Archery Opener and Elk Prep

 I was out by myself this weekend doing chores and getting one evening in a stand for the opener.

I did see 6 does and two spikes.

It was a beautiful evening except for the mosquitoes. 

I got some shooting in this weekend.  I used the portable bench and shot at paper at 220 yards.  I also put out the metal targets and they were about 250 yards away in the field below the pond stand.

There was a pretty good cross wind.  Both of these groups were aimed at the left cross.  The 6.5 creedmoor was shooting nice groups.  My first group out of the 30-06 was just some random Winchester loads that I had laying around. I'm not sure why that group was so far right.  I doubt whether the wind effect was that big a difference between the two loads.

So I shot four of the Hornady 30-06 CX loads.  It had a pretty big horizontal string - vertical not bad.

The last group that I shot was to finish a box of Barnes.  I took 8 shots and once again the horizontal grouping was really strung out.  I didn't make any adjustments due to uncertainty of the wind.  I wanted to do some shooting off sticks but time and ammo limited that.

While I was letting the 30-06 cool between groups, I had no trouble banging iron at 250 yards with the 6.5 Creedmoor.

I also took a pass thru the pumpkin patch.  There's a severe shortage of carve-able pumpkins but a decent take of winter squash, pie pumpkins, white pumpkins and gourds.

Somebody is going thru the tape and nibbling in the patch.  I think it is a groundhog.

Van was out this week and did some work in the Bobcat.

He cut this bank down by the gate.  We think this is where we were breaking the cylinders on the 3-point hitch.

I had hung some licking branches.  This photo convinced me that I cut them off too high.  I adjusted that this week.

This fake lick at the main field had one of the branches completely broken off already.  I put some new ones up.

The prairie plot is pretty tall and full of a variety of flowers.

Brassica in the main plot.  This was no-till seeded over soybeans.  It did pretty well.

Barn field clover is great.

Pond stand clover pretty good.

This is a no-till seeding of clover a few weeks ago in the big main field.  I think it is going to be ok.

Persimmons along a field edge.  I can hear the acorns dropping too.

This no-till seeding of brassica in the upper pond stand is so-so.

This main field brassica seeding is pretty much a bust.  I didn't roll this field with the cultipacker - that might be the difference.

No news on my water mystery.  The cameras caught the water department visiting this week.

Van also discovered a broken spring on the barn roll up door.  We had Overhead Door out to address that issue.

Joan motoring back from the gazebo last week.

And me motoring around this week.

The bobcat showed up twice this week at the same spot.

We had the usual coyote activity.

Three in this shot.

The fox has been active.

A squirrel with a white patch.

Hen with poults.

Gobblers.

Van and Donny were out to measure for the stair repair on the pond stand.  They took a cruise to check stair condition on all of the stands.

Hello.

Does in the driveway brassica.

Pond field.

And a young buck.

Big Buck Down in Wyoming!

Our friend Dan lives in Jackson, WY.  He was ready as daylight broke on opening day of the early rifle season. He took this fine muley that was still partially in velvet.

Like all good hunts, it didn't happen without some drama.  He was in position before first light, saw the buck, waited for legal shooting light, got set up prone at 170 yards, and was sure that he smoked him.  He and several buddies searched for 3 hours and never found a drop of blood.  He went thru the usual routine of "did I miss" or "could it be buck fever" or "I hope he's not wounded".  Finally a buddy called out at a spot 50 yards from the original impact spot.

The buck had gone off a steep drop off  and planted an antler in the dirt.  It took the sun getting high enough to make him visible.

Dan slipped down the slope and extracted him from the antler plant.  They made the decision that the best extraction was a butcher in place approach.  Below photo gives some idea of the steepness.

Anyway, super nice 4x4 with a 24" spread on public land on opening day.

And Dan was lucky enough to have friends in the area with horses to aid in the pack out.  Congrats Dan - that's a fine looking buck.

Meanwhile, back in Ohio, this doe seems to be going thru the transition from summer (orange) coat to winter (gray) coat.

A doe congregation getting ready for the parade to the food plot.

And the parade.

And a cute little buck.

Seasons are opening in many states.  Ohio archery opens September 24 this year - seems a week earlier than usual.