Shotgun & Muzzle Loader 09

My brother Andrew was the first of us to make a kill with the guns this season. He shot this seven pointer in the heart on Tuesday morning, the second day of early muzzle loader with an 80 yd. shot

I hosted deer camp officially for the second year in 2009 during six day firearm. The first day we met up at a little after nine o'clock after a morning sit. We hit the woods hard all day and pushed quite a few deer around but nothing with antlers.

Tuesday we hit the woods hard again and got an early start at daybreak. As soon as we got out of the trucks we heard a shot. A hunter in a stand shot a decent six or seven pointer that we didn't get a chance to get a picture of. We lined up and pushed the piece chasing out 5 does. On the second drive, my cousin Mark a.k.a. Pepe, took a shot at a Y buck but there was only a small amount of blood and we surmised that he didn't hit the deer that good. Zach had a red fox break toward him but he decided to pass up the shot. In the evening Dave scored a kill on a nice big Y buck on an stalk. This buck dressed out at 140 lbs. and was the heaviest deer of all seven that we killed during buck week.

On Tuesday of buck week at around 4:00 pm Mike Bess dispatched this six pointer with a slug right between the eyes.

Thursday was the best day for us. On a morning sit, Frank killed what would have been a an 8 pointer but due to a broken main beam ended up being a five pointer. Just as I had received the text about franks deer, I had a buck and a doe come into me while sitting in a swamp stand on the second drive of the day. I hit the buck with a slug in the liver, a little farther back than I would have liked. When the drivers caught up to me we tracked the deer about 50 yards to a nursery field and my cousin La Ray put a little more lead in him. This buck, our third kill for the week was a one-horned four pointer or what I call "half an eight".

When I was at the check station checking in my half an eight, we ran into this fellow named Adam that had just killed this beautiful 10 pointer. This was his first deer ever.

After the checking station, we took a ride out to some newly acquired hunting grounds in Cedarville. Being a new piece the first drive ended up being a little botched. The day before, Wednesday, it had poured down rain in the amount of 5 inches. The woods were flooded and one guy, Smithman, fell into the swamp up to his balls and had to go swimming for his boots. On the second drive however, Frank's sidekick Jimmy put down this decent sized spike with one round of buckshot at 10 yards. On account of the wetness of the woods we improvised a shoulder pole to take this deer out through the deep water in the swamp.

Frank's 5 point; My 4 point; Dave's 4 point; Jimmy's spike

Here is a picture of Muckett holding the "playbook", a collection of aerial maps laminated and bound.

Saturday was another good day. We started off early in the day with a nice eight point tagged in by my cousin Petey. This was the nicest rack of the week. On another drive in Rosenhayn, 2 more bucks got passed the standers with one being missed twice along with a coyote that got away after being shot several times. On the last drive of the day Smithman shot this crooked horned spike which was his first buck ever. Later that night, Bill a.k.a. Broncosbp, rolled into camp with a Y buck that he had gotten on a sit that evening. That brought the total tally of deer camp up to seven bucks (3) 4's (2) spikes (1) eight & (1) five.

Gary shot this 9 pointer out of his stand during six day firearm.

Just after shotgun week was over and muzzle loader came back in, Jack, a former neighbor from Iona, Killed this beautiful 10 pointer in Winslow on December 16th.