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Y’all don’t need to knee this. I took care of it today whist viewing the country for mule deer. My mind was busy with what I was seeing through my bino, not what was working on attacking me.
My first though was snakebite:(
The long spines drew blood, the little bitty, 3/8″ little buggers, are very unfriendly. I think between my wife and I we got them all out. I could feel them for sure on the hour drive home.
You’d think after all these years and all of the miles I’ve tramped through my lease I’d learn to dodge the several trillion prickly pears that are out there.:roll:
Glad I didn’t squat!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did see some does and fawns early and a little spike with them but it has been so awful hot the last few days, I’m talking upper 90’s with 40 mph winds. It’s shattered the all time records and with red flag warnings (high wind, low humidity, high temps = extreme fire danger) I haven’t been out long at a time. Cooler weather coming. Yea:!::!:…
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This flowering sagebrush way more friendly.
I decided too hot and windy to go check out the pockets in the canyons. That be waiting on a normal October weather day.
The perspective is a little off in this phone pic. It’s a quarter mile to the other side and the canyon is several hundred feet deep.
Good hunting to all………….
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The squirrels and the deer pure T hated my purple bandana. This is what happens when we go through the dresser drawer in the dark before having any coffee.
The squirrels hurled insults at me and were extremely rude to their guest. The deer stamped their feet and ran away. I’ve never been so insulted in my life!
In all reality it was most likely me moving and fidgeting and the morning thermal carrying my scent to the deer. Fun to shift blame though. 🙂
Purple and Green it goes together right? The white oak acorns out front should distract them.
Super Shrew with some lodgepole shafts all camoed up some Zwickey Eskimos up front
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Everything but a deer today. Big Tommy turkey at 30′, birds nearly landing on me, squirrels in my lap..quite the serenade by coyotes on the way out too…and I have a green/ black checked jacket too. I think it makes me look fat – lol. The wool is more quiet than my camos is the main thing. Nice October day off. Btw, the hammock seat recommended here I’m sitting in..I feel a little butt naked on the ground but I’ve had my day with treestanding. Happy Fall all.
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Grumpy, that’s very flattering! I was going to spend the day cutting and grinding and packing, but decided to build a cutting and grinding table for the porch. I ran out of screws so there’s a trip to the hardware store after I drop my son off with his buddys at a corn maze and then finish the table. I suppose I’ll be cutting and grinding and packing tomorrow unless I get truly ambitious. best, dwc
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Steve, I’ve been grinding for a few years now. Once I started with the traditional archery, I also started cutting up my own deer, plus a couple that were co-sponsored by the Chrysler Corporation and the PA Department of Transportation. I used to use by Kitchen-Aid mixer with an attachment, but I was afraid I’d burn that out and then what’s a guy do for cookies? I bought a Sunmile grinder online. It was certainly not top of the line, although it grinds faster that I can cut. It’s a 1000 watt model, whatever that translates into pony power. I wear earplugs when running the thing. It’s loud!
The table will be fitted with a bottom shelf, back, sides and door on the front. It was actually very stable even with the little wobble wheels on the back legs. I put those on so I could pull it out to sweep. It’s also to be a grill counter. It worked really well. It could be longer, but then it wouldn’t fit where I need it. Time to vac pack the meat now. I cut a hind quarter piece into steaks and grilled them for supper. Oh yeah. Well, back to work…
All the best, dwc
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October 1st found me in my ground blind waiting for the sun to rise. I said a prayer asking for a good hunt. I know that any time in the woods could be considered a good hunt, but I was really hoping for a chance at a deer. My prayer consisted of having a deer come in around 8 AM, either a doe or a nice buck. Giving me a good broad side shot. That I make a good shot and that I track and find the deer with no problems. I know that prayer was pretty specific but I figured, why not. It’s amazing how accurately prayers can be answered. I saw movement just before 8 AM. I was able to see a good size set of antlers. Boy did my heart really start pounding hard. He took his time coming in. It took him about fifteen minutes to cover the distance into a comfortable shooting range. Roughly twenty minutes after I first saw him he turned and gave me a perfect broad side presentation at about eight yards away. I drew my bow and released in a nice, smooth motion. As he was running away I could see the arrow sticking out of his shoulder, smacking everything that he ran by. He turned and made his way up the hill and stopped straight up from me. The buck stayed there for several seconds before he slowly walked off. That’s when the shakes hit me. Wow, what an adrenaline rush. After giving him and myself a little bit of time, I went out and checked the spot where I hit him. I immediately found blood. I made my way up the hill and found where he had stopped. I decided to back out and give him some time. An hour and a half later, with some help by a buddy of mine, we found my deer, a beautiful nine point buck. What an awesome day. Fast forward to the 23rd of this month and I hadn’t seen a deer in the woods since my buck kill. I heard enough noise to know that it couldn’t be a squirrel. Sure enough a very young doe came bounding out into the clearing. She was followed by two mature does that were as cautious as they could be. It reminded me of a child without a care in the world being followed and watched by her wise mother and aunt. I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s been a pretty good season so far.
