Sunday, November 20. 2011 am Wisconsin

Sunday, November 20, 2011, Temp 34 degrees, Wind N-NW 5-10 mph, mostly cloudy, Sunrise 7:07 am, Hunting opens 6:37 am. Our party took two nice mature 10 point bucks yesterday down at Copper Creek. Bob Ski shot his on the north side around 7:00 am and Dan Ecklund shot his on the north side of birch point at 5:00 pm. Both are beautiful bucks and should net and gross score about the same. Bob's should go in the 130's and Dan's should be in the 140's. Don and I got up at 4:00 this morning and headed back up to Romance. I helped Don get into Everest and the walked over to Sherpa. I was in by 6:20 am. At 7:00 am, I had a small fork horn come from the west straight towards me. He got to about 20 yards away, and sensed something and jumped away back up the hill to the NW. At 7:30 am, I looked down the hill to the SW and saw a doe sneaking to the east about 125 yards down the hill from me. At 9:00 am, I saw a doe about 75 yards to the east of me. She walked off to the NW. At 9:25, I had 2 does and 3 fawns come off the hill behind me to the NE about 45 yards away. They all ended up going off down to the SE. At 9:30, another doe came down bleating and she followed the other does and fawns. At 9:35, I had a doe come up from the south of me. She headed up the hill to the NW about 75 yards away. Nice action. At 10:30 am, I had a coyote run behind me from the east going west. It ran up where the deer I had seen earlier. Two minutes later, 4 does came crashing down off the hill from the NW. They all got within 30 yards. They ended up heading back up the hill to the north. I got down and walked over towards Don along the west property line. I kicked up two deer that were 100 yards up the hill from him. Don saw 7 deer this morning. 1 shooter that saw him when he was raising his gun and 1 fork horned buck. Totals: Bob - 12 deer, 1 fork horned buck. Don - 7 deer, 2 bucks.

Saturday, November 19, 2011 Wisconsin Gun Opener

Saturday, November 19, 2011, Temp 33 degrees, Wind S-SE 5-10 mph, mostly cloudy, some sprinkles Sunrise 7:06 am, Hunting opens 6:36 am. Sunset 4:36 pm. Hunting closes at 5:06 pm After not sitting in Everest the entire season, I thought that I should give it a try for the opening day of gun season. We all stayed at Copper last night and Don and I drove up this morning. I was in and all set up by 6:00 am. Don was out off the field to the east of the powerline hunting from a ground blind about 70 up the hill. At 8:15 am, I had a hot doe come off the the top of the hill to the north of me. She came down the hill and passed my stand about 10 yards to the east. 50 yards behinf her was a really nice 3 1/2 year old buck. He came down to 30 yards away. I was close to shooting him as his right side was a perfect 5, but his left side was a bit broken up. He had a small crab claw, but his G2 and G3 were broken. I hesitated too long, as he ended up taking off back up the hill. The doe was still 15 yards to the SE of me and I looked down at her and there was another nice shooter about 60 yards away to the east of me. I was checking him out through my binoculars and he sensed something wasn't right and took off to the east. I might regret not shooting the first buck that I saw. Oh well. I did hear a shot at 8:20 am that I thought was Don, but I wasn't able to reach him on the walkie talkie. At 11:30 am, I saw two more deer about 100 yards to the west of me heading up the hill. I am not sure what they were. It rained pretty much the entire afternoon; fairly hard at times, but I stayed and fought through it. At 2:15 pm, I looked down to the SE and saw a deer about 100 yards away. I am pretty sure it was a doe. That was it. Totals: Bob - 6 deer, 2 shooter bucks.

Friday, November 11, 2011 am Romance, WI

Friday, November 11, 2011 am, Temp 25 degrees, Wind N-NW 2-5 mph, mostly sunny, Sunrise 6:45 am, Hunting opens 6:15 am. I decided to give the Flat a try this morning. Today I was able to get in quietly and without any major incident. Lon radioed and said that he saw a nice buck chasing a doe around the corn and alfalfa field. He was sitting in a ground blind on the east edge of the corn field. I had a bunch of conference calls today, so I ended up heading in around 9:20 am That was it. Totals: Bob - 0 deer, Lon - 2 deer, 1 buck and 1 doe.

