October 31, Noon
I arrived here in Manitoba and settled into the farmhouse where I stay for bear hunting and where I stayed during my September deer hunt here. Of course Lucky is on my mind and Sure enough he is still around. Tom had four cameras out and I put four more out yesterday. Between the eight Covert Scouting cameras, I have identified five shooter bucks. Two of them are familiar to me already, Lucky and the Heavy 10, which are showing up fairly regularly. All five are ten pointers but one of them has a broken G2 and the others are both on camera only during the dark. Tom has seen two other bucks that are bigger than any we have on camera so I might have a pleasant surprise one of these days.
I have also been glassing the farm fields I can hunt during the morning and evening hours yesterday and I have seen a pile of deer, but no shooter bucks from the truck window. It has been very wet here and most of the hay that was cut in September is still down and rotting. Tom got about half his fields cut and then it started raining and hasn’t stopped. His insurance company was here looking it over. This is bad for the insurance company but good for deer hunting because the deer are still using these hayfields. There are a LOT of does in the fields in the evenings, and here it is the day before November so the bigger bucks should be pushing those does around in the daylight any time.
I have a north wind tonight which is perfect for the south end of the hayfield so that’s where I am going. My second choice for mornings and evening will be the area where the Heavy 10 is showing up on camera. He doesn’t look all that big in the antler until you realize just how huge his body is, then a better estimate of those dark, chocolate antlers makes him a lot more appealing.
I’m going out early for a five-hour sit which will seem like an eternity with this cold, damp wind and temperatures falling through the 30’s, but the odds of seeing a lot of deer and possibly a big one are too good to sit on the couch so I will endure the seeping damp cold with high hopes.
November 1, 6:00 a.m.
Last night was eventful to say the least. I got settled into the stand at 2:00 and I had does in the field in front of me from 3:00-6:00. Lots of does. At 5:30, a buck snuck in from behind me and began to push the does around in the field, scattering them several times. I recognized him as a buck I passed back in September. He’s a nice 9-point, probably 3 years old that will be a great buck next year. As always, I had a hard time not grabbing the bow when he was broadside at 25 yards several times. But I know there are a lot bigger bucks around. He finally cleared the field about 6:00 and then it was dead until dark at 7:00. He went up to the north end where I had a Covert Camera on a scrape and I got his picture which I will include here.
The scouting cameras I have out are showing a lot of activity. The scrapes are getting pounded all night long but still no daylight photos of bucks at scrapes.
The heavy 10 is very visible in daylight and very predictable just like he was in September. In fact the camera I got photos of him two months ago is taking pics of him every morning and evening again. Because I do not have a good stand for a morning sit in a south wind, I plan to glass deer again at daylight, then run the cameras again. If the heavy ten is once again on his pattern, I will go in there and put up a ground blind and see if I can get him. That is unless I get some photos of Lucky. I have not seen anything of him so I believe he is off with one of the first does to come into heat. The wind is supposed to be out of the south so it’s a perfect chance to go shoot the Heavy 10 if he shows up. The big broken 9 is in that area too, so I will have a choice to make if he appears.
If I do not shoot a buck tonight, the wind is supposed to be north in the morning so I will hunt a stand on the hayfield in the morning. That will possibly give me a chance at Lucky, or one of the other big bucks Tom has seen and told me about but so far I do not have either of them on cameras.