Archery Opener

 Heading out to the stand.  Dave took Grant on one hunt and Graham on another.

 Scent control.

 A little bored before the action started.  Nice view from up in the pond hi-rise.

 Van completed the conversion from ladder to stair tower on a couple of the older stands.  Handrails were the last step.

 Before the hunt, I opened the shutters, killed the wasps, chased the mice out, and swept out the debris.

 Here's the ridge stand with new stairs.

 Where can all this stuff come from?

 Saturday night I hunted the driveway stand.  There was a parade of does from down this direction that went across the driveway to the main field.  Seemed like they noticed the open shutters on my stand.  Very nervous.

 Nothing came up out of this trail.

 I did get some turkeys but even they were nervous.  From the driveway stand I watched (with binoculars) 8 or so does and 4 or so bucks in the main field.  Two bucks were impressively wide 8 points.  The others were smaller.  They were right under the main hi-rise.  Dave and Grant saw 6 does and some turkeys at the pond.  Also groundhogs and squirrels.

 Sunday morning sunrise.  Dave and Graham were in stand already.  They heard some grunts but didn't see anything.

I didn't see anything from the main field hi-rise.  When I got down to walk in for breakfast, there were at least 4 does and 5 turkeys in the pond field.

 During the day Sunday, Dave and Dawn helped me in the pumpkin patch.  We got most of the viable pumpkins and gourds harvested.  There are some rotten ones in the field.

 Taking a break from field work.  Those are pears in the bucket - Joan was poaching them.

 Loading the Expedition with some supervision.

 Last week touring.

Van and Donny while working on the stands.

Mike working on the grass.

 This was me picking the last of the apples last week.

 There were still some pears but the apples were done.

 I thought persimmon trees were small field edge trees.  Then I stumbled across this one and found out they can grow over 100' tall.

The girls on the porch while we headed out for a Sunday evening hunt.  Not so much happening.

 A buck pile where I saw them the night before.  Poop of the week.

 I went to the main field stand - they were right under this on Saturday evening.

 Starting to look like Fall.

 First doe came out about at sunset.

 Her twin fawns.  And that was about it for Sunday night.  Dave went to the hanging stand.  He pushed a couple getting into the stand and then never saw a thing.

 Some of the trailcams from the camera runs.

I'll be travelling for the next two weekends.

They should be well rested when I return.

Should be the pre-rut by the time I get to hunt next.

Trailcams 9-26-14 He's Back!

 Here is this year's infatuation.  He hasn't been on camera for a month or so.

 This is what he looked like in August.

 He showed up on two cameras this week.

He's at least 12 points - hard to tell for sure. 

 His left brow tine is sort of a branched moose paddle.

 Saggy belly - pretty old

 This is a different buck but I think he's related.

I'm no expert but I didn't know that gobblers strutted in the Fall.  I thought that it was a Spring mating ritual.  Here's proof that they do.

Still lots of these guys around.

How about a few action shots.

 I'm not sure what they were running away from.

 The neck tumor buck.

Posing in front of the persimmon tree.

One of the wide 8's that I saw this weekend.

 Young bachelor group.

 Eyes glowing in background.

 Both Dave and I saw turkeys this weekend.

 There's one hopping around with what appears to be a broken leg.

I'm surprised by the daylight coyote shots.