Monday, October 29, 2018 pm

Monday, October 29, 2018 pm Sunset 6:04 pm. Hunting closes 6:34 pm. Temperature 52 degrees. Mostly sunny Wind: S-SE 5-7 mph. After this mornings action, I had to find a way to get back out in a the stand. I decided to give SJ another try since it was so hot this morning. Work got in my way, so I wasn’t able to get to the tree until 4:00 pm. I did kick up a doe that was at the base of the hill behind the house on my way in. I sat until dark and nothing to report. Totals: Bob - 0 deer. 

Monday, October 29, 2018 am.

Monday, October 29, 2018 pm Sunrise 7:44 am. Hunting opens 7:14 am. Temperature 34 degrees. Mostly cloudy Wind: N-NW 15-20 mph. This morning I decided to head back down to Spaghetti Junction. I was ready to go by 6:50 am. It didn’t take long. At 7:20 am, I had a doe and an 2 1/2 year old 8 point buck come down the road I walked in on about 50 yards to the south east of me. The buck checked the scape and sniffed around the doe pee I had put down. The doe didn’t seem interested and she walked/trotted up the hill to the NE. The 8 pointer followed her. Two minutes later, behind them and a little bit further the the east was a nice mature 3 1/2 year old shooter 10 pointer. He too followed the doe up to the NE and gave me no shot opportunity. At 7:35 am, I heard some thrashing up towards the Apple tree stand. I couldn’t see what it was. At 7:40 am, I heard some thrashing to the NW and could see a nice 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer making a scrape up by Arlie’s food plot stand on the main trail. He ended up walking right past the stand and into the food plot. I tried grunting at him to pull him in, but he just walked/ trotted off to the north. At 8:35 am, I looked over to the NE and there was a big doe slowing walking to the south along the base of the hill back in the brush. At 9:25 am, I had 4 does (1 was a nubbin buck) and a small spike buck come in from the SE. One of the does was running all around my stand. The spike chased her around a bit. He came through both my shooting lanes at less than 10 yards. The nubbin actually stood at the base of my ladder stand. They all hung around for a while until they finally wandered off to the E/NE. At 10:00 am, a small doe came running through from the north. She ran past my stand at 10 yards to the east of me. She circled back up to the NE and then ran back to the N/NW. I was planning on sitting until 10:15 am, and  then head inside for work. As I was packing up, I had a small 5 pointer come through to the NE of me. He went up the hill to the SE and he ran into another small buck. They were 40 yards up this hill and they started fighting. It only lasted about 20-30 seconds and it was over. They were going at it really hard. A bunch of pushing and shoving and cracking of skulls (literally). Five minutes later the loser of the fight came down the hill to the north of me and walked the trail 10 yards to the east of me heading south. The crazy think was he was now missing his antler on his right side. He slowly walked off to the SE. At 10:20, I had two small spikes walk the trail to the east of me 10 yards away. They ended up walking over towards the stump food plot where there was a doe out there feeding. Both bucks chased her around for a while until she grew tired and headed off to the south. The bucks slowly headed that way too. I was finally able to get out around 10:30 am. Before, I headed in, I decided to head up and see if I could find the antler. Sure enough, it took me about 2 minutes and I found the small fork. He broke off the antler and even took a small part of his skull. What an incredible hunt this morning. I only wish I could have stayed all day. Totals: Bob - 15 deer. 8 does and 7 bucks. 

Sunday, October 28, 2018 pm

Sunday, October 28, 2018 pm Sunset 6:06 pm. Hunting closes 6:36 pm. Temperature 52 degrees. Mostly cloudy Wind: N-NW 15-20 mph.  This evening I decided to give right field a shot. There was a huge oak tree that fell across the road to the west of me. Also the original oak tree stand to the NW of RF fell down. We will need to get s chain saw up here next Spring. Nothing to report. Totals: Bob - 0 deer. 

Saturday, October 27, 2018 pm

Saturday, October 27, 2018 pm Sunset 6:07 pm. Hunting closes 6:37 pm. Temperature 52 degrees. Mostly cloudy Wind: S-SE 3-5 mph.  We went to the Mavs game in Mankato last night, so I didn’t get in any hunting last night or this morning. But, I was able to get out for a good sit tonight. I decided to give the border patrol ladder stand a shot tonight. When I was walking back in on Thursday night, there was a big bodied buck in the BP food plot, so I figured I would give it a try. I brought the small back and doe decoy and set them out in the beans to the SW of me. I also sprayed some of the Buck Bomb doe pee around them. I was all set and ready to go by 3:00 pm. At 6:15 pm, I could see 2 does to the west of me in the stump food plot. There could have been more but it was tough to see through all the brush. Totals: Bob - 2 deer. 2 does. 