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My deer drags. Easy to make. To use, turn your butt to the deer’s head pull the handles up to your waist area and pull. These keep the deer’s head off the ground, far enough behind you it’s not bouncing off your calves. You can get the hell loose from it also if on a side hill, or going downhill and things go south.
I have a style that has a harness that goes over your shoulder. I took a Nantucket sleigh ride down a snowy slope strapped in that thing….ONCE…. 🙁
As you can see from the picture, you can drag for a looooonnng time too.
These are are also handy around the house for dragging off cut branches and such when trimming trees.
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While we’re talking hunting places I got a big GRRRRRRRRRRRR.
I was hunting early this morning and I saw game but no shooting.
I decided to go scouting and snooping and checking out some of my old mule deer haunts during the midday whilst the north wind a howling. Mule deer opens in 10 days or so…
This area I will show in a bit used to be green grass, mesquite trees, normal Texas Panhandle fauna. I’ve shot mule deer up here, coyotes and many quail. Me, my wife, grandsons used to come here and play, stump shoot, just get away.
Then about 10 years ago some hon-yuck convinced several ranchers in the area that the mesquite trees were drinking all the water out of the ground. Spray and kill mesquite, greener pasture forever. Poison will only kill mesquite.
Seems it killed everything except the tumbleweeds. The road that is blocked I used to travel all the time, not today.
It’s sad when we decide to mess with Mother Nature…. This plateau looks like after Armageddon now..
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My season has been great so far. My first hunt was a week in the mountains of Va. with my brothers. Black bear topped the list, but deer and turkey seasons were open as well. We harass the same large area of public land every year. I saw ten bear that week but didn’t manage to fill my tag. I passed on several deer and two turkeys (at 15 yards) in order to stay focused on the bears. After a long week of hiking with weapons, I decided to take a shot at a young buck with only a few hours remaining in the hunt. On the last afternoon I had hiked back about four miles to a long flat ridge loaded with acorns and cherries. As I slipped through the timber I saw the deer feeding in my direction. He’d lower his head and I’d move. He’d raise up and move towards me. After about twenty minutes or so of inching toward each other; I drew from behind a tree, stepped to my left, and took the buck at a step or two over ten yards.
Two weeks later I found myself “inspecting” a two-man ladder stand in the deer woods at home. I set the stand to hunt with my children. My son took his second deer from that stand last fall, and my daughter has her mind set on her first deer this season. As I sat in the first light of day, I heard the faint sound of a familiar cadence. As I turned and got my bow up, I saw a big buck walking through the oaks. The buck passed behind me at about twenty-five yards but never offered a shot. I have high hopes, because it’s the largest buck I’ve seen in years…..but it is bow hunting.
This past Tuesday, one brother text me “I just saw the bear”. He has a camera out and has pictures of a very large boar during the day. While it is getting to be more common in this area, seeing bear is still a bit of a new treat for us. An hour later, another brother text me a picture of his sons first bow harvest from that same evening.
With another trip to the mountains for bear planned and almost two more months of deer season remaining…..I can’t wait to see what the Father has to show me next.
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Dang Grumps, sounds tough. Do you have an antlerless tag?
Bow and rifle seasons are done here. There is a late muzzleloader hunt going on right now, but very few tags allowed for that. For the most part only bear hunters out right now. We went out for a 3 day backpack trout trip. On the drive out and back we saw 9 roadkilled deer and a 4×4 courting a doe ON the road! The rut is kicking in here. Here’s a nice brook trout I caught.
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The big brother version of rattling worked on a bigger cervid this fall … to a point.
My partner called in a moose for me with a moose scapula which I found years ago and held onto, waiting for a tag that came this year. When he scraped a bush with it a few dozen yards behind me, I nearly jumped up, it sounded so realistic. Less than thirty minutes later, the real thing showed up but winded us when it was about 60-70 yards from me.
Our deer and turkey seasons end tomorrow. I got out one last time yesterday. (My head is down to look at the deer track, not because I’m dejected!) Thought you Texans should get a chance to see it’s not all sunshine and open range. 🙂
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