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.