cooperjd
Well-known member
Well I finally get another weekend to head outside. I am bowhunting on ft. belvoir here in northern virginia. Now ft. belvoir is bowhunting only, and i am concentrating in the qdm areas, with a rule of 4pts on a side or 15.5" outside spread. I will bring an elk back with me when i drive home for Thanksgiving, so i really don't need deer meat, so i'm after big boy.
well ft. belvoir has so many rules, being an army base, so i can't go scouting, and there are very few areas you can hunt without a stand. so i pick those areas and am going to the same area over and over to try and scout/stalk hunt. i think i found a sweet spot friday and will concentrate on it for a couple weeks. Sunday hunting is also illegal in Virginia.
Friday it rained all day. ALL day. I took off at noon and got in the woods about 3 with my brand new rain suit. thank goodness my first test proved successful, it never let up one bit. i started out just walking slowly covering ground and scouting. with the rain i was about the only idiot in the woods so i didn't have to worry about walking up on someone. i started off finding an open field with thickets on both sides and a tall hill rising up behind. i climbed the hill and found many many acorns on the ground on top...good. i jumped a bedded doe on my way down the hill going to investigate another area...good. i meandered around and went up and down a hill, through a ditch, and entered an area that just said 'deer'. it has a small opening with a nice grove of small trees and tall grass perfect for bedding. about the time i had the thought, i see antlers sticking up above the tall grass. nice antlers. 30 yards away. they stand up and a nice deer is under them looking at me. he turns and take a couple bounds away, then stopped to look. i sit down and get low in the grass so he can't see me. i ease up after a few minutes and he's still standing there looking at me. now there is no way possible to back out of there without being seen, so i just sit tight. i catch movement out of the corner of my eye and a doe that was bedded with him is now on the edge looking at me. i never moved and after a few minutes of stomping her foot and waving her head around, she finally decided to walk away. i didn't move, and they gave me the slip. after further scouring of the area i found a few older rubs, and a fresh scrape line. OK, we have acorns, open field, bedding area, and a scrape line. sounds like a good area to me. not to mention a nice 8 pt.
saturday afternoon comes around and i sneak back there. didn't jump any deer, but the wind was no good for where i wanted to set up, so i backed out and got on the edge of the large open field, hoping they would either come out of the bedding area to the field closer to dark, or go from the field to the bed near dark. i got sat down in the arms of a cedar tree and some tall grass, and at 5:45, 50 yards away, there he is. he's a nice 8, probly around 115" or so. nice tall tines and probably around 16" inside, with what looked like good mass. well he was moving quickly, and i couldn't get a shot before he disappeared behind some trees and angled down into the thicket. but just being that close to a deer that had no idea i was in the world, and being on the ground with him is awesome. i think he was headed to check his scrapes and maybe bed down for a while. I'll be back next week to see if i can find him again. unfortunately my climbing stand is in TN, and there are no real good trees to climb in this area, so it looks like ground blind hunting is what i'll have to do. should make it that much more exciting if i actually get a shot.
well ft. belvoir has so many rules, being an army base, so i can't go scouting, and there are very few areas you can hunt without a stand. so i pick those areas and am going to the same area over and over to try and scout/stalk hunt. i think i found a sweet spot friday and will concentrate on it for a couple weeks. Sunday hunting is also illegal in Virginia.
Friday it rained all day. ALL day. I took off at noon and got in the woods about 3 with my brand new rain suit. thank goodness my first test proved successful, it never let up one bit. i started out just walking slowly covering ground and scouting. with the rain i was about the only idiot in the woods so i didn't have to worry about walking up on someone. i started off finding an open field with thickets on both sides and a tall hill rising up behind. i climbed the hill and found many many acorns on the ground on top...good. i jumped a bedded doe on my way down the hill going to investigate another area...good. i meandered around and went up and down a hill, through a ditch, and entered an area that just said 'deer'. it has a small opening with a nice grove of small trees and tall grass perfect for bedding. about the time i had the thought, i see antlers sticking up above the tall grass. nice antlers. 30 yards away. they stand up and a nice deer is under them looking at me. he turns and take a couple bounds away, then stopped to look. i sit down and get low in the grass so he can't see me. i ease up after a few minutes and he's still standing there looking at me. now there is no way possible to back out of there without being seen, so i just sit tight. i catch movement out of the corner of my eye and a doe that was bedded with him is now on the edge looking at me. i never moved and after a few minutes of stomping her foot and waving her head around, she finally decided to walk away. i didn't move, and they gave me the slip. after further scouring of the area i found a few older rubs, and a fresh scrape line. OK, we have acorns, open field, bedding area, and a scrape line. sounds like a good area to me. not to mention a nice 8 pt.
saturday afternoon comes around and i sneak back there. didn't jump any deer, but the wind was no good for where i wanted to set up, so i backed out and got on the edge of the large open field, hoping they would either come out of the bedding area to the field closer to dark, or go from the field to the bed near dark. i got sat down in the arms of a cedar tree and some tall grass, and at 5:45, 50 yards away, there he is. he's a nice 8, probly around 115" or so. nice tall tines and probably around 16" inside, with what looked like good mass. well he was moving quickly, and i couldn't get a shot before he disappeared behind some trees and angled down into the thicket. but just being that close to a deer that had no idea i was in the world, and being on the ground with him is awesome. i think he was headed to check his scrapes and maybe bed down for a while. I'll be back next week to see if i can find him again. unfortunately my climbing stand is in TN, and there are no real good trees to climb in this area, so it looks like ground blind hunting is what i'll have to do. should make it that much more exciting if i actually get a shot.
