MY 2014 HUNTING JOURNAL >
OCTOBER HUNTING

October 1st
Well October has finally arrived and Archery Season starts this Saturday (Oct 4th). I have to work but I may be out there after work. One thing for sure this year, I am not passing on any antlerless deer. A year with no venison for my wife and I is/was almost un-bearable !!!
I am seeing, and the trail cameras are supporting, there are lots of antlerless deer but not many bucks this year - SO FAR !!
I bought an "outhouse blind" that I want to set up on the SGL and try to intercept some deer traveling across the "flats" where they usually travel that is too far from the ground blind I usually use.. we shall see what happens ....
My best wishes to all who will be going out hunting... Enjoy your time in the woods and BE SAFE !!

October 8th
I sat in my new "outhouse blind" ( which I will now refer to as the hemlock blind ) for 2 hours early this evening to see what I could see. Only activity was at 6:45pm when 4 deer came from the west and walked by at about 45 yards. They would have been easy broadside shots with my 30/30, but not with the crossbow. I am not going to shoot at anything over 35 yards away with my Summit Crossbow.
I am not sure this is/was the right type blind for a compound or the crossbow, the windows would have to be open pretty far to clear for the crossbow and not tall enough to stand for a pull on a compound, but ideal for rifle or muzzleloading hunting. So I can't wait for the senior hunt on Oct 23rd.

October 9th
I waited until 6pm and just went over and sat in the ground blind and wait to see what came by today. That answer was unfortunately .. NOTHING .. I only saw a Red Squirrel running around in the leaves. I stayed in the blind until after dark. I think I will set in the hemlock blind in the morning to check out any early morning activity in the area.

October 10th
Sat in the ground blind in the evening until 6pm... Nothing moving ... even though the trail camera had photos of a doe going by at 1pm ....

October 11th
Sat in the ground blind after work until 6pm ... again only saw a gray squirrel carrying small apples to his cache.... he went by twice in an hour and a half... Trail camera has does showing up at 7pm.. a little late for archery shooting.. although it did have a doe at 11:45am and another at 12pm... Soooooooooo .. guess where I'll be Monday morning from 10:30am until 1:30 pm ....

October 13th
I thought I would try for some of the does that have been showing up in the middle of the day anywhere from 11:00am until 3pm. Varying greatly from day to day. Unfortunately I sat from 11:00am until 3pm and saw only a gray squirrel. I'm looking forward to trying the same on Thursday after all the expected heavy rains hit on Wednesday..

October 15th
I sat in the ground blind again today from 11am until 2pm. I saw nothing once again , but I figure the winds may have had something to do with that. Still counting on next week's senior hunt to harvest a doe.

October 17th
Ground blind for 2 hours after work, another day of no sightings ?????????

October 18th and 19th
Two more evenings of scouting/looking/watching for deer and same results .. nothing...
Just like last year, it appears that the last two weeks of October mean no deer sightings for me. I just can not figure why they have gone so nocturnal ???
Only trail cam photos show one doe showing up at either 2;30 or 3:30 AM....
Where are the others at ??
Other hunters that show up at work are experiencing the same dis-appearance of deer...


Thursday's senior hunt not looking so good for late afternoon/evening hunting ???

October 23rd
Today was the first of three days for the special October Antlerless Deer season. Being over 65 I was excited to take the 30/30 out for some doe hunting. The morning was spent in my "outhouse blind" where I saw nothing.
After that it was off to CC state forest for the afternoon. At 6:30pm I shot a nice fat doe.

October 30th
Was in ground blind before light and at 7:30am had a six pointer broadside at 30 yards. Placed red dot behind front shoulder area and squeezed the trigger. The bolt from the crossbow landed low and just under the buck. I went home trying to figure out what had happened, To make a long story short = I had forgot to reset the red dot from 10 yards to 30 yards after practicing with it. What a silly mistake... Oh well I still have time for a second deer harvest.

NOVEMBER HUNTING

November 3rd
Summary of past few days. I have sat in the ground blind seeing only squirrels in the daylight hours. The deer are showing up well after dark and well before daylight on the trail camera,. There are now 2 six pointers showing up around 4-5am.... seeing no deer while in the ground blind.

