Why I Am Going to Be a Ground Hunter This Season

The reason is simple, I can not put up any stands this year. The reason for that is because I have a herniated disc. For almost two months all that I could do was painfully hobble around and lay flat on my back on the floor. Things started getting better by the time I got to see a doctor. He said that my back was beginning to heal itself and all that I needed was two shots in the back. No surgery like I was expecting. I got the shots the next day and things are much better. However, according to the doctor, it might take two years before it is totally healed. In the mean time, no lifting and no climbing. I have permission to shoot my bow.

So, I will be sneaking through the woods hoping to catch a deer. Besides, I doubt that I can even sit in a stand. Sitting can still be painful.

So What's Been Going On?

Who would have thought that retirement would be so time consuming. I retired at the end of January of this year. Between the rain and other obligations, I have been hunting only twice since then. More details to follow.

I spent a total of 91 hours in stands this past season. I saw deer several times, but nothing shootable got within bow range. I now have six stands. Two hang on stands that I bought outright, one ladder stand that I bought so that I could hunt with family and friends, one ladder stand that my wife bought at a church auction, and two hang on stands that my son's father-in-law gave me because he bought some property that they were on and he did not want them. They actually have a plastic seat on them. I saw them as old school stands, but I but one in a tree at our shooting range to practice from. I only put it a few feet off of the ground. It turns out that I have changed my mind about them. You can easily shoot all away around you. I am actually setting it up to ambush some pigs this spring.

I have my cameras out as always. Lately all I have been seeing are pigs. No deer. By the creek where I killed two pigs, I have a simple feeder. It drops corn twice a day. The pigs show up on a regular basis. Except when I go to hunt. I have set in the ladder stand twice in the last week or so and I have not seen a pig yet. I heard one one night, but that's it. 

I have also been working on a food plot. There is a place at the end of our meadow that was a nice little opening in the woods. Over the years it has become over grown with trees and brush. I plan to clear it and plant it with something that will feed the deer. I think that the deer on the Farm need a better food source and I hope it will keep them on the Farm.

I figure by now you are bored with my ramblings. So, instead of making you suffer all in one sitting, I will spread it out over time.

The 2014 Deer Season So Far

It is not that I have not tried. I have spent 67 hours hunting so far this season. I have two tree stands, two ladder stands, and one screen blind up on various parts of the Farm. I have seen does, bucks, two bobcats, squirrels, rabbits, and even one stray dog from my stands. But I have yet to get a deer with in bow range this year. I am beginning to get a little discouraged. This is my third deer season of bowhunting and all I have to show for it is one button buck I accedently shot last year.

I am begining to wonder if I am doing something wrong. Am I sitting up in the wrong place/ Am I not hunting the wind properly? Am I making too much noise or moving too much while in the the stand? I do not know. I keeping getting trail cam pictures of shooters right in front of my stands, but I can not seem to be there when they are. I have hit anything since the pig I took last June and the gar I shot on the bowfishing trip I took with the boys.

Oh well, if I can manage between church duties and bad weather, I will be out again this weekend. I am going all out from here on end. I taking a grunt call, a rattling bag, and some lures out with me. The rut should have hit its peak at the begining of this week. But the bucks should be still chasing does and I am going to try to convince them that they need to be where I am at this time.

Wish me luck.

The Beast of Ledbetter Creek is No More

I guess that I need to apologize a bit for the delay in posting this. My excuses range from I have been busy, I have been gone on vacation, and I had to be air lifted from the Grand Canyon and spent two nights in a hospital recovering from an over worked kidney. Take your pick.

At any rate on June 20th I am in my ladder stand by the creek at 8:00 pm. It is 85° and I do not like hunting when it is that warm.

About 9:30 , a raccoon shows up and starts eating my drop corn. At the same time, off to my right, I hear that same sound I heard the last time I was hunting the Beast. He does two low moans that sound more human than pig. The first time I heard it, I was almost convinced of the existence of Bigfoot.  But that was all, just those two moans.

After a while, the raccoon started getting nervous. He would eat, look up, wander away, and then eat some more. I started to suspect that the Beast was nearby.

At 9:52 the raccoon looked up and high tailed it out of there. The Beast walked into the feeder light and started eating the corn I had put down. The feeder light was working just as it was designed to do. I stood and got ready to draw. Th Beast was edgy. Any little sound or movement, from me or just in the woods had him picking up his head and looking around. A couple of time he actually walked out of the light. I was afraid that I had lost my chance for the evening. Finally he settled down and got into some serious eating. The only problem was that he was facing directly at me. I stood and watched him for half of an hour. When he had polished off the corn, he headed back to the wood. But he paused standing broadside to me. I was already at full draw and let fly.

