Patience is a Virtue.

The amount of time spent in the woods provides you with information and opportunity. The more time in the better hunter you can become. I listened to folks at the office or family functions of look at this gadget or new gun and tales of how bad they want to hunt. That's great, but I can sit back and say, this is what I saw in the woods or check out pictures of the deer I harvested. I certainly don't do it to gloat. At the beginning of the year, my goals were set and I was going to do everything to complete them. Right off the bat I have an advantage, no kids (yet) and a great wife which lets me hunt a lot. So that leaves work as my only limiting factor to hunting time. Luckily my job role is flexible, I put extra time at night or on the weekend to make it possible.

So with the full moon shining and keeping a close eye on the trail camera, I am ready for the rut. A hunting program on TV yesterday with a deer biologist took the time to explain the status and timing of this years rut. Based on air temperatures and moon phases, this years rut is only days away. He even provided insight on big bucks showing their faces a few days before this full moon phase. He was right on, as we have two occurrences of the young 8 point buck during the morning and evening hours during daylight. This is something we haven't seen since August. I hunted hard after each day we saw him during the day, but nothing, he is like a ghost.

This buck can't take all the credit though, we have a total of five 8 point bucks that are now roaming the area. If it wasn't for the trail camera, one may have discredited this hunting spot a long time ago. Although we have been capturing their movements on camera for almost 4 months now. Its the second set of eyes you always wanted. I am sometimes more excited to download the camera rather than sitting in my stand. We knew there were bucks in the area though, based on tracks we observed throughout the season. For any area I plan to hunt though, I will always try to utilize a trail camera. Come black Friday, I will be looking for another camera on sale.

Its now crunch time, days away from the rut breaking loose. With only a few days of office work and meetings at the beginning of this week, I will find myself burning vacation to be in the woods come Thursday. Its the time to be in the woods and I don't plan on missing an opportunity on a monster buck.