cooperjd
Well-known member
Here in fairfax county, the month of september is doe season. and on Ft. Belvoir, the army base where I hunt, we have an overpopulation, so I finally got to run out there for a few hours after work yesterday for my first deer hunt of the season.
I don't know the area out there very well, so I just stick to one area that does not require a treestand, and stalk around and mark interesting spots on my gps. I will then go home and put them on the topo map on the computer, and i will try to scope out some good areas and maybe try to find out some travel routes this way.
So yesterday I start sneaking around, and ran into another hunter emoBang i'm sure he was not happy with me walking so close to his tree, but i left him alone and got way out of the area. (talked to him later in the check station, he was cool)
went back to an area i had hunted last year and seen a nice near poper buck and several does. this year is no different. there is a large field that was tall grass, but this year has been cut and is a field of beautiful green. as i was sneaking up to this field, (kind of up on a plateau), i saw the backs of a couple deer with their heads down feeding. I hit the ground and crawled up to get a look. 3 bucks in the field. 2 spikes and a nice 2.5 yr old 8pt. a few minutes later a doe with twin fawns also came into the field. now i usually have no trouble shooting a doe with a little one, if they are in a bigger group, but this does twins were very small with bright spots, so i knew that no way i could shoot her even if she presented an opportunity.
but what i did do was test out my new ghillie suit. the deer were slowly feeding my way, so i crawled back down the hill out of site and slipped on the pants and jacket. never done it laying down before, but its easy. i belly crawled back to the edge of the field and just watched. the doe was headed straight for me. i thought she was going to step on me. her and her 2 babies walked not 5 yards from me, but the saw me move ( i was trying to get my camera up and take a pic) she blew and ran about 50 yards away, and circled back into the field. now this got the bucks curious, so here they come. they didn't get as close, maybe 30 yards or so, but the caught me moving too trying to get a good look at them. none of the deer really spooked, but they did leave the field.
i wanted to find out where they were entering the field from so i could get a better setup next time, so as i'm walking around the edge of the field i spot another doe way across, looking at me, but never running off. guess she's never seen a bush walk before. i got nestled into a corner and another doe came out from the opposite end of where i was. i didnt' like my spots visibility so i crossed the field again and just sat between 2 trees until dark. right before dark a 6pt and a nice 7pt showed up, along with what appeared to be a button buck. they fed for a while, but a helicopter flying pretty low ran them back into the woods. there was nothing between me and those deer ~100 yards away. the ghillie suit is awesome.
the problem with this field is there are no climbable trees where i need to be to hunt, so i'll have to make a ground blind, which will be very very tough i think to actually get one with my bow. but thats what makes it so fun. hopefully those bucks will keep the same pattern until the first part of october, i can try to get another set of antlers for the wall.
I don't know the area out there very well, so I just stick to one area that does not require a treestand, and stalk around and mark interesting spots on my gps. I will then go home and put them on the topo map on the computer, and i will try to scope out some good areas and maybe try to find out some travel routes this way.
So yesterday I start sneaking around, and ran into another hunter emoBang i'm sure he was not happy with me walking so close to his tree, but i left him alone and got way out of the area. (talked to him later in the check station, he was cool)
went back to an area i had hunted last year and seen a nice near poper buck and several does. this year is no different. there is a large field that was tall grass, but this year has been cut and is a field of beautiful green. as i was sneaking up to this field, (kind of up on a plateau), i saw the backs of a couple deer with their heads down feeding. I hit the ground and crawled up to get a look. 3 bucks in the field. 2 spikes and a nice 2.5 yr old 8pt. a few minutes later a doe with twin fawns also came into the field. now i usually have no trouble shooting a doe with a little one, if they are in a bigger group, but this does twins were very small with bright spots, so i knew that no way i could shoot her even if she presented an opportunity.
but what i did do was test out my new ghillie suit. the deer were slowly feeding my way, so i crawled back down the hill out of site and slipped on the pants and jacket. never done it laying down before, but its easy. i belly crawled back to the edge of the field and just watched. the doe was headed straight for me. i thought she was going to step on me. her and her 2 babies walked not 5 yards from me, but the saw me move ( i was trying to get my camera up and take a pic) she blew and ran about 50 yards away, and circled back into the field. now this got the bucks curious, so here they come. they didn't get as close, maybe 30 yards or so, but the caught me moving too trying to get a good look at them. none of the deer really spooked, but they did leave the field.
i wanted to find out where they were entering the field from so i could get a better setup next time, so as i'm walking around the edge of the field i spot another doe way across, looking at me, but never running off. guess she's never seen a bush walk before. i got nestled into a corner and another doe came out from the opposite end of where i was. i didnt' like my spots visibility so i crossed the field again and just sat between 2 trees until dark. right before dark a 6pt and a nice 7pt showed up, along with what appeared to be a button buck. they fed for a while, but a helicopter flying pretty low ran them back into the woods. there was nothing between me and those deer ~100 yards away. the ghillie suit is awesome.
the problem with this field is there are no climbable trees where i need to be to hunt, so i'll have to make a ground blind, which will be very very tough i think to actually get one with my bow. but thats what makes it so fun. hopefully those bucks will keep the same pattern until the first part of october, i can try to get another set of antlers for the wall.
