I find it odd each year, that these deer, especially large bucks, can do the most unpredictable things, and just when you think you have them figured out, they do something totally unpredictable. In this case, a large buck (looked to be 150+) was standing in the middle of a grass field with 35 other deer....a mixture of Does, fawns and subordinate bucks.  I had no idea that the large deer that I was watching at 5:30 in the afternoon that day was the buck, from trail camera photos, was the one we named Gagger.  A true specimen of a whitetail!  A photo of Gagger in velvet from mid August is shown on the attached below.                                                                          

As I was watching the fields of deer, I received a call from the landowner, Keith Mcgovern from Fargo, as I excitedly described the view of so many deer, and this one large trophy buck.  Obviously, a buck of this caliber, standing in the middle of a grass field, a full quarter mile from the closest tree... would make a most  formidable and almost unhuntable foe.  Odd however was that MOST of the deer, in the least, were concentrated in a small area in this field. Obviously, there was something in this field to their liking.

Found an area on the east end of the hole that showed really solid deer activity.  Several scrapes and rubs were visible and gave signs of a hopefully promising sit the next morning.  I found, what I belived was the perfect tree (it has to be perfect!) given the positive deer sign that was showing, and quietly hung my Lone Wolf tree strand, positioned my ozone machines, and backed my way out of the hole so as to not disturb.  

Mornings tend to be most productive on Erics land, especially this time of year, so I elected to move to the far end of Erics property and sit in a conservative stand.  No deer were seen the remainder of this first day.

Tuesday morning...after a night of only 2 hours sleep, was on the road by 4:30 am, headed back to hunt day #2 in hell hole stand.

Received a call from Keith the next morning. He had a plan of ambush and was open for a crack at this fine buck.  Although I was intrigued by the zeal in which Keith wanted to try to set up for this deer, the thought of a set up in an open field, made for the need for a truly unique plan.

Keith described the effort at hand....to set up in the shadow of one of the field irrigating pivots and using his newly acquired GhostBlind mirror blind to help conceal his location

I met up later that day with Warren, one of Keiths farm managers.  We were to meet back at the field in the early afternoon to identify the area in which these deer were concentrated and find out why they were there and if a somewhat radical plan may just work.  A brief sweep through the field gave a solid indication that these deer were feeding on patches of clover that had sprouted up in this field.  They obviously liked this field, and clover...a LOT.

The fall of a Monarch...a week to remember

Hard to find a better time of the year than this....and I find it hard to sit in a chair in front of a computer knowing the best time of the year to hunt whitetails is right now!  I struggle more than I can portray.

So much has happened in the short week of hunting/vacation I have just completed and in order to keep things in perspective, I thought it good to share some of the moments and great memories made.

Most die hard bowhunter knows that the first week or so of November is a damn fine time to be in a tree stand...even if it means from sunrise to sunset for a week straight.  The end result of (hopefully) a trophy buck makes it all worth the time and effort.  In my case, if I got 3 hours of sleep a night this past week, I would be most surprised.  I was a dead man walking by the end of this past Wednesday night!

Started last week, Tuesday up near my lake, electing to scout a field of deer vs. sitting in a tree stand, just to get a perspective on patterns and where they may be entering the field, etc.

Walking through a blanket of fallen leaves with no wind in a deep hole can easily give my location away to any deer, even those near deaf...as was obvious as a parade of scampering and snorting deer greeted my entrance in to the hole.  Not a good start to this mornings hunt.

All was quiet for the first hour or so after sunrise, but around 8 am, things started to heat up.  Smaller bucks were on the cruise and I witnessed classic rutting activity, grunting, chasing, etc. which is what we all look forward to this time of year!

Call it karma or what ever, but I recieved an E mail on my Blackberry from a friend of mine who lives in Iowa, Todd Pringnitz from White Knuckle productions.  I have known Todd for several years and know of few others that are as die hard as Todd...breathing Whitetail deer 24/7/365.  Todd explained in his text that things were slow in Iowa but he remained hopeful that things would be heating up soon.

Todd ended his text by stating that "things can happen and change in a blink".   Man did he nail that one!

Thought that since things were slow in the woods, and it had been quiet for a while, I decided to text Todd and explain that things were also quiet in Minnesota and in Wisconsin.  Half way through my text to Todd, I hear a crash and chase from the ridge just over my left shoulder.  I turned quickly and noted a mature Doe, with a 2 year old 4X4 and large 5X5 in hard tow.  I quickly dumped my Blackberry in my coat pocket, grabbed my bow of the hook, glanced back to get a direction of travel of this trio of deer....noting their travel route, which was to take them to my immediate right, paralleling a main trail artery a mere 15 yards from my stand.  

