Sorta old dog learned something new today
First sit today.
Tried a new spot at camp. After owning the place for 15 years i thought i knew all its secrets but last week i was looking at satellite images of the place mostly just for fun. Something though caught my eye. A small pocket of deciduous trees in the midst of what i know is a nasty thick cedar river bottom swamp. So thanksgiving Saturday i decided to investigate it on the ground. Found the pocket and sure enough there was a slightly elevated area that is oval shape maybe 60 yards on one dimension and 30 on the other. It is populated with mostly poplar but on the west edge there was a prize. Four apple trees loaded with large market size apples. I tried the apples and they were sweet, juicy and analagous to Golden Delicious. The apple trees are all in a 10 yard by 10 yard area and there were deer runs intersecting the trees coming and going everywhere. No brainer - gotta hunt this spot. So managed to pick a tree for the climber and get a basic lane cut that day.
Fast forward to today and the first sit - the lane - apple trees are the end of the lane at 25 to 30 yards:
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The action started at 355 pm with a 6 pt spike arriving to dine on the apples. He timed his arrival perfectly and caught me standing up taking a pizz. Stood there looking at me and i just stood there with my junk in the wind and no way to move. He never really took his eyes off me the whole time while he ate for 15 minutes. After he left i was finally able to move and zip up. 15 minutes later a doe wandered in followed by 2 more does. About 30 minutes after the does left a button buck came in and seemed a bit mentally challenged as he wandered around right in front of me, directly under me, and behind me for about 20 minutes but never went to the apples. He is the only one that was dumb enough to let me move enough to snap a pic:
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Could have taken a doe or the button but decided to pass as didn't feel like punching my tag that fast. Was a beautiful weather day and a peaceful fun afternoon with 5 deer seen for the MNR survey. Plus was great to discover that the camp still has a few secrets for me to discover.
