The Second week of Camp is almost here!

[RuddyDuck]

Cheer up Deer Hunters that are stuck at work, the second weekend is almost here!!

Still one of my all time favorites:

The second weekend of camp can get a little crazy at times! I'm looking forward to another weekend of hunting. Might be a bit chilly though.

[leechlake]

I think I'm getting old. I'm working right now and can leave to go up hunting at noon. Two of my buddies are already there and I'm thinking about just staying home. The only thing that may get me moving is that we do some various walks, I wouldn't call them drives really, and try to have some fun with the deer and maybe even intercept one.

I hate the second Sunday in zone 2, sun goes down and 30 minutes later it's over...It's like when all the Christmas presents are opened, strewn all over the place and the magic is gone.

[Mr Special]

unfortunately for me i have to wrk til friday. plan to drive up early sat morning, say hi to everyone as we get ready to head out and be in a stand by 6am.

maybe if im lucky ill see a squirrel or 2 to keep me company lol

Leech, ur right about sunday afternoon. its the simialar feelin when you're returning form a fishing trip, from a Vaca at baggage claim or any trip for that fact...

but Deer camp is Deer camp we'll have to wait a whole yr vs more opportunities for vaca's and fishing trips

[Getanet]

I'm not really sure what to expect this weekend. Area I hunt reportedly received around 14 inches of snow earlier in the week. That would make for some awfully tough walking to my stand - about 2.5 miles down a logging trail (no motorized vehicles allowed anymore).

My dad and uncle are heading up there tomorrow morning, so I'm waiting for their phone call. Since I got my buck opening morning I was hoping to stumble through the woods this weekend and try to kick some deer to them. But they aren't spring chickens anymore, and if the snow is too deep they may not be able to make it back to the stands and it might be mostly a weekend to clean the shack, have our annual steak fry and drink a few beers.

[smsmith]

The diehards will be out there second weekend, but I can tell you from being out and about around here where we got about a foot of snow....the guys who are tagged out or those who "kind of like" deer hunting are going to be few and far between IMHO.

I anticipate the total kill dropping a few more percentage points through second weekend.

[RuddyDuck]

I think I lucked out, heard the Walker area only got an inch or so Monday from the storm. A foot does stink to walk or even drive thru!

[Xplorer]

I'm in the stand right now, had a few hours midday to sit. There is about 8" where I am which settled to about 6 on the ground now. Light flurries all morning and a NW wind. The snow is soft and quiet, spent the first two hours stalking a couple ridges, did bump a big doe that stopped @ 70 yards away down the hill. With no doe tag she's lucky as I had her in the crosshairs of the 06 . Sure wish Junior wasn't in school as I think he would have dropped her with his Model 94. Hope to see her again on Sunday when he's out with me. Not as much activity in the fresh snow as I had hoped for, but I think that is a testament to the deer numbers here on public land in 183

Good luck to all this weekend, at least we have an extra week to bit the woods up here. And if we don't tag one this weekend I told Junior he gets a day off of school next week to hunt

Oh, temp is 21 with windchill of 9 so a little chipper

[RuddyDuck]

Well another, '2nd week of camp', has come and gone! It turned out pretty good for my cousin and I in zone 259. We got a spike Friday afternoon and a 6ptr Saturday afternoon to close out our season. Boy it was darn cold Sat. morning!

No partys at the cabin, but we did make it out to the local VFW for some supper and celebrating. I must be getting old, we were back at camp by 8:00pm!

How'd everyone elses 2nd weekend go? Hunting and camp wise!

[nofishfisherman]

Ruddyduck, where abouts in 259 do you hunt? What was your overall impression for this season? Seeing more or less deer?

I hunt 259 around Lake George. Opening week we were seeing a lot of does and every one of them still had the kids in tow. I passed on a spike buck around 8am opening morning but that was the last buck I saw. We only saw two other bucks taken in our immediate area, a small 8 and a bigger bodied 4 pointer. Overall I saw a lot more deer this year than the last 3-4 years.

We also noticed a lot more hunters in our area. Last year we had the place to ourselves, this year we ran into people every where. Part of that was likely due to the fact they clear cut a lot of land right before opener. I think it displaced some hunters (like my group) and attracted hunters who wanted to hunt over the clear cut. I am unaware of a single deer taken in the clear cut this year, it was a magnet for hunters but it was still being actively logged so I doubt there were deer anywhere near it.

[ESSGuy]

More deer sightings, 24 does and only 1 small buck. Talked to a local who thinks with the deep early snow and cold in early December last year, a lot of the bigger bucks just couldn't recover from the rut.this is in 183.

[PropsterII]

Sorry, didn't read previous post correctly.

[RuddyDuck]

I'm in the Akeley area. We saw 6-8 does and a few different bucks that we didn't get. I think the deer are ok around the area. So far the winter is a little colder, but not much snow compared to further south yet. I guess I would say I saw about the same as normal. Other guys I talked to thought they maybe seen a little less.

OH yeah, forgot to mentioned we hit the Stompin grounds too as part of the evening activities!