Had a little different experience than some of you hunting the cold this weekend. We got nothing but ice down here. No snow, very little sleet, just solid freezing rain. Power still not restored to most places due to downed trees, only those in town have it. So with nothing else to do, I went hunting. Ice had came in on Thursday night so Friday afternoon I hit the stand over a feeder. Nothing, for four hours. OK, so I guess they were still hunkered down and not moving yet, didn't blame them, it was 24 degrees. Saturday had high hopes, I knew they had to move at some point. Sat at same feeder, not a single deer, not a track, corn piled up on the ice and had not been touched. They just were not moving at all. I went home. Then came Sunday, last day of the season. They just HAD to move today I told myself. The wind had turned around out of the south, warmed a few degrees, so I had to switch stands and luckily it worked out where I had a tower blind overlooking a draw with a feeder in the bottom. Trees were iced over so bad they blocked most of my shooting lane down to the feeder, I had brought 50 lbs of corn, so I dumped it out all over the ice in an area I could see well. Went and got settled in my blind, and as soon as I got everything situated, I looked down and saw 5 does coming my way. I smiled to myself. Turned around and looked at the corn and there was a beautiful 10 point sitting there. Threw the scope on him and looked him over, he was a good deer, so I let him walk. Early in the day, first horns that I saw, I didn't want to short myself on the first deer. You could hear them coming from a mile away, busting through the icy grass, they were anything but sneaky. The rest of the day was un-freaking-believable. From 8 am to 5:30 pm, there was never more than 10 minutes that I did not have deer in front of me. They would come in, eat for a while, and move on, then more would come in. I am sure some were repeat customers, but I lost count somewhere around 50 does that had come in. The most action was from about 1-3 pm. It looked like I was on the side of an ant hill. There were deer in three different directions of me just weaving around like ants. Had 5 bucks that came in all day, the most frequent being that pretty 10 pt. He came in again 30 minutes before last light. I threw the scope on him again and sized him up. He was a couple of inches outside his ears, perfectly symmetrical aside from the tip of a G4 broken off. He would have been a good deer for this year, but he will be a great deer for next year, so I let him pass. I did notice it looked like he maybe had been clipped by an arrow a month or so ago. The was this about 3 inch cut down the bottom of his chest, behind the front leg. Glad he survived the near miss.
I just could not believe how much action there was. I have never seen that, not during the rut or anything else. I guess it was just the perfect combination of really harsh weather, and the breaking point of the deer meeting, and me sitting there with a rifle in my hand. Yesterday was one of those days I will never forget as long as I live. Even though I did not kill anything but time, it was one of my best hunts ever.
I just could not believe how much action there was. I have never seen that, not during the rut or anything else. I guess it was just the perfect combination of really harsh weather, and the breaking point of the deer meeting, and me sitting there with a rifle in my hand. Yesterday was one of those days I will never forget as long as I live. Even though I did not kill anything but time, it was one of my best hunts ever.
