Daily Deercam, in the Hunt.

  Up early and into my tree.  Gave it a good 3 minute rattle before I went up and 45 minutes later a very large sleek doe stepped into the open below me.
  All alone.  No yearling fawn along.  She had ditched...him, probably.  The does in our area have never been shot so many of them are as mature as does in the wild get.  She must have smelled me a bit.  I could see her tongue run over the whole end of her nose.  She took a step and chopped with her front foot, then took another step and chopped again.  So close I could hardly blink.  She was there several minutes before I dared reach for my iphone to take a photo.
  She stayed about 10 minutes, left, came back and circled around for another 10 minutes.  Gotta be in heat looking for the bucks that were fighting.

Little buck in the scrape.

Healthy doe.

I know this buck from the past few years.  He's really muscled up with a nice enough rack.  Not big enough for me, but a shooter.  Probably is 4 1/2 years old and weighs 160 on the hoof.  Glad he's getting some corn.  Probably fighting his way through the fall.

Daily Deercam.

Spent the morning rattling for deer in the creek bottom.  No takers.  A doe and yearling fawn were in the side yard when I drove in, then I got snorted at when I came across the powerline at the creek crossing.  After that, just pileated woodpeckers.  Had the decoy up.  Nothing on the cams on this end.  Hmm.  They are there, or they couldn't snort.

Little local buck.  His first year to really see the rut going on.  He's not quite legal.  Hope that saves him!

Bobcat hunting mice at the corn pile.

Looks like a little leopard in the flash.  To the eye they are very grey and brown.

Deer and coons do NOT get along.

Four deer.  I've run this cam position so long that most of these were fed in the womb.  

Armadillo.  God knows.

Same buck as file number 1.

The other local.  First year for horns.

Time is way off of the cam clock.  Try to remember to fix it.  This was this morning around 8:00 I would think.

Daily Deercam 3-take, Opening Day

Hot and not very fun.  Just little buck and does on the cams, plus a coyote.  Lots of sign and crossing the creek on top of very fresh tracks I could smell the buck that left them.

Little buck.

Little buck.  Young and dumb.

Two does in the bottom.

Three does back in the brush.

Coyote on the prowl!

2008, 2010 bucks from the lake.

Latest date for shooting a buck at the lake.  Here he is on cam about 6 minutes before I shot him.

110 yards with Ruger #1.  Left handed.  That's just the way the limb is.

November 25th, 2008.

No buck in 2009.

2010 buck on cam at a scrape.

2010 buck on the same scrape as 2008 buck in the first shot above.  I swapped the cam position.

2010 buck.

Ruger #1.  He fell almost exactly where they 2008 buck fell.  It's a left-handed 110 yard shot.

Big Ten, 2007.

Here's the 2010 buck in March, before dropping these horns and growing next set.

No buck last year, though the guys across the creek killed this really nice one that I had seen on cam the year before.  He had bulked up and had a massive 12 point rack that looked very similar to this rack, only half again larger.  Don't want to shoot them too early.  Better to leave them.  What wonderful genetics this deer would have spread all over the creek bottom for years!  12 points......  I expect he is one of the sons of Big Ten who was a 6 on one side and a palmated stump on the other where it had been torn off at the socket when he was 2 1/2.  I passed on him several times.  His brother was killed the third season.

Daily Deercams, November 1.

Bigfoot!

Does found my corn and cam pretty quickly.

Two days to go.  Weather turning a bit warm.  One cam blank.  Does on the others.  Plus Bigfoot.

Island of the Blue Dolphins.

What a world it must have been before technology.  I've always thought if I could go back in history to any time it would be to the American plains during the Pleioscene.  It must have been amazing to see this island and the sea life around it.

Daily Deercam, October 30th.

  Starting to run cams.  Got three going as of today.  Lots of sign.  Guys across the creek aren't hunting this year so it will be a little quieter.  My trails are all full of fallen limbs and brush.

