Pay Dirt! - Twigs' Right Side

I knew the weather was supposed to get cold so I took advantage of the mild temperatures and very little snow we have and tried to take one more walk in search of Twigs' antlers. I went mostly north the first time, and dad and I went mostly south the second time. We quickly learned where the deer were not spending much time. So my conclusion was to walk east of the camera set up. My first stretch took me way out to the east I was on a large buck track for quite a ways until that buck track turned into melted timberwolf tracks. Those took me out to the ditch grade a half mile east. I walked the ditch grade south a ways to see if any deer had been coming from farther east than the section I was anticipating. There was only one track that crossed the ditch that I could see. I turned and headed back west until I came across some sign of life. It was another big buck track. I followed it backwards to see where it came from (hoping it would lead me to a bedding area). I lost it once or twice, but it took from into some really tall cane grass. Inside the cane grass there were some smaller openings with shorter weeds and I finally came across the first deer beds in that whole section. I walked around them briefly and made a note to myself to come back to them the next time I came out and spend some more time there. From there I pretty much made a B line towards the truck and all of a sudden I ran perpendicular to a decent deer trail. I looked to my left down the deer trail, but before I headed that direction, I glanced back to my right and I had to do a double take because the stick I saw looked like a browtine. Sure enough there it lay - half hidden under some golden grass was Twig's right side! After my eyes adjusted, I could plainly see how chocolate brown it was and in fairly good shape. I hadn't seen his antlers since the 24th of October and they very easily could've been busted up. He did have a small chip on the very tip of his brow and an angled chip on his G3. Still very good.

Twigs' Right Side - 2-6-12 from Mitch Haaby on Vimeo.
I took it  over to mom and dad's and we measured it up at 55 4/8". I actually thought it would be closer to 60 than that, but it was fairly normal for a four year old. 21" mainbeam, 8 5/8" G2, 7 6/8" G3 and good mass. Hopefully I can get out one or two more times before we get any snow. I'm sure Bullwinkle and Chippy's antlers are on the ground by now too. Can't find em' laying on the couch.