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Looks like we are getting some changes in da weather patterns down here!

Don't believe any of those old wives' tales about weather affecting hunting.

Much cooler weather coming in with possible rain/snow.
Lord knows we need both. Better than the temps we've had lately.
Leaving Wed afternoon. Finally!

Everything we saw in B zone was morning or last light, saw almost nothing during the day thanks to 85-90degrees temps at 7000ft. Tagged my buck at 4:00pm feeding in the shade.

Why I was feeding in the shade, I have no idea...

Congrats.

No wives tale there. It affects my attitude towards hunting which means I'm more likely to be in the field to see those critters moving.

Cooler weather rocks my hunting world!

^"Cooler weather rocks my hunting world".
OHHH, roger that!

May go out in the morning after work..

Todays X12 buck (10-10-10)

It was a large body buck but next to my 6'4" 270 body it looks smaller. Hunting alone I had just finished a 3/4 mile drag thru sage brush; I was gutting it when some came along and snapped a picture for me. Of course the sun was in the wrong position so I turned it showing the half way gut job they interrupted.

Too bad you weren't in X10

A 10-pointer, mayhap?

Nice buck. I did not see much this past weekend,just a dink spike an 5 does.

Going out tomorrow morning.

Went out and saw two bucks.

One had his butt sticking out of a brush about 50 yards away. I did not shoot because then I would have to track him and shoot him again. Plus it would not be fair to him.


The other was about 200 yards down a slope. He was facing away with his back to me. I tried cutting down at an angle to get a broadside but an ATV went above me and the buck took off. Too thick to chase him down.

But a good day.

I spent 3 days in D-7 at 8500 feet. We only saw eight does and no bucks. We saw more bear tracks than we saw deer tracks. Down lower we killed the biggest rattlesnake I have ever run across: sixty inches long, thick as my forearm, with eleven buttons on the rattle with more broken off. We decided he was our trophy and took the skin home for the wall.

It's not an old wives tale...They still migrate out of the high country when the snow pushes them...Not that many deer nowadays in many of the D-zones, BUT there was a time, not too many years ago that you could go from seeing 0- to maybe a half dozen a day before a storm to seeing 50-100 if the right kind of weather system moved in...The area I generally still hunt in D-4 has migration trails you can still follow even though the herd is not a fraction of what it once was & hasn't been for about fifteen or twenty years now...first came a kill off due to Black or Blue Tongue disease along with an explosion in the mountain lion population...now I'll feel lucky if I see a dozen deer this year...didn't even see a doe last year while hunting.

I guess I'd better toss in a belated smiley. It's just that I'm not accustomed to being taken seriously...

Me either....

Winnie, seeing is half the fun. (OK, one quarter )

Tip o' the day: Carry a small predator call handy around your neck.

I tuck mine between buttons into my shirt so that it doesn't bounce around and clack against my binocs. But it flips right out and is ready in an instant.
I don't go afield without one.

The one below is great for this use. It's small (<2.5"), so can go unnoticed all day, and the foam lip seal is very comfortable.


Its value for calling predators, perhaps during off hours while hunting other game, is obvious.
Even more important to me during big game season- a blast on a call can halt a moving buck. I've taken a half dozen deer with this trick.
I've not bothered to try to stop a buck that is running scared from me, but it works like a snake charmer's flute on unaware animals, even those that are otherwise concentrating on following their deerly beloveds.

I hate shots at walking targets. Just last year I boofed such a shot at an antelope: I was prone over my daypack, swiveling to track him. Just as the last ounce of trigger pressure came through, the friction between pack and stock changed and my rifle squirted forward, sending the shot in front of the buck's chest.

Nearly any sound can work, of course. But I can't whistle (Yeah, I heard her, too: "You just put your lips together and... blow.") And any human-made sound that can reach out to 300 yards with power requires movement and effort. I can be snuggled up to my rifle, aimed and ready, and give a loud blast on a hands-free call like the above without [much] disturbing my position. Buck stops to look, KABOOM.

To speak to your hunt: Either of those bucks might have turned to a squeal from a call, perhaps enough to allow a sure killing shot.

Good tip Macrabbit.

Next week I go I will carry one of those.

I went up into LaPorte Ca., D-3 and saw a bunch of bear tracks, no bucks/does.