GOT MEAT

Bill and I went Quail hunting Saturday morning. We were in the tall weeds by plot #2. We found lots of roost. When the covey got up we may have missed the dogs on point since the weeds are so tall. There were about 15 or so birds in the covey, they flew to the edge of the woods. Dakota went on point and I flushed the bird. It went left, just has I took my first shot. My second shot connected and Dakota made a nice retrieve. He dropped it at my feet.
Janey found the next one and held it for a long time before we found her on point.
It was Bills turn to shoot. The bird ran out back and got behind cover - not giving Bill a shot. We heard more birds get up but couldn't see them. We decided to look for another covey. Headed over to hunt near the wet lands and down the ditch but didn't find any more.
We did jump a small deer out of the thicket and two more good size does along the back lane on the way back.
Bill and I made a plan to meet at his farm around three to deer hunt.
I went flying for a hour and then cut wood till 3 o'clock.
When I got to the farm Bill was already in a stand. I walked straight across the field - about 250 yard - to another stand . I brought both my cross bow and shot gun. Had the wind blowing to my back. The stand had been there a few years and was built by some guys who weren't happy when Bill bought the farm and stopped them from hunting. You can see they tore all the walls and the roof off but left the back.
I leaned my shot gun in one corner and my cross bow in another. Within about 20 minutes six does came out into the field on my left. As I reached over for my shot gun, because they where out about 50 yards away, the biggest one saw me just as I was ready to shoot. They bolted and ran to Bill's stand. His gun went off and they all ran.About 30 minutes later I heard some noise to my right and here comes more deer. The first one in line was a nice size doe. I had my shot gun in hand - she was 10 yards away - so I wanted to use my cross bow. By now I could see at least five more. Three small and another nice one. But I couldn't make the weapon switch without getting seen and they bolted back into the woods. Well, in about 20 minutes I stood up and looked behind me. There's more deer looking right at me - all does. The smaller ones walk out past me but the two bigger ones bolt. There went that chance. I still don't believe it but 20 minutes go by and I hear more deer coming from behind me. This time I'm ready with the cross bow. The first three were smaller ones and came right past me. The next one was staring right at me -I froze -finally she came out and the other nice one came too. When she got 20 yards out, she turned, quartering me, giving me my shot.I shot fast and heard the arrow hit her as she jumped and went into the woods. I heard her crash. Bill got out of his stand and walked over to where the deer he had shot had been standing. I found my arrow in the ground covered with good blood but didn't see a blood trail to follow. I walked over to Bill and we found some blood from the deer he shot but not much of it. Since it was getting dark, and Bill had somewhere to go, I told him I would come back after supper with the dogs. Dakota found the deer I shot right away.The dogs and I looked for Bill's deer with no luck. Called Bill - he said he would be back in the morning. I got my deer home and hang for the night.
Bill hunted for his deer for hours, finding only some pieces of bone - it seems like he hit it in the leg.

MATT GETS A DOUBLE

Last Friday and Saturday was shot gun for deer. The Jersey guys came to hunt.
Matt took the stand in the corner at plot 1. I had to work but just as I got home
I got a call from ED. He said his son Matt had got one and could use some help getting it out of the woods. I loaded up the dogs, drove the Kia back to the woods and found Matt only fifty yards from the edge. He was pretty much gave out. He said about four o'clock he saw a doe standing in the wood path where he and his dad had cleared an opening.
As he made his shot the doe took a step causing him to hit further back than he was aiming. He found some blood where she was standing but no trail to follow. He could see the way she went by the leaves she was kicking up. He kept on the trail,finding blood only where she stopped. She must have went over 200 yards, crossing the ditch. I took some pictures and gave him a hand with the last fifty yards.
Matt said earlier in the day he had shot a fox. Making over a hundred yard shot on it.
His dad Ed gave him a little help getting ready for the butcher.
I found out about a guy in Greensboro who cuts up deer so we took it to him.
He had a scale and weighted it for us. It was 100 lbs - thats a nice size doe.
I volunteered to pick up the meat - hopefully nobody knows how many chops a 100 lbs deer has.

