Deer Counting

  Our first deer count without moonlight.  Much darker in the woods and fields though the Milky Way looked about the same.  Sky was constantly full of high-flying airplanes tracking over.  You could see the lights winking among the stars.

  More deer.  50+  No big bucks, just a few year and a halfs.  Fawns.

  I took my view camera up to shoot a scene or two of the busted security light next to the roadway.  I tried several different exposing schemes, including double exposures, one for the background and one for the light.  There's a photograph every 200 yards around the ranch.

  In the big field along the creek we saw over 20 deer with the spotlight.  The Bronco has a high bird shooting bench on the back.  That's where I spotlight from while Alan drives and keeps the count.  At the Leaning Tower stand there weren't any Barn Owls, but there were about 12 pigs digging up the newly disced foot plot.  Alan and I have plenty of guns but usually all we have along is whatever he is wearing on his belt.  Tuesday night we had a Nylon 66 with shot shells and, for some reason, some .22 shorts and CB caps.  Alan hand-loaded a .22 short and I shot the nearest pig behind the shoulder.  25 yards out in the spotlight.  He gave a little grunt and trotted off toward the main herd.  We could see the shoulder bleeding in the spotlight and he had a little gimp in his gait.  With an AR or even a tube of .22LR for the Nylon 66 I could have shot half the herd.