Rifle Season 2012 - Sits # 19, 20, & 21

On Monday the 5th, I worked in the morning and headed up to the cabin after lunch. I had a SW wind and so I headed for the stand set by the softball diamond. Everything was going great, but as it got closer to primetime, so did the hunters begin to appear. I had at least three vehicles drive by and finally, the last one dropped a guy off. He sat where he was dropped off for about 10 minutes and then began walking to the gravel pit. I started to forget about him, but right at the best time (4:50pm) I heard a super loud "BANG" right next to me. I assume he just shot a doe or a fawn in the gravel pit, but I never did go check. He would have been mere feet from where my truck was parked. Aaahh. Anyway, That ended that night, but that was fine, because I really had my hopes set on the swamp for Tuesday's hunt.
Tuesday the 6th brought West - WNW winds which was perfect for the swamp. I climbed in and was completely set before legal light. I kept thinking about the camera that I had about 125 yards away right on the snowmobile trail. I wanted to know whether or not there had been any bucks cruising through the area or not. There is so much standing water on the trail, I also wondered if they'd rather cruise somewhere else. At about 8am, I climbed down to go check the camera to answer some of my questions. As I tip toed out to the trail, I peaked my head out and there was a deer coming! It looked like a big bodied deer so I quickly and as quietly as I could got back up in my stand and waited. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, here came the deer. It was a doe followed by two fawns. I filmed them and after they walked off, I gave it some time and then climbed back down to check the camera. After checking the camera, it revealed that it had been very few deer. One deer per day, if that. Mostly does, fawns and yearling bucks. So I sat for another hour thinking over my options and climbed down. Before I left, I walked west to my other camera set up by the groundblind. I pulled that card and when I walked by the first camera, I decided to set it up somewhere else. I really need to set my cameras to find Pencil, but that's another story.
After some food, dad and I went in to vote. We got back to the cabin at about 2:00pm. I decided that I would go hang the camera and hunt NW of the bus. I haven't spent any time back there this year. I went there once to hang a camera, but after the snowstorm in early october, there were so many trees down that it looked like the deer wouldn't even want to be using that area. I left a camera up for about 5 days while we were in Texas. I came back to 2 pictures - a doe and a yearling buck, so I pulled it down. I may have missed some action, but I think I will still pick up on some rut activity up there, even if it is young bucks. I sat from about 3:00 until dark. I saw zero deer. So it seems like I'm averaging one encounter for every other sit I have. That means that I'm due for Friday morning. I have a camera on John's farmyard still that I could just as well move. I'm only getting pictures of does and yearlings there too. There have been a few bucks shot up around the area:
This one was shot within a few miles:

This one was shot way out south near the creek:

This one was shot up north on the creek:

These were shot somewhere not too far away:

I think I have pictures of the big 8:

The bucks are getting shot, but there's still no sign of PegLeg, BlackNose, or Pencil. And no sign of life from Chippy or Bullwinkle. That remains to be seen.
I did pick up a couple two year olds making scrapes by my permanent stand. I'm hoping Pencil or the Crab 10 will do the same. Steph only gets to hunt one more afternoon - Sunday. I really hope she shoots that Crab 10. I hope one of us gets a chance at Pencil. I feel like it will be in the deep woods. Hopefully there's an open shot for me.