Read about all of my Hunting Adventures!
First thing I noticed at 5am in the morning as my uncle, dad and I waited to kick off the day was....
"Holy cow, I've owned this Yukon for 4 years and 100,000 TO THE DAY!"
Yep. As I exclaimed this, they looked at me funny. The old Yukon keeps rocking along. It's the first time that I have bought a car, put new tires on it, and driven it so long that it needs new tires again. And, believe it or not, I plan on doing JUST THAT. I am planning to pay it off in February so I can buy a new boa....err...house. A house. For my wife.
So I headed to the venerable shooting house in Zone 4, where I have found a lot of success in the past. It was chilly that morning and I don't take the cold like I used to. Fortunately, my uncle and dad build some baller shooting houses that are well insulated. And, someone just happened to leave a Mr. Heater. So, I fired that bad boy up!
As the darkness faded to grey, I noticed that there were already deer in the field. 6 of them, to be exact. I put the scope on them and was contemplating taking another doe. After all, I had already eaten all the tenderloin from the deer I shot 2 weeks ago, which you can read about here. And, you can also read about my ridiculously good Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin while you are at it. Seriously. Do yourself a favor.
But, I started thinking. If these deer were already out, maybe the deer would plan on moving today. They haven't been doing that, lately. And, if the rut has started, these 6 deer would make a great attraction for local bucks. So I waited.
Sure enough, I spotted a loan deer from the south west corner of the field. I put the scope up, and it was a spike. We can't shoot spikes. He made his way to the does and they disappeared together. Rats.
It was quiet for a few minutes.
From the same southwest corner came a loan deer. It was small, so I didn't bother putting the scope on it. Strangely enough, it was on a good clip, crossing from one side of the field to the other at a rapid rate. I wondered if it had been on the treeline and had seen me move. It didn't look spooked. I chalked it up to being a crisp morning and it needed a run.
It didn't take long for me to figure out why it was running. I spotted a large deer very close to the ingress point of the former. Even at this range, I could tell it was a buck. I put the scope on it. It was walking perpendicular to me, so I was able to gauge the height of the rack, but not the width, which is the critical measurement. Eventually I had to whistle at it. When it turned, I could see that it wasn't outside of the ears. So, not a shooter. He disappeared the same way the doe had.
Apparently he caught up to the doe, and she didn't appreciate it. As quick a trot as she had going into the far wood line, she bounded back out and into the field with me. This time, she was chased by another spike, much to my dismay.
Minutes later, two large deer appeared from the woodline in front of me, about 150 yards away. Again, the bodies were so large that I knew they were bucks. I scoped them out, but one was a 4 pointer and the other a 6 pointer, neither shootable. Ironically enough, a shot sounded from the distance, which spooked both of them, causing them to run away.
After seeing that many bucks, I figured my luck wasn't THAT good and that seeing a shooter wasn't going to happen. So, I made the decision to shoot the next doe I saw. Naturally, that never happened.
From dawn until 8am, the deer were really moving. In that time, I had 4 does, 5 fauns, 4 spikes, a 4 point and 2 6-pointers that made appearances, but not a shooter among them. But, truth be told, that's the most bucks I've ever seen in one day....which made it a great day regardless of whether or not I shot one.
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