Sweeny's 2011 bowhunting journal

[kellory]

Thanks, that was a nice ride on your coattails. good luck.

[retch sweeny]

It was a good weekend even if it was very windy. I don’t recall ever bowhunting is such high winds.

Friday afternoon Oct. 14th, 2011.

I saw a nine pointer tonight just after 6:00 pm. I sat in a different stand and this guy walked 15 yards behind my usual ladder stand and got his picture taken by my trail camera. There is something up with the hair on his back. The video from today shows it and so does the trail cam pic that was taken this morning when he walked by the camera. He is not the deer I am looking for so even if he would have been in range, he would have gotten a pass. Boy was it windy. I tried to stop him with the grunt tube but the wind was just to loud. I was using the video camera with one hand and the grunt tube with the other hand swaying in the wind so the video is pretty poor and so is my attempts at loud grunting. I was blowing it as loud as I could. Self videoing./grunting/swaying is pretty tough. You can see the ladder stand I normally sit in in the video On the right side of the screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSU54IaGBPc

Another poor video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2UZVDeidCw

And some stills I took from the video that show his messed up back hair.





Here is trail cam pic from that morning. You can see the messed up hair on his back.



Here is the trail cam pic from that afternoon while I was videoing him.



Here is a picture of him and his older cousin a few days ago.



When it got dark I walked over to the usual ladder stand, climbed it and hung my bow there so it will be ready for me in the morning.



Sat. Oct. 15, 2011 Morning. More wind. Lots of wind.

Holy smokes is it windy!!! The wind woke me up several times during the night. I got to my stand in the windy darkness and started swaying.

The hemlock Im in is not that big and it was like riding a bucking bronco. At 6:50, I spotted movement to my left out at 50 yards. It was the spike buck I got so many pictures of over the summer. He walked past me and headed to a tree that ends up having a scrape under it every year. He kicked the dirt a bit and then squatted and then turned back to sniff and kick at the dirt again. After a bit he walked right under my stand and passed by at 10 yards. I shot a video of him and a few still photos.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMfHxmBzECE

When he got past me he got his picture taken by my trail camera.



By 9:30 I had heard two large trees blown over and come crashing to the ground. Then I decided it was time to head out. I didnt see any other deer except the spiker. After breakfast, My father and I went back to the woods to put up a pop-up blind for him to use. We found a great spot and brushed it in. He plans to hunt out of it by mid week.



Saturday afternoon Oct. 15, 2011

This was perhaps the windiest experience I have ever has while bowhunting. It was bordering on unsafe. I stuck it out but saw no deer.

Sunday Oct. 16, 2011 morning hunt. The winds have died down.

I got in my ladder stand in the pre-dawn darkness. The deer began arriving almost as soon as I was in my tree. Rather than explain all I saw and post a bunch of videos, I made a combined video of the morning hunt. In that video you will see I harvest a nice fat doe. I think this is the same lone doe that has walked under my stand on 3 different mornings that I have shot lots of video of. I saw a lot of deer on this morning sit. More than I had seen on any other morning. This was the last deer of the morning when I was ready to get out of the woods so I took one for the freezer. Here is the video. ****Do not adjust your volume. There is no sound.*****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfDVPYluvo8

Here in the entrance hole.



The exit also cut the far side elbow. I’ll bet you can guess which organ I hit.



You would be right if you guess heart. I never had a deer go down so fast. I stopped her with a few calls and when she stood there, it was like a hose was running out of her side. I wish I would have gotten that on video. Even though I did not need to blood track this deer, I did any way. It was impressive to say the least.




I took the deer back to the farm to dress it out. After breakfast, I took the deer to Rosholt to register it and gas up for the trip back. I listened to the Packer game for the next 2 ½ hours on the long drive home. I hung to doe to cool and will butcher her tomorrow.



Right after I enjoy a meal of grilled tenderloins.



Loading a deer in the back of a tall pickup truck by yourself is a pain in the butt so I now carry a small block and tackle and wooden ramps to get the deer into the truck bed. When the deer is on the wooden ramps, I lift the end of the ramp and slide it into the truck bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VxaK8v8OUY

[Dan Salmon]

Congrats on the Doe. Looks to be pretty good sized. How were the Tenderloins?

[Ostermann]

Do you hunt near Rosholt? Where abouts?

[retch sweeny]

Do you hunt near Rosholt? Where abouts?

North of Rosholt near the intersection of I and A.

[windsor]

Beautiful shot! Enjoy the tasty tenderloins!

[bmstaaf]

Retch I love the pics and videos along with the journal...shows you been putting a lot of time and effort..I am enjoying it!

[Meules37]

Great video, looks like you have a lot of fun out in the woods. Thanks for sharing your experience. Quick question, why didn't you dress it out in the field?

[retch sweeny]

I never dress deer in the woods. Wolves, bears, coyotes are part of the reason (why attract them to your location on purpose?) Also, I have acess to running water and a hoist back at the farm so gutting them there is far more sanitary. I'm not a fan of dragging a deer with an open body cavity through the woods as it invites dirt and debris into the carcase. I butcher deer and treat them like cattle during the process of gutting, skinning and cutting up. I cant think of a good reason to gut a deer in the woods except that it would remove some of the weight for dragging but the negatives far outweigh any preceived positives.

[kellory]

I never dress deer in the woods. Wolves, bears, coyotes are part of the reason (why attract them to your location on purpose?) Also, I have acess to running water and a hoist back at the farm so gutting them there is far more sanitary. I'm not a fan of dragging a deer with an open body cavity through the woods as it invites dirt and debris into the carcase. I butcher deer and treat them like cattle during the process of guntting, skinning and cutting up. I cant think of a good reason to gut a deer in the woods except that it would remove some of the weight for dragging but the negatives far outweigh any preceived positives.

X2!