Merry Christmas To Me!

 

Bonus Gun Weekend

My nephew Dave was supposed to join me this weekend but he came down with some stomach troubles.  Hope that he's ok.  Joan was planning to stay home on Christmas prep but she got drafted to come along.  It's a good thing as she assisted on the recovery of my buck.

Saturday was miserable - high winds and rain squalls.  I didn't see a thing.  Sunday cooled off and calmed down.  I saw several does while still hunting.  I also saw several candidates for poop of the week.  They were fresh and it seemed like taunting to me.

They have a surprising array of food options still available.  Lots of acorns on the ground.

Brassica plots still look great.

Clover plots are still in amazing shape.

I tried not to just sit on stand.

But I've never had any success on whitetails from the ground.

With 30 minutes of light left, the 7 point that I'd been seeing all year stepped out.  I shot him with the 45-70 at about 100 yards.  He made it about 50 yards into the woods.  Easy blood tracking.  I marked him by putting my shooting sticks in a teepee over him and then went to get the tractor.

Of course, when I came back to find him in the dark, he was no where to be found.  I was walking around with my head lamp and a small flashlight and just could not find him.  Eventually I had to call Joan to bring out bigger flashlights and I followed the blood trail again.  Don't know how I could have missed him.  Must have walked by 10 times.

He's a reasonable buck that I would have preferred to give another year.  I had several other target bucks but time was running out.

We've been seeing a ton of bluejays.  They must be migrating in flocks.

This is the camera on the gut pile and carcass from Eric's buck.  It never caught anything other than crows but only the hooves are left.  I had retired that camera for a reason.

It's not like there aren't creatures around who would like to feast on such a bounty.

Already seeing some one-sided bucks.

The bobcat was everywhere this week.

Another season done and at least I won't have tag soup this year.

Weather Moves Thru

A big system moved thru the area on Friday night and Saturday.  There were numerous tornados in Kentucky with up to 100 dead.  The farm lost power for awhile and we had 20 mph winds on Saturday afternoon as the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. I took my crossbow to a stand anyway and only saw three does as I was getting down at dark.

When I got up Sunday morning, it was 27F and I couldn't find the motivation to head out. I stayed warm and drank coffee.

So, it wasn't a very productive hunting weekend.  I had a nice walk around.  The brassica still looks good.

Poop of the week.

A sink hole has reappeared in the driveway.  It has happened twice before and I filled it with a bucked load of gravel each time..

There is a culvert under the driveway up past that power pole.  I don't think this is related to the culvert.  I guess that I will just keep filling it.

Don't you just love trailcams like this?

This is a little bit better.

Boys will be boys.

Most common view of the whitetailed deer.

This might be the bobcat on the way out when Eric saw him.

Gray fox.

Coyote.

Possum

Two healthy squirrels.

Walkabout at the end of gun week.

Looking forward to the bonus weekend.

Gun Week - It's Over

Most of the excitement was early in the week.  Things slowed down toward the end.  Joan and I had enough of deer camp and we left mid-day on Sunday.  Here's the scoop on what happened since the last update.

One evening I had buck kindergarten going on in the pond area.  I had four yearling bucks out for the last hour of light.  They paired off and locked up their cute little antlers.

They frolicked and eventually I decided to see if I could raise a mature buck with some grunts.  The little guys completely ignored the grunts but a couple does that were on their way out seemed pretty concerned about my grunts.  Anyway, I lost light without any big boys making an appearance.

Most mornings were frosty and it was rare to see even a doe.

I did more moving around and tried to intercept a buck on the way to bed.

It's annoying to see all this sign when you're not seeing bucks.

I did some mid-day sits.  This was in the hanging stand that I put up in a stand of oaks.

I did have visitors when I sat in stands in the evenings.

And more glorious sunsets.

Joan and I ventured out to do some pine tree pruning,  She uses these greens for her holiday decorating.

Pretty comfy back at camp.

This is one of the target bucks that we saw and bumped a couple times this week.  He's the guy in the spotting scope video in the previous post.  He has a split G-2 and a crab-claw on the front of the same beam.

This guy is a regular that I saw a few times in archery.  Here he was during shooting light near one of the stands that I wasn't hunting at the time.  A nice, wide 7 point.

Eric processed his own buck and we dumped the guts and skeleton here (in the red circle).  I put an unreliable trailcam on it to see who may show up.  So far, it seems to be mostly crows.

Otherwise, not too much on camera of interest.  Just this fox.

Still time for the crossbow, plus the bonus gun weekend, plus muzzleloader.  I'd prefer not to have tag soup again this year but am trying not to lower my standards.