2018 Whitetail Rut-cation Journal
- 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
- On the ground with a decoy
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.
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| 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…
