Big Buck Down

Well last weekend, November 5th to be exact, was the opening day of muzzleloader season. Any experiences deer hunter will tell you, muzzleloader season is the best time of year to get a shot at a big buck. There are 2 main reasons for this, firstly the deer haven't had a lot of pressure on them from hunters yet, secondly because the rut is beginning. The rut is the only time of year big, mature bucks will be out during the daylight and they are so distracted by trying to breed that they take risks they would never take otherwise. The beginning of the rut is by far the best time to get a big buck, they will be more active early in the rut than any other time. Basically all deer behavior changes when the rut kicks in. My next entry will educate you as to all the intricacies of the rut.

Sadly for me, opening day of muzzleloader season I was at work. Boo. But Monday the 7th when most deerhunters were working, I was in the woods bright and early. I got down in the woods to my favorite spot on my family farm before the sun came up and set up shop on an old stump. I went through my routine of getting comfortable, making sure I had clear shooting lanes, and using my rangefinder to establish how far I could shoot in each direction.  Well, after I had only been in the woods for about 20 minutes, I heard something immediate to my left, looked, and saw a large mature buck come out of the thicket 34 yards from me. If you've never been deer hunting, let me just tell you, when you first see that big mature buck he looks way bigger than he actually is. I raised my gun, flipped the safety off, aimed and squeezed the trigger. When the bullet first hit him, he stumbled a little and i honestly thought he was going to drop where he stood, which would've been awesome. But he regained his balance and ran back into the thicket where he came from. Rule number one of tracking a deer is this, always give him time to die before you go looking. this is very important. rule of thumb is to give them an hour. well i admit, i couldn't wait that long. i gave him maybe half an hour to 45 minutes and then i had to go look. where he was standing when i shot him was covered in hair, this is good. but there wasn't any blood at all, that doesn't really mean anything except its harder to track a deer thats not bleeding. so i followed his tracks into the thicket and luckily he hadn't gone far, maybe 20 yards, and found him laying.

Now let me be clear about this, I am definitely not a "trophy hunter" I don't sit in the woods waiting to see a big buck like a lot of hunters. Theres nothing wrong with doing that, it's just not for me. I'm a meat hunter, all I'm interested in is the fun of hunting and putting meat in the freezer. But that being said, theres no feeling like putting a big buck on the ground. When all your work scouting and scent control and being sneaky and marksmanship can all come together like that, to kill the hardest of all the deer to kill, its a terrific feeling.

Once you find your dead deer you better enjoy the excitement for a while, because the work is just beginning. You might get lucky and kill a deer close to your truck, or in an area where you can drive the truck up to him, or heck you might even have a 4 wheeler to get the deer on. For me, this was not the case. I was about half a mile from my truck and there was no hope and getting my truck that deep into the woods. So I phoned a friend and asked for some assistance. In about 15 minutes my friend arrived, he watched me field dress the deer (which was not a pretty sight, his guts were kinda destroyed) and then we both grabbed onto the antlers and drug it all the way to the truck. Not fun. I took the deer to my parents house, hung it up from a tree by the back legs and started skinning him. Skinning is not hard, just time consuming. Then when all the skin and hair is taken off, you start butchering. Butchering is kinda hard to do the first few times you do it, you gotta get a feel for the best way to do things. I like to leave the meat in large pieces. I portion it out like this, the neck, the shoulders, the racks of ribs, the tenderloins, and the hind quarters (back legs). Some people like to break it down into smaller pieces. Whatever your personal preference is. But I would recommend taking it off the deer in big pieces and getting it in the refridgerator, leave it for 2 days at least so it gets really cold all the way through and then but cut it up however you would like. It will be much easier to cut up when it's really cold. I think it's crazy for people to take their deer to a butcher to be processed, you should absolutely do all the work yourself, it'll be much more satisfying and much cheaper. Ask an experienced hunter for help if you need it, most hunters are always glad to help out another hunter.

This is exactly how I found him

All loaded up, guts removed

The "rack" 7 scoreable points, 8 total points, 18 1/2 inch outside spread

As always, thanks for reading. My next entry will focus on all the details of the rut and a little information to get everyone ready for firearms season, which opens in less than a week now.

Weather

Todays topic was recommended to me by a friend and loyal blog follower. The original question was about the effects of frost on hunting but I'm going to go ahead and cover all weather conditions.

First let's talk about temperature. Deer, like most mammals have short hair in the summer and grow longer, thicker hair in the winter.  So this time of year, their winter coat hasn't fully grown yet. This means on particularly cold days they will try to stay moving to generate heat.this is good for hunting. On warmer days they may try to stay cool by being less active.  In the middle of winter when we get a random warm day like 50 degrees our so, you can pretty much forget about seeing much deer activity, that would be like us going out in 50 degree weather in you're warmest winter coat.  Not very comfortable.

Next we'll talk about rain.  Deer will go about their normal routine in light rain, but in heavy rain they won't be active.  However, when a storm is approaching, deer will be very actively feeding in preparation for the storm.after the storm they will once again be very actively feeding to make up for lost time.

Lastly, wind.  You will very rarely see much deer activity on a windy day.the deer can't hear or smell very well in heavy wind and therefore won't be active.  You will occasionally see deer on a windy day but its not likely.

And one final note, deer will be far less active when there is a full moon.  The less moon is visible, the more active they will be.


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