# was it a good weekend?



## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

On the one hand for us it was a bust weekend. Didn't bring any meat home.

Went out on Friday alone as it really was my only day of scouting in a new area to us south of Leonard. Beautiful. Had driven to the area in September when I took the 4 yo camping, but that was it. I knew where I wanted to go, just not where the deer were. Spotted a couple of nice 2X2 bucks that any new hunter would be proud to have. The scrapes and activity in the area promised a chance at a much bigger buck. For our group of 3 we have three buck and two doe tags.

Saturday was spent taking the wife and putting her on the deer spots I had found on Friday. It was her second year of hunting ever. She still has yet to shoot a deer. Once in the morning, where I told, when I told, 2 nice 2X2 bucks for her. No shots, they came out on her 10 yards out and she couldn't get the gun up with out spooking them. Told her not to be doing homework till after 9 AM though.

About 8:30-9 in the morning we had a group of about 7 hunters come walking through the area, driving the woods. So much for stand hunting. We decided to walk around for a couple of hours and get a better feel for the lay of the land. Talk about beautiful land out here. Back in the afternoon to the deer stand as the neighborhood has been quiet now for about 4 hours.

Again, she spooks 2 bucks that she could have hit with the rifle as a club. She is smiles from ear to ear when I see her at the end of the day. We start to make our plans for Sunday morning.

Sunday starts out we are 15 minutes late getting out of the house. We can deal with it. This morning it is the wife, her best friend who is hunting for her first time and me. We get to the parking area and start walking in. Nice buck. In the scope I can count 6 tines. Estimate it at about 300 yds. Step it off later it was a short 200yds. So much for judging distance. shots all went high. Send the girls in to sit where the wife and I sat the day before and I go to make sure I didn't draw blood and loose the buck. And hour later, with new spots picked out and satisfied I didn't draw blood, I go for the girls and bring them to the new spots.

The wife's friend, didn't see anything. The wife has since taken off ''those damn noisy" bibs. We both wear Walker game ears so that may have been part of it. She had moved about 60 yds to where I suggested only to have 2 more bucks close enough to use a hammer on them instead of a rifle. Reflex shooting here, no aiming involved. Now I got her mad at me.

We decide to walk over to the new stands and the wife is going to take the bibs back to the truck. As she is doing that, we wait for her, only to watch a doe and a yearling come out of the woods next to where she is walking. No luck on that one either.

Get everyone to our new stands and as we get situated, the deer start to just leave the neighbor hood. I count 6, but no good shoot. The wife was mesmerized by the sun off the water and falls to sleep, and her friend is enjoying the wind, sun and view. sees a couple of does, but as she is buck only, she can't shoot.

lunch time comes around and I go to join the wife. A doe jumps up and is no more than 15 yds out. Quick shot and the M1 wakes up the wife. I figure she will get it as it is headed within 5 yds of her on the trail. No following shot. She doesn't even see the deer. She accuses me of just wanting to hear the M1 get shot, with a smile. 50 yds apart and she never saw the doe. No idea where it went after I put my shot in the dirt.

A bite to eat and back to the morning spots. This time, the wife wants me on the other end of the trail and out of the line of fire, as that is were her morning bucks have been going to. Find out later that within 15 minutes of getting there, a doe comes across. no shot. About 4, another doe comes out, the wife gets a shot this time, her first shot at a deer. No luck though. The doe jumped into the wood just before the shot is made. Her friend has never been that close to a wild deer though. She is happy. The wife is so high on adrenalin, she is now instantly cold. As it is now quiting time, we head for home.

On the way home, we had to stop a few times. The northern lights were out for a light show that no fireworks can match.

The plans for the following weekend are being discussed and all I can do is smile, agree and nod.

Listening to those two talk on the way home, it was a VERY Good weekend, even with out any meat to show for it.


----------



## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

Great story! Can't wait to hear the 2nd chapter!


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

My brother and their group were down that way, with the standing corn it was tough but they walked many miles and got their deer.


----------



## Ryan_Todd (Apr 11, 2004)

over here on the MN side it was pretty tough going. the river was high and there is a ton of standing corn. our group managed to get 10 but we had to work pretty hard for them. i still have 5 tags to fill so i hope they get a lot of corn off this week.


----------



## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/members/ph ... s/3386.jpg

I Couldnt pass this one up.


----------



## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

Nice muley, GB3. Gotta say that this was the toughest opener for me in quite a while. A guy has a few pretty successful years in a row and starts to think he knows a little about deer hunting and then a year like this comes along! A very humbling experience. Did some homework, had some good spots, good cover. Made some great new land owner friends. Not only could we not find the horns, but deer were just scarce as hell in general. I would hesitate to second guess our friends at the G&F, but I don't think that the whitetail deer numbers in 4E are up where they think they are. We got one meat buck on Sunday morning' on the back side of a section of PLOTS, of all places, and were darn glad to get him. The guys at the CWD head collection station confirmed that things had been pretty slow for them also. I still have my buck tag and might head out again next week, if the weather cools. They have to be somewhere. Don't they? I, we, just need to remember that hunting success shouldn't always be measured by the number of packages in the freezer or horns on the wall. Shoot straight all, Burl


----------



## MossyMO (Feb 12, 2004)

20 miles North of Minot it was pretty much nothing but seeds and corn, made for a tough hunt, alot of walking. Hunted Friday through Monday late morning. Day break on Saturday morning my 14 year old son dropped a standing, nice bodied 3X2 buck at 430 yards, shot through the vitals. That afternoon walking sloughs, my 16 year old son dropped a doe that had just bolt from a slough we were walking with a neck shot. 2 sloughs later I had the opportunity to place a neck shot on a buck, it buckled and stumbled, running/stumbling in cicles and doing figure 8's. As it drew near a hunting buddy, the buck tumble down a road ditch laying there. When we got to the ditch it was gone with a blood trail into the seeds, our group tracked it's blood traiol for about 800 yards into the seeds and then lost the trail, spent approximentally 2 hours looking for it with no luck. Sunday night just after sundown, my son dropped a buck, waited about 10 minutes watching where it went down and when he went to it and it jumped to its feet in the seeds it went in the dark. Using flashlights we followed a blood trail about 50 yards into the seeds, then were unable to find blood any further. Next morning at daybreak we resumed our search and follow the blood about 400 yards into the seeds and then lost the trail, we searched about a 100 yard around the last blood spot and could not find more blood or the deer. Tough weekend on the wounded deer, I don't like the thought of the deer dying a slow painfull death, nor the waste of meat.

Saturday farmers in the area started cutting the seeds, and by the time we are back hunting Thursday, a large majority of the seeds should be down. We have 5 tags left to fill and hope we are able too. :sniper:


----------