With the large 5X5 taking up the rear, and with no way to slow down or stop any of these deer, I determined that I would need to take a shot at a trotting deer...but at 15 yards, it did not seem like a difficult shot.  Settled the pin on the mid shoulder region, touched off my release and watched as the arrow buried deeply in his chest.

The buck immediately seperated from the rest of the two pack, made a hard left swing....traveled app 50 yards, did the proverbial river dance, and tipped over.  My Wisconsin hunt was over !

Although the buck has a broken G 4 tine on his right side, a gross score of 130 inches still makes me hugely proud of this deer...and the efforts & memories that the past week have provided have been profound!

A thanks to Eric for putting up with me on the short hunt and letting me hunt his fine property.  Never a year there with Eric where great memories have not been made!

Above is a photo of my Wisconsin buck.

Again....a great time of the year to be in the tree stand, and I hope all are getting out and enjoying what remains of the fall. It has been a great one for me, and a few others,  so far!  More to come I hope!

Hunt safe...hunt serious!

Craig Enervold - Fargo, ND

The plan was to position one of the field pivot booms to the south end of this field...considering where the deer were coming from...and the projected wind direction, the pivot arm and wheels of the pivot boom may make for a nice back drop and distraction when the herd of 40 deer converged.  Two large grass/hay bales in the field were located and a fork lift was used to position the bales to the front side of the pivot boom tires.  The stage was being set.  A large tall grass field was also immediately to the south of this set up...so the decision was made to also place my new Dave Smith Whitetail buck decoy approximately 40 yards south of what would be Keiths ambush point...in hopes of drawing this buck in closer to defend his harem of breedable Does.

Do not know if many have seen this new decoy from Dave Smith, but it is absolutely the most gorgeous deer decoy I have ever seen...and as life-like as it gets, and hopefully good enough to bring the brusier buck in for a closer look.

The final piece to the puzzle was to then place Keiths Ghost Mirror blind in front of the pivot tires and the two bales.  Standing and looking from the Deers view, it was a killer set up...and lots to distract the 40 sets of eyes that would soon be converging on Keiths set up.

For some reason, the lure of the clover,  PLUS deer that obviously had not had much bow hunting pressure yet, made for deer hitting the fields much earlier than what we had been seeing on the southern end of Keiths property.  These deer were showing up in the field a solid hour or more before legal shooting time expired.

This enormous buck that I had seen on two other occasions in this field finally appeared, a little later than most other deer , but with still a solid hour or so of legal shooting light remaining. For what probably seemed like an eternity for Keith, this huge buck was giving Keith fits as he would keep his distance from the main herd, bed down several times, get up, move, bed again, etc. all the while making Keith wonder if the buck was ever going to get closer.

Within time the buck finally advanced to a broadside 40 yard shot, and Keith, at the same time, having a mature Doe @ knife stabbing distance from his Ghost blind, threatening to give away his concealed location.  The buck was briefly distracted, at least long enough to allow Keith to draw his bow and make a perfect double lung shot.

After an approximate 60-80 yard get away attempt, the buck did the river dance ritual and tipped over in sight.

Several in the hunting party that night heard the warrior woop coming from Keith as he walked up to this fallen Monarch....a near 170 inch P & Y trophy... and one of the most beautiful bucks I have ever seen!

I could not believe it when I was picked up and was told that Keith had arrowed the big buck....even more of a surprise when we pulled up and got the first glimpse of the big buck.  It was in fact, Gagger.

Above is a post hunt photo of Keith with Gagger.  The GhostBlind  mirror blind did its job and was a huge tool in the help at harvesting this buck!

Best guess, there will not be 10 deer arrowed in Minnesota this year that will score what this great buck will....a trophy of a lifetime!  Congrats to Keith on taking such a great deer!                                                                              

I continued to hunt Keiths property that week and through the opening day of the gun season...seeing only smaller 1-2 year old bucks.  Big bucks were just not yet on the full rut move.

I pulled stakes on Sunday and drove to Wisconsin to hunt with another friend, Eric Matheson, who lives in River Falls.

Although buck activity had been slow there also, Erics son Greg did arrow a very decent 4X4 buck a few days earlier and signs of the rut nearing full swing was looming.

Spent this past Monday morning, the first day of my Wisconsin hunt on Erics property on a very productive, consistent deer producing ridge, overlooking a recently harvested corn field.   Deer activity was good this first morning, passing up opportunities at smaller 4X4's, 2x2's, spikes, etc.  No signs of big bucks this morning, but the bucks were definitely on the move!

Stayed in the stand until app. noon and decided to slide down the next drainage to the north of my current local in to an area that Eric has so appropriately named "hell hole"....a deep bluff cut that typically has brutal swirling winds, but measurable deer activity, usually.