I hunted Sherburne Friday and again Sunday.
I have been hunting Sherburne for 20+ years and have killed a bunch of deer there. IMO...the Deer population there has been way down for the past 5 years because of the Blue Tongue disease that killed lots of Deer in that part of the state. I have generally seen a lot fewer Deer when hunting there in the past 5 years.
With that said.....Friday morning was near perfect conditions for Deer hunting. The temp. was in the mid 30's F at daylight, partly cloudy and almost no wind all morning. Perfect, except for the apparent lack of Deer sighting.....based on the very few shots that I heard. There were several groups of Duck hunters over on the East side of the property [They were not on the South Farm property but the main part of the property] that did not know or disregarded the rule of NO DUCK HUNTING during the either-sex Deer hunts.
Back to the lack of shooting....I would say that there was only 1/3 [or less] shooting than what there has been on "average" years. I only heard Deer hunters shoot ~ 5 rifle shots during the first hour of daylight and about 12 shots during the second hour of daylight. The most shooting occurred about 7:30 AM. I heard maybe 4 shots between 9:30 AM and 2 PM. As others posted, the woods are still very thick due to downed trees or tops of trees that were broken off during hurricane Gustavo (sp?).
My hunt.....was uneventful all morning. I was in one of my favorite areas but all I saw was some squirrels that made just enough noise a few times, to get my hopes up that maybe a deer walking nearby. A couple of Wood Ducks landed in some water [there is lots of water in the low areas and ditches] with a big "splash" that also gave me a "second" of hope that it was made by a deer.
By noon it had warmed up to maybe the upper 50's, and my old body was thinking that getting down and walking around some might feel good to stretch the tried muscles. I like to be in the stand during mid day because I often see good Deer movement then. I was thinking I would wait until 1 PM and get down for a little while. But just a few minutes later, I was buzzed by the first mosquito of the day and then another one. This was while I was almost 20’ off the ground. I decided not to fight the mosquitoes on the ground and stayed in the tree.
I was confident there were Deer in the area but would they start moving before last light of the day? If I spotted a Deer…….would I get a shot or would the thick ground cover protect the Deer?
Most hunts in the woods, you don’t spot a Deer in the distance and wait for it to come closer before taking a shot. You spot a Deer and have to quickly get into position without spooking the Deer before taking the shot.
At 2:02 PM, I looked off to my right and spotted a Doe on the back side of some fallen trees about 55 yards away. It had already passed half way through a 15 yard distance which had a couple of opening to take a shot. By the time I got turned in that direction the Doe had taken a few more steps and was standing behind a limb from a big tree top that was broken off. If I let the Deer take 2 more steps it would be behind some bushes and there probably would not be another chance for a shot. My only chance was to shoot high at the top 5” of her back that I could see above the tree limb.
One shot from my .243 rifle broke the backbone and the deer laid dead a few seconds later. She weighted ~ 100 lbs and will restock my freezer……which was down to only 1 or 2 venison roast.
On the Sunday hunt, I brought a good friend but we did not start hunting until 10:30 AM. The day passed much like Friday morning…….we saw squirrels, owls and other birds….but no Deer. Again, there was very little shooting……I heard maybe 5 shots total while hunting until dark.
This year there was no “weight-in” so there is no information to report. I did see 3 groups of hunters Friday and one group killed a Doe and a hog.
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11-29-2009, 08:33 PM
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