Deer Day 6 - WED 18 DEC

Well, it is muzzleloader season in Indiana.  And after a brief 9 days in Cancun, I am back out in the woods.  We don't need any more deer for us.  I am hunting a nice doe to turn into salami for gifts.  As Indiana rules go, you are allowed ONE buck for the entire year.  It can come by any legal method, but you only get one.  Me?  I already shot a buck so no more for me.

So out I go on a 30F (-1C) evening with plenty of wind.  I stay on the top at Marshall's and walk along the Bailey property line.  I jump a small 6-pt buck on Bailey's N end and he runs N into the Killing Finger.  Hopefully he hasn't pushed any does out!

I get to the finger N of Bailey but S of the Killing Finger and post up overlooking a ravine, the bottoms, and the Killing Finger.  And I wait.  For the first 90 minutes I see nothing but squirrels and a single rabbit.  Then, four bucks walk out and feed S of the Killing Finger (in the cornfield across the ravine in the picture below).  Two of the bucks are fork horns, the other two are six-pointers.  They feed E (to the right in the photo below) and then go down into the bottoms - passing directly under Davey's old stand.  Anyone in that stand could have shot four deer - illegally, yes and probably not with a smoke pole!  

I watched the bucks feed S in the bottoms and then disappear in the brush.  I walked out about 10 minutes before legal light ended (5:40 pm) so that if there were any doe in the field eating I may have been able to get off a shot.  Alas, it was not to be.  No more deer anywhere that I could see.

My problem?  I forgot to pack beer.  Each and every time we have shot deer this season has been when we have beer in the truck.  When we don't have beer with us there have been no deer harvested this year.  Next time I'm packing beer!

The deer fed out across this ravine where my barrel is pointing and headed to the right.


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