July's End

I went to go shoot my bow today, but after I wrecked my three arrows in the first 10 minutes, that ended rather quickly. I took off from the cabin at about 7:15 or so and headed west and north towards the refuge. I saw a few deer out in a bean field (five to be exact) and though they looked like does and fawns, I thought I'd better slow down for a better look. I don't know where my head was. I brought the video camera with, but for some reason didn't have it out and ready yet. After glassing the five deer, I noticed that there were three bucks. A yearling, Scabby 8's cousin, and low and behold, Inside Crabclaw 10 (who's now more like a 12)! I scrambled for my window mount and the video camera, but after I looked back at the deer and saw they were running, I knew I didn't have time. So I just looked as long as I could through the binoculars. Crabclaw 10 is very impressive for a four year old. He's got more junk than I remember in early June. It was encouraging that he was with Scabby 8's cousin (who I think I'm going to name Whitey - because of his drastically white velvet). Whitey is the buck in the post just below that I was trying to figure out if he was Scabby 8 or not. Now I don't think so. While he was running with Crabclaw, his body was smaller. I'm going to guess he's 3 and Crabclaw is 4 this year. So that was exciting and disappointing at the same time.

After a drive around the countryside, I decided to try and get another look at these bucks so I drove to the other side of the swamp. I got out to the highway and looked across to the west and there was a few deer, which I thought were the same ones. NOPE. A different bachelor group of mature bucks. Again I tried to get some video, but they were in the middle of the mile so it was blurry and shaky - even with a window mount. My phone was ringing and I didn't get a very good look at the whole group, but there were for sure three or more that were Pope & Young - pretty much most of the 2010 Hitlist! I couldn't believe what I was seeing (although not very well). A halfmile is horrible for visibility, but I'm determined to figure out a way to get a camera out there. I'm pretty sure I can get permission. Dang Bill.

On a lighter note, the other cameras produced for me pretty well. I got one nice buck way out west and a few new bucks near The Hill. All in all, it was a great day. Here's some photos.

The bucks from out west:

And the bucks from near The Hill:

Like the other post, we do have some sheds from these other two bucks. Mom's got the matched set of the buck with the inside point and I've got the right side from this last buck. I found it straight north a little over a half mile. I'll get some post of the sheds soon.

Summer's not over. We'll see what August brings!

Scabby 8's Cousin

Checked a camera on saturday and pulled a few pics of a respectable buck. He has a lot of similarities to Scabby 8, but enough dissimilarities for me to believe that it's not the same deer. Yet. However, I am pretty sure I saw this buck in early June out in a pasture field.

Bear Insurance?

I'm getting so mad at these bears. It seems like I just get my camera into a great spot or I'm anticipating some great pictures and something just goes wrong. I went to my camera out west and I really had my hopes high to watch the progress of this droptine buck. I walked up to my camera and there was just a strap on the tree. Puzzled I went in for a closer look. There lay my camera, on the ground. A bear had knocked it right off the tree. I left the camera about 11 days ago and I was hoping that the assault happened fairly recently. I pulled the card and... nope, the same day I last checked it. July 12. So my camera sat on the ground for 11 days and then got rained on and now, to the best of my knowledge, does not work. I'm ticked!

My driving around was good. I didn't see any mature deer, but I'd like to park and sit by that same bean field and just wait to see what happens. I think there's a good 5 + bucks that would be worth watching in the beans. From now until archery season opens, I'm going to have a camera there. It will most definitely be worth it.

After that ordeal, I made my way to The Hill and checked my camera by the beans that so far, has only produced pictures of sled dogs and house cats. This time I was visited by three different bucks. All of which are making significant progress from last year. The first is a four year old. A neighboring friend picked up his sheds from last year, and I also identified him as a two year old. We'll call him SplitBrow.

The next is a three year old that is now a seven point. Last year he was an eight and I have both sides from him. As a two year old he had 18" mainbeams. For some reason, he decided not to grow a G3 on his right antler this year. Weird. I'm pretty sure we have him as a yearling too.

Lastly is a buck I called Chippy last year because it seemed like all the tips of his points were chipped. Not a really big buck, but he's three years old this year.

Thing's are picking up a bit, but I'm still looking for something that's at least 5.

Droptine?

I checked the camera that was just off one of the bean fields where Steph and I saw those five bucks on the 7th and got a few pictures. I didn't get the biggest racked buck in the field, but I did get the widest. Who's to say that this buck couldn't out grow the other, but he'd have to pack it on rather quickly. His nice and wide, and has good mass, but I'm thinking he won't get too tall. What I did notice was the start of a droptine on his left mainbeam. Although this drop might only get to about two inches or so, it's still pretty unique. So for now, we'll call him Dropper.

Dad and I took a drive the other night (12th) and saw quite a few deer. We were able to locate a buck that I already have two years of history with and he looks even more gnarly than before. His 2 year old rack he had a third main beam coming out of his left side and so he was pretty neat.Then the next year (2009), as a 3 year old, he straightened out a bit but his left brow was way up high and his mainbeam was still odd.This year, I can only describe him unless I try to get a camera out there to capture him. He's got a perfectly typical 5 point right side and his left is a killer. He's got a side split G2 and his brow now starts even higher - like on the inside of his G2 and G3. He'll probably gross in that 130-140 NT. I'd definitely shoot him. Stay tuned and I'll try get some kind of picture of him.

Beans!

On the 7th the bucks were coming out. I saw about 15 or more bucks. Most young, but three or four mature, out hitting the beans pretty hard. I keep telling myself to make notes of specific dates of when things are changing out in the woods. So, the beans are ready to go now. Time to start watching some fields. I'll check my cameras at the end of the week.

June's End

This spring and early summer have been considerably worse at locating mature deer. My only sightings have been while driving and there have only been two. It's sad that until now I've been keeping tabs on some scrubby bucks. I hope that Steph can shoot one of them this fall.

On Wednesday, my friend and I took off two a ridge out east and fought the bugs the whole way. I sunk in over my boots on the way out, and he did on the way back. To our disappointment, the camera was turned 90 degrees on the tree again. The worst part was that the mineral site was tore up! It seriously looked like a cattle pasture's watering whole - solid mud! Who knows how many pictures we missed. We moved the camera back and a bit higher to hopefully avoid those curious bears. Other than that, there's been lots of activity near the gravel pit and out in the more open grasslands. The bugs have been so bad, I bet that plays a role in the deer spending their time out in the open. Well here's some updates of the scrubby bucks.