Upland Hunting 2020

I had a really great upland season. The grouse broods in the north were on the upswing in their populations and conditions were just right. My dad and I did a trip to Quimby's Country in the Northeast Kingdom of VT. Using our past experience in the area, along with the Scout-N-Hunt app that shows all of the timber cutting, we were able to find a few really great areas that held a lot of birds. We didn't find many woodcock, but there were so many grouse around it didn't matter. Quimby's is an old sportman's camp that they are trying to turn into a destination for weddings and tourists. The camps are old and run down, but they have character. Our small cabin had a wood stove, but not enough outlets to run the microwave and the small refrigerator at the same time. The camp is located in a pristine grouse hunting areas, surrounded by paper company land. They do not allow hunting on their property however.

Sometime around late October, I did a small day trip with my dad and buddy Steve. We hit up some favorite woodcock spots in southern VT. It was a beautiful day and we got into quite a bit of birds. We hit the migration just right.

I let both dogs run together around Francis Crane for pheasant. The culmination of the season on the last day when Luna had a solid point, with Piper going on point with an honor. I found the rooster on the ground and kicked him up, dropping him with the first shot. Piper retrieved it to hand, making for a happy handler.

Deer Hunting 2020

MV Trip #1

I spent the early opening week of bow on a solo camping trip to the Vineyard. I went to the usual campground on the island and spent a few nights sleeping on an air mattress in the back of my truck. The very first night I was walking around with my climber on my back, looking for a decent spot to sit. Hunting these "public areas" its not uncommon to find what looks like a great area, only to find a stand right above your head. I was getting way too sweaty looking around in the 70 degree weather and decided on a spot on a knob full of oaks. The acorns were still falling while I settled in my climber and soon enough I saw a doe sneaking through some thick bedding area. I watched her for a while until she came back up the hill I was sitting on. She stood broad side at what I thought was 40 yards and put the 40 yard pin on her shoulder. I shot and immediately thought I shot over her back. I ranged out where she stood again and realized she was closer 30 yards. I later checked my arrow and realized I had just glanced her back. Not a great feeling.

Luckily I sat in my stand until dark and just as last light settled upon me, another deer came down the hill and stood 20 yards completely broadside. The deer's head was down and was behind a tree, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a small buck when I found him in his final resting place. The antlers are a dark chocolate color, making it even harder to tell from a tree stand at last light. Perfect arrow placement led to a really easy track. In fact the blood was pouring so heavy that it pumped out towards another deer run that led me down the wrong track. I had to back track and then I realized what had happened, that the deer had run on the other side of a tree and within seconds of realizing this, I found my deer. Gutting, dragging, getting back to camp, hanging my deer, cleaning out the bed of my truck, showering, and blowing up my air mattress lead to a late night. But those are good problems to have on a bow hunting trip. I only had a few more deer encounters this trip, spooking a doe while getting out of a tree in the morning, and having deer stand underneath my stand until it was too dark to see anything. On a solo trip for meat in the freezer I was happy to be going home with one tag filled.

MV Trip #2

I went back to the Vineyard on a second trip on Nov 1 with a group of guys. My buddies, Louie, Tom, Mike, and my Dad. We rented an Air BNB that was kind enough to let a group of hunters use their property for the week. I always envisioned that the deer density on the island would make for an amazing rut week. Not sure if the rut was later than I expected, but we did not see the deer movement I was hoping for. Sure, we saw A LOT of deer at night, in fields and crossing the roads, the island just has an insane amount of deer. BUT, while in our stands, we just didn't connect like we should have. My dad on the other hand, had himself a great week, shooting 2 does and a spike. All and all it was a fun week, just not sure I would do it again. Public access is tough, and if that isn't hard enough, this year with COVID-19, made everything more difficult. More human pressure, from other hunters, or just an increase in hikers, definitely had an effect on deer movement.

The Cape, Bow and Shotgun

I had few encounters during the rest of bow season on the Cape. I didn't bow hunt Rehoboth at all this year because I was getting reports that the deer behavior was unusual because of all the acorns, they were not patterning to the same spots.

I had many opportunities to capitalize during shotgun season. On opening day I got into a new spot I had set up with an old ladder stand. I wasn't expecting to see anything and was very lackadaisical in my mindset. I brought a coffee with me, (which I never do bowhunting) and sat with my shotgun propped up next to me. Sure enough, first thing I heard was the sound of a deer approaching over my left shoulder, and I did what everyone knows not to do and turned quickly to look. Sure enough a buck stood at 40 yards staring right at me, stomping his hoof. I knew I either had to wait for him to saunter off or I needed to get my gun and raise it quickly. I did the latter, which was the wrong move and the deer took off. Sitting there disappointed with myself another group of bucks came back towards me. I would later learn that there was a group of hunters pushing the area and the bucks had been jumped towards me. I watched them circle my stand at about 100-120 yards, and when I thought I had my best opportunity I took a poke at about 80 yards. Clean miss. My shot jumped these deer into the group pushing the area, they shot several time, (missing as well, thankfully.)

A few days later I was doing a small group drive. My friend, Rob, dropped his cell phone and we spent the better part of the afternoon looking for it. The group of guys just wanted to walk back to the truck. I wasn't done yet, and as the sun set I walked off trail, towards the general direction of the truck. I ended up on another trail that ran along side a main road, and I figured I would follow it silently back to the parking area. As I crested a hill I saw movement. I saw antlers and a white tail. I shot. The deer stopped, put his head down. I had my red dot on his head, but I didn't want to ruin his antlers, so I never pulled the trigger on a second shot. I looked hard for blood that night but found nothing. I went back the next morning and scoured the area. I found my wadding, and a small amount of deer hair. This gave me a good and bad feeling. I knew I had hit it, but not well. I spent the entire day zig zagging back and forth. Towards the end of the day I was zig zagging through an area I thought looked like great bedding. Sure enough a doe popped up and I dropped her. I through a second shot in her just to be sure and then realized I was about 10 yards from the main trail and about 50 yards from the road. With so many hiker and bikers out on those trails, I had many eyes on my while tagging and gutting that doe, some supportive, some not so supportive. I never found the buck from the night before but at least I had a consolation prize for the freezer.

Later in the year, during black powder season, I was hunting in a new spot in Plymouth with a friend when a coyote walked up on me. It was a large coyote with a beautiful blonde winter coat. I had help from my friend Chris, who is an experienced trapper, to skin it out and package it. I later sent it out to USA Fox and Furs to flesh and tan it.