Thursday, November 10, 2011 pm Romance, WI

Thursday, November 10, 2011 pm, Temp 40 degrees, Wind S-SW 5-10 mph, partly cloudy, Sunset 4:54 pm, Hunting closes 5:24 pm. I decided to go back where I saw the big boy last night. I sat on the ground in the same spot east of the house. I ended up seeing 2 bucks and 1 doe out in the field. I watch a 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer chasing the doe around the field for the better part of an hour. Very entertaining. They never really got close to me. Totals: Bob - 3 deer, 2 bucks and 1 doe

Thursday, November 10, 2011 am Romance, WI

Thursday, November 11, 2011, Temp 35 degrees, Wind N-NE 5-10 mph, partly cloudy, Sunrise 6:43 am, Hunting opens 6:13 am. I decided to head back up to Sherpa. The rest of the guys headed down to Copper. For some reason, I had trouble finding the stand this morning in the dark. It totally sucked and I ended up over by Badger Hole. I finally got oriented and made it over to Sherpa. It totally sucked. I was so pissed that I had made so much noise and worked up such a lather. Oh well. Stayed until 9:30 am. Nothing to report. Totals: Bob - 0 deer

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 pm Romance, WI

Wednesday, November 10, 2011, Temp 36 degrees, Wind S-SW 5-10 mph, partly cloudy, Sunset 4:55 pm, Hunting closes 5:25 pm. We got rained out this morning. Ugly. Lon had hit a big buck in the creek bottom last night and we ended up following it for over 800 yards. I think that he only got 1 lung. Lots of blood initially, but it ended up drying up. We went out at 7:00 and 5 of us looked for 3 hours, but no luck. It was pretty much a body search since the rain had washed away any blood that was out there. Too bad. Since Lon had so much luck in the creek bottom the night before, I decided to try the same approach. I went down on the hillside to the east of the house. I cut some shooting lanes and sat on a bucket on a little finger. At 4:30, there was a small buck and a doe out in the field west of the pond 300+ yards away. At 5:05 pm, I saw a buck between me and the house. I did some grunting and he turned and came my way. I turned to get in position, and I heard some to the SE of me. A huge 8 pointer was walking across the hillside 25 yards away broadside. It was getting pretty dark and I did know if I had and opening for a shot. I figured he was going to come off the hill and head towards the other buck. I also had some scent down in front in the direction he was heading. Instead, he turned and came right towards me. He must have wanted to see what the noise was on the hill, before heading out to the field. I came to full draw on him quartering towards me at 6 yards. No shot. He sensed something, turned and ran away towards the SW. I was sick. I did get some awesome video. He ended up joining 2 other bucks, now 4 in the field about 75 yards away. Our friend John Score did end up connecting down at Copper Creek at the Goat Prairie stand on a beautiful 8 pointer with a 21" inside spread. A awesome 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 year old deer. Totals: Bob - 6 deer, 5 bucks. Lon - 0 deer, John - 1 deer, 1 buck, Steve - 2 deer, 2 bucks down at Copper Creek behind the barns.

Bucks at the 505

 You know that a nice buck would pass by in the daylight while I was hunting in Wisconsin!  Might have passed on him anyways.  Saw bigger bucks in Wisconsin though!

Sunday, November 6, 2011 am Romance, WI

Sunday, November 6, 2011, Temp 48 degrees, Wind S-SE 10-15 mph, mostly sunny, Sunrise 6:37 am, Hunting opens 6:17 am. Daylight saving kicked in so we were up at 4:00 am this morning. As Eric Haag so eloquently put it "the sleep deprivation study continues." It is warm and windy. Hopefully it won't slow the buck activity today. I decided to head up to Sherpa and Taylor was back at his post in Everest. We were both in and set up by 5:50 am. I did bring Hairy with me this morning. I had him set up downhill of me to the SW. At 6:40 am, I looked downhill to the south and there was a big shooter buck walking from east to west about 125 yards away. I tried to get him to turn up the hill, but he just kept going to the west. At 8:30 am, Taylor had a small fork horn come in from the east going west through his shooting lane at 25 yards. He saw Stubby and didn't like him so he took back off to the NE Totals: Bob - 1 deer, 1 buck. Taylor 1 deer, 1 buck