Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Wow, congrats on some great deer! Nice to see both kids and old fellers getting in on the action. I hope I am still able to be in the woods at 93 let alone shoot a deer!

We had a successful deer hunt as well. My oldest 12 year old boy shot a doe on opening day. Just before dark, my daughter shot a nice 10 pointer. Two in the box as they say! Then on Monday, it was raining, cold and really windy. My boys still wanted to go out. I just didn't feel like sitting in my portable in the rain, so I hopped in with my youngest 12 year old boy. It wasn't long before we had a nice 9 pointer at about 140 yards. But in the wind and rain and being in the shotgun zone I told him we had to wait until he meandered closer. Meanwhile, the older 12 year old had decided he was going to shoot the buck that was in front of him at 120 yards. he said it was a nice 8 pointer. Pretty soon the 9 got to within 118 yards and stood broadside. The shot rang out and he center-punched the heart. As I was thinking to myself, now I have to go take care of a deer in this rain and wind, another shot rang out. Oh my, now there are 2! The 9 was a nice buck, but the other one was not a nice 8. When we got over to it, my son's jaw dropped as we pulled his head out of the grass. A big, gnarly 10 pointer was laying there! Almost 6" bases! Really cool rack with a lot of bumps on the bases and some neat rings 3" from the tips of the beams and last tines. We had history with him and he is a beautiful buck. The youngest 12 year old ended the season about 3 minutes before legal shooting time was up by shooting another doe. The good news is, they now know how to gut out deer and dad doesn't have to do that anymore!

Public service announcement: One thing we learned this year is how good pictures turn out if you take them in Portrait mode. Wow!!!

Let’s see the pics!

I got rid of my photobucket account when they started charging. What are people using now or how are they uploading pictures?

Imgur.

Much easier and free.

You headed for Sisconnie this weekend Tman?

Yep. Headed out late though. Final football game of the season tomorrow against Stillwater.

Good luck to Jackhammer in his game, and good luck to both of you this weekend in Cheeseland.

merp, merp.

Our big buck showed up on my cell cam again this morning. He's still alive, there's still hope.

I was out yesterday and still saw deer at all hours of the day. I’m thinking plenty of rut to go around yet.

Dave - what cellular camera are you using? Pros and cons?

Jeff

That or Postimage.org. You don't even need an account if you don't want one.

I have a quick report that someone in our party got his first buck yesterday morning about 1/2 hr after shooting light.

Do tell........

moultrie 7000. I've had it for over a year now and it's been outside in the elements the entire time. I've been very happy with it, but lately it has been missing shots. Such as saturday when several deer and a wolf went past the cam and it failed to trigger. I was tracking some wolf activity to see what they are up to and the tracks took me right past the cam. The tracks based on snowfall and temps would have been mid day Saturday, no pics though.

Wolves moved in on us on saturday, they were actually all around our camp and we didn't realize it until about dark, saturday evening when Joey and I were to meet up on a forest trail to start a half mile walk back to the cabin. Joe had about a hundred yards to arrive at the trail, I had about 300 yds of particularly nasty deadfall jungle gym terrain to meet up with Joe at the trail. Joey beat me to the meeting point, he got down from his stand a little before me. I climbed down out of a metal ladder stand and when my feet hit the crunchy snow covered ground, the area exploded with wolf howls. It started with one that sounded like a small town fire whistle winding up and bellowing through the cold air. They were incredibly close, I'm certain they could hear me walking and climbing over the deadfalls to get back to the trail. The pack let out with accompanying howls to the lead singer, it was basically horrifying, lol. To the point where I was recalling how many rounds I had loaded into my model 70 earlier that afternoon. Certainly not enough for how many were howling if they did happen to pursue me. (5) is what I had. Soon I could see Joey's light at the trail. He had a stocking cap with an LED flashlight on it. I didn't have a light so he couldn't see me coming until I got close enough for him to make out the orange from my coat. We looked at each other and no words were necessary, Joe's eyes were as big as saucers. I reached down and grabbed a bottle of beer that I had set on a stump along the trail for my walk back to the cabin. We started walking as the howling continued to wash around our immediate area. They were in at least 3 different groups very close to us as we began our half mile walk back. It was clear that they weren't just 3 groups sitting still, they were running, moving, the howling emitted from points on the move. Moving much faster than we could. I had asked joe how many rounds he had in his 308, hoping for him to say something like "five", he said "three", lol. I just nodded and muttered an assuring "alright, we're good".
I opened my beer and drank it as we walked. I explained to Joe that wolves aren't ambush attackers like cats are, they are more nervy, we would be aware of their presence before they would commit to any sort of attack. Not sure if that was reassuring for him or not. During the whole walk back, I didn't have to turn around and look behind us at all, because Joe was doing it about every 10th step, lol. Back at the cabin we could hear the howling continue and it got closer and closer. They were all around camp, evident by tracks in the snow Sunday morning. Everywhere we had walked, wolves had also walked, right in our tracks, every path to every stand we had been using. I hunted sunday morning, they were howling a bit further from me, 1/4 mile is my guess. Sunday night (last hours of our rifle season) joey was scared out of his stand early, they were howling again and close. None of us saw them, but it was pretty clear that there were far more wolves than deer from saturday on. (based on tracks alone)

In the end, joe and I are feeling better about the 2 bucks we took early in the season, they were the only 2 der taken for our camp. Joe had opportunities for a doe with 2 fawns that he passed on saturday. Nobody else saw anything. At the end Joe and I were party hunting to try to help fill tags for our party (legal in MN). But it didn't happen.

Another season in the books. Memorable points would be the warm weather, the 2 deer that joe and I took, having to process early due to warm temps.... the fun times at the cabin, grand babies, Pam's new white German shepherd puppy "lizzie" in attendance, good food always and a bit wolfy at the end.

Great write up Dave!!

Wolves certainly do make it interesting. Last year after I shot my buck I climbed down from my stand and walked over to check him out. Just as I about to start field dressing him, the wolves started howling, maybe a 1/4 mile away. I looked around at the cattails and young popples and realized I could see about 20 feet in any direction. I backed out to my stand, called a buddy back at the shack and waited for him to come join me.

WOW, damned woofs !

Need Lizzie pics !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

& I thought you hated Moultrie cams ?

Based on the $hit you gave me years ago, for posting pics from mine.

You are right, I had bad luck with older ones. My son inlaw did well with them in recent years so I tried a couple low dollar A30 models (I believe) and I like them, they still do well for me after several years. So, a little over a year ago I sprung for a moultrie cell cam. I've liked it for the most part, kind of questioning it recently.

I do have regular duracell in it currently though and I know it likes lithium batteries better.

Mine finally $hit the bed, this fall !

Won't fire up, at all.

!2 years is not too bad.

My only, real, complaint, was that in cold/cold, it ate 8aa Duracell Quantum batteries a week.

As battery power reduced, so did reliable taking of pics - Basically, like you described in the woof story.

Do not buy stealthcams !!!!!

Farken things stop working, altogether, at -10*C.