Anytime you find yourself in the deer woods there is one thing that can be predictable. You can never guess what mother nature will deal you as far as weather conditions. Other elements that can effect a hunt is things like dogs running deer, vine cutters cutting vines in the area you just hung a stand, or even the deer you are hunting losing his horns early.

The 2000 deer season proved to yield some pretty amazing scenarios that effected the out come of our productions.

Early in the year in Wyoming even though we had some tremendous success we were greeted with a very dry country side and it seemed there was a forest fire around every corner. At times we would find our selves nervous sitting on a stand watching a bellowing smoke cloud miles away. “ It is kind of wild watching a fire way off burning while hunting and the whole time you find yourself thinking. I hope the wind don’t change and bring it toward me.” David Blanton commented after the hunt.

Later in Novemeber we returned to the Black Hills area in Wyoming and the weather conditions were as different as night and day. A blizzard hit in the middle of the hunt bringing 60 mile and hour winds and feet of snow. This made it simply impossible to even get to the blinds much less sit in them. “There was a big part of my hunting ground that I just could not get to this past hunting season. The deer were there but the severe weather disrupted all the patterns that I had on the bucks that I had been scouting.” Jeff Smith of Seven J outfitters stated about the 2000 season.

None the less the Team realtree cameras captured some unbelievable footage from Wyoming this past fall.

When we arrived the first week in November at Riversbend in Kentucky to hunt, Bill Jordan and I were shocked to see the mercury at 80 degrees F. It was so frustrating fighting off the heat and believe it are not the mesquitoes walking to and from our stands. You could see huge rubs and scrapes that big bucks had laid down all along the 11,000 available acres we had to hunt. The deer however had gone almost completely nocturnal due to the hot temperatures. We did not hardly turn the cameras on the whole week from the lack of deer movement.

After talking with Mark Doerner, the hunting coordinater, I set up a date to return to the Kentucky hunting ground the first week in January.

When I returned in Jan. I was happy to see that the weather was much cooler and that a solid blanket of snow covered the country side. Mark informed me that the deer movement had been tremendous. “ The deer have been hitting these cut corn fields hard. I really think we will be able to get a line on a good buck and get one before the weeks out. I have seen a 150 class ten pointer every day for the last five evening coming through a funnel area. We will go tomorrow and put some blinds there.” Mark told me on arrival to KY.

So hang the stands we did and see deer we did. However as I noticed a big body deer coming toward our position, I anticipated the rack of the deer to become apparent. As the deer got closer I could see two bloody holes where horns had once been. The buck had already lost his horns. I was shocked to find as the week progressed 10 different bucks come by our blinds hornless. Finally we found one big buck in the 160’s who still had headgear. We hung stands only to be greeted with a group of workers to first evening of our sit hired by the timber company to cut vines away from the mature trees. This pressure in the area totally run all of the deer to a different part of the farm. We did finally get on some good bucks in a great area, but before I could fill my tag the trip come to an end. I will be back to this area next fall and hopefully a little luck will come with me.

The list goes on and on: Like the huge buck that got away from Bill Jordan in Kansas after he hit a piece of barb wire with his arrow on the cattle fence that the deer was behind. Later, at the end of the season Bill was on his way back to hunt him, when Larry Konrade, a USO guide, called to inform Bill that he had already dropped his horns. The deer grossed out after guessing at the spread to be around the 193 mark.

Are ask David Blanton how it feels when you have a 190 class muledeer at 20 yards waiting for him to clear a bush, and then the wind changes sending the deer crashing down through the woods after smelling human scent. This happened to him while hunting in Alberta, Canada.

The 2000 fall had its ups and downs and there is no doubt the good outweighed the bad when the season was said and done.

But there was a lot of time spent in treestands looking at nothing, but open spaces and seeing the trees grow. There were plenty of cold feet and hands along with emotions that were shattered after days of hunting never even catching a glimpse of that anticipated monster buck.

One thing is for sure, we look forward to showing every one the good times and the bad on our newest video production that will be released this summer. Monster Bucks 9 is on the way.