Happy Halloween

I decided to go back to the Recycling center.  I had put out a bunch of corn and wanted to see if anything was hitting it.  I sat from about 1:30 and saw nothing but squirrels and birds.  I had my camera there that wasn't working for a while but when I went to refill the feeder i got it to work so it only had two days but in those two days, no deer at all.

Great, a bear.

I went to the club today and sat at stand 4.  I brought my climber in and sat in a tree near 4 where there was shooting lanes.  It was a beautiful sit but I didn't see any deer.  I went out to my truck and to the gate and there I met Tony and Greg (Frank had already left).  Tony showed me a picture of a bear that's on our property.  great.

up and down

Went to the club this afternoon after brewing a batch of beer in the morning.  I decided to sit at 4 to try and get hold of the buck i had been seeing up that way.  I went up into the stand but, especially with the wind, it was creaking and did not look sturdy at all.  Aside from that, there was no shooting lanes for the bow.  I got down out of the stand and tucked myself into the the rock wall.  It was a comfortable spot but I saw no action.  Tony was at the club and was gone before I got to my truck.

6 from a distance

Gorgeous day to head up to the club.  In the morning I had to go to Aunt Carol's house to notarize some documents for her but when I got home I headed up to the club.  I wanted to try that tree i found during turkey season and when I walked there, it was all overgrown.  I'm not sure if I would see a deer walking around in all the high grasses.  I decided to set up on the road to 5 again.  It was a beautiful day.  The kind that made you just want to take a nap.  I saw that the club was getting busy as I saw Tony pull up.  Then soon after, Frank came walking towards the dip stand and then Bob drove towards the back.  At around 5, i could see a buck walking towards 4.  It was a decent looking 6.  There were times that I thought it would actually walk down towards me but it stayed up near 4.  I think I watched the deer for a good hour.  That was the only deer that I saw and apparently the rest of the guys didn't see anything either because they all left empty handed.

I'm sick....

Today is a really windy day.  I wasn't even going to go hunting but wanted to get out and into the woods.  Even if I don't see anything it will be nice and relaxing.  I decided to go to the club and sit on the ground so I don't get blown out of a tree.  I went back by 13 and tucked myself into the weeds on the side of the hill.  I certainly didn't plan on seeing anything but before I went to sit, I wanted to take a long shot into the target just to see how this bow shoots at 35 yards.  Right in the middle!  I love this bow.

So, I went to my spot at around 2:45 and settled in.  Literally, at 3:00, a doe came walking down the path.  I took out my range finder and guess what...35 yards.  I know JUST where to hold at that yardage.  She stopped to eat some of the autumn olive and I squeezed off a shot.  She went running up the hill into the real thick stuff.  I waited about a half hour and went to go find my arrow.  I couldn't see it and there was only a drop or two of blood on the ground.  What made it even more difficult to find that blood was that the ground was absolutely covered in autumn olive fruit...which are red and about the size of drops of blood.  THIS is going to be a challenge.  I followed where I think the deer went up the hill and I would find a drop here, a drop there.  Nothing significant and in some cases I was following olive drops and not blood.  I used some best guessing too.  At the end, I looked for over three hours and couldn't recover her.  I wanted to throw up about it.  I know that sometimes it happens in bow hunting but I don't think it's ever happened to me.