I stood with lighted nocks so I could see that i had made a good shot. The Beast screamed and took off. He headed for the creek away from but then turned to his right and made a run around me. I could not see him but I could hear him crashing through the brush. And then nothing. When I shot him, he was to the left and a little behind my stand. The last I heard him was in front and a little to the right of me.

A I sat there waiting and wondering if he was down or had made to a more open space and had run further, I thought that I heard a couple of soft moan. I was thinking that if I heard what I thought I hard, those were his death moans.

I sat in the stand for 30 minutes before I came down. I am a prudent man. Therefore I decided that trying to track a boar that may be wounded in the middle of dark wood was not a good idea. So I took a quick look at where he was standing when I shot him and saw a blood trail. That encouraged me.

I started out at first light for what I hoped was a recovery expedition. I headed for where I last heard him and found him almost immediately. I had made a good lung shot and he had not suffered.

The Beast of Ledbetter was no more.

The Beast of Ledbetter Creek Still Stalks the Forest

As you can see from the video, there is a big boar in our woods. he typically roams the woods at night. I want to take this pig down. Prior to Saturday, I had already spent eight hours in a stand waiting for him to show up. But to no avail.

Saturday I was in the stand at 8:00 pm. As the woods begin to darken, I noticed that my feeder light was not coming on. I quickly went to the house and got a replacement battery and installed it. However, I could not get the light to stay on continuously. I just switched it to motion detecting mode and hoped that Boss Hog would wander close enough to it to set it off. I do not have a feeder. I just drop some corn on the ground. 

Just after midnight, I heard him off to my right. I waited for him to go to the corn. At 1:00 am he still had not shown up. So I decide to pack it up and head for home. As I was doing so, I heard him moving into the corn. The light never came on. 

I have made a stabilizer light for my bow. It has a green filter on it that I know will not spook raccoons  or possums. But this was the first time I would shine it on a hog. I did not know what its reaction would be, so I decided to come to full draw and then turn the light on, When the light came on, there was the pig, right where I wanted him. He did not seem bothered by the light at all. The only problem was that he was facing me. The least proper shot angle. It became pretty clear to me that he was going to stay that way. I decided that I could not hold my bow at full draw long enough to wait for him to move into another position. So I let off on my bow. Somehow, as I was letting off, I accidentally released the arrow. The arrow buried itself into a log and the hog buried itself in the bushes.

I heard him walking around and making noises to the right of me for about 15 minutes. It sounded like he was angry at being interrupted at his meal. He soon wandered off. 

I waited till after 2:00 am but he never returned. I called it good enough and went home.

When equipment failures meet a lack of skills, the pig walks free.

The End of the Season

My second season of bowhunting deer is over. I managed to take down my first deer with a bow. I would be a little happier if I had not taken such a small deer (especially since it was a buck). But hey, an accidental deer is better than no deer.

This year was a much better year than last year. I have learned a lot about hunting. I saw more game this year than last. So my techniques have gotten better.   Several deer were within shooting distance but they were not leagle. Next season is going to be awesome.

I hunted a total of 36 times. In those hunts I saw four bucks, six does, one pig, and one coyote. Of course I killed one of the bucks. My son also killed one doe.

Now it is time to start getting serious about hunting pigs. This year I will make more use of my stands. I also have been working on a lighting system so that I can hunt at night.

The boys and I have a bowfishing trip planned.

No pun intended, but I think that this will be the year that I shine.

We're Going to Need a Bigger Stand

There is only about a month left in this year's deer hunting season. It's been an interesting season so far. The best day was when Paul and I each got a deer on the same day from the same stand. I only wish that my shot had been better and my deer had been larger. But, I have taken my first deer with a bow and I am happy about that. Last year I only saw glimpses of a few deer running from me. This year has been so much better. I have gone out hunting 32 times so far this season. I have seen six bucks (one of which I killed), eight does, one pig, and one coyote. Several of these were close but not shooters or they were shooters but did not offer me a shot.

I hunt a small area (88 acres) and I do not believe that there are that many good bucks on the Farm. So every time I hear a shot go off near the Farm, I have a feeling of despair come over me. I just know that some long gun has taken one of the few good deer.

I bought a tandem ladder stand so that I could take someone hunting with me. I told my wife that since Despair was spending so much time with me, that I needed a bigger stand to keep Despair comfortable.

Last Saturday evening a doe walked within 10 yards of me and then stayed behind a thick clump of bushes where I could not see her. I waited for her to walk out. But it got to dark for a shot before she left the bushes. Jus as I stood to come out of the stand, another deer sounded the alarm, and they both ran deeper into the woods. I heard one stomp it's foot after I was back on the ground.

It is so frustrating to be so close and not get a shot. That is why I am going to need a bigger stand. Frustration has joined Despair and me in the stand. It is getting crowded up there. I need to show Frustration the same courtesy that I have shown Despair.