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Swish................

how was it? BIL and I didn't see a deer. I had one decent set of tracks by my stand between saturday and sunday which led to a fresh scrape in a island of spruce trees. Scraped right down to the ground, so there must be a little of th rut still going on. We sat about 32 hours between the two of us without a deer sighting.



Lots more snow than we thought too. Over a foot for sure, more like foot and a half.

Looks good. New head lights and all.

Hey Swish.

How was your hunt?

I'm confused by your deer season.In South Carolina we have one month of archery season followed by two weeks of muzzle loader season followed by two and a half months of gun season.It seems to me that your muzzle loader season follows regular gun season??Where does archery season fit in?
During regular gun season can you opt to hunt with a bow or muzzle loader?

Stan in SC

mid sept-december31st is archery. rifle is first half of november or so, muzzleloader starts the saturday after thanksgiving and goes for 2 weeks.

if you want to hunt each season you have to buy a separate license for each method of take

Friday night on the way out to camp.





After struggling with the plow blade being hooked on a rock when we fell through some ice covering a mud hole on our way in to the cabin we lit the wood stove. In this picture the stove had been kicking out heat for about a half hour already. We started at around 17 degrees inside temp.



Late Saturday morning we had this pot of chili cooking on the woodstove.






And that's what we ate for 2 days

Here's the boy getting a bucket of water from the pond for cleaning dishes.



[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/Picture032-3.jpg[/img]

We had to run to the little country store about 7 miles from camp on Saturday, We took a few pictures along the way.









We found that the deer tracks were the heaviest in the cedar trees so I set up in an old ground blind in the cedars Sat evening.

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/Picture024.jpg[/img]

The sky was clear at night and the moon is still throwing a lot of light so it's very easy for the deer to get around at night. If we felt like pushing a little harder we could have kicked deer up out of bedding areas but we're looking for better shooting opportunities this early in the muzzle loader season. Walking or preferably standing targets would be much better than big white tails waving at us from running deer.

I think things will be much better next weekend as far as the hunting goes.

Taking a scenic route on the way home from camp yesterday....



Sometimes the road less traveled can offer problems for you We fell through some ice again. It don't look bad in these pictures because we were almost out at this point.



The boy learned a few new tricks over the weekend such as winching with a handyman jack.





You're never really "stuck", just delayed sometimes.

Beautiful pics Dave. Looks like RWS is getting broke in good and proper!!! When there's fresh snow and a full moon, there is enuff light for us humans to see very well. It looks pretty flat up there. How high is the highest local elevation???

We're like 1100-1200, 1300 would be pretty high in the forest area we hunt.

We're about 890 here, the relief drop is something like 6" every mile or so.
pretty flat. they say you can't level a pool table as level as we are here. go red river valley of the north!

Gotta love the high lift Jack, What cant they do??

Hunt was slow for us. I only saw one doe, in the first hour, then nothing else rest of the time. Pard took a nice 8pt.



second weekend took my boy who is 19 out, first time he was interested in going. Went out in the morning with no snow and had 6 inches by quitting time. I love hunting in the falling snow. Stopped and hunkered under a little balsum for a rest.


Bumped a couple of deer sneaking (not very well) through the snowy wood. Good time had by all.



I didnt have time to hunt with my uncle at camp99 this year but here is a story from there.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...63/One_young_mans_first_buck#Post4624563

Great pictures, I love hunting in falling snow too.

Looks like it is really snowplow camp with a little deer hunting on the side

That's pretty much how it went.

We took a long walk on Sat morning, figured out the deer were hanging really heavy in the cedars. Then for the evening I sat in a home made blind in the cedars and my boy sat in an elevated stand watching an opening between 2 large stands of cedar where they have been crossing.

Nothing for our efforts though, Sunday morning we returned to those areas to find lots of new tracks in those areas. But we saw no deer for our efforts on Sunday either.

We are encouraged by the amount of deer sign we are now seeing though. We hope for better hunting next weekend.

whew, been gone for awhile and looks like I missed some serious plowing! we dont have much snow at all, maybe 1-2 inches.....but we are supposed to get 6-9 tonight. that will be good for the rooster hunting. I have been out a few times and am crushing the roosters. man, i love hunting late season birds in MN!! been seeing 30-50 birds every time out, so there are birds out there. they are spooky, but that makes the challenge that much better. i have been doing really well in the cattails and willow swamps. Hard hunting, but that is my favorite way to hunt'em! I love going where no one else goes.

Back when IA had birds, it was, indeed, hard but rewarding to hunt the cattails. Late season limits were possible on public land in January. But that was then. Not so much now....

Hunting the cattails indeed is good this time of year. Sure makes the dogs work though.

How's your dog doing Jim?