After 20 min or so a one pointer (spike that had lost one antler) came flying off the hill side with his neck stuck out, ears back and grunting up a storm. Those does scattered like bowling ball hitting the perfect strike. The one pointer stayed out there at 40+ yards, a lot further than I care to shoot in the woods. I got to watch him running around for about 5 min chasing after each one till all were gone and little fork horn was looking around trying to figure out what happened. By 9 the woods were silent again..

At 330 I had 3 does pop out in the old road where the fork horn appeared, they fed around and moved off into the bedding area again. Just as I lost sight of them I had two does pop out of the bedding area to my right, and the first one busted me moving while I was glassing where the other three went. She played the head bob and stomp game for a good half an hour before deciding she had enough and went back into the thicket.

Soo, lessons from the day. They were probably bedded down during the coldest part of the night just before dawn and started moving once the sun got up was hitting the forest floor. There still seem to be a few love sick bucks out there but none of those six does were coming back in to season (adults were probably bred during the rut and fawn are not going to be bred).  The afternoon sets getting off the beds at 330 means get back in the stand at 230!! It looks like the acorns from the red/pin oaks have sat on the ground long enough now and the deer and turkeys are starting to hit those.  Oh and neither one of those bucks gave two wiffs to the tinks 69 I had put out.  Same with any of the other bucks I saw this year. Either I got a bad batch (several years in a row now) or this stuff isn't what it was 20 years ago..