Deer Day 18 - Friday 28 NOV - Second Half

Tonight, Cuz Shane, Davey, Eric, Nick and I hit the golf course.  Shane posted on Hole #4, Davey overwatched Hole #5, Eric was overwatch on Hole #16, Nick was in the bowl on #15, and I sat on #14's tee box to block the North.  Trust me, Shane and Nick had the best of this deal - out of the wind.

It was 34 F with 8 mph winds - making it feel like 24 - and it was a COLD 24.

A flock of sandhill cranes flew over.  Look at the center of the first picture - there are close to 16 birds center frame.


Sandhill Cranes flying over the golf course heading North


We sat for about 90 minutes and then I told Nick to walk W and push deer to us.  He did the former, not the latter.

The deer busted out in the middle of Hole #14 and ran due North - 4 doe.  I had a 300 yard running shot, that I wisely passed upon.  No one else saw a deer tonight.

Looking E from #14's Tee Box.
See that pine tree center frame?  The deer passed by there heading left (North).


Sunset on the golf course Friday, November 28, 2014.

We all met back at the truck at dark for a beer.  Now one may get the impression that we are not serious hunters.  To the contrary - very serious.  We also like to have fun and enjoy a brew while telling stories at the end of the day.  We take that very seriously too.

And so ends Cousin Shane's Indiana deer trip.  No shots fired this year, but he's got meat coming - and just try to take this away from him.  It's a whale of a way to recharge the old batteries.  He and I have been at it for 33 years straight now and we're hoping for another 33 more!  Cheers!

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