Whitetail Rut-cation Journal 11/10/2018

Whitetail Rut-cation Journal 11/10/2018 1

2018 Whitetail Rut-cation Journal

This journal will chronicle my Rut-cation and review tactics, based on weather and timing, to hunt NE Ohio whitetail deer.  I look forward to sharing this ongoing story with you.
Good Luck Everyone and  – Stay Afflicted with Whitetail OCD
11/10/2018
Weather
  • Pressure 30.21
  • East winds 17 MPH
  • Temperature
    • Low 20 degrees
    • High of 34 degrees
  • Moon
    • Waxing Crescent –
    • Rise: 12:56 PM
    • Set: 11:05 PM
Strategy today:
  1. On the ground with a decoy
Results:Very windy AM so did not hunt the treestands.  Chose to catch up on some sleep and hunt the afternoon.  The pressure was rising after Friday’s cold front and the afternoon wind was forecast to begin to die down.  My thought was the deer would move in the evening with the rising barometer.

I chose to set up the ground blind in between two hay bales on a strip of hayfield between two overgrown fields.  The end of these overgrown fields joins up to a strip of woods on a hillside that whitetails are known to travel during the rut.  The end of the hayfield has a thick buffer of grasses before the woodlot.  The hayfield has a good amount of green food in it, clover, etc. and I felt that the doe may visit the field to feed in the evening thus bringing in the bucks.

Ground blind Ohio Whitetail Hunt 11/10/18
Ground blind whitetail hunt 11/10/18

I rolled two round bales to form a V shape and placed my small ground blind in between the bales.  I set my decoy in the hayfield upwind of my set quartering away from me.  My hope was that any bucks cruising the hillside may look into the hayfield and see the decoy.  Once entering the hayfield, they would move downwind of the decoy and approach from the rear offering a quartering away shot at 20 yards.  The move was a bit aggressive, but with my Rut-cation winding down it was time to go for it.

Once set up, I called with a doe bleat and grunt tube.  Unfortunately, no deer came to the calls or entered the field before daylight faded.

The risk did not pay off, but it easily could have.  It was a solid strategy, but the deer were not moving that evening.  I believe they were holding in their beds due to the winds and weather situation that presented itself over the previous 36 hours.  I spoke to several other hunters in the area who did not see any movement during that evening as well.

Tomorrow calls for high pressure 30.4 plus and cold temperatures.  Morning temperature is forecast to be 20 degrees.  Typically, I see great movement during cold snaps and high pressure.  I am looking forward to the AM sit.

More to come…


Stay Afflicted with Whitetail OCD!
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Author: Eric Hall

Afflicted with Whitetail OCD, I have been addicted to the Whitetail Deer since the late 1980s. It is an all-consuming and never-ending passion to learn about and ultimately preserve the heritage of whitetail deer hunting. Now I feed that addiction with the Whitetail OCD blog.

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