Chasing but no Shots.

It was a wet weekend with two active nights in stand.  The mornings were quiet but I got chores done in the mid-day.

The first night I spent in the driveway stand and a couple does came by.  They enjoyed the brassica. Video of Doe Munching 

They wandered off and no bucks were spotted.

This a view back across the brassicas in the driveway field.

On the second night, I had some young bucks chasing does all over the place. Buck Chasing Does

I walked the camera tour without the dogs.  Too wet and they were just groomed.

Some trees past peak but this sassafras was looking good.

The prairie plot is five or six feet tall.

The clover recovered nicely in the main field.

This is a brassica/soybean field that the weeds took over.  Weeds starting to wane but brassica still green.

In spite of the rain, the pond is still low.  Van did some work for the shooting range this week.

He got the posts in for the target stand.

And he put some underground anchors in to try to keep the building on the ground in a wind storm.

Out for the walk.

Pond stand clover.

Barn stand clover.

The raccoon has visited again.

I did some shooting.  Think I'm going with the 6.5CM for the deer hunt.

The bottom two groups are off the bench and it's shooting about 1 MOA sighted in 2" high at 100 yards.  The top right group is sitting off sticks at 100 yards - one flyer.  The big group is 9 shots standing off sticks at 100 yards with the 375.  Probably "moment of buffalo" but I'd sure like to be better than that.

I decided to clean the suppressor,  So, I got the box for it out of the gun safe to get a tool for teardown.  The mice had been in my gun safe and shredded the foam in this box. How do they do that?

Pre teardown.

Baffles removed.

Some of the carbon that came out of this thing.

Last week touring with Joan.

On the way in to a morning hunt.

On the way back for breakfast.

And an evening hunt.

Violet on the tour.

The usual doe activity.

An occasional buck.

Exit stage left.

There's a crowd in the background.

I trimmed branches off the main branch supporting this licking branch and it raised it.  

It still gets interest though.

Deer and turkeys.

Coyote and buck.

Lots of coyotes.

And a couple of turkeys.

The Rut is Warming Up

My neighbor Ron got this old bruiser this week.  He says that he's seen this guy on camera for 8 years.  His rack wasn't massive but his body was. Nicely done Ron.

I went to the driveway stand on Saturday evening.  This is a low stand and I tend to get winded there.

I had two does come in early.  They fed around to my downwind side and busted me.  They went bounding off thru the prairie patch after honking like a truck.  I thought that I was done for the night.

Next I saw a doe sprinting up in the main field.  I got the binos on her and found a nice seven point buck chasing her all over the place.

She eventually ditched him, picked up 3 other does, and made it down to my plot.  As they were feeding out in front of me, a buck came out of the right treeline.  He started chasing one of the does around.

I had the crossbow up and on him and tracked him for 20 minutes.  He was a decent 8 point.  Nice mass. Fairly long G2s.  But only about 16" wide. He wandered between 40 and 20 yards.  I definitely could have had him but I passed.

Here's a video but light was fading - resolution is not great.  8 Point Buck

Then when it was time to get out of the stand, more does showed up and I was stuck up there for awhile.  I eventually got down and only blew out one doe.

Every stand I go to has piles of pooh on the landing.  Who is doing this?  I blame it on raccoons but don't really know.

Sunday morning I went to the barn field and never saw a deer.  The cooler weather and a little bit of rain has greened the clover back up.

The pond remains excessively low.

I brought the mobile shooting bench down to the new shooting house and shot 4 different rifles.

These are the loads that I was working with. I had been out of 250grain 45-70 and had been shooting the 325 grain load.  It is definitely overkill for deer.  So I had to get the lever action sighted in on the lighter bullets. The 6.5 Creedmore in 143 grain ELD-X is my likely mule deer round.  I'm also thinking to take the 30-06 with the 165 grain CX bullets.  And the 270 grain loads are just my practice loads for the 375 H&H.  I'm still getting used to shooting that beast and only shoot it standing off sticks.

Getting the most out of a single piece of paper.  The bottom left is where I got the 45-70 sighted in (eventually).  The top left is a 5 shot group with the 30-06.  There are 3 different groups with the 6.5 up and down the right side.  I got it tweaked a bit and shot a one MOA 3 shot group, 2" high like I wanted.  And lastly, I shot three 375 and was inside the heart size of a cape buffalo standing off sticks at 100 yards.  Not wonderful but getting there.

Mid-day had a couple does out in the main field.

This is Violet - our dog who thinks she is a cat.

Daisy and Violet love to check the cameras with me..

Last week, Joan out for a cruise on the Ranger.

I don't know what mission I was on here.

Coyotes of course.  I saw one out today in mid-day in the neighbor's field.

Fox I believe.

Hard to see but a nice sized bobcat.

I think that these guys know Thanksgiving is coming.

And lots of deer.

The bucks are sparring.

And the does are trying to avoid them.