Thursday, October 25, 2018 pm

Thursday, October 25, 2018 pm Sunset 6:11 pm. Hunting closes 6:41 pm. Temperature 52 degrees. Mostly cloudy Wind: S-SW 5-10 mph. After having such a great hunt on Tuesday, I just had to get out again. I decided to head back yo Spaghetti Junction. On my way down the hill from the house, there was a small doe fawn running around at the base of the hill. Nothing was chasing her though. Before I climbed in the stand, I sprayed some Buck Bomb doe pee to the east and the west of my stand in my shooting lanes. I figured if something comes down the trail and stops to smell it, it will give me the perfect shot opportunity. I was all settled in and ready to go by 3:45 pm. At 5:10 pm, I heard some chasing and some grunting to the SE of me. Shortly thereafter, I had a mature doe with 2 fawns (one was a nubbin Buck) and a nice 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer come off the hill and into the valley. They all hung around for almost 40 minutes. I had the nubbin under my stand and the mature doe in the shooting lane to the east of me, but I was holding out to see how big the buck was. He stayed back in the cover, and by the time he came down and discovered he wasn’t a shooter they all wandered off to the west and the buck went towards the NW. At 5:55 pm, I could hear two bucks fighting about 60 yards to the north of me. I could not see them through the brush. At 6:15 pm, I had a mutant spike come off the hill to the east of me.  He came down to the base of the hill and the circled around to the north of me. At 6:20 pm, I could see 3 bucks over in Arlie’s food plot. I am pretty sure two of them were the bucks that were fighting to the north of me. One of them appeared to be a shooter. At 6:30 pm, I had another 6-7 pointer circle in from the north walked about 8 yards from the base of my tree and then walked through my shooting lane to the east of me about 12 yards away. He then slowly worked his way off to the SE. Totals: Bob - 7 deer. 5 bucks. 

Tuesday, October 23, 2018 pm

Tuesday, October 23, 2018 pm Sunset 6:14 pm. Hunting closes 6:44 pm. Temperature 49 degrees. Mostly sunny. Wind: N - NW 5 mph. I was able to catch an earlier flight back from Fargo and Heidi said it was ok for me to go hunting. I decided to give Spaghetti Junction a try. I was down to the stand by 3:45 pm, but I needed to take a few branches down in order to open up the shooting lane to the east.  I was all ready to go by 4:00 pm. At 4:25 pm, I looked over to the NW and there was a doe and a fawn feeding in Arlie’s food plot. It was tough to see them, but they never came over my direction. They were right in front of the camera and would have been an easy shot from that stand. They slowly fed up towards the AT stand on the road. At 5:25 pm, I had a beautiful 3 1/2 year old 7 pointer come in from the north of me. He made a scrape about 20 yards to the north of me. He walked right down the trail heading south about 12 yards to the west of me. I might be regretting not taking him. He came around to the south of me and headed back ip towards the SE. At 5:45 pm, I looked to the NW and there was a doe feeding in Arlie’s food plot. At 5:50 pm, chaos broke out from all directions. I had at least 4 different 2 1/2 year old bucks chasing at least 2 and as many as 4 does. The chasing of these does all around my stand lasted for about 15 minutes. It was tough to keep track of which was a potential target. None of them would slow down enough to shoot anyways. Fun night. Totals: 9 deer. 5 bucks. 

Friday, October 19, 2018 pm

Friday, October 19, 2018 pm Sunset 6:14 pm. Hunting closes 6:44 pm. Temperature 58 degrees. Mostly sunny. Wind: N - NW 5 mph. It is MEA week and the youth gun hunt in MN, so it was time to get out of Minnesota. I decided to head on down to Copper Creek and get some hunting in. I decided to go to the finger  stand up the main valley to the south and then up the finger 125 yards up the hill to the west. I was up and ready to go by 4:15 pm. It was a little later than I wanted to get out, but it sure felt good to be back in the woods. Nothing to report. Totals: Bob - 0 deer. 

Friday, October 12, 2018 pm

Friday, October 12, 2018 pm Sunset 6:31 pm. Hunting closes 7:01 pm. Temperature 41 degrees. Mostly sunny. Wind: N - NE 5 mph. It has been almost 3 weeks since I last hunted. Heidi had knee surgery 2 weeks ago and things with work and Charley have been crazy. I decided to sneak out early from work to hunt. I thought I would give Arlie’s food plot a try. I was heading in around 4:30 pm. I stopped at the AT and picked up a chip from the camera there and came over the little hill. On my way down, I saw a small buck about 75 yards to the east of me. He spooked and took 2 other bucks with him. One of the bucks was a big shooter. Probably the 10 or 11 pointer. They kind of walked off to the SE. Damn. I was too late getting into the stand. At 5:00 pm, I saw a big doe a. Smaller doe about 60 yards to the east of me. They walked south right past the SJ stand. At 5:15 pm, I looked to the NE and there was a small 6 pointer standing in the creek drinking. He was about 40 yards away but through the brush. He ended up coming into the food plot. He fed into 10 yards away. He stopped and sniffed for about 5 minutes the camera that I had just changed the chip on. He had no idea that I was there. He ended up heading off to the SE and also walked by the SJ stand. At 6:00 pm, I heard a mew to the NE of me. I saw a nice doe come down fro the NE and ended up walking down the Same trail past SJ to the SE of me. At 6:05 pm, I had a nice 1 1/2 year old 8 pointer come down the hill from the west of me. He got to within 10 yards of me and stopped. He slowly turned and headed up the hill towards the AT stand. He was too close and I couldn’t get any video. At 6:25 pm, I saw a nice 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer making a scape about 75 yards to the NE of me. It was through the brush, so I didn’t get any video. I thought he would come into the food plot, but he headed off to the north. At 6:55 pm, I had another doe come through from north to south about 59 yards to the east of me. That was it. Solid night. Totals: 6 deer. 3 bucks and 3 does.