Hortontoters Hunting Log

Saturday morning found me on stand at 6AM sharp. Had my first encounter of the season at 6:55. A lone doe strolled into my shooting lane at 17 yards. Let her walk, saw another doe at 8:20 about 60 yards out.

Saturday evening found me on stand at 4PM. A nice evening sit but no deer sighted. My stepson passed on a 6 or 8 point in a stand about 75 yards to my east.

Sunday morning back on stand in a light rain at 6:15. Rain stopped about 7:10 and things looked promising. Caught movement just to my right at 9:10, out steps a small, dark horned 8 point. He stood directly broadside in my shooting lane at about 18 yards. He knew somthing was up though and slowly worked his way out of my area. He was getting a free pass anyways.

Sunday evening I headed to my stand at 4:30. Planned to hunt a stand by a food plot. As I headed to my stand it started to thunder. I decided to head for my PortaPot stand in case it rained. By 5:00 the rain started and then heavy rain, high winds and near 20 minutes of steady hail. Rain quit about 5:55 and sun peeked through. I looked behind my stand to a creek in my bottom. The creek had turned into a small river and I knew crossing it would be interesting. About 6:45 it starts to thunder again and I knew I better get out of there before it rained and made the creek higher. I bailed and got to my Craftsman tractor that I had ridden to the creek bottom. I approached the creek and got my stepson nearby where I was going to cross. The current was very strong and the water was up over my mower deck as I crossed. Made it across without any mishaps. Had planned to stay at the cabin and hunt today. But, the storm had knocked out the power and I know from experience that sometimes it is a day or two for my power to be back up and running. Grabbed the perishables from the refrigerator and headed home.

Monday and Tuesday looked like the best weather days this week. So I headed for the woods at noon on Monday. Arrived at my cabin around 1:15 and found that I still had no power there. Drove into Carrollton to find out what was going on. Found out that I was the only customer on the transformer that powers my property due to a recent power pole change. That being the case no one had reported the outage. I was told that any outages I have I need to report. They sent a truck out right away and got the power restored and things were good to go.

Got on stand Monday at 3:45. It was lightly raining and very little wind. Sat until quitting time and never saw anything but a couple of chipmunks.

Hit another stand on Tuesday morning at 6:15. A great morning for watching the squirrels, but the deer were no where in my vicinity. Back on stand at 4:00 and sat again until quitting time. Heard quite a few deer in the brush around me in the last 20 minutes or so, but never caught sight of anything.

The next seven days look like they are going to be to hot for my liking. I will probably take the next week to get a few needed jobs accomplished at home and at the cabin. Unless the weather changes that is my plan.

Hunted hard Friday through Sunday. Hunted three different stands for a total of approx 17 hours. Both morning and evening sits. I never saw a deer which I found hard to believe. To top things off I pulled a couple of camera cards and not one deer on the cameras in the last eight days. Seems like the deer at my hunting area simply vanished. Things got to get better soon.

Another series of sits with little action. Hunted Sunday afternoon and all day Monday other than about 1 1/2 hours at midday. Total stand time in two days was nearly 13 hours. Saw one big doe on Sunday evening at around 6:05. Looked to my left and saw a small black circle at about 60 yards. I thought to myself, that looks like a deers nose. Sure enough it was the nose of the doe. She came within forty yards, no where near my comfort zone. I was going to let her walk anyways. Never saw a deer all day on Monday. Other than a little rain on Monday both days were good days weatherwise. I'm thinking in about 10 days things are going to pick up. Very little buck sign at my property, but I know they are around.

Well guys, I'm puttin in the time, but Lady Luck and I are on our annual legal seperation. Arrived at my cabin at 11:30 on Sunday. Was on stand by 12:15. Saw a small racked buck at 5:10 pass about 70 yards to my right. My dad and stepson arrived while I was on stand. My stepson had a decent 9 almost give him a shot. The stand he hunted is a fence crossing that leads to a tiny funnel between a creek and a tiny swampy area that used to be a pond. The deer jumped the fence started through the funnel and then hesitated, turned around and went back the way he came. Had he walked another 10 yards he would have offered him a great shot. See my photos of this 9 point and note the times. You may be able to see the small dam that creates the one side of the funnel. The fence the deer jumped is about 3 yards behind my camera.

Hunted both Monday and Tuesday evening. Nothing showed on Monday. Tuesday I had a yearling doe about 20 yards to my right. Never came in front of my shooting window. I wasn't going to take her anyways.

Buck sign has sprung up during the last week. Found 8 or 9 scrapes around the perimiter of my tiny food plot. Very few deer on the cameras this week. Seems all the activity has moved to the back of my property. Filled a corn feeder and set up a camera on it hoping to see if Splitter is still in the area.

Not much action this hunt, but things are looking up. Hopefully my opportunity will come soon.

Hunted yesterday afternoon. Heard a couple of deer snort, one quite a ways away and later on one fairly close. Hunted a NE wind yesterday which I knew was iffy for my property. Had not been out since Tuesday and had to get in the woods. Hoped to hunt today, but E wind is definately not huntable in my stands. I think I bungled things up yesterday hunting an iffy wind. Stupid on my part, but November calls for as many hours as possible on stand.

Beings that one never knows is why I hunted the N NE wind yesterday. But, E winds is a waste on my place. I can only enter the woods from the east and my property only being about 6 huntable acres and only a little over 300 foot wide makes the approach with an E wind terrible. Every deer on the property knows I'm there before I even set up. And all my stand openings face west. In short, I'm pretty much screwed with an E wind. Thanks for pulling for me, I'm doing the same in return. Hopin Moe makes an appearance soon.

Hunted both Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Wednesday was a bust, but Thursday was quite exciting. Had two bucks in my crosshairs, but neither were in range. Pretty sure the second buck was Splitter, my target buck. Just seeing those snow white tines at 60 yards got my heart racing. I had pulled a camera card on Thursday morning. It showed Splitter slipping in to a creek bottom bedding area at 5:53 that morning. I had a hunch he would come up the hill by my one stand that evening or go through the creek bottom passed another stand I have. I gave my dad his choice of the two stands. He chose the creek bottom and I went to the top of the hill to my Porta-Pot stand. I had a big bodied six point pass to my left at 4:15 and work his way in front of me at about 60 yards. Ten minutes later I caught a flash of white and there was the big boy. If it wasn't Splitter it was a very nice shooter. I didn't get a good enough look to be sure. Both bucks followed a rub/scrape line running across the width of my property. Next time I hunt I'm moving in on this line. My dad missed an eight point from the creek bottom stand Thursday also. All in all a good evening. Here are two photos of Splitter this week including him slipping in to the creek bottom bedding area.