2010 ohio hunting journal

[B3N1706]

Is it just me or are leaves and acorns turning/falling sooner? And is it getting cooler sooner? What kind of effect is this going to have on deer movement? Also is the deer herd strong this year or are the numbers falling?

[scottflesher]

IT's not just you. where i'm at the acorns are on the ground and have been for a while. I think that will keep the deer movement to a minimum unless you're in an area with White Oaks. Also I believe the ODNR reports the deer harvest was down last year, which means that this year there should be more deer than normal. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing....depends on how you look at it.

[3 to 1]

Lake county (NE ohio)

I've noticed leave changing and starting to fall, also. We normally run a week or two behind the rest of Ohio, because of the lake keeping our air temps. a little higher than the rest of the state. But we have maples turning red on the tip tops and some other leaves started to fall. I haven't noticed the acorns yet. I did see the first scrape of the season (just one but its a start) saw it Weds. 9/29. I was out for an evening hunt, but a pack of coyotes came in and boy did it get noisey. The coyotes were no more than 15 - 20yrds. away, but there was to much brush for a clean shot at the last 20min. of day light. It was a wonderful nite to be in the woods.

[JHBB]

Lake county
 
We went out opening morning and didn't see a deer.  I've been out 2 more times since then.  I saw some does last wed. (9-29).  Yesteday morning I had 3 does come by and then two different 2yo 8pts.  It was nice to see the first buck of the season. 

[3 to 1]

10/10/10 Sun.
Lake county (NE ohio)

The wife & I went out for an evening hunt. I saw a young six pntr. and my wife saw the same six pntr. plus a doe and fawn. I let the six pntr. walk and after a lot of soul searching my wife decided to let the young six pntr. go and gave the doe a little more time with the fawn. There was a time when my wife would have taken any of them but, now on her third year of hunting and two button bucks under her belt, she has learned to let'm grow.
I was concerned about the warm (not hot, but warm) temps. but, it was not to bad. The temps. dropped quickly once the sun started to set. The temps didn't dive as the sun set but, they did cool down. I haven't seen any new scrapes or anything since the first scrape last week, but its still early.

[martinbuck]

Shot a real nice older 8 point a few weeks ago. I will post a pic as soon as I can. The deer movement has been down in my area (ashtabula county). Anyone hunt in ashtabula county? I'm going out this weekend lets hope the cooler weather gets up and moving. Good luck to all that are going out this weekend and be safe out there.

[3 to 1]

Lake county (N E ohio):

Went out Friday morning in the rain got busted by 2 DOES, stayed out until 9:00 a.m. didn't see anything else by the ground blind I was in; but I saw Bucks and Does on the side of the freeway (Rt-2) on the way back home--go figure.

Took my 8yr old daughter out with the crossbow on friday eve. She was excited to see a tall tined 8 or 10pntr with a spike following him. They circled around our decoy set-up, but they circled out further instead of coming in to us. The closest they ever got was 80yrds. But my daughter loved the excitement.

Went out Sat. eve didn't see anything. Hunted the same place as friday. Maybe I should let the blind cool down for a few days. The farmer has been buggin me to, "Get rid of some of those DARN deer." so I'm feeling kind of pressured. The crops are all gone so they are just passing threw in the early mornings.

I've also noticed in this area a lot of deer moving early early morning 4:30 and 5:30a.m. when I'm on my way to work. I've noticed the bucks circleing the large bussiness yards watching the DOES in the middle. They don't seem to be "doggin" them just watching. Not a lot of evening activity on the properties I've been hunting -- some, but not like in years past. Anybody seeing anything different?

[diesel1000]

I agree. Most movement in the morning with nothing other than immature deer in the evening. Opening morning 7 yearlings in range, only spotted mature here and there while moving late night on cams. temps have just started to cool off so think the time to hunt has come. i hunt mahoning and columbiana county.

[Psychoticchaos]

Got my first deer of this season this morning. Just a little button buck but it's meat in the freezer. Me and my borhter were tracking a buck for our uncle and stumbled upon a deer that had been hit. We walked up just to check it out and he started kicking and trying to get up. We didn't want to let it lay there and suffer so my brother held his legs down and I finished it off.

After he had died I wanted to see if I could figure out where he was hit, Luckly he wasn't gut busted so Withing 3 hours he went from a living breathing deer to steak and deer burger, so needless to say guess what we are having for lunch at work today. Not the way I would have liked to get my first deer of this season but meat is meat and he didn't lay there and rot

Unfortanetly we were unable to get his uncles buck because it ran on somebody else's property, Normally I would just keep tracking but the owner of the property will shoot you regardles if he knows your a person or not.

[B3N1706]

I was out Friday night the 5th, and had dropped a buddy off at a good spot before I went to my own (as he is new to bow hunting). We hunt public land and I had just got up the tree I was hunting in my climber when I heard something loud. I look over and there was a decent 9 point about 30 yds. away (guessing to be about 130ish, would have been proud of it on public land anyhow). There I was in my stand without my camo on because I only wore a t-shirt while climbing the mountain/tree I was going to, my trigger release was still in my backpack, and my rangefinder also in my backpack. Flustered due to not being prepared I guessed the yardage best I could and let one fly shooting with my fingers. Although I had practiced shooting with my fingers in case of an equipment malfunction, that in combination of not knowing the precise distance equaled a miss. He trotted off unscathed. I couldn't believe after making all the noise of walking in the dry woods and then attaching/climbing a tree with a climber treestand, a 2-3 year old buck would come walking right up to me. Oh well, at least it is fun to get close, and there is plenty of rut left.