One Week Down

All kindsa nifty shit goin' on here during deer season.

First off, my time in the woods has been enjoyable but boring. Seen a bunch of baldies, but no bones. I'm out of my element gun huntin' deer... they're runnin' all over the place 'cuz people are chasin' them. I'd much rather have a Hoyt in my hands and have them actin' a little more naturally.

But good things do happen. The ol' man, whose last buck was a legal spike in PA (I can't remember when antler restrictions started, but it's been a while), scored a fine Bradford County 8-point after an exciting afternoon on Friday. My brothers and I have tasted success the last few years, and we were all hopin' to see the ol' man score. The nice doctor chopped on his back last November and he couldn't hunt, so this buck was especially sweet. Ironically, when I relieved the buck of his hair, I found that some ol' boy had a bad day... there was a .30-caliber hole low in the brisket from a not-so-accurate shot, fairly recently. Another 2 inches higher and he'da never made it to Dad, another 2 inches lower and he wouldn'ta lost a hair. I'd like to say he was lucky, but then he made the fatal mistake of rollin' past the ol' man.

On top of that, Ron smoked a pair of does and Uncle Bill got a dandy 1-horned 4-point. Looks like he got a little randy fightin' with another buck pretty shortly before he got shot... the skullcap was still bleeding when Bill caught up with him, and you could see where another antler had gouged in underneath it and popped it off. And of course, there were a few whiffs as well. Ron and my cousin Eric missed a dandy 8-point, and my brother Jesse threw a shot at a buck that was limping. It wasn't a good shot to take, and he missed, but when they're already bitched up the best thing you can do is put 'em on the ground. Much less painful for the deer to die by a hunter than let nature take its course.

Also, my cousin Nate saw a goofy buck that we got pictures of back in July. We hadn't seen him since then, so we thought he might have gotten jacked. Still around, though, but not quite legal. Hopefully he'll make it through the junior hunters this year so we can whack 'im next year.

Another week left, so I'm sure I'll have more for ya soon.

Y'all take care, now.