The curtain came down on rifle season last night and Craig had a big finish with 15 deer sighted in a 2 hr. sit. The mix was mostly does, fawns and young bucks but there is something about a dozen deer silhouettes against snow on the last night of gun season sitting in the same tree that produced a 154 inch buck (the same last evening of the season a few years earlier) to make you feel all is well in the world of Kindred Spirits. Season closes are always a time for reflection, and last night was a good one.

On the pragmatic side of things, entirely too many mature does were observed and we have some work to do this week with the muzzleloaders. Our guess is, we are collecting neighborhood deer as the cursed acorns are now snow covered and our brassicas plots are looking pretty good to them. We also notice the deer move through the brassicas plots more quickly and come to them later than corn plots which we ascribe to a combination of hunting pressure and feeling vulnerable on large fields (3 acre) of brassicas. Last night they poured into the field like football players running out of the tunnel at last light, long after legal shooting time.

Standing corn makes for great hunting when nasty winter weather forces wary bucks out of the cover and into the food. Standing corn provides plenty of cover and is a much more secure place for mature deer to feed. It is also easier to hunt as it is noisy in the wind, noisy when deer are tearing at it and noisy when deer crunch it when they chew. Sure miss our standing corn and so do the turkeys which have found some corn down in the river flats.

This week we observed 56 deer in 17 hrs.of hunting for an average of 3.29 sightings per hr. This is down from last week but we hit some tough wind and stormy weather last week which kept deer off of the plots (when we were on them). We also changed up a few times and hunted the woods looking for a plot shy buck who never went for the change up (neither did Mantle).

We learned a little something on one remote woods sit. Craig was watching a woods draw when picked up a deer hustling right along “leaving Dodge” and heading for cover. Why the hurry? Must be a good one to be moving along like that? Up came the glasses only to ID a 1 ½ yr. old buck acting like the smartest deer in the woods. A few minutes later he heard the neighbor’s 4 wheeler a full quarter mile away. This buck got spooked by neighboring hunters and was still hustling a quarter mile away. Talk about growing up fast (and smart). Two month earlier this same buck would have danced out of the way and gone back to business 200 yds. from the 4 wheeler. Now he is acting like a 4 yr. old headed for a sanctuary at the slightest hint of hunting pressure.

Last week we reported on the “second breeding” which hit exactly 28 days after things broke loose here in early November. Neil pulled some film this week and there on exactly the same day Craig reported seeing the “second season” breeding party was a “caught on camera” buck mounting a doe. Pretty cool to know that at least two does were being bred the same day (or at least within a day or two) in early December, proof positive that you need to be in the woods 28 days after the big event in November. These two events on the same day have really driven the “second rut” concept home to us.

On the really good news side we are excited about Neil’s 200 acre farm which has almost made it through its’ second hunting season. Neil lives in a hard hunting neighborhood and truckloads of “deer drivers” are a regular weekend occurrence. Saturday he watched as 15-20 guys drive the neighboring properties. At least 3 shot volleys were counted. Last year 17 of 18 bucks using his farm were killed. That’s the bad news.

The good news is, in the past 24 hrs. he has seen 5 bucks and a couple of them are 2.5 yrs. old. No doubt he has more but the count won’t be official for a couple of weeks and a whole bunch of NY hunters just got “buck legal” again in NY’s muzzleloader season which opens today.

How did he do it, how does 4 acres of standing corn and 3 or 4 new green plots sound for keeping them home? He hasn’t really hunted it and Butch helps him keep a line on the lines. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks to see if he can bring a few bucks through the season (sure would be nice if the neighbors or NY State would give him a little help).

Speaking of staying tuned, with hunting season closing for good in a week or so, we will be out of deer hunting and rut tracking stuff to write about. But, we have heard from hundreds of you that you would like to keep hearing from us on deer stuff. We have the unique deer report to compile (hopefully some of you have been keeping track of “uniques” through the season) and will speak to how to compile your report next week.

So, what do you want to hear about and discuss with us for the next couple of months? How about letting us know over the next few weeks? This will let us get together a schedule of reports for you and keep us all in touch until next season (can’t wait). Send your questions and discussion topics directly to Sharon@NorthCountryWhitetails.com and we will take it from there. Also, and this is really important, many of you get this report second or third hand from pass along from friends. As the season ends fewer and fewer friends will be passing the report along. If you want to keep getting the report you must give us your email address. Once again send it to Sharon at the above address and we will take care of it.

Hunting this week? You bet we will be staked out on food sources hoping the onset of winter drives the big bucks to the food during the daylight hours. You might catch some “second rut” action but our bet is on winter food sources. The deer will most likely move late unless severe cold brings them out when the temps are maxed out at midday. Standing corn, anybody?

You can catch all kinds of behavior on the Buck Eye Cams at www.wonation.org if you want to see how weather affects deer behavior. The cameras were almost completely shut down during the 3 days the wind and snow blew last week, the weather let up and the cameras started to burn up with activity. They were cooking yesterday afternoon when I was in a stand looking at 15 deer in front of me. If you aren’t going to school on those remote “real time” cameras you are missing an opportunity to put the behavior story together.

Best regards,
NorthCountry Whitetails