Some how I ended up having almost as much time off for New Years as I did for Christmas which was awesome. Tuesday night, my boss called me and told me to bring my stuff for a waterfowl field hunt to work... Awesome! So we left about noon on Wednesday and headed out to a place that he leases for bird hunting. We set up LOTS of goose decoys and a few mallard decoys as well, no longer did we get in our layout blinds and the birds were falling in. We shot 4 limits of mallards and a few geese. Then he took a few of us to a sweet seafood place for new years eve, I celebrated in a much more mellow manner than I did in my younger days. Anyway, I overslept the next morning and missed the duck hunt but it worked out as about 9:30 a buddy and I were headed to NW oklahoma for our last hunt of the year up there. The first evening was fairly slow as there were bird hunters on the opposite side of the river which pushed all the deer from their beds and they didn't come through like they usually do. I had 6 does/fawns come through and as I settled my 20 yard pin on the last and largest doe, I spotted antlers behind her and immediately put my pin in the opening where he would soon follow. He wasn't huge, but in the mid 120's without question. He started moving my direction and a few steps before he entered my lane, all the deer spooked. A doe had come from the other direction while I was watching these deer, and winded me. Those were the only deer that I had in range for the evening. My buddy videoed a decent 8pt and a little 6pt but nothing worth shooting. We set up a Cuddeback at a location that we've hunted in the past and threw out a couple pounds of corn to see what was working the area. The next morning we had 127 pictures all does and a small buck. Here are the trailcam pics from Thursday night, notice the times... the last photo is up picking up the camera. Friday morning I found myself in the same stand which... traditionally produces some serious bone (generally it's a buddy that kills the deer, not me). Anyway, the morning starts out perfectly deer everywhere. I had over 30 within 100 yards before the majority of them even left the alfalfa. My buddy stuck a doe very early on... about 8am there are another 30 deer headed my direction as they usually do across the hay field between the trees and the alfalfa. The group had 8 bucks, 3 of which were 130 or better it was incredible. They cut the distance to 100 yards, at a steady walk, I knew it wouldn't be long. Wind in my face, sun at my back... it was perfect. I looked down to hook in my release and when I looked up the four front does turned and high-tailed it back across the hay field. Seconds later I understood why. A large bobcat emerged from the log pile that diverts the deer directly to my stand. That was it they were gone. Lots of others milled around but I climbed down and went on a stalk in the shinery/grease wood next to the river and found an area that I really wanted to sit. Here is my buddy's doe from that morning Friday evening, I couldn't pry myself from my "ol' faithful" stand which was extremely unproductive. I saw one little six point that camped out for over an hour, 2 coyotes and an armadillo (which was used to test the 30 yard pin:d ). Apparently I didn't see any deer because they were all around my buddy, he had over 60 deer come through including all 8 bucks that had escaped me earlier in the day. He ended up killing a doe and 5 minutes later shot a pretty nice 9pt. Too many times he couldn't draw because he was surrounded with deer... horrible problem to have
Sounds like ALOT of hunting crammed into 2 days. Atleast you were seeing the deer, and got some meat for the freezer. (The doe, not the armadillo:d) Congrats to your friend for filling half his tags in 12 hours!
Man, that's a lot of deer and a lot of action. I swear sometimes it's almost better not knowing what was there when you weren't. Tuff luck.
Man what a way to close out the deer. Hunting, hunting, and more hunting. I'm jealous. Your buddy did awesome scoring both a doe & a buck, congrats to him. R U all done now for this season?
I was offered a job The warm weather and great hunting lands out there were just to much for me at this point If the pay rate was not as great of a difference as it is from his area to mine for my line of work, I really would have considered moving out there.... Anyhow, congrats to you guys!
Sorry it didn't pan out D. At least you have a lot of activity around and got a break from working. Maybe next year we can get you out to Illinois for a little hunting.
It was a pretty good weekend, and thankfully... it's not over yet. I have approximately 9 days of deer season left and 19 days of waterfowl hunting. After that... the pigs and predators better stay in a hole!!!
You didn't try for the cat? I made the mistake of hitting a bobcat with a snowball once. We were on guard duty, and it kept pacing around the guardshack. I beaned him in the head...then we took cover until the next car came through. crabby little bsatards. And they can sure hiss like no other! .lol.
