Muzzle Loading Ends - Deer Day 24

I returned to get Dave at 3:45.  It's up to 37 F with more wind, but still from the SE.  Please note that at 37 degrees, the top inch of soil will thaw and stick to anything that touches it.

We drove out to Marshall's N farm and switched positions.  This time I sat in the finger and Dave walked the bottoms.

Dave saw 3 doe sneaking through the bottoms at about 5 pm and got up to chase them to me.  The three turned into 5 and the 5 to 7.  Dave came up the top and attempted to get the deer to run out the finger - where I would have a shot.

No such luck.  They turned and ran SW, right past where we parked the truck - all seven of them.

No shots were fired.  And so the season ends...

Sun set on the last day of muzzle loading season, Sunday, 21 DEC 2014.
Taken from the killing finger on Marshall's N farm.

We still have until the first Sunday in January for those who wish to hunt with a bow and arrow.  I suspect that I will just leave it as zero deer for me this year.  Not that I didn't have my chances.  I made a poor shot on a small doe and then didn't have my gun closed on the largest buck I've seen in the wild.  Can blame it only on myself.  I'm not sad though.  It was a great season!

Every day in the woods is a gift, and you never know when your last one will be.  I did my best to enjoy each and every one of them.  And I look forward to many more if the Good Lord is willing.

Back at the truck to toast another deer season.


I doubt that I'll be posting much from here on out.  Those who have subscribed will get emails alerting you to updates.  Everyone else will just have to check in occasionally to see if I've published any pearls of wisdom you can't live without.  Until then....Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours.  May be blessings of God accompany you.



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