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!
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