Well, he's small but he's mine.

Today was opening day of the muzzle-loader season.  I went to the club to sit for the day.  I got there and saw that there was a truck there.  As Greg had predicted, Gary was at the club.  I checked the board and there were pins in two places, the River Stand and the Cadillac Stand.  Not knowing which was his, I decided to head over to the dip stand.  I started out at the edge of the field and sat until it got light.  It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly, but clear.  I didn't see anything by 7:00 and decided to sneak over to the dip. I got on the hill and sat.  I didn't see anything.  I made my way out around 10am and met up with Gary.  He told me a a few nice bucks that are running around.  We talked for a bit and I decided to take a nap.

At around 12:30 I woke up from my siesta and got dressed to go back into the woods.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to the dip stand (I had seen two scrapes there) or to the Swamp.  I'd been wanting to get back to the swamp since the last time I went with my bow.   I went to the swamp and cuddled up next to a log.  I had the field to my right and the woods (toward the road) to my left. I hadn't seen anything all afternoon.   At  just before dark, say almost 5, in a flash a deer came running into the swamp.  I raised my gun instinctively and aimed.  He was only a 4 pointer but had a nice body.  In the 3 seconds that it took him to walk in, I had a conversation in my mind on weather to take him because I hadn't gotten a deer or opportunity for a deer all season and I'm not sure what else would present itself this season or let him walk because it's the first day of the season, there are bigger bucks around and I don't like shooting smaller bucks.  Well, by the time this argument got in my head I squeezed the trigger...the deer ran 20 yards and fell down dead.  Not a drop of blood and no tracking necessary.

It was a bittersweet ending.  I was happy that I had a deer finally but I had wished that I didn't shoot a small buck like that.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Made my traditional morning bird hunting trip to Flatbrook with Dani.  I think that Flatbrook is getting more and more crowded.  I was going to start on the first big field and was standing at the edge with Greg when a group of guys walked ahead of us and stood there waiting.  I had two choices, shoot them or move...I chose to move.  I went to the other side at the base of the hill which I typically don't like to do at the first push.  We met up with Amil who also got frustrated and we started together.  When we made it up the hill Harley (Amil's dog) put a bird up and Amil shot it.  We walked together over the hill and split when we got to the top.  We went right and walked around the top of the hill.  As we got to the top, Bacci put up a bird that flew really low.  I held off shooting until I felt that it cleared Bacci and by then, it was kind of late.  We walked around a bit more and as we came to the field near the river two guys called us over because there was a bird in the field that they couldn't find.  We worked with Bacci and he, of course, put the bird up.  Greg and I both shot and missed.  I really am having a hard time this year.  Lastly, as we were on the hillside near the opposite field, a bird came in from across the road.  Two guys in the field shot at it and must have just grazed it and she glided into the hill...right near Bacci (her first mistake).  He chased her down and after both Bacci and the bird came tumbling down the hill, he caught her.  I asked the two guys in the field which one shot her and they both said that they didn't hit her so I took her home.  Now off to Jeannie's mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Quick trip to Berkshire

Jeannie told me that she was going to work from home if I wanted to go hunting in the morning, well she didn't have to ask me twice.  I knew I would make a quick trip to Berkshire Valley on the way in to work. I didn't have any expectations, just wanted a nice little walk through the woods and take a chance at seeing a bird.  Start time was 6:45 and when I got there I was surprised how few guys there were there.  I thought maybe I had the wrong day!  I think that by the time we started there were 10 guys...yes, in total!!  Only one with a dog.  I only walked around until 8:00 but I did manage to put up one hen bird...yeah I missed of course but what a great way to start the day.  I actually tracked the mileage that I walked and managed to do 2.32 miles in the short time I was there.

Opening day pheasant

I think that this was the most crowded I've ever seen it.  It was so bad that Greg and I had to walk to the end of the street to start at the little field next to the hill.  We started off there and put up one bird that greg shot dead...and then I shot it.  lol  I don't know, I was already in motion.  lol.

After that we were walking the hillside and came upon a dad and his younger daughter.  He had a bird hear him and put it up.  He shot and his gun jammed and the girl shot twice and missed.  I shot and killed the bird and when I went to pick it up the girl was walking towards me as if she got it.  I happily handed her the bird and congratulated her on a good shot.  That was the last bird we saw.  I worked Bacci a lot and he was exhausted by the end of the day.

Rut...what rut?

Ok. So I know that it's the rut but to be honest, I'm not that thrilled about it.  I was stupid and only got an extended bow permit for my cull zone...and I have to get two does before a buck in this zone.  Sadly, I have not had any luck this year so I haven't gotten any.  So let the bucks run around as much as they want, I can't do anything about it.  With that said, I still want to be in the woods and deer hunting so I took the afternoon off of work.  I decided to go behind the dump.  I saw NOTHING at all.  oh wait, I did see that guy that hunts there...at 4!!  Just walking around.  What is wrong with people?!  Can't wait until I get back to the club with the muzzy.

Post Sandy

Well, I didn't go out last weekend because I was getting a generator to prepare for Super Storm (a.k.a. Hurricane) Sandy.  I decided, after a crazy week of not being able to work because of no phones or internet, to leave early on Friday to do some hunting.  Wouldn't you know it that we got our phone and internet back...no matter, I was taking off anyway!

I decided that I was going to go to Briarcliff today and then dump tomorrow.  I headed over to the spot and the trees down in the area was unbelievable.  It looks like a tornado ripped through, or that someone took a bulldozer and tore down the woods.  When I walked in, I even had to walk under a big tree that was fallen over and being supported by another tree...needless to say i went under that one quickly.  I made my way to the tree and got up.  It was a windy day and to be honest, each time the wind would blow I wondered if any of the trees around me had been weakened by the storm and would fall on me.  It was kind of nerve wracking.  At around 4:30 I had 4 teenage boys hanging around behind me for a few minutes until they walked by me, across the field and then away.  At around 5:30, as it was just started to get a little dark, I saw a deer walking in the field.  I looked through my range finder and saw that at about 50 yards she sat down in the middle of the field.  Just about then, I saw the 4 boys walking back.  They were doing what boys do...smoke, laugh, push each other, etc.  When they walked by me I looked for the deer again and she was gone.  I didn't see her leave but she mustn't have liked the boys walking that close to her either.  That was all I saw for the remainder of the night.