Deer Day 6 - Boys Morning Out - Sun 12 OCT

Alex, Nick, and I headed for the field this morning at 0630.  We dropped Nick off at the Colonel's and he walked to the creek.  Alex and I parked on Neal and Alex walked to the W stand.  I went to where I was yesterday, along the Marshall-Boyd line, in the beans.  It was a chilly 38F.  Winds were almost out of the due E at 10 mph - but they swirled, at least where I was.

The sun took its time coming up.  You may have been "legal" to fire an arrow at 7:30, but it was no where near light enough to do so.

Nick texted at 7:55 that deer were moving along the W ridge on Marshall - he could see across the creek, up the ridge line.  At 0800, four doe (mama and her triplets) came out S of the killing finger, walking West down the draining ditch - through the still standing beans.  Again, I had set up to catch them coming out of the woods across the beans to the NW.  Foiled again.

I sat in the fence row and did not move.  In fact, my legs went to sleep on me.  These four deer took their time - browsing to the N.  They crossed 50 yards W of me, right at the Marshall-Neal-Boyd property line.  Anyone set up there today would have had a nice 5 yard shot on a big doe.  It was not to be.  Interesting though, these deer were directly downwind of me (just like those on Friday), but they did not smell me - even as they crossed the path where I walked in.  The differences?  They were farther away (50 yards versus 20) and we stood in a campfire yesterday while checking on the Webelo Scouts at Andy's.  That had to of helped mask our human odor.

I called "No Joy" at 0830 as we had to get back and ready up for church.  As Nick stepped out of the wood line on Vice, he saw mama and baby at 50 yards.  They bolted.  Poor Alex, all he saw this morning were squirrels.  Still no shots fired - but we're still trying.

Weatherman predicts rain starting this afternoon and lasting the next three days.  Hard to say when we'll get back out again.




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.  All of that bakes in the son
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 into a channel in the housing."  Bam. 
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 two little "
Read more