A Day at the Scrape!

A Day at the Scrape!

 First the doe pays a visit.

Next, skippy comes to investigate.

Finally, the Boss moves in.

(Keep an eye on the rub just to the front of him.)

Happy Hunting!

The Big Thicket

The Gully Point

For years the gully point was just a place I walked past on my way to somewhere else.  I ignored the obvious as I made my way to better hunting spots.  The gully point ran out of a corner of an overgrown field down into a steep, wooded, ravine.  I never gave a second thought about how the top of the steep ravine the gully formed or the field corner by themselves were perfect funnels, much less how great they were together.  I never thought twice about how every year there was at least one scrape located on the point, I just looked down and kept walking.  I was always certain the camera I posted here every year was going to have at least one good buck picture, though I never thought about hunting the spot.  I just kept walking past the gully point, oftentimes watching deer race away in front of me as I passed through -- I didn't care -- I was going to better hunting grounds.

For several years a three-inch cedar tree seemed to be the spot where every passing buck left his calling card. A wicked ice storm bent a bigger cedar over the top of the small cedar, so now the bucks use the tulip and sumac saplings at the gully point as their calling card instead.  The tulips and sumacs aren't as tough and resilient as the little cedar, but every year there are new ones taking the place of the ones the bucks shred. 

 

But this year I have finally wised up.  I have picked out a long, tall, tulip poplar that is just perfect for my old loggy bayou climber.  From my perch I can look down onto where the gully point and the field edge meet, and the old cedar tree sign post.  Tomorrow morning I will be up in the tree. 

The River Bottom Trail

The River Bottom Trail is the thread that runs through much of the land I hunt.  The trail winds along the river bottom connecting Stonehenge, The Creek Bottom Trail, The Horseweed field, and points beyond.  It runs for miles and miles along a wooded corridor bordered by wide forested stands of the Hoosier National Forest, and private property composed of mostly hay fields, and dense thickets.

For most of the year the trail seems to be travelled by only raccoons, possums, and coyotes.  But, when the months of October and November roll around the trail is used by different travelers.

Over the years the trail has showed me how genetics and disbursement play out in the whitetail woods.  For instance, five years ago one of my camera's snapped a chance picture of a large eleven pointer with an extra main beam at Stonehenge.  I never saw the deer again.  Last year, however, his genes showed up four miles down the river in a nice two year old deer.  The first picture of any deer like him my cameras had taken, even though I had covered the area around Stonehenge with them every year since.  

Two years ago a mature six pointer with a deformed right beam showed up on one of my cameras.  This was the second picture of this buck my camera's had taken.  Four years earlier I got a picture of him in the exact same spot when he was a year and a half old deer.  Last year I got a picture of another young buck with the same type of deformed right antler.  This buck was over six miles away up a wooded draw that runs off the river bottom trail.

From now through December, or until I tag out with a mature buck I will go into my scent control strategy.  All of my clothes will be washed in scent free soap, I will shower with scent free soap and shampoo, and my deoderant will be scentless as well.  I haven't tried this before, so I am hoping it will help me in the deer woods. 

My hunting clothes will be sprayed with scent eliminator on the outside and on the inside and stowed away in a container with cedar branches.

Let's hope all this is worth it.  I'm not holding out for a monster, I just want a good solid mature buck!  Plus a couple of does for the freezer.

Sometime this coming weekend I will find the time to make my way to Stonehenge.