Shotgun Season 07

Shotgun season 07 proved to be a difficult hunt. We had Limited succuss in the stands on Monday morning. My buddy Mikey Bess did happen to put down this basket seven at around quarter to 8.

We hunted hard Monday and Tuesday both sitting and in the stands. There was alot of talk among hunters about the devastation of blue tongue and I was starting to buy into the hype.We hadn't seen a deer.

Wednesday, Mother Nature provided us with a treat....Snow.

My Cousin...MEAT-WAGON

It started snowing a little past mid-day and managed to free up people schedules whom were otherwise obligated to work. We rallied and set up a few drives in Franklinville where we have had past success. On the first drive, I caught a flash of what looked to be a big deer through heavily falling snow. Upon inspection of the tracks, I knew that I had missed out on the opportunity of the season. On the next drive i got 2 deer up and My cousin pepe put three shots into this 4 pointer.

It broke to the field and just as it was about to fall Johnny Wengert finished it off with a slug from a ladder stand center field.

Friday, after a fruitless week of sitting in the mornings and evenings in a new spot I was trying out, I opted to hunt my dad's piece to increase my chances of succuss. Early on I saw three does come in close. They milled around for a while and then passed through. About half an hour before dark I had a descent Y buck come through. He presented me with a 50 yd broadside opportunity and I took it. He ran another 50 yds. before dying here.

I took him to the Checking station and he weighed in at just under 100lbs.

While I was checking him in, we ran into this bruiser at the scale....



The last day, Saturday, was a bust. It was drizzling, the guys were disorganized, and i decided not to go out.

Not long after, in regular muzzle loader, Pepe's uncle Punch killed a nice Y buck.

All in all, 2007 turned out to be the year of the 4 pointer. We confirmed a few kills with more points than four, but out of the seven deer taken, 4 were 4 pointers. I can live with that.

As a footnote, this was a considerable buck that was dispatched by an automobile.

Early Muzzle Loader 2007

Due to the weather, early muzzle loader was a challenging hunt. The first morning was rainy. When that cleared up the wind picked up. It was difficult to hear and or see anything in the woods.

On account of the rain, most people that I know didn't even go out on Monday. I did. I did see one deer, a small buck, that didn't give me a shot.

Tuesday morning, my cousin Mark killed this eight pointer despite the wind.



He shot at 7:20 AM at about 25 yards.




the deer dressed out at 135 pounds.

Pepe had this deer done European.  

This is how it turned out.

2007 Extended Bow Season Continued....

My Dad shot this six pointer at 3:30 PM November 21st. It ended up dressing out at 126 lbs.




Here is another picture of the deer in color with a few rabbits that we shot on Thanksgiving Day.

Extended Bow 2007

My brother Andrew shot this four pointer at 3:22 PM today.



He shot directly through the heart, broadside, at 25 yards. The deer only ran about 30 yards, dying mid-stride.






Notice the puncture of the heart and lungs.... a textbook kill.

Getting ready to get ready

With muzzle loader fast approaching, my brother Andrew and I got in gear and went out to pick some deer apples.



With the both of us using 5 gallon buckets, it took us about 1/2 hour per crate. Totaling one hour to fill 2 apple bins.



The advantage to using the crates is the ease of placement of a large bait pile using a skid steer.








When you have the means to supply the deer with a big pile, it allows them to eat without competition. This draws in all the deer within that area and they stop frequenting the smaller less appealing food sources.

Shotgun Season 06

Early Muzzle loader 2006 was a bust. Not for lack of seeing deer. The first day of the early season I had seen 4 bucks. Of the four deer I missed two of them, one in the morning and one at night.

The first of the misses i chalk up to a misfire. I was using one of my dads guns, a Thompson Center Black Diamond. It was only a Y buck, but after a year of limited success, I was anxious to get the ball rolling again in the right direction. It was one of those, pull the trigger........hissssss........poww. Once the hissing began, the deer started to trot away.

The evening hunt I walked in with some buck lure on a string tied to my boot. I had three bucks come in, small, medium, and large. The bigger buck initially presented himself but I waited to see if I would get a better shot. When i felt my opportunity slip away, I took a shot at about 150 yards between the Y of a tree to no avail.

This was the deer that i missed with the Muzzle loader.




(Our neighbor, Kieth, shot it during extended shotgun.)




So needless to say, i was poised for the kill on Monday morning of shotgun season.

This five pointer came into me just at day break.






On Tuesday, Uncle Scott calls me to tell me he shot the big one.

Sure enough.....




So I dress the deer for him as a congratulatory gesture and we head to the checking station.

With a deer that size in your truck, you automatically expect to have the biggest deer at the checking station.



We weren't there for five minutes and Dave Hemsley pulls in with antlers sticking out above the bed of his truck.



Daves nine pointer



Scotts eight pointer

Extended Bow Season 06

Bow season is not a priority for me. It has to do with a combination of impatience, working schedules and consumerism. I used to bow hunt a lot when i was younger, but with no success. I would often see deer that were out of range and become frustrated by it. I did miss a few that were in range too, that didn't improve my outlook either.

Another shortcoming of bow hunting is the blatant consumerism. Scent cover-up, head to toe cammo clothing, arrows, broad heads, the list never ends of things that you need for bow hunting that cost money. These things were provided for me by my father during my early years and since then I haven't really bow hunted much.

I prefer to just buy bullets and hunt with a gun.

The upside of bow hunting is that the season is considerably longer, and it usually coincides with the breeding times of the deer. These factors can provide considerable advantage when hunting trophy deer.

My brother and a couple of my friends capitalized on those advantages during the extended bow season of 2006.

My friend, and hunting companion Dave shot this eight pointer with the bow right in the beginning of the extended season and thus it began.





Dave's deer just missed the record book by less than three inches



My brother Andrew shot this 9 pointer right behind the house while both I and my Dad were out of state hunting.






My buddy Andy, who hunted with us for years , but has now entered into a solo career
shot this substantial eight pointer in the extended season.