Bow-4-It

Hunted zone 11 with the muzzleloader on Sat. and Mon. Got out a little late on Sat. morning. Hunting partner overslept. Left for the woods 6:45 and the temp was 2 deg. Brrrr! Jumped a basket rack buck and 3 does on the way to the stand. They were gone in a flash. Sat on stand till 9:30 and my buddy and I seen nothing. Went back to the house for a HOT cup of coffee. We decided to do a one man push through a 10 acre cedar field. My Dad was the walker and I set up in a hedge row across an open field next to tha cedar field. My buddy was sitting in my Moms ground blind a couple hundred yards away in the woods. As soon as my Dad entered the cedar field, 7 does came running out across the open field towards the oppisite corner where I was but towards Tom. They stopped in the corner and just stood there deciding what to do. About that time here come 4 more does and a decent size buck. They join up with the other group of does, jump a fence and enter the woods. Pretty soon , on the oppisite side of the open field, walking towards the same corner are 1 doe followed by 3 bucks!!! All NICE. They are 150 to 175 yards from me. All I could do was watch them with my bicoculars. They went to the same corner and also jumped the fence and went into the woods. Just when I thought that was it, here come another 11 does and a basket rack buck!!! Headed you know where. For that same corner of woods.
I'm standing there telling Tom on the radio what I'm seeing and all these deer are heading into the woods where he is and all is quiet. No shots fired yet. From that corner, he is maybe 75 yards into the woods but it is quite thick with cedars and alot of dogwood trees mixed in with the hardwood. Pretty soon he gets on the radio and tells me all he can see is legs and bodies quite a ways away. He decides to get up and try to push them my way. About 30 seconds later, he shoots and here they come, about 20 does and 5 bucks, single file running at a pretty good clip, across another open field on the oppisite side of the hedge row I was standing in. They run by me at 50 yards, I'm whistling trying to get just one of the bucks to stop, but NO WAY. Wish I had my 870 with triple o buckshot! They just keep on trucking till they cross another hedge row and disappear into thin air. WOW!!! My buddy Tom did end up shooting a nice doe. We did the same thing on Mon. and seen zilch. Coulda been because of the high winds. I never pulled the triger but still consider it a successful hunt, just to see all those bones. I'll be heading back up there next week for a couple of days to give it one last try. Who knows??? Maybe they'll be back.

jerseyjoe

Hey Bow..How are ya. I was out on Saturday with the smokepole. Deer were all over the place! My buddy saw 1 racked buck. I seen 15 does and took a small one. My buddy also took a small doe. It seems the cold had them moving. I'll be out this sat afternoon. Good luck.

Bow-4-It

Doing pretty good JJ, how 'bout yourself? I was really surprised to see that many bucks so late into the season. If they make it through the next few weeks, they will be real nice next season. I'll be hunting down here in Delaware this Sat. and heading back up to Stockton with the smokepole Feb. 4th thru 7th. Good luck to ya!