November 5th
Had a chance for a morning hunt, at 8:40am a small female deer walked by but I decided not to shot her. At 9:15am I caught a glimpse of deer walking thru some thicket about 300 yards away and that was it for the morning. Deer are still showing up passing the trail camera in the dark. I did get some Gray Fox photos last night on the camera.
I'll try the ground blind later this afternoon.
After noon hunt was a bust, saw only the Gray Squirrel again.., tomorrow morning I'll be there again....

November 9
Sat in ground blind for a few more hours after work on a couple days and STILL nothing traveling by in day light hours. Bucks and Does showing up during the night, but not in "shooting hours"
I still can NOT figure out what is going on ??
Everyone I talk to is seeing bucks chasing at all hours of the day ???

November 12th
I spent most of the day hunting === not deer==== but a new hot water tank, then installing the darn thing.... sure was not what I wanted for today...

November 13th
I climbed into the ground blind at 3:45pm, it was snowing and I was hoping that would make the deer that are just showing up after dark start their journey earlier than usual. It was an okay plan. At 4:50 I spotted a deer running across the flats at a 45 degree angle from the east. It stopped in front of me at 30 yards. I was all set to release a bolt when I spotted antler.... It was a spike with about 4 inch spikes. Certainly glad I spotted those spikes before releasing an arrow.
About 10 minutes later I spotted another deer body coming up onto the flats from the east about 200 yards away. This was the first deer I have seen coming that way this year, even though , in the past, it was a popular travel route. it was a female and she turned and passed to my right at about 75 yards, still too far for me to shoot at..
Finally a few deer in the daylight !!!! >>> LOL...
All I have left now is after work tomorrow and Saturday, sure hope I can see some more in the daylight, and who knows, maybe even get to shoot at one of them.

November 14th
Got home from work as fast as possible sat in ground blind.. No active until just before the end of legal hours when a small deer (fawn) and it's Mother walked by. It was just to dark to see to get a good shot placement and it would have been hard to follow the deer thru the woods after the hit to see which way it ran.. so I did not shoot. Down to the last minute now for archery season 2014.

November 15th
Once again I hurried home from work to get a little over an hour of hunting in after work. I went to Clear Creek. just got settled and was searching thru my backpack for the binoculars, I found them and when I looked up there stood a deer at 30 yards. I have no idea where it came from and it did not make a sound on it's way there.
Right away I knew it was the fawn of the doe I shot in the senior hunt, so there was no way I was going to shoot it. I watched it for awhile and even took some photos of it ... It left, darkness set in and the season was over.
No deer harvested in the 2014 with my Horton crossbow in archery season. So now I wait for rifle season and the late archery season after Christmas.
RIFLE SEASON

December 1st
First day around here SUCKED....
I sat from sunup to sundown and saw absolutely NOTHING ..
9 guys at neighboring camps = no harvest.. one guy saw one doe, one saw 4 in the dark before daylight, one other guy saw 4 at 1pm. .. TERRIBLE ...
only one deer hanging within 4 miles of here last night in traveling around that I saw
IN FACT I NEVER HEARD A SHOT UNITL 7:30AM.. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE........
from sunup to noon I only heard 20 shots anywhere I could hear... noon to 5pm... One shot and that was the only shot I heard that I would say was in the near-by area at all...........
I can not tell you how many guys came in the hardware today saying they heard little to none in the way of shooting where they were hunting.
Guys with property and food plots did well though ...

December 3rd
Spend morning here in blind.. again I saw nothing and no shooting
Sat at Clear Creek in the afternoon and saw and heard nothing

December 4th
Sat in ground blind for 3 hours and was just too cold so I called it a morning, will try again this afternoon, no shooting around here...
Took about an hour walk from 12:30 to 1:30pm around the "flats" looking down into the hollow and walking very very slowly. At least I thought I was walking slow enough. Suddenly up jumps three deer and go crashing down into the hollow. I only saw bodies and tails, but they were big deer. BUMMER !!!
Sat in "outhouse" blind from 3:30pm until dark.. NOTHING !!!
Can't wait until Monday to have another full day of hunting.
Weather for tomorrow (first day for doe) looks terrible.. up to an inch and a half of rain for this area, but on the bright side, (since I have to work) it may make Monday hunting better ??