2014 Hunting

So needless to say since it's March and I'm just now getting around to putting the blog together for the fall deer hunt I'm a little behind. Well it was probably one of the best couple of weekends I could ask for as far as weather and hunting go.  I usually time my trips to Georgia around Veteran's Day as that's when we see the majority of our deer up on their feet.  The peak of the rut on our property is a little off from the GON map and I like to be there early anyways to see more of the chasing/seeking phase and avoid that breeding phase.  Sometimes later in the rut, the bucks get tied up with the does so if the ladies aren't going to club the men don't either so we've always had better hunting a little before the peak.  So I got away for a few days on the weekend of Nov. 6th-9th.

First afternoon had a does walk up under the stand:

A little later the wind/rain picked up as the front was coming through and I splashed a bullet right under a buck way out there at the end of the shooting lane.  I really need to get a better idea on how far those trees are since I've only missed two deer in the past 10 years that I can remember and both have been on that stand.  He wasn't a monster but was pretty wide and was worth shooting. But I completely misjudged the yardarge and wind and splashed low.  We gave a good look but never found any sign of a hit.

Well, the hunting got way better after that and we saw plenty of cruising bucks.  Two mornings later the wind was right and I found myself in my favorite oak tree in my climber in the creek looking back up the ridge through the set pines.  It's a really nice set up and I have taken more bucks than I can count now out of this stand.  Well not 15 minutes into the hunt I was able to take this really great video of an 8pt walking right under the stand.  He just didn't have everything I was looking for and got the pass.

After that the action was steady through the morning until a nervous doe came out of the trees at the far end of the lane.  She crossed very quickly and 2 minutes behind her here comes a buck.  He was moving at a pretty fast walk so it was a quick assessment (TALL TINES) and find a shooting lane and let fly.  Well he buckled pretty hard on the shot and in hindsight I should have realized that I shot a little forward but after some tracking I was able to recover him about 75 yards away in the thickest set pines on the property.  After grabbing some help back at the cabin we were able to sit down and get some good pictures with him in front of the pond.

Needless to say I was pretty excited about taking my largest buck to date and one of the tallest tined deer that I've seen taken on the property.  Now if only he would have had width and tine length.  Well maybe his sons will have his genetics plus that width.

We had a pretty cool moment the following weekend with Dad and Dr. Schuster as we were setting up our shooting range and about to launch some lead at a 400 yard target when out walks a nice 8pt at about 175 yards.  Dad made a great shot and within 20 minutes we had him found and loaded up in the truck.  I don't think I've ever been with Dad when he's taken a deer since it's usually me shooting so it was a great experience to see him take one esp. since we were all right there.

Unfortunately, we didn't find the right deer for Dr. Schuster but he was able to take a pig and so was Dad which means Dad is 2 pigs up on me.  I've yet to even see one up there but he finds one every year.  So, it was an absolutely great season and Uncle Bob killed his first deer as well.  Congrats Uncle Bob!