Ok, so here is a recap on the season so far 2011, as I thought of the idea to create an online journal of sorts most of the way through firearm season. Bow season this year seemed sort of slow for seeing big bucks this year, while Johnny had a couple seen, no shots were fired. Jereme A. shot an 8 point in October. Kevin also saw a big one in early November as it was getting dark, and had no light to work with. Fast forward to gun season. Nov. 14 we had our annual gathering at Kirk and Elaine's and most were able to make it. Mike Ritchie was up as well as Uncle David. We had dinner and celebrated Jereme's birthday as well. As far as opening day goes, it was sort of slow all the way around. It started off very foggy with visibility pretty low until around 11, and temps hovered into the 50's. I was sitting all day in my shack north of Terry and Joann's house, and hadn't seen a deer all morning in contrast to last year seeing about 10 different bucks before 9am. I was sitting in the shack and noticed some movement in the woods, and upon further inspection glassed a few does and a swamp donkey of a buck. I couldn't tell what he was, only that he was a shooter. He stopped in front of a bowstand I had further in the woods about a 100 yards, and I could only see his head, and had my muzzleloader, and didn't feel I could make the shot with all the brush in the way. I waited and he eventually circled the does back into the woods further, and my heart sank, thinking they were going to leave. About 40 minutes later the does started working their way back my way, and I caught a glimpse of the buck coming through the woods. The does sort of started coming towards me once out into the field, and I was worried they were going to get down wind of me, so I picked a spot between two trees in the direction the buck was walking, and as soon as I had a front shoulder in there, I let him have it. I had no idea what he was, or if I hit him, as the muzzleloader creates quite the blast. All I knew was that it felt good when I shot, but I waited a bit to go check. After further review he only went about 40 yards, and he was a heck of a deer, my best to date. He ended up being an 8 point, although his left main beam had about 7" broken off. I drew back on this same buck the 2nd friday of bow season, and he stayed down in the ditch where I couldn't get a shot, as when I looked at my site all that I saw was the blackness in the ditch as it was getting dark. He ended up scoring as is about 126", which would have put him at about 133" if his beam hadn't been broken, a heck of a deer for the area. To date, no one else has shot anything, it has been a very slow and warm gun season. I know last I talked to Uncle David, he was up in Cedarville trapping beaver, and he had caught 5 as of the first couple days, and also saw a decent buck but couldn't get a shot. Hoping it snows and muzzleloader season gets the deer moving.
