Early Rut Activity

While on a scouting trip in late August, when I discovered my magical hunting area that I'll hereafter refer to as the Remote 40, I found what I thought was a scrape. Although it looked similar to the hundreds of other scrapes I have observed in my life, I doubted what I was seeing simply because I have never seen a scrape so early in the season. So, when I returned the other day, I fully expected it to have gone dry and be well covered with forest litter. Much to my delight the scrape was still active, with freshly turned soil and a couple of rubs dotting the trees around it. 

Here's my guess at what this means:

1) It's the big boy. To make such an aggressive move so early in the season along such a heavily traveled route is incredibly gutsy, and I doubt you make that move unless you have the horns to make good on it. Also, it's probably one of the largest scrapes I've ever seen and I've read that there is strong correlation between the size of the scrape and the size of the horns. I'm not a horn hunter, but I do love going head-to-head with a smart old buck (hint: they almost always win).

Or

2) It's someone's mock scrape. This line of thought is a variation of the thought process that led me conclude every bugle I heard in the woods on an elk hunt was another hunter when in fact they were actual bulls. Not sure why I do this. Anyway, after much internal debate I determined this is not a mock scrape. If someone is going to take the time to hike two miles in every week to maintain a mock scrape, they're probably going to hang a tree stand close by and I have yet to find it.

All in all, I'm pretty excited for the upcoming season. 

New Deer Hunting Area

It's been awhile since my last post. 

Fall is always a reality check of sorts, when the demands of pursuing two graduate degrees collide with my yearning to spend some serious time hunting. A rational person would choose the former and set aside any entertainment of the latter, but hunters are anything but rational when it comes to hunting and I am no exception to that rule. 

Until yesterday, I seriously considered not hunting this year until school let out, which would give me approximately one week of muzzleloader season to fill my tag. I'm pretty sure I would have been able to stick with that plan if not for one small mistake: I went scouting in late August and stumbled across some of the best deer hunting land I've seen since moving to New York two years ago. So much for school.

Yesterday I found myself watching the kid (11 months old) and seriously itching to check up on my newfound hunting area. So I strapped kid to back and hoofed it two miles to my new spot (pictured above once we returned to the car). Not the most ideal situation, as my mobility was somewhat limited, but it reaffirmed my desire and excitement to hunt the area. I probably return in the next two weeks to set my stands.

What makes the area so great?  

1) It is remote. I hate stumbling into other hunters. On public land, that typically means finding the most remote spot on the map. This particular spot is two miles from the closest road and a mile from the closest trail. In the West, that is nothing. In the East, it will wean out 99% of the hunters.

2) It is steep, with multiple ravines (pictured below). Two miles of flat land with trail access is no big deal. Even the eastern hunter will do that. One mile of steep terrain that has no trail access is a nightmare for most hunters. You're not dragging a deer that far and ATV access is prohibited at this location. That means you'll have to quarter the deer in the woods and haul it out on your back. There's not too many people who are willing to do that. 

3) It gave me the chills. I noticed this phenomenon when hunting elk out West. Before I would even see sign of elk, I knew the area was good just from the chills that would sweep through my body. Not sure how it happens (10+ years of hunting?), but it's almost never wrong. This past spring, while on a car camping trip in the Adirondacks, I walked into an area and immediately thought Oh. This holds bear. Sure enough, bear sign galore not a hundred yards into the location. Trust your instinct.