LA_MERC_Wetzny
November 22nd, 2007, 11:31 AM
Deer Camp 2007
Well I’m rapidly nearing the capacity my wife has for my time away from the family and me out at our place in Kingman. As such my Deer Camp adventures are for all intents and purposes over or greatly diminished.
As an avid Bow-hunter I’ve always enjoyed my time in the woods, working throughout the year preparing for the Prime Time. However as my life has progressed I find it more and more difficult to allocate the numerous hours away from home to my hobby. For example my love for Golf has not diminished, but to play to a handicap of 5 took a lot of range time, putting green time and time on the course. When Reagan came along, I managed to juggle it ok, but now that he’s older and his dad time factor has increased substantially, I was determined to spend my valuable time with him not a golf club. I’ve played Golf twice in the last year and maybe a handful in the last 3 years; there were years where I played nearly 120 rounds. I lived at the club, on the range or the course.
Hunting and fishing also take time, but this investment is one where I and Reagan (and soon Harrison) reap immediate dividends. In the spring he turkey hunts with me, fish's with me (or throws rocks!) camps and works right along side me. He’ll come to deer camp when the weather is right but he’s still a little young for a tree stand or to be left alone at the cabin, so I usually sit out a morning hunt to hang with him at the cabin. It’s time together I absolutely love and have grown to NEED. I know I couldn’t function without it.
The weather this year played havoc with us. I changed tactics some this year and decided to not hunt much in October but really focus my time on the seeking phase of the rut. Starting November 3rd and hunting extensively through the last 18 days or so, I saw a lot of activity in the areas I hunt. The weather was consistently above average in temperature and below average in precipitation, its hard to get really enthusiastic about sitting in a tree when it’s 60 degrees at 5 pm or even 5 am! Regardless I still saw a lot of 1/12 to 2 year old bucks frantically searching for estrous doe. In the last week I saw a number of larger bucks doing the same, and put a poor shot on a nice one that would go over 150 inches.
Last night while the temperatures plummeted to the low 30’s and the wind howled with gusts over 40 mph I sat in a ladder stand on the edge of thicket and well used trail. The cooler weather and low light had really turned the deer on and bucks were moving early in the afternoon. What could be the problem you say? The problem was oil and gas. Beginning around the 5th of November I started to see fence line crossings being marked with fluorescent ribbons. I attributed this to the electric Co-op replacing a number of utility poles in my area. A few days later, while sitting in one of my tree stands a truck showed up way in the distance, parked on the edge of a winter wheat field and two guys started unloading GPS equipment. When I glassed the action, I noticed both the truck occupants started helping one another into portable GPS vest’s and started walking in a straight line in opposite directions; Surveyors. But why survey here, a wheat field almost in the middle of no where. Later I caught up with the guys and found out it was in fact a seismic survey of a four square mile area, of which my little piece of deer hunting heaven was right in the middle of. A survey of this type is common when searching for energy; we’ve done or seen hundreds over the years. The area is first walked with GPS, and sensor points are marked nearly every 100 to 200 yards. Fence lines are marked along with things that might not show on a topographic map. In fact one afternoon on the way to a stand I rounded a bend in the woods and walked right into one of these guys taking a smoke break!! Nice!! No deer for me! I smiled at the guy and said in Spanish (they were all Mexicans) if he’s seen any big deer. “Oh yes they’re running all over the place!” “Of course they are Pedro”, I think to myself, “You’re spooking every deer on my property away!!” I turned around walked back to the cabin and started an early dinner wondering how I got so lucky that some arse-hat was looking for oil and gas on MY property!! I would see them around walking and marking but once they were done on my ground they never came back. I had to get hunting and killing fast; I knew what was next. The cables, the sensor placements and then the Giant Vibrating Trucks come in thump and shake the ground. What a freaking mess this is going to be!!!
My ground is landlocked, not visible from any road. In fact most people wouldn’t know it was there. The deer flock to it, bed there and hang out there because there isn’t anyone shooting at them! The weather changed dramatically yesterday and today I saw a monster whitetail tending a doe at 11am standing in the wide open in the middle of a brome field of about ankle high grass. This was a deer that easily could reach 180 inches. I couldn’t get him off that doe and she wasn’t getting within 200 yards of me. If I’d been a rifle hunter this monster would be tagged and bagged, but alas I need this beast somewhere inside of 40 yards. Didn’t happen I loaded up and headed to the house, drooling over the rut action!
Of the course the next few days with morning temps in the low 20’s and daytime highs I the upper 30’s hunting will be ideal. But my ground is crawling with machinery, people, and I’m sure the deer are freaked out beyond all comprehension! What LUCK!
I did harvest a button buck and a doe, and I can’t think of a day where I was in a stand, or Double Bull blind where I didn’t have a deer within bow range. If I’d only made a better on shot on the big 9 I lost, this would have been an outstanding season. As such even with all the bad luck, heat, wind, heat-and-wind, sickness, wind, surveying Mexicans, along with giant trucks (thumper's) shaking the ground, it was a great time.
