TheCoachZed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Note: Apologies to all who are bored by others hunting stories. I like reading other people's stories, so here's mine, and if you have some advice on scent control, I'm all ears.
OPENER
For the past five years, I've hunted in city limits in Saint John, NB - it's legal to do so, and Saint John likely has the greatest concentration of deer in New Brunswick, so it only makes sense. I've killed one deer with a .30-30, and the rest were all 12 gauge buckshot kills, up close. However, I was getting tired of killing small antlerless deer, so for 2014 I decided to try hard for a bigger buck with my new crossbow.
So let's start with
STAND ONE
I'd been watching several big bucks behind my church all summer long, so originally planned to hunt here. I scouted the area, saw lots of tracks, and repeatedly spotted big smashers here. I put out a camera in early October and immediately had dozens of shots of a big 8-pt, a medium 8-pt and a big 9-pt. No does, no small bucks. Success seemed almost sure until bow season opened (crossbows aren't legal in bow season in NB thanks to the bowhunting lobby
so I had to wait). Within three days, all the bucks I had on camera were gone. The 9-pt was killed almost immediately, the medium 8-pt disappeared (most likely killed) and the big 8-pt also disappeared, to be discovered weeks later half-rotten in a marsh - likely due to a lousy bow shot. So much for that spot! After that, all I had was pix of dinky button bucks and a four-pt so I gave that up. There was just too much competition nearby, many of them hunting too close to houses.
Here's a pic of one of those bucks.
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Now for ...
STAND TWO
I'd found a decent-sized orchard, probably from an old farm, close to my usual hunting spot. It was littered with deer tracks, so I threw out some apples and put up a camera. There were lots of does, so I figured this might bring some late-season bucks in. I threw up a stand and figured I was set.
Alas! The biggest doe was taken out by a car just up the street, and the other deer vanished after that. I have no idea why. I gave up throwing out apples for the squirrels and moved on to
STAND THREE
This was a new location, just around the corner from some rich friends' house. They'd been asking me to take out a deer for a while (they have a big deer problem).
Due to a conflict with another hunter (not my fault - my buddy and I had scouted this area before he bothered to put his stand up), we ended up having to move from our original location, which was close. So we had to put the treestand in later than I wanted to ...
Within a day of throwing out a camera next to an apple tree I found, I had multiple big bucks on camera. You can see pics of the best one below.
So, I sat at the first opportunity I had, and passed on this six-point two days in a row. I know he's not very big by many peoples' standards, especially western hunters, but it would have been the biggest buck I've ever had a shot at. But hey, I figured he's in there regularly, so why rush, right?
Unfortunately, after I passed on him the second time, I never saw him again, probably because I accidentally spooked him while dropping off a bag of apples. I left with as little fuss as possible, but I never spotted him again. I suspect he was shot, because he wasn't terribly shy, but it's possible he was just scared off.
Anyway - I passed on a couple does and a button buck over the next few days I had in that stand, but never saw anything with antlers. It was obvious my scent control measures (scent free soap, laundry detg, etc) weren't enough. Because I work on a boat, I usually get days off with a prevailing westerly wind, and the deer were sitting just downwind in the weeds and walking in to my bait as soon as I left, and leaving as soon as I returned. I thought about sneaking in from behind, but the brush is so thick there, there's no way to quietly walk around.
By yesterday, I hadn't seen any small bucks for about 10 days. I had pictures of the big buck still coming in, but only when I wasn't there - in the middle of the night, or on days I couldn't hunt. There was simply no way to get around the scent control issue. I'd left a neoprene survival suit in the stand for days, and tried wearing that to cut the wind and scent, but it was too noisy.
After a couple days of freezing my butt off 15 feet in the air, I asked myself: What am I doing here? I am only going to get a doe anyway, and I know I can get that behind my friends' house, which is a five minute drive away. So, I got out of the stand, drove over there, walked behind their house, found some does in the woods, returned with the crossbow, spoke reassuringly to them when they looked like they were about to run, then arrowed the biggest one.
I was a bit sad that I had to take another antlerless deer this year, but! When it became obvious I wasn't about to get a deer of any size at this stand, I was very glad to get anything at all! And, I was pretty happy that I wasn't going to be sitting out in the freezing wind anymore. I do enough of that on the boat.
IN SUMMARY
I learned a lot this year. I found some great new territory with deer, I passed on the biggest buck I had a shot at and I got to learn a few of the peculiar eccentricities of crossbow hunting (pretty much useless to try sneaking into your stand for first light, because they make so much noise when loading them). I learned that pre-season scouting pays off and I learned that you gotta hang your stand as early as possible.
Mainly now, I'm curious about people's tricks for scent control if they aren't able to play the wind. I literally had no choice on most of the days I hunted, despite the fact the wind was in the worst possible direction. I am thinking a box blind, with poly wrap and acoustic sealant and a PVC pipe in the roof for air circulation, might be the trick. If anyone knows of a pop-up blind that works, I'm all ears.
Otherwise, I am going to have to plan on running bait to two-three sites next year, depending on what the wind is ...
I also learned that deer mysteriously smarten up about two weeks into the season. I noticed this last year, too ...
Lastly, I think the most important lesson was that I need to get my recurve bow into use next year. The three extra weeks of bow season would have given me much more time to hunt - I could have had more days, I could have hunted later on the days I had (no daylight savings time ruining the evenings) and I could have stayed more comfortably in the stand, as it would have been warmer. I also wouldn't have been in competition with all the gun hunters.
