Our firearms, deer season opened this past Saturday and long before dawn I was sitting in tripod stand on the back of my property, seeing a huge buck before shooting time and watching more doe than I could count. But unknown to me, things were happening around another stand. This huge buck, pictured below, a 10 pointer, casually walked across the open space in front of the stand and was caught by a game cam. Of course, this blind, barely visible in a tree in the upper right of the picture, was hunter free.

A little later, this young buck, probably a 9 or 10, sauntered across the same open space.

Compounding the “not being there” problem, I have come down with a bad case of allergies and was so stopped up and coughing, yesterday morning, I couldn’t even get out hunting. With the bucks moving around, our cedar trees are pollinating causing an allergy explosion with me and most of the other residents of central Texas!

Sometimes, life is hard!

Randy Pfaff sent me this picture, taken this season in the Texas Panhandle, of a fine white tail buck that scored over 160 B&C. He didn’t say where it was arrowed, but I bet it was somewhere close to Memphis, Texas. Brad and I hunted outside of Memphis in 2008 but didn’t score, however there are a lot of nice bucks, both mulies and white tails around there. My post, [“The Pheasants And Deer Were Unsupportive”] on December 14, 2008 tells the story.

Ev Sims sent me a before and after picture of his son and his pheasant hunting trip in England. The trip was a mixture of business and hunting, but we must be prepared for the hunt as the clothes show.

Their hunt was a rousing success, taking over 160 pen raised pheasants. Over 4,000 had been released earlier!

The Brits really dress up for their hunting. As is said, “Clothes make the man!”

The following pictures are from my (only) game camera, since one is away in Alabama getting fixed.

Early in the morning on October 25th, two coons showed up for an early breakfast, then on the 27th another coon, and what looks like a cat of some kind showed up. This probably isn’t a bobcat because it would have attacked the coon, maybe a ringtail, but its head isn’t shaped right. My guess is a house cat, but what’s it doing inside of a deer feeder and I don’t think cats eat corn, anyway it scooted before the next “shot” was taken?
     
Here is a little cottontail.

Then on the 29th, five deer showed up including a young, buck with an already nice spread to its horns. In the background may be my melanistic deer?

A little later the same day, the buck was gone, but 7 deer replaced them and got “shot”. It looks like the melanistic deer moved up and is browsing beside the fence. There’s still so many acorns on the ground the deer are just topping off with corn.

Last night was cloudy with, and like today, a good chance of rain, in fact during the evening we had .3 inches, the wind blew from the north at around 25 with bigger winds forecasted on Thursday. It’s supposed to “fair” off by Saturday morning, the opening of rifle, deer season around here, with light winds and temps in the mid 40’s. I can hardly wait!

In spite of the heavy winds and full moon, last Sunday evening I went out to the new tripod stand to see if any deer were moving around. Walking toward the stand I almost stepped on these tracks of a big, deer.

Close inspection, to me, because of the depth of the track at the rear, I’ll call it a mature, buck and a nice one! And no, I didn’t see any deer movement.

This series of “shots” from the game cam shows my melanistic, deer, and yes, I have officially classified it as a melanistic. It showed up in the morning, then the rain came through and then it showed up in the afternoon.
     
This storm, which dropped staggering amounts of rain along I-35 and west of us near San Angelo, spawned tornadoes last Saturday and Monday south of Dallas, one of which near Rice, Texas injured several and was captured on video. It was wild, weather north of us, but we got no tornadoes and only .2 inches of rain which was welcomed! Now the same storm is pounding the mid west.

My game camera is on the “whack”, the flash isn’t working and the infrared only works sometimes. This week I’ll send it back to the manufacturer in Alabama. Maybe I’ll buy me another one, but I think I’ll be trying another manufacturer?

One of my friends, Paul Nugent, sent me this very, unusual picture taken of the face of Buffalo Bill Damn, near Cody, Wyoming. The pictures show big horn sheep walking across the downstream side of the damn and licking the salt (I hope it’s not leaking) off of it.

My neighbor, James Crumley, sent me this picture of a fishing trip he and his son went on to Rockport, Texas. His son tangled with a big jackfish, or jack crevalle, finally landing it, but breaking his Ugly Stick (sold by the manufacturer as unbreakable). Big jacks will do things like that!

On October 2nd, Ev Sims game camera took this “shot” of a nice Jackson County, Texas buck. Last year on my November 19,2009 post, “[We Got Him]” Ev sent me pictures of a before and after of a real nice buck. We’ll see if he sends one this year too!

The morning of Tuesday, the 28th, was a good one for deer movement, first thing to show up was a spike and 5 other deer.

Then, 5 minutes later one of the deer had moved on, but the spike was still there.

At 8:30 AM, 6 deer were gathered around the feeder and a yearling with little horns had walked up.  The spike was still there too.

Here’s an interesting “shot”.  On Thursday while going out to exchange 2GB memory cards in the GameCam, these 3 deer heard me coming, one jumping out of the feed pen and were in the process of clearing the area.  When I drove up to the feeder at 8:30 the deer were gone!

Checking my game camera last Friday, there were two interesting pictures.  One, “shot” on the morning of September 21st shows two deer, one walking away and the other, apparently surprised by the flash, looking at the camera.  What was funny was the cottontail, rabbit, also surprised!

All last week was bright moonlight so no bucks showed for a “shot”, but just after daylight on Friday morning a spike showed itself outside of the feeder.  During our State’s special Youth Hunt, this one will be a target for one of my Grandsons!

Last week Layla sent me an e-mail with a very interesting picture attached.  You may know that our State’s Flower is the bluebonnet, but just think about this next time you stray into a bluebonnet patch!

Also last week, I got this “shot” of a writin’ spider with a lot of writin’ on its web.  This one was under another eve of the old, ranch house.

James Crumley, my neighbor, just got back from an elk hunt near Cuba, New Mexico with his son and brother and we talked at length about it.  He said they were covered up with elk, but kept passing up shots with their bows, until it was too late to get one.  They didn’t take cameras on their hunts so nothing but mind pictures of all the elk they saw, but they did take a pic of James and his son loading