Two Great Hunts, Lots of Trailcams, Eric Visit for Birthday

 It was Joan's birthday this weekend.

Our son Eric came down to help celebrate.  And also to spend some time in the woods during the rut.

As mentioned previously, my Ravin crossbow made it back from the factory.  I reassembled it and gave it a try.  Great job by Ravin to fix it and get it back to me completely on warranty.

I had a great hunt Friday evening.  First three does came out in the pond field, then it was 5, then it was 7 does.

I decided to give a few grunts just to see if I lure out a buck.  Shortly thereafter, I noticed this buck having a drink from the pond.  It is a large seven point that I've been seeing frequently.

After his drink, he ran down into the field and started chasing all the does.  He cleared the field out harassing them all. Video of 7 Point Chasing

I had him at about 60 yards for awhile but I'm holding out for a bigger buck (so far).  When I went inside, Violet was spider hunting.

We had a surprise dusting of snow on Saturday morning and we didn't see much moving.

But it was really a beautiful morning to be in the woods.

Here I am stealthily pursuing the elusive whitetail deer.

We decided to hang a stand that might be handy during gun season.  So we broke all the rules and went into the woods during the rut and made a bunch of commotion.  Eric did the lower sections.

I put on the harness and went up to the high elevations.  We got it set and think that it will be a good morning stand.

Here a rub on one of my smaller apple trees.  Those boogers - I finally get a tree to grow and they either chomp it or rub it.

The brassica really looks great this year and they are obviously using it.

My mock scrape doesn't seem like a big hit although there are some rubs on the trunk.

Beets and greens around the main stand - not the best food plot but there's definitely edibles there.

Just a view of the trees to show the stage of autumn for the Florida and California followers. 

Saturday night hunt in the driveway stand.  First a spike went up to the prairie plot, then a doe came down from the main field and she was followed by the same 7 point and another 4 point.

They sort of headed into the valley so I gave them a grunt.  The 4 point stuck around but a crowd suddenly showed up on the other side of the stand. Video of Nervous 4 Point

Out of nowhere, I had two shooter 8 points and a 6 point.  The one 8 was probably the same one that I filmed a couple weeks ago.  The other one was much taller and looked older.  He came directly at the stand and stood at 25 yards staring up at me.  He was on the upwind side but he didn't stay long.  I had no chance to get the crossbow up and he swung behind the trees and the stand and I never saw him again.  Video of Two Bucks

The other bucks hung around awhile and were fun to watch.

The Asian beetles (lady-bug like), are dying in swarms all around the barn.  If I swept them up, I would easily have a 5 gallon bucket full of them.

The trailcams had a bunch of bobcat activity this week.

This might have been a mating event.

Lots of young bucks running around looking for does.  There was a huge amount of activity on Nov 3rd for some reason.

Some of the usual suspects.

Lots of field edge scrapes.

Not long till gun season...