OPENER
For the past five years, I've hunted in city limits in Saint John, NB - it's legal to do so, and Saint John likely has the greatest concentration of deer in New Brunswick, so it only makes sense. I've killed one deer with a .30-30, and the rest were all 12 gauge buckshot kills, up close. However, I was getting tired of killing small antlerless deer, so for 2014 I decided to try hard for a bigger buck with my new crossbow.
So let's start with
STAND ONE
I'd been watching several big bucks behind my church all summer long, so originally planned to hunt here. I scouted the area, saw lots of tracks, and repeatedly spotted big smashers here. I put out a camera in early October and immediately had dozens of shots of a big 8-pt, a medium 8-pt and a big 9-pt. No does, no small bucks. Success seemed almost sure until bow season opened (crossbows aren't legal in bow season in NB thanks to the bowhunting lobby
so I had to wait). Within three days, all the bucks I had on camera were gone. The 9-pt was killed almost immediately, the medium 8-pt disappeared (most likely killed) and the big 8-pt also disappeared, to be discovered weeks later half-rotten in a marsh - likely due to a lousy bow shot. So much for that spot! After that, all I had was pix of dinky button bucks and a four-pt so I gave that up. There was just too much competition nearby, many of them hunting too close to houses.Here's a pic of one of those bucks.
Now for ...
STAND TWO
I'd found a decent-sized orchard, probably from an old farm, close to my usual hunting spot. It was littered with deer tracks, so I threw out some apples and put up a camera. There were lots of does, so I figured this might bring some late-season bucks in. I threw up a stand and figured I was set.
Alas! The biggest doe was taken out by a car just up the street, and the other deer vanished after that. I have no idea why. I gave up throwing out apples for the squirrels and moved on to
STAND THREE
This was a new location, just around the corner from some rich friends' house. They'd been asking me to take out a deer for a while (they have a big deer problem).
Due to a conflict with another hunter (not my fault - my buddy and I had scouted this area before he bothered to put his stand up), we ended up having to move from our original location, which was close. So we had to put the treestand in later than I wanted to ...
Within a day of throwing out a camera next to an apple tree I found, I had multiple big bucks on camera. You can see pics of the best one below.
So, I sat at the first opportunity I had, and passed on this six-point two days in a row. I know he's not very big by many peoples' standards, especially western hunters, but it would have been the biggest buck I've ever had a shot at. But hey, I figured he's in there regularly, so why rush, right?
Unfortunately, after I passed on him the second time, I never saw him again, probably because I accidentally spooked him while dropping off a bag of apples. I left with as little fuss as possible, but I never spotted him again. I suspect he was shot, because he wasn't terribly shy, but it's possible he was just scared off.
Anyway - I passed on a couple does and a button buck over the next few days I had in that stand, but never saw anything with antlers. It was obvious my scent control measures (scent free soap, laundry detg, etc) weren't enough. Because I work on a boat, I usually get days off with a prevailing westerly wind, and the deer were sitting just downwind in the weeds and walking in to my bait as soon as I left, and leaving as soon as I returned. I thought about sneaking in from behind, but the brush is so thick there, there's no way to quietly walk around.
By yesterday, I hadn't seen any small bucks for about 10 days. I had pictures of the big buck still coming in, but only when I wasn't there - in the middle of the night, or on days I couldn't hunt. There was simply no way to get around the scent control issue. I'd left a neoprene survival suit in the stand for days, and tried wearing that to cut the wind and scent, but it was too noisy.
After a couple days of freezing my butt off 15 feet in the air, I asked myself: What am I doing here? I am only going to get a doe anyway, and I know I can get that behind my friends' house, which is a five minute drive away. So, I got out of the stand, drove over there, walked behind their house, found some does in the woods, returned with the crossbow, spoke reassuringly to them when they looked like they were about to run, then arrowed the biggest one.
I was a bit sad that I had to take another antlerless deer this year, but! When it became obvious I wasn't about to get a deer of any size at this stand, I was very glad to get anything at all! And, I was pretty happy that I wasn't going to be sitting out in the freezing wind anymore. I do enough of that on the boat.
IN SUMMARY
I learned a lot this year. I found some great new territory with deer, I passed on the biggest buck I had a shot at and I got to learn a few of the peculiar eccentricities of crossbow hunting (pretty much useless to try sneaking into your stand for first light, because they make so much noise when loading them). I learned that pre-season scouting pays off and I learned that you gotta hang your stand as early as possible.
Mainly now, I'm curious about people's tricks for scent control if they aren't able to play the wind. I literally had no choice on most of the days I hunted, despite the fact the wind was in the worst possible direction. I am thinking a box blind, with poly wrap and acoustic sealant and a PVC pipe in the roof for air circulation, might be the trick. If anyone knows of a pop-up blind that works, I'm all ears.
Otherwise, I am going to have to plan on running bait to two-three sites next year, depending on what the wind is ...
I also learned that deer mysteriously smarten up about two weeks into the season. I noticed this last year, too ...
Lastly, I think the most important lesson was that I need to get my recurve bow into use next year. The three extra weeks of bow season would have given me much more time to hunt - I could have had more days, I could have hunted later on the days I had (no daylight savings time ruining the evenings) and I could have stayed more comfortably in the stand, as it would have been warmer. I also wouldn't have been in competition with all the gun hunters.
