11-20-2011 Sun

11-20-2011 Sun
6:45 AM – 5:00 PM
Weather: SW12, cloudy, 19˚ (1200)
Location: Moose Junction, WI
Bagged: nothing
Partners: myself, Mark, Jake, and Mark Jr. Tupper, Dick and Donnie

Comments

It was the second day of the gun season and we now had snow on the ground. Early in the morning I still hunted south of the cabin for two hours and never saw a deer. I did run across a few fresh tracks from early that morning or late that night.
At nine o’clock we got together to make a couple of drives where I had hit that buck. I was hopeful someone would stumble upon him or get a shot at him if he was still alive. We never did find him or see another deer, however we did find some blood that I think came from the buck I had hit the morning before.
We had found some rather large fresh tracks very close to where I had hit that deer. Along with the tracks we found some very small bits of blood in the snow. I think the blood was probably coming off the deer when he shook or moved erratically. Anyway, there was not enough blood to be concerned with. We also found a fresh scrape and rub from this same deer that was leaving just a trace of blood. I was very certain that it was the same deer that I had hit yesterday and he was not hurting too badly if he was rubbing a scraping.
We made a few more drives, but no one shot or even saw a deer today. I ended up finishing the day out in a deer stand in the same location where I had hit the big buck. I was being very hopeful that he was still in good physical shape and that he would be back to his old haunts.

Observations:

Today is a cold day with 10-12 inches of new snow on the ground. Hunting pressure is relatively light south of the cabin this year. The trail is very dry and open, which is making access to the end of the trail to easy.