Well I’m rapidly nearing the capacity my wife has for my time away from the family and me out at our place in Kingman. As such my Deer Camp adventures are for all intents and purposes over or greatly diminished.
As an avid Bow-hunter I’ve always enjoyed my time in the woods, working throughout the year preparing for the Prime Time. However as my life has progressed I find it more and more difficult to allocate the numerous hours away from home to my hobby. For example my love for Golf has not diminished, but to play to a handicap of 5 took a lot of range time, putting green time and time on the course. When Reagan came along, I managed to juggle it ok, but now that he’s older and his dad time factor has increased substantially, I was determined to spend my valuable time with him not a golf club. I’ve played Golf twice in the last year and maybe a handful in the last 3 years; there were years where I played nearly 120 rounds. I lived at the club, on the range or the course.
Hunting and fishing also take time, but this investment is one where I and Reagan (and soon Harrison) reap immediate dividends. In the spring he turkey hunts with me, fish's with me (or throws rocks!) camps and works right along side me. He’ll come to deer camp when the weather is right but he’s still a little young for a tree stand or to be left alone at the cabin, so I usually sit out a morning hunt to hang with him at the cabin. It’s time together I absolutely love and have grown to NEED. I know I couldn’t function without it.
The weather this year played havoc with us. I changed tactics some this year and decided to not hunt much in October but really focus my time on the seeking phase of the rut. Starting November 3rd and hunting extensively through the last 18 days or so, I saw a lot of activity in the areas I hunt. The weather was consistently above average in temperature and below average in precipitation, its hard to get really enthusiastic about sitting in a tree when it’s 60 degrees at 5 pm or even 5 am! Regardless I still saw a lot of 1/12 to 2 year old bucks frantically searching for estrous doe. In the last week I saw a number of larger bucks doing the same, and put a poor shot on a nice one that would go over 150 inches.
Last night while the temperatures plummeted to the low 30’s and the wind howled with gusts over 40 mph I sat in a ladder stand on the edge of thicket and well used trail. The cooler weather and low light had really turned the deer on and bucks were moving early in the afternoon. What could be the problem you say? The problem was oil and gas. Beginning around the 5th of November I started to see fence line crossings being marked with fluorescent ribbons. I attributed this to the electric Co-op replacing a number of utility poles in my area. A few days later, while sitting in one of my tree stands a truck showed up way in the distance, parked on the edge of a winter wheat field and two guys started unloading GPS equipment. When I glassed the action, I noticed both the truck occupants started helping one another into portable GPS vest’s and started walking in a straight line in opposite directions; Surveyors. But why survey here, a wheat field almost in the middle of no where. Later I caught up with the guys and found out it was in fact a seismic survey of a four square mile area, of which my little piece of deer hunting heaven was right in the middle of. A survey of this type is common when searching for energy; we’ve done or seen hundreds over the years. The area is first walked with GPS, and sensor points are marked nearly every 100 to 200 yards. Fence lines are marked along with things that might not show on a topographic map. In fact one afternoon on the way to a stand I rounded a bend in the woods and walked right into one of these guys taking a smoke break!! Nice!! No deer for me! I smiled at the guy and said in Spanish (they were all Mexicans) if he’s seen any big deer. “Oh yes they’re running all over the place!” “Of course they are Pedro”, I think to myself, “You’re spooking every deer on my property away!!” I turned around walked back to the cabin and started an early dinner wondering how I got so lucky that some arse-hat was looking for oil and gas on MY property!! I would see them around walking and marking but once they were done on my ground they never came back. I had to get hunting and killing fast; I knew what was next. The cables, the sensor placements and then the Giant Vibrating Trucks come in thump and shake the ground. What a freaking mess this is going to be!!!
My ground is landlocked, not visible from any road. In fact most people wouldn’t know it was there. The deer flock to it, bed there and hang out there because there isn’t anyone shooting at them! The weather changed dramatically yesterday and today I saw a monster whitetail tending a doe at 11am standing in the wide open in the middle of a brome field of about ankle high grass. This was a deer that easily could reach 180 inches. I couldn’t get him off that doe and she wasn’t getting within 200 yards of me. If I’d been a rifle hunter this monster would be tagged and bagged, but alas I need this beast somewhere inside of 40 yards. Didn’t happen I loaded up and headed to the house, drooling over the rut action!
Of the course the next few days with morning temps in the low 20’s and daytime highs I the upper 30’s hunting will be ideal. But my ground is crawling with machinery, people, and I’m sure the deer are freaked out beyond all comprehension! What LUCK!
I did harvest a button buck and a doe, and I can’t think of a day where I was in a stand, or Double Bull blind where I didn’t have a deer within bow range. If I’d only made a better on shot on the big 9 I lost, this would have been an outstanding season. As such even with all the bad luck, heat, wind, heat-and-wind, sickness, wind, surveying Mexicans, along with giant trucks (thumper's) shaking the ground, it was a great time.