Well, the world didn’t end on the 21st there weren’t any cataclysms, in fact, nothing unusual happened, around here at least, but deer season moved one day closer to its end.  You know, everyone got their pants in a wad over the Mayan calendar and its predictions, as usual end of world predictions were baloney, the only end we’ll ever see is when Jesus Christ returns and what a wonderful day that will be!

Back to deer season, Tim, shot his second doe yesterday morning. He and I talked for a while, and no, I didn’t get a picture of it, because my camera was at Patrick’s house, I left it there after our very unsuccessful duck hunt!

Last week a friend of ours wife, hunting on a neighbors place right down the County Road, bagged a nice buck that scored 140 B&C points.  That made me to scurry through all of my deer pictures and “shots” from the game cams to see if I’d ever recorded the buck.  No, I never did and no, I don’t have a picture of it to post, but I’ll call the paper tomorrow to see if I can get one.

Then, there’s a 10 pointer, minus brow tines and 2 points on his left main beam.  Theses were broken off sometime prior to the 12th of this month because here’s a “shot” of him on that date, then another on the 18th.
    
There’s still a couple of nice bucks running around looking for doe and the following shows the ones that have come by cams.  This buck, on the 18th visited the water trough around 9:30 PM then almost midnight swung by the feeder.  From the looks of his horns, no points broken off, he’s won all of his fights!
    
Then, on the 20th this 8, with short brow tines, the same on that tried to pick a fight with my big 8 and was kicking up dust all around him, maybe enticed another doe at the water trough.

Two more weeks of the season and I sure hope these big ones make it to next year!

Our norther came in hard on last Sunday, dropping temps Monday morning to 19 or 20 depending on where you lived.  Tuesday wasn’t much better, 24 and no wind, I’m surprised that as hard as the wind was blowing on Monday morning that the temps got that low!  Our drought continues though, the front came through dry, but thankfully we had dew the past few mornings (ha-ha).

Colton and I went deer hunting this past Tuesday, the 11th, I went to a stand that Tim had helped me to move last Saturday.  It was cold and the wind was blowing, of course, I saw nothing, way too soon after moving it, but I did scope out all I all the limbs that I would have to cut to get some fields of fire.  Colton, on the other hand, saw 7, a mixture of yearlings, doe and button bucks, shooting neither.  It appears that the doe have cut last years crop of young and have concentrated on running with the bucks.
     

    
However, there are still some good bucks running around, some really good ones as these “shots” from the game cams show, the last two show “Big Daddy”, he’s still around, in fact, I saw him at lunch today.  It was “buck city” around my ranch at noon and as I was going to town to eat, one was running down the road, then a buck, not 2-1/2 years old ran across the road, jumped the fence and as I looked to the left, there was “Big Daddy”, standing in a clearing, his rack was pristine, no points broken off, deciding that I was a threat, he wheeled around back into the thick stuff!

Hopefully, these bucks will make it to next season!

This afternoon, Sunday the 9th, we had a doozie of a norther come in!  Forecasts are for the temps around here are 26 to 28 and, of course, it came in dry, compounding our drought conditions.  In fact, this past October/November was the driest since 1926, they had 56 straight days without rain and we’re on 48 and still counting.  October was a bad one too, the driest month on record and we had a whopping .2 inches of moisture!  Until today, we’ve been under a heat wave, one small front came through dropping the temps to the upper 30’s, but it only lasted a day and a half, it was beginning to seem like we’d have a perpetual summer!

Back to the deer season, Tim Came over this past Thursday and shot a doe and no, I didn’t take a picture.  The count now is 2 bucks, mine that scored 142.5 B&C and Tim shot one probably a 125, and he said, “It shrunk on the ground!”.  Here’s a “shot” of a wounded doe on December 4th, she’s carrying her leg very funny and it looks like the shot hit her on the upper leg.  We’ll have to get busy and find her, then put her out of misery.

Here’s a “shot”, look to the upper left of the trough, of an armadillo stretching and getting a drink.  The water trough has been there a long time and I’ve had a game cam there for over a year, since our big drought, and this is the first ‘dillo that’s been around.

We’re getting a lot of different animals coming for water, this bobcat came strolling by the trough, obviously to get water, but the camera is set on one “shot” per minute and missed the drink part.

The bucks are still fighting!  One buck especially, he one that I’ve been following for over a year, last year he was 2-1/2, an 8 pointer, a corn and protein pellet thief as this picture shows, he’d rear up on his hind legs, stick his nose into the feeder mechanism and eat away, but this year his horns are too big!  Besides he’s grown up now, 3-1/2 and fighting over the doe too!

He’s grown up and will be a fine buck next year if he survives this season.  This “shot” before the season opened shows just how grown up he is, notice the small brow tines and the curvy tip on his right, G-2, the main beam.

He even tried to pick a fight with the big 10 pointer that I shot on November 7th, see my post on November 8th, “Challenge Unanswered“.  Notice his head is down, but the curvy tine on his main beam clearly shows.

But notice now, it looks like he’s bulked up, both brow tines are broken off and the curvy tip on his right main is gone.  But, as he eats away, competition lurks in the background another 8, with love on his mind and it looks like all his tines are intact, sneaks up on the button buck. From the direction he’s coming in to the feeder, he’ll be surprised when he finds it’s a button buck and I’m sure the 8 with points broken off will welcome him right on in.  The second “shot” better shows the damage done, brow tines almost gone and the curvy tip to the main beam gone.

It’s been hot, dry and windy for a couple of days, no rain for 3 weeks, we are way behind on rainfall this year and I’ve not spent too much time in the deer blinds and stands, however on November 30th I went out and sat in a tree stand and the results surprised me.  It’s been hot too, up around 80 and I worked up a good sweat walking out the stand.

Surprising results because walking our toward the stand, I came upon this track, a coyote track, right in the middle of the road and I might add, this track was on top of my tire tracks.  I had driven down this road probably 3 hours earlier to replace the memory cards in my game cameras, I knew it was a coyote track because they are rounded on the toes and a dog’s are more pointed, but this coyote choose to walk around in the middle of the day.  It was headed toward the water trough, I still have a game camera there and it’ll be interesting to see if he went to water.

Taking a picture of the track, I placed the camera into my camo hoodie and climbing into the stand, I must have changed the setting on it for very negative results!  Being in the stand for less than an hour, along came this fine 8 pointer.  He’s been hanging around for a month or more chasing doe, in fact, I watched him for several minutes this past Monday morning chasing a doe right in my front yard!

Here’s a “shot” of him in a game cam in better days, better days, because he had broken off a brow tine plus one of his main tines and he was noticeably limping.  Getting out my camera, taking a picture of him, I noticed that checking for the picture, it wasn’t there?  Then I checked the camera and somehow I’d set it on night exposure, so I didn’t get a picture of this wounded, limping buck.