Saturday 19 NOV 2022

 Alex and I left at 6:30 am.  It was a balmy 17 F with 18 mph winds.  This puts the wind chill (or felt temperature) a 1 F ( -17 C).  Cold.  GD Cold.  We arrived at the golf course and no one else was around.  Imagine that.

We stayed until almost shooting light as we both wanted to walk in able to shoot if we saw something.  This time, I headed S off Hole #1, E down holes 3 & 4, where I paused on the #4 tee box.  About that time, a nice buck came across from the N to S going off property without every looking up, nor was he in a true hurry.  I found out later that this same buck busted Alex on Hole #16 as Alex was walking in.  The buck snorted, garnering Alex's attention.  Alex cursed mentally, dropped to a knee, and pulled the buck up in his scope.  What was in the background beyond Alex's target?  The restrooms.  No shot could be safely taken and so it was not.  The buck spooked and ran past me crossing 5 fairways as he left the property.

I did not have a shot as the buck never stopped - but I could not have taken it anyway as Indiana is a one-buck per year state.  I mentioned to Alex that I would not have shot even if given the chance and I was told, "I would have!"  So the buck lives yet another day.

I walked N down Hole #7 to the bowl on Hole #15 to get out of the wind.  And I will say that I was smart enough to dry my gloves from our previous excursion.  I stood down there out of the wind and watched on doe walk S, E, N, and then come back W to within 30 yards of me.  I was ready to shoot, but she was just too small.  I told her to leave as I put my hands back in my pockets.  She liked neither of those two actions, snorted, and then ran off to the E.

I watched a very large doe (who in the naked eye appeared to be a buck) and a yearling walk up out of the bowl W of me, heading NE.  I had about a 200 yd shot, but it was uphill and I could not see beyond the target.  Thus, no shots fired.  

And this was about the time I needed to start walking anyways.  I headed up to #14's green, down #13's fairway and back toward the truck without seeing another deer.  I did hear a single shot, way off in the distance.  I returned to the truck as Alex moved across to sit overwatch on Hole #5.  I was not in the truck long before Alex sent a text - "Mistakes were made" along with a picture of gale force winds.  Alex came back to the truck as well.  

It was 9 o'clock.  We had made it 2 hours in the cold.  What we had working against us was our plan to return to the fireplace and eat venison biscuits and gravy - and that is Exactly what we did. 



Why was no one else hunting with us today, you ask?  Well Eric is getting married this afternoon.  Nick is in the wedding.  And it is waaaay too cold for Kathy to go out.

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