Maine deer hunting report 11/9/19

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Made the long run North to hunt the day with my son. Hit the spot where one of the guys got a real monster last year. Got up wicked early, parked at the foot of the hill and hiked the last mile and a half up the dirt track in the pitch dark and extreme cold, so as to not disturb things. Set up on the spot and settled in for the long cold wait for legal hours. A couple frigid hours later, well after full light we hear a truck laboring up the road. The guy stops on the trail right where we were 100 yards or so inside the tree line. We hear him get out, jack one into the chamber and crunch around a little on the frozen snow, and not 3 minutes later BOOM, he shoots one. The half a Dunks he didn't finish in the cup holder was probably still hot when he got back to it.

We stuck it out in the general area until lunch time, seeing nothing and freezing our asses off. Hiked back out and headed for the afternoon spot, figuring we'd grab a sandwich on the way. About ten minutes into the ride The Old Ball Chain, who had come North with me for the day and was baby sitting the grand-kids texted me just to be sure I knew there had been some really big deer on my son's backyard mid morning, ya know, about 5 yards outside the window where I had gotten dressed @ 3 AM. She said she was fairly certain even I could have shot one of them, right out the window. She had let his dog out and he chased them off.

We stopped for sandwiches, and the girl behind the counter asked if we had seen anything. My son answered in the negative , and asked if the other guys were seeing anything. She said she wasn't sure, but she had hit two with her car on the way in to work, killed one, the other kicked out her head light and ran off.

The afternoon sit was....not productive. Great spot though. It'll produce...well....unless all the guys we heard shooting in the last half hour killed 'em all.

So far it's Deer 1...The Boys 0.
 
Looked at scads of deer today. Literally surrounded at one point. Unfortunately the only one we saw that had horns was the one that ran across the road in front of the car outbound @ 4AM. Didn't fare well Friday either....cold soaking rain , broke my pack, damaged my rifle scope.


Deer - 6
The Boys - 0

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Hunt where their food is.

Find areas with lots of acorn producing oaks, areas of beech, running water and sunny grassy areas where they bed.

I've rarely seen deer that occupy pine or birch forests......there's little to no feed for them there. All the deer I've taken over the years have been in areas of oaks, beech and fields.
 
Welp.......I had my chance....and I blew it.
What a deer. Would of handily gotten that coveted Big Bucks patch.
I guess there's some consolation in having a great hunting partner in my son.When I explained what happened he couldn't suppress a bit of grin while saying he heard the whole thing, but he didn't outright laugh in my face anyways.
Guess mebbe I'll see if I can find that old half a box of slugs that's around here someplace and drag the 'ol smoothbore through the scrub somewhere on Cape Cod for a bit.
Privileged to have spent the time enjoying God's splendor in the great state of Maine,
Deer-9
The Boys-0

does.jpg
 
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Welp.......I had my chance....and I blew it.
What a deer. Would of handily gotten that coveted Big Bucks patch.
I guess there's some consolation in having a great hunting partner in my son.When I explained what happened he couldn't suppress a bit of grin while saying he heard the whole thing, but he didn't outright laugh in my face anyways.

So what happened? Did you forget to chamber a round and when you had that sucker dead to rights, pulled the trigger and got nothing but “click”, which spooked the deer who promptly bolted? ;)
 
Welp.......I had my chance....and I blew it.
What a deer. Would of handily gotten that coveted Big Bucks patch.
I guess there's some consolation in having a great hunting partner in my son.When I explained what happened he couldn't suppress a bit of grin while saying he heard the whole thing, but he didn't outright laugh in my face anyways.
Guess mebbe I'll see if I can find that old half a box of slugs that's around here someplace and drag the 'ol smoothbore through the scrub somewhere on Cape Cod for a bit.
Privileged to have spent the time enjoying God's splendor in the great state of Maine,
Deer-9
The Boys-0

View attachment 315702

I hear ya, took several days off and skunked so far. So now it’s the smokepole and maybe Bow. Definitely mistimed the rut but that’s hunting!
 
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