  These shots taken during full moon nights.  Not as dark at night as it looks in photos.  On a full moon even humans can walk around without flashlights.

Thought it was a little buck, but then looked a little closer.  He's actually pretty good.

Mom and kids.  Mom is on the scrape.

Had to blow this up but an OK buck but uneven.  

Another one.  Or the same one.

Sceptical doe down in the bottom.

Little buck.

More doe doubting.

File was pretty awful but the buck looks medium-OK.  Standing in scrape.

Sneaking around the scrape.

Little buck standing in the old scrape.  This scrape has been running for five or six years, every year, in the same place.  He's just a kid.  I add the corn to hold them for a moment.

One of the first trees I ever hunted in here, a big arching sweet gum down by the swamp is down.  Dead and gone.  Kind of strange to be outliving some large trees.  It was really a significant and stately tree.  I put a line of nails up the trunk so you could walk up it.  Never killed a deer out of it but always kept a stand there.  Used to have a double seat that actually got used once by Ali and I.  I shot at a coyote with an arrow while she watched.  Pretty crazy to come across it broken off from it's base and crashed into the brush.  Much of this was pasture in the 60s, now there is an eagle nest up on the ridge and I can text and surf the web while in a tree stand.  Hope to have another great year hunting. 

Terrell wrap-up.

One of the weaponized McDaniel boys firing a folding stock M1 Carbine in the Garand Match.

  I'm saying "Terrell", like people know what I am talking about- what I really mean is the Texas State Rifle Association Garand/1903 Springfield/Vintage Military/M1 Carbine Championships with a CMP Pistol LEG match on the end of it.  Two long days of short 30 shot matches.  Relay after relay of shooters on the 200 yard range firing while Dave Wilson crunched the numbers.  M1 Carbine on the 100 yard range and Pistol in one of the excellent pistol pits.

  Here's the Results:

Justin Utley:  Texas Garand Champion, 284X4.

Gregg Foster:  Texas 1903 Springfield Champion, 292X5.  National Match winning score.

John Jebavy: Teaxas M1 Carbine Champion, 370X4. A score that might win at Camp Perry.

Robert Langham: Texas Vintage Military Rifle Champion, 287X2.  Fifth repeat.  Six titles for his K31.

Daniel Miller, 1st Non-Distinguished Pistol for 8 points, 259.

Kyle Horschler: 2nd non-Distinguished for 6 points, 256.  Kyle drove up from Corpus Christi to shoot this match.

All told there were about 130 separate matches shot by individuals.  Most folks shot more than one so there weren't that many participants but there were 50 or 60.  The weather was very pleasant for Texas in October and the Terrell range a perfect venue.

  Thanks to Alan Wilson, Ken Gaby, John Jebavy, John Ilzehofer, Gregg Foster, Dave Wilson and Roy Plumlee for calling the lines and doing the work it takes to put on a major event like this.  Ron Leraas might have done something and you just couldn't tell.  I don't think I heard a discouraging word all weekend.  Great folks.

Ron Leraas waits out a relay.  Ron was 2nd in the Garand Championship with a 283X4.

Double Distinguished Justin Utley firing Rick Crawford's 1903 Springfield.

Gregg Foster improves his mind in the October Texas sunshine.

McDaniel with his M1 Carbine.

More McDaniel Carbine.  I tried this one year in the carbine match.  It nearly works.  The hand position is much better with a folding stock.

The hat I wear when I want to scare children.

Plumlee directs last stragglers on the pistol LEG.  Terrell runs turning targets.

The steady hands of Roy Plumlee, (Double Distinguished, Rifle and Pistol), weighing Pistol triggers for LEG match.

Distinguished Rifle Gregg Foster winning the Springfield match.

Distinguished Rifle Ron Leraas with his Garand.

Alan Wilson, Utley, Jebavy, Langham and Dave Wilson.  Five guys but six Distinguished badges among them, and Jebavy is still working on his.