On the Fast Track to the Rut
Now it starts. Hang on and enjoy the ride. It’s already mid-October. Over the next few weeks, we’ll all start hearing about those big bucks that became vulnerable chasing does, made the ultimate mistake and ended up wearing a tag. From my perspective, it is the finest time of the year to be an outdoorsman in Wisconsin.
Even if you do not fasten the tag, if you spend time on stand and are in a management unit with a stable deer population, you will see and hear sights and sounds from bucks in pursuit that take a back seat to nothing. Call it God’s gift to the hunter, in particular the girlie’ deers’ unique annual ability to completely disarm even the oldest and wiliest bucks of all his natural defenses. The male species in general is el-stupid-o in times of love.
A doe emerges in the cover Friday near the Ellis stand.
I started the quest seriously last week in a tree in Winnebago County. I will also hunt Adams County on private land, and Sheboygan County and Vilas County on public terrain. The latter is a huge question mark. After good hunting for decades, we slipped into a population disaster over the better part of a decade. Good DNR management practices over the last several years were helping the population recover, including bucks- only units, but Vilas County of course was part of the entire northland that got whacked hard again last winter with heavy snows and sub-zero temperatures leading to heavy deer losses. We will see.
Ellis captures a large spike and doe feeding near his stand as the sun falls.
I called one registration station Thursday morning, October 16 in Vilas County for at least some anecdotal evidence of the northern harvest. Brenda at Dietz Service in Manitowish Waters told me that the station has only registered seven deer during the 2014 deer season, including two in last week’s youth gun hunt. Brenda said she had heard this morning on the radio that the state harvest is up, a statistic attributed to the new law legalizing crossbows in Wisconsin.
Can a hunter forget how to kill? I was in a rifle mode tagging deer consistently in northern Wisconsin. I learned how to wait out the approach of a deer and place the killing shot, without getting busted despite my personal preference to hunt in the clutter that makes 50 yard firearms shot a long shot. Included in the kills were two 9-point bucks with 17 and 18 inch spreads. I also tagged several bucks with the bow, and decided long ago that I would wait now to fasten the archery tag to a special buck only.
Another deer works from the marsh toward a crop in late afternoon.
I have not fastened that tag. I have seen maybe half-dozen bucks that have sent the heart rate higher. One of those bucks was so impressive that I don’t even want to venture a guess of just how big he was moving with that rut strut 50 yards from my stand. He was much bigger than the two best rifle kills. Over the years though of not killing a deer with the bow, I have come to the conclusion that it’s important to remember just how to do it. Including controlling the emotions enough to know when to shoot, and to make a clean, killing shot when you do.
Drawing on a live deer for many of us is not as routine or nearly the same as shooting at the targets. I know it’s not for me. My arrow groups have been tight since summer, and I am shooting up to 40 yards although I will not shoot beyond 25 yards in the field. I want the deer dead, and 25 yards I think places the odds greatly in my favor to put the arrow in the boiler room, and put the deer down humanely.
This adult doe reared up and kicked her kids just before this photo was taken by Ellis. The reporter called the police, to no avail.
Several of the areas I now hunt several times annually have high populations of deer . One Unit allows me to take two does from the southern Farm zone with my conservation patron license. I intend to take one doe at least, a quest welcomed by the family who hunts the land and who do not care for an adult doe with full radar up leading a big buck toward their stands in the peak of the rut. If we tag some does, the chance of keen eyes and that sense of smell to bust the ambush diminishes some.
It also helps to love venison as table fare. I want to butcher that doe. You may remember that months ago I was told that a young doe had been hit by a truck near my home. I called the New Berlin cops when I saw the deer was still very much alive. They shot it, I butchered it, and we’re down to a package or two in the freezer and looking for another.
The writer saw nothing but tenderloins right under his stand last Friday, tucked in his napkin and drooled on the adult doe that had no clue how close danger lurked above.
Last week, I had an 8-deer seen, three hour stand; one spike and the rest does and fawns. This time I opted to shoot the deer right under me with my camera for OWO, although you will see from the photos I did a pretty poor job of it. The sun came down on my Friday afternoon vigil with me shooting the camera straight up at one of 12 turkeys who had flown up and roosted for the night virtually in my lap. His “putting” told me he was not happy with this flash-happy thing in the tree below him.
One of a dozen turkeys is captured entering the woodlot with the setting sun to position itself for the evening roost.
We’re in production with the November-December issue, and preparing for shipment of On Wisconsin Outdoors throughout the state. Did you know that Kwik Trip is opening 12 new stores to add to 252 stores already serving the Wisconsin hunter and angler (and everyone else) with everything good they serve? With the exception of the new store at 43 and 164 in the Waukesha-Big Bend area I am not sure where the new locations are but link with Kwik Trip and you will quickly know. I know they all will also carry your copy of OWO. Don’t forget the 44 Menards stores statewide too.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Don’t hit the woods until you know you will hit the vitals with your shot. Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis