half way done

 2nd cold snap of the year and this one came with some snow. I knew it should be a good day to tag a deer or at the very least see a deer. So once again I got up before dawn had some coffee and off to a winter wonderland deer stand. It wasn't too long after sunup that I began to see movement... so I watched the squirrels until something else caught my eye. A decent buck was up and walking towards me, I think it's that same 8 that I told him to stay away. Well, he kept getting closer but he always was covered by brush so I didn't really have a clean shot. It took him a while but after he was done making a rub he headed into a little clearing.... The borrowed 243 roared and the bullet found it's mark, the buck did a bronco kick and headed straight back towards me (that's always good) before expiring. I sat in my stand until 9:30 hoping to double up, and almost thought I could but the doe's were too small. So I got down got some pics and got to work.

This is where he died

I've drug many deer up this hill, I now employ a rope at the top and pull myself and the deer up

.

It's not actually the finish line but it is where the ground flattens out, all in all I would say this is about a 100 yard drag.

Turns out it wasn't the 8 which made me feel better.... maybe I'll see him next year.

I keep forgetting my tripod so I can't get some good pics, but my phone does a pretty good job. 

Just hate the selfie look.😠

Well, I got one more week of rifle and I'm hopin' to drop a decent doe, as of these last couple weeks all I'm seeing are fawns. 

I should be able to get in a duck hunt next week too, I'm really missing me some duck hunting.

same thought as last week

 I would love to say that I went duck hunting this week but that would only be wishful thinking. What I did do was.....

Wait a minute... just 1 question.....

What is the definition of insanity????

Yep, doing the same thing again and again, and hoping for a different result..... Deer hunting.

Need I say more? 

And to top it off, I'm going again next week. But, I got a secret....

My buddy loaned me his 243, shhhh don't tell the deer. 

Puttin' brown down next week.

This week, the weather didn't help as much as I hoped it would but I did have some encouragement.

New on Friday 4 rubs 80 yards from my stand, on the trail to my stand.

New on Friday 60 yards from my stand on the trail to my stand

Saturday 80 yards from my stand, culprit spotted... nice little 2 year old 8, if he stays away from me and everyone else he will be really nice next year.

I went out to Jake's last night and sat the evening there were a couple deer that came out but nothing was in range. 

Next week they're calling for rain on Tues and Wed and I hope they're wrong I really want to put 2 deer down and get on with duck season.

I shoulda went duck hunting

 Well lets see...

Monday it rained, so I did my Monday things.... Moe's, shopping, and a nap.

Tuesday was really windy, so I did Tuesday things..... clean gutters, get everything loaded into the decoy trailer, and a nap.

Wednesday was the first non wet, non windy day so I did deer watching things. I was in my stand and decided to try some calling. So I got on the grunt tube and grunted then I picked up my black rack to do some rattling, and scared the crap out of a deer that was 30 yards behind me. I don't know if I would've shot him if he didn't haul out, but I surely would've taken the safety off... After I got home, I got all my Thursday things done so I could go out today.

Thursday morning was the coldest morning this week, so I did Thursday things and went deer hunting. The only deer I saw a a 1yr old spike that showed up at 8ish and didn't leave until 12:18. 

That was the extent of my hunting this week, next week however is suppose to be awesome from the 11th to the 13th.

Hopefully I'll be able to put a deer down. 

To everyone else going out to try and put some meat in the freezer..... Good Luck! 👍

🎶 Havin' a heat wave.... a tropical heat wave..... 🎶

Yep, with the high heat last week until today I mostly just got some projects taken care of. I had to align my headlights and replace my seat covers in the car. I put a onboard a noco genius battery maintainer on the truck that mounts under the hood to try and extend the life of my battery.... (I've been through 2 already.) And then for the big project that didn't turn out to be a big project, I replaced the taillights on my decoy trailer. 

The reason I said the "big project" is I didn't know how to change out the taillights so I watched a YouTube and he went in from the back of the light. Which meant taking out 7 screws that didn't want to come out. Then bending back the aluminum to expose the back of the light and pulling it and putting the new one in.... 

I put this project off for 2 years. My neighbor Bill came over to see what I was up to and told me all I have to do is pull the old seal and the old light will come out. Damn if that didn't work, we had both of them changed out in around 10 minutes. 

So now that I had that "big project" done I went for a ride with my buddy while he was discing a field. It was pretty fun but after and hour my ass got pretty sore from the little jump seat in the tractor. Anyway he invited my out this morning to sit in his blind with him. He was itching to put his new doe decoy to use and see what he could call in. We only had a fawn and a buck respond but he hung out for at least 15 minutes.

 If he would've been a year or 2 older he would've been given a ride in the back of my truck...

With wind hitting the low 30mph and rain moving in we only stayed until 9:30ish which was fine with me.

We really only went out to use the decoy and because it is Halloween, which has usually been the start of the rut around here.

So with that being said I will probably be deer hunting next week and on and off until gun season when I'll hit it hard again.

First two days of waterfowl season

Day one of waterfowl found me on a field I know all too well. I got set up way before daylight, with only 4 dozen decoys, 3 doz of them being silhouettes. With the first flock flying so low they passed only 10' overhead, and I missed all three shots. The next had 5 geese land just outside of my decoys. So, I had to change out choke tubes from Mod to Full. I snuck up on them best I could and when I was close enough I let 3 shots go. I hit one of the geese so I put the 2 back up shots into the gun. I walked up within range and fired the first miss, then the second. Then the race was on and here comes old guy after the goose. After 75 yards I dropped my gun, not needing the extra weight, and I knew it would be easy to find. After 100 yards of chasing this goose we were both really tired and slowed to a fast walk, I made one more push and was able to tackle, and dispatch him. Whew was I tired. So now all I had to do was find my gun in a cut corn field, laid cross-ways to the rows. I had geese flying over, around and landing in my decoys and all I could do was laugh and keep walking the 75 yards back and forth then moving West 5 yards and walking it again. After 21 minutes of looking for my shotgun I finally found it, (I'm a really good rattlecaner) I camoed it. I snuck around the back of where I was hunting, with the sun in the gooses eyes I reloaded waited for a flock and dropped 3. That is the start of the video.

The birds flew like crazy Monday, not as many on Wednesday but I should've had limit. There's always room for improvement.