Blackbeard's 2013-2014 Hunting Journal

10/26/13-AM. Hunted a stand which overlooks a spot where a thicket meets a 1/2 acre overgrown field, beautiful morning, around freezing, stiff west wind. As soon as the sun came up I watched a basket rack 6-8 pt browsing in the field about 50 yards away, wish I would have had a good camera because seeing his breath and the frosty weeds below him with the sun on his left side was awesome. Soon after two does joined him then they all left together. No more action until 8:45 when two mature does and two fawns came from behind me, browsed around a little in the narrow strip of woods I was in, and then left by walking straight away downwind of me starting at 5 yards out to 50 yards before turning and going over the hill. No stomping or blowing, smoke 1 four does 0. My first smoke experience and I was pleased with it. Stayed till 10:30 never saw anything else.

10/26/13- PM. Hunted a red/white oak honey hole of mine. Only problem was I don't believe I heard a single acorn drop all evening, even with a 7-12 MPH gusty wind. Saw three squirrels and none were cutting nuts out of the trees. Not much of a honey hole this year. The only deer I saw were three does in an overgrown field about 125 yards away. They browsed from 5:30 until 6:30 then disappeared. Very slow evening which was a real surprise. I'm guessing the wind had them feeling more comfortable in the semi-open grown up field than in the woods. I checked various oak trees on my way in and out of both hunts today and only found one huge red oak that had any noticeable acorns. Crop is pretty much non-existent except for some scattered trees it seems.

Hey Buckslayer, haven't heard from you in a while. Yes, sucks about the acorns.

10/27/13- PM. Hunted on the ground in a spot I picked out on the fly this afternoon. Made me a little spot up in some briars and honeysuckle up against some pines overlooking a 1/4 acre overgrown field and honeysuckle patch. It looked like a perfect staging area prior to deer moving on down the hill into some soybeans. Got setup and although it was warm and the sun was bright, there was still a chill to the air. Surprisingly never saw a thing. Saw one deer feeding in the beans later. Last two evenings have been slowwwwww. Deer around here are already hitting their winter honeysuckle browse due to the lack of acorns. Warm spell continues this week then cool down Thursday.

10/28/13- PM. Hunted a stand in a staging area. Jumped a few does going in, how can you not right now, leaves are crazy noisy. No action until 6:30 when I saw antlers coming off the hill behind me. I was hoping for it to be a particular 10 pt I've been getting photos of in this area.....and got ready...but it was a small 8 pt. He fed 25 yards from me from 6:30 until a small deer (button buck I thought) showed up at 6:45. He did some very low tending grunts at the button buck, which was odd, and ran it into the woods underneath me, where it stood and browsed until dark. Right at dark another deer was coming into the area and the 8 pt chased it around in a circle. While they were down in the woods another deer came by as I was trying to get out of there. Nice evening, little warm but cool very light N/NE breeze.

Nice, the Big Holla is back, much better.

Probably have to shoot this buck if I see him. He's been starting to show himself the last 20 minutes of daylight which might be his downfall.


Like to get a shot at these as well.

10/31/13- AM. Hunted a stand next to a thicket, warm with gusty winds out of the SW, never saw a single deer. I did hear acorns dropping out of two red oaks though. Pretty surpring, figured I'd catch some deer filing their bellies before this front moves in.

Also wanted to report that I walked out behind my house and around a path to check for the usual scrapes and there were none, very weird not to be any back there. Not sure what's up with that.

11/01/13- AM. Hunted a stand which is along a fence line and in a saddle between a bedding area and feeding area. Nice morning, warm but sunny. Leaf cover was greatly reduced by the high winds earlier in the morning. However, never saw a thing. On the way out I was stalking down the dirt path and walked upon a decent 8 pt eating crabapples 50 yards away. He wasn't looking in my direction so I got to within 40 yards, wide open shot, knelt down, and he took a couple steps and stopped and just as I was drawing I noticed he was a half rack, left side away from me had like a split brow or was broke off, so I watched him walk away! No rutting activity to speak of here yet, hunting very slow, deer not moving much. No scrapes in typical locations.