my week in ohio

[freedomrules3]

although i cant mention everything, this is some of what i experienced during my week in ohio
MY WEEK IN OHIO

I arrived on friday evening, with just enough time to set up the apache. NC had already set up since he arrived the night before. after setting up we were off to wallys so i could dump 150 bucks on a license.

Saturday,
Alan and I drove around the place with him showing me some places he had saw some good bucks the previous year. the sign was slim as the leaves seemed to have held on a bit longer than normal this year. with lots of fresh leaves i knew older sign would be very minimal.
I hunted a place where i had just had a feeling about while riding around. beside a corn field where 2 woodlots came within 50 yards of coming together. i saw 2 does but no other deer up until legal light was over. with the full moon nearing i could see well after legal light. i left fearing seeing a good buck after legal time.

Sunday,
i decided to ride around a bit and check out for any fresh sign. after riding 20 miles of roads like a turtle and not seeing anything impressive in the way of slides and such , i decided to take a ride up to the Ohio Power Land( AEP). i was in need of a better map than i had and happened along another hunter who was leaving who had an extra. i asked him if he had seen any good deer and he said "the buck of a lifetime" . after doing a little talking i convinced him to show me where on the map . I drove up that way but couldnt hunt due to a handicap hunt that had been going on. the land was closed to the public until monday. i landmarked the place and drove around looking for sign. i landlarked 2 other spots where i had seen big tracks traveling through. after going back to camp i happened to notice that the 3 landmarks made a triangle, i decided to hunt in the middle of the triangle on monday.
Monday,
headed out to the aep land where i wanted to hunt. set up a stand near the middle of the triangle overlooking a pond . I had a great view and it was a beautiful day but the deer werent showing. the day flew by though and soon i found that afternoon was here and i was married to this spot for an evening hunt. just at dusk a 8 point appeared, heading my way. after looking it over it apperaed to be about 16 wide and scoring maybe 110 tops. i never did get a shot so it was an easy pass. darkness fell an there were no other oppurtunities.

Tuesday, 15th
full moon tonight and although i didnt see the numbers i decided to try the spot again at the aep land. i tried a couple spots and although it was a super weather day , no deer seemed to be moving. i was beginning to believe the rut was on the "downside" and we should have came earlier. i had taken time to check a spot out for the following day at a different location along the way. always trying to stay a step ahead on a plan.
Wed nov 16th
trying to get everything together in a cold camper early in the morning can be quite the chore. it was getting chilly at night now and today the temp wasnt supposed to climb much. i went to go to my spot from the day before that i had scouted and a truck was parked there. if i only knew where he was i could have hunted there but since i didnt i really didnt want to screw us both up. i opted to look around at some trails i had been watching. i made my rounds looking for some good sign of a larger than normal print. finally after looking at a bunch of sign, i had a good track going up a hill to a ridge. i felt i had to get up there and check it out. a quick glimpse of the hill and i knew i would be married to the spot once there, i felt i should go back to camp and reload on eats and pick up more water.
an afternoon hunt and scout rip was one of the better ones of the week. after trailing a path up the hill, i knew pretty much this was an early morning type trail, one that wouldnt be used at night, but be busy in the mornings. pretty difficult setting up where the trail was so up the hill i trudged. a few times it was pretty steep and hard for even an old hillbilly to climb. the top brought some good sign and a bedding area so used that the summer molt of fur was still visible. the bed was surrounded by rubs. as i slowly scouted and still hunted my way around, something i had to do alot of in order to get to know the land some on this trip, i came upon a gasline. the gasline, which was more of a grassy road, lead me to a valley or small hollow. i chanced upon an 8 pointer with good mass just over the crest. being taken offguard slightly i dropped to my knee and shucked my gear. the deer was large and before i could say shooter or not it sort of mosied south of me. i used the "crown" in the gasline to creep around to the south. just then 2 does kicked out of the standing crop and was followed by the big one. once they broke out, the 8 pointer followed them into the woods in a run. i think the does spotted me butboth bucks simply reacted to the does. seemed at this time the sun and light sank quickly. i had found a good spot to start in the morning .

Thurs, nov 17
can you say cold and windy, 19 degrees and a strong 20 mph wind , ouch. i still made my way out to where i had been the night previous. i got setup early before light and had a ground setup with a triple tree and foxhole blind setup. no movement and i was in good shape from every angle. at 8:10 i saw movement coming from the other hillside. i noticed a large spike and knew it was a buck. the buck came to the crest of the hill and glanced the valley and side where i was. down the hill he came , his rack getting bigger at every step.he was a mainframe 10 pointer with mass,and the width was very wide indeed. now being a carpenter i know measurements. this dude was easily 24 and possibly 26, or 28 inches wide. i watched him with bow drawn coming my way. i could see how he would use the lay of the brush and land to move about. no wonder he was so big. he would simply breeze through the stuff like it wasnt there. a small percentage shot came twice while it was near but i was hoping for a better shot. this could have been a mistake, the shot never came and as quick as he came he was gone, over the gasline. i wanted so badly to try and stalk him but felt he never knew i was there and another chance would come for me.
he returned to walk the rim of the bowl some 60 plus with brush between us at 10:15 . i later saw the 8 pointer, maybe a 120 inch buck , but never even looked at my bow. it was the big buck or a bigger one or tag soup for me.i was ruined for the week . i estimate the 10 at 150 plus 1 or 2 points with ease. it turned out to be the last time i would lay eyes on the deer

Friday 18th,

pretty simple, go to the same spot , change the setup slightly and kill the buck , right, lol yea right. about 20 degreesnd snowing slightly today wind blowing and this eastern shore boy freeezin lol. needless to say i never saw a deer today. they were much wiser than i and stayed in bed where it was warm. a very uneventful day.
sat 19th
time was running outbut i had to hang near that ridge just in case lol. by noon i moved out for a final afternoon scout and a goodbye to ohio for this year. i hunted a big viewing spot and had seen deer but they also could see me lol. i had a few blow and run but would mingle back out. the night fell as the deer could be heard milling around. i felt a need to stay and try and finish some business but knew the odds werent in my favor anymore. it was getting obvious the primary rut was over and life was calling me back. i had gotten out pretty much exactly what i had expected. although a lifetime buck would have been a super feat seeing one and getting a pretty good hook on the property had me somewhat satisfied. the video of that deer just wont stop running in my head. as christmas calls me back to relatives in the area , i may have to find a spare minute or two to pay my 10 point friend a visit or two while i am there . I LOVE OHIO

[Buckfever]

WOW!! Awesome trip.

[BillCartwright]

sounds like you had a good trip. Any time you hunt our of your home turf and see a buck like that, you have been successful in my book.

[indianadan]

Ditto to what Bill and Fever have said.

I have very little experience going off my home turf. WHenever I do, I figure out quickly that I'm not as good a hunter as I'd like to think. ;D

I would say success for me would getting to see a P&Y buck let alone get him within bow range. Putting him on the ground would be a dream!

[Twanger]

Indianadan - I learned that hard lesson in Ohio as well (I was at Rick's camp). I'm only a good hunter in my 'haunts.' I.E. Places I know well. Sitting known good locations is alot easier than finding new ones. I learned that it's very hard to hunt an area 'cold' with no prior knowledge. I should have left my bow and tree stand in the back of the truck for the first 3 days and spent that entire time scouting. I tended to set-up on the first sign available because I don't feel like I'm hunting if I'm not in the tree stand. Big mistake in an unknown area. Every area has it's 'rules,' and it takes time to learn 'em. I tend to hunt woody 'bottoms' because that's where the deer bed in flat-land Maryland where I hunt. In Ohio they bed generally in the woody 'tops' and I should have spent more time there. It was often dark before the deer ever made it to a field. Not like in MD when you see them in fields sometimes two hours before dark, certainly 1 hour. These Ohio deer didn't relate to fields (corn / crops) like Maryland deer do, and I wasted alot of time working field edges. Assuming the main draw would be crops, I never really found what the does were eating, and that was a critical mistake. I also jumped on small amounts of sign and hunted it without seeing a big buck, and that's a mistake if a big buck is all you're going to accept. My threshold to shoot was lower than Rick's, so maybe that strategy was a little more suitable, but since I only had non-shooter bucks in range (<60" antler) it still wasn't paying off.

I only saw one shooter buck (about 100" antler). It was while driving the truck at 11:20am and he was going across the road on full afterburners at an altitude of 8 feet. I found his trail and hunted it, but didn't really find enough sigh to justify wasting an afternoon in the stand. I did anyway. I now believe seeing that particular buck was a random occurance, based on the minimal sign, and not an indication of being near his core area. I learned that you've got to hunt near a good buck's core area if you want to get on him quickly. Bowman put me on such a spot, and I saw the buck that afternoon (had him in bow range) but he turned out to be a smaller 7-pointer. That's OK. The lesson is that the core area buck sign was there and I sat for 11 hours and had a shot.

At any rate, it was a blast, and I'm not at all dissappointed that I didn't shoot a deer. I can't wait to do it again.