Friday, November 26, 2010

If you SHOT someone by mistake at a rifle range....

........It would be a crime and you would be prosecuted. Golfer kills a man and it's just an accident.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Daily Deercam.


Wonky-horned buck that I had seen on cam several times. Better next year.


12 point I have never seen. He's going to be a trophy next year, but should NEVER be shot. Genetics too good. He ought to rule the bottom for the next four or five years and sire all the fawns.


Same deer on a different cam. Must have been making a sweep. He's just a big 2 1/2 or a 3 1/2 year old. Going to be a monster next year.


From his body development I think he is just a 2 1/2.


Big eight point I think I have seen before. Nice buck. Like most, better next year.

Secondary rut going on now, the few does that weren't bred the first time are getting attention. Found a perfect tree for a stand.

Friday, November 19, 2010

National Ammo Day.

National Ammo Day today! Buy 100 rounds of your favorite ammo!

I just walked home with a cut-off milk jug of freshly tumbled Winchester and LC .223 brass from my studio but I think I will hit Academy and buy a few hundred rounds of something I need.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Final Skull



Boiled out, jaw glued together and tied on, wire out the back.

Cam move.


Decoy standing in the old logging road. Everything that has seen it has reacted.


Daytime view with a nice deer butt.


Night with a little buck.


One of the young boys wandering around.


Rabbit on the scrape. Common.


Moved a cam a few days ago to what seemed like a very active scrape area on the tip of a ridge coming into the creekbottom. It's got traffic but no monster resident buck yet.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Deercam.











A few photos before I shot him. Cams make a big difference on knowing your game. There are more and bigger bucks around who avoid the cams though.

Jawbone gluing.





Nearly done. I work the glue in with a toothpick after putting the two sides together. Always glue the teeth in. Skull is wired and waiting. Have to tie the jawbone on with string.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Skull Work


My good friend.

All done except some gluing and wire.

I get the blues for a few days after shooting a nice buck. I miss them on the cams. I assume everyone has to shift around in the herd/pecking order to compensate. I only kill one every couple of years by design or opportunity. Hunted hard last year-30 days in the field and never had a shot or saw a really good buck live-only on cam. Oddly enough one of the few bucks I had the rifle on and DIDN'T shoot was the one I shot this year.

Going to move the decoy across the creek and try in the morning, though it would have to be a remarkable buck to draw a bullet. The really big ones are out there but they are as wary as Sasquatch.

Strange year this year. Sometime I will have to give all this up. If I ever shoot Mr. Big I probably will and limit my hunting to guiding kids and new folks. Nothing goes on forever.

Thanks to the deer and all they give.

Deer Hunting 2010






130 Sierra GameKing Jacket just under the skin on the exit side. The lead core went on through.





Three sets of deer came by. All focused on my buck decoy. This buck crossed with a doe and stopped a little too long to display. It's the narrow-horned buck. very handsome animal. Fell in his tracks to one shot from the Ruger #1 7mm Mauser. Fell exactly where the big buck went down two years ago. Nice 3 1/2 year old. Two does and two fawns snorted at it from inside the woodline and then came out to investigate. Monday morning a little buck periscoped in and out of the tall grass but kept a distance. Then this buck crossed following a doe who bobbed her head at it for a minute or so.

Sorry he is gone. Always gives me the blues for a day or two after shooting a nice buck. Skull nearly boiled out and ready for the wall.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

First deer of the year.


Bobcat hunting mice on the corn.


Eight point on the cam after Sneed and I had left the top of the hill.


Buck on the scrape.


Uneven little buck.


Coyote leaving a message for Lucie.

Dr. Sneed and I spent opening weekend hunting the lake. I put my plastic buck decoy out for the first time and rattled from my tree while Sneed sat in the corner. I rattled up something early but it spooked when I edged around the tree. We came in for lunch, carried batteries and corn and rattled across the creek then retired back to our morning spots. Sneed had coons behind him intermittently and then texted that there was a deer below him in the woods. Two minutes later he shot a nice little eight point. His 270 went through the shoulder blowing up the bone and ended up under the skin on the far waist side. He ran about 60 yards and fell. We sled-dogged him out and field dressed him in the carport of the lakehouse. Sneeds first buck.

I got to use a couple of my vintage knives. We took the head in to boil and left the body hanging with the skin on in the 40 degree weather. This morning we skipped hunting and hit Cafe Tazza with the redhead. About 10 we loaded up Lucie and skinned it out with a Queen City WWII fighting knife and quartered it. Lucie very excited to see the deer. I rolled up the skin with lots of lethargic deer ticks inside. The pup got to go for a long cam walk- her first real experience off grass and concrete. She picked up a stickerburr for a moment but she gets those behind Brady's coffee. She's a natural hunting dog.

I hunted this evening and had the four does snorting at my decoy right at sundown. Hope to be out again in the morning.

Monday, November 1, 2010

More Cam action:


It's all about the overhang.


A little bush action.


Calling for love!




You get a lot of this action.


Two does at lunch followed a frame later by the Narrow Horned buck.


A big baby who is wondering what is going on.


Wandering Bobcat


Corn-fed mouse. I'm also supporting many coons.


Coyote sniffing the scrape.

Daily Deercam.


Scrape action by the Narrow-horned buck. I'm still not convinced he is legally wide enough to shoot. Antlers must be wider than ears inside.


Young buck on the scrape.


Narrow Horned buck on the scrape.


Narrow Horned buck on a scrape in the pasture.


Little year and a half who has good genetics. He is just barely legal but too young to shoot for me. Hope he makes it through the season.

Scrapes open everywhere and the ground is covered in deep tracks of running deer. Looks like the rut is on. All four cams going. Haven't seen a deer I would consider shooting on cam yet, though I assume they are around.