Day 7 – October 26, 2013

Weather: Partly Cloudy, temperatures in the mid 30s

Wind: 10-15mph swirling between West, South, and North.

Time: Dawn – 10am

I decided that it was time for a change of scenery today and headed up the mountain to a spot that I haven’t hunted since 2010.  I have done a lot of scouting each year up here, but always find intriguing sign closer to the truck.  The spot rest on the very edge of the property that I hunt and allows me to see for long distances.  It also is about 50 yards from a bedding area, so it is only an option in the morning or during an all day hunt.  I was hoping to catch a buck heading to the bedding area early on.  The winds started blowing hard right away and I knew right then I had made the wrong choice on stand location for the day.  I spotted a group of 10-12 does about 150 yards away on the neighboring property, but they never made their way up the mountain and instead bedding in a thicket on the lower flat.

My view from the stand

I sat at the spot until 10am, when I received a text message from a friend of mine about going pheasant hunting.  The cold winds made sitting in a tree very much longer pretty undesirable, so I opted for some pheasant hunting.  On my way out of the hunting spot, I made sure to take notice of the freshness of the sign in the area.  I found a number of fresh scrapes and rubs, which let me know that this area should produce once the winds die down and the rut ramps up.

A nice rub

The pheasant hunting was fun, as we were able to flush quite a few birds.  However, not having a dog with us, hurt our chances of actually being able to get shots at the birds.  Many of them were flushing way out ahead of us or were running in the opposite direction of us prior to flushing.   In the end, we did a lot of walking and each of the three of us were able to take a rooster.  With as much bow hunting as I have been doing the last few years, it was a nice change of pace to do something different.  It was 4pm until we finished hunting, so I opted to sit out of the tree stand for the evening as the winds were still blowing pretty good.

My Rooster