Day ?? - Thanksgiving 22 NOV 2012

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Us ins?  We've got a lot to be thankful for.  Since I was 13 years old, I've been hunting with my Dad, Uncle, and Cousin on Thanksgiving Day.  That's some 21 odd years straight now.  We scarf lunch meat sandwiches, candy bars, beef jerky, and crackers for our Thanksgiving meal.  And really, it is a treat!

I'm thankful that everyone is still around to enjoy it with me.  Plus, we all make it a priority to do so.

Since the beginning, we've added folks here and there and lost a few too.  Grandpa Robert Seager used to go with us until his body wouldn't let him anymore.  Nick's goes most of the time, but he's missed a few because he picked sleep over hunting.  I think we've broken him of that though.  And every other year now, we're adding son-in-law Alex to the mix (family obligations on his side keep him away on the even years).

As is our usual custom, we headed up to Carroll county to meet at Uncle DC's barn.  We hit the woods by 7:10 - making sure it was light so we don't get shot by the Blues.

I hit the swamp.  Dad and Nick posted the bridge.  Shane and DC took Shank's E end - with DC at The Killer Stand.

I busted one VERY LARGE buck out of the swamp back at Nick and Dad.  Ended up I ran 3 bucks by Dad and Nick.  Dad said they were "hauling the mail."  Nick's words were 'they passed by at Mach 12.'  Nick ended up shooting a small 4-point buck with a nice body.  Bigger than the doe I killed.

Everyone else stayed put while Nick and I gutted and hauled the buck out.  We drove it up to Simpson's in Young America and then came back to pick those guys up.  We called it over by 11 so folks could get to their respective family gatherings.

Deer down = a successful day!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Winchester SX3 / SX4 Shotguns

Image
The Winchester SX4 is my Go To shotgun for everything - clays, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants, whatever.  It is an awesome firearm.  The drawback?  There are multiple moving parts and a few of them like to collect carbon.  And this carbon sticks as if it were put on those parts with super glue! Specifically, the magazine tube and the gas piston are the main carbon collectors.  Those parts come out more black than silver & gold. The inner components of an SX3 / SX4 with highlights where carbon will form So what is my trick for cleaning those bits?  I drop the gas piston into my Hornady sonic cleaner.  Inside the cleaner I put in about a cup of Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution for gun parts, add some DI water, a couple squirts of Dawn liquid dish soap, and then top it off with a dash or two of the citrus version of Dr. Bronner's pure castile liquid soap.  I have found that the citrus Dr. Bronner's is awesome at removing grease and oil....
Read more

Winchester SX4 Trigger Assembly Update

Image
First, you need to read the post immediately before this one to understand why I had to take my Winchester SX4 shotgun apart - all the way apart - specifically the trigger assembly. Second, my bad.  I had neglected to clean the gun after returning from last October's pheasant trip.  I had about one bale of grass seed inside that gun, which in the end, may have kept the #8 pellet from getting out on its own.  Shame. Finally, I did not give up.  I watched four different YouTube videos on how to disassemble and reassemble the trigger group.  Sadly, no one did the SX4, only the previous version, the SX3.  Close enough.  Why did it take 4 videos?  Because no one explained HOW the damn sear goes back in.  Everyone either ASSUMED we all know how OR in two cases, the reassembly process was out of the camera frame.  Aggravating! The key, and this is more for me to remember, was on the fourth video, the author said, "The sear kinda slides down int...
Read more

Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

Image
It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer. First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart. Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up. Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that). Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so: The ...
Read more