October 28th Deer Season Journal

I made it to a stand near one of our food plots along the hayfield by 8:00 AM. Our digital scouting cameras had caught a wide racked eight point buck in this location this week and it is common to see a few does in this area. It was also the shortest walk in the rain to get to a stand.

After about an hour I realized that my waterproof pants had let me down and the cool temperatures, steady rain and light wind convinced me that I’d had enough for the morning. Not seeing any deer also helped me climb out of the stand.

Ryan and I got our game cameras ready and headed out just after noon. We planned on setting up our cameras and then setting on stand for a while. We got to our stands about 2:00 and the weather looked pretty nice. I took up a post on the west side of the oldhouse food plot. I had wanted to get in the stand on the east side but I absent mindedly let Ryan leave with the ATV that had my tree steps on it.

It was looking like it was going to be a nice afternoon. I had a chance to eat a snack and had started to test my feeble mind against a crossword puzzle when the tree began to sway back and forth. Since the weather had been changing so much during the day I thought that the wind may subside after a little while and sat tight.

After 15 more minutes of non-stop motion I decided that the wise thing to do was to get my feet back on the ground. When I got to Ryan he was leaving his treestand as well.

We decided to take a walk and do a little scouting. While scouting we found a couple buck rubs and jumped three deer. One of these deer appeared to be the wide racked eight point buck that we had pictures of along with a four point and a doe. We got only a quick glimpse of them and they disappeared over the hill.

We spent the next hour in sunshine, sleet, rain and snow walking around looking for deer sign and enjoying the outdoors.

These days of erratic weather aren’t usually the best hunting days, but it is always interesting being outdoors on days like these. There is something about the power of the weather that amazes me and reminds me that I’m not in control.

Other than six deer sightings within 100 feet of the house the three deer that we jumped were the only deer we saw all day. Windy conditions and deer sightings seldom go hand in hand.

This is the rainbow that greeted us as soon as we got back to the house and took our boots off. I took this picture by leaning out of the screen door.