OLD WARRIOR

My old friend Johnny stopped into the garage last Wednesday with another deer.
He said I may not want this one because it was an older buck. He wanted me to have a look at it. It wasn't a real big deer. Just by guessing it looked to be 4 or 5 years old. It's left rear leg was missing at the knee & had healed over really well.
It must have been shot off less than a year ago. Just amazes me how it had healed so well on its own. The left side of his rack was a decent 8 points & had that old deer look. So maybe he was older then I guessed. The right side of the rack was really messed up due to the leg injury.
I was surprised when Johnny said he was going to take it to the taxidermist to get it
caped out and would drop him off later. I questioned him having it mounted and he said he was a older deer and it was his way of showing his respect. I didn't have my camera at the garage so I did not get any pictures. When Johnny gets it back from the taxidermist I'll post some.
Anyway, since it was a bigger deer I took it to the butcher. So I picked up my meat last night. Fired up the cook stove and opened the box of meat to find this taped inside..I called the butcher to find out where it was found. He said it was in the front shoulder and was well healed over. The broad head does look to be old: a single blade on a wooden shaft. That deer now has my respect. I think if Johnny knew, he would have let him walk. I will think of his life with very bite.

FOX

The Jersey guys were down last weekend and hunted Friday and Saturday.
Ed hit a doe but not good enough, he only found some hair. I think they all saw some does but no big bucks. Tim had these pictures on his camera. This is the buck he got last time he was down.You can see that the right side antlers were goofy.
The best picture was of this fox that went by his tree stand.
That's a nice looking fox. I have been seeing one like him in the field behind the house.
I'm going to try and call him in with my caller over the weekend.
The dogs and I found a big covey of birds on a walk by the new bi-color lespedeza
plot. There must have been at least 15 to 20 birds.

Johnny, a friend, shot a button buck and left it at the house CHRISTMAS EVE.
It was small, so I butchered it myself.
I made sausage out of most of it. I'll post the recipe later. TJ gave me some ducks and geese. I made sausage with them too.
Bill and I shot the wood ducks again Saturday. We got 6- here's my three.
The Jersey hunter's got a buck on Dec 23rd. It had 4 points on one side but a problem with the other side. Ed hunted last Saturday and saw some small bucks and some does. But nothing he wanted to shoot. The snow geese are showing up now- maybe I can get some of them in the freezer.
I got some pictures of an 8 pointer and six pointer on my deer camera. .

snow

Bill and I shot the Woodys Saturday morning at his flood pond.
We got 4: three drakes and a hen. We could have gotten more but we always seemed to shoot at the same duck. The roads were already getting bad,it was a surprise that Bill got there. Muzzle loading season is on now. I've got to get serious about getting a nice doe for the freezer. I scraped some paths to the food plot so I could walk back to them and put a camera up at plot 1. Got some pictures of the doe I want for the freezer.
One of these will do just fine or this one maybe.
I'm getting tired of squirrel, rabbit and duck. I need some real food like a nice fat deer chop.

RABBIT HUNTING

On Saturday Rusty brought his three rabbit dogs over for some rabbit hunting.
John came along with him. We met Bill and his son Scott at the back lane at about 8:45a.m. The dogs had no problem finding rabbits at the cemetery - with all that cover thats where they were staying. We wanted to see and hear the dogs run so we took to the field for the hunt. The first rabbit was a crafty one. After an hour and a half run, I had missed him six times. Moving on, the next rabbit wasn't so lucky. John shot him in his lucky foot. That slowed him down enough for me to get him. By the time we got to the end of the back lane we had bagged a total of three rabbits. We moved on to the thicket at the wet lands. We got two more there. Went to the flood pond area and ended up with three more. The dogs did a great job with only one rabbit getting away (the one I missed six times!). I had my dogs with me working as flushers and retrievers. We ended up finding eight quail during this hunt - but did not shoot. Jay came along and supervised with his side kick grandson Dylan (Rusty's son). Hunt ended at 3:30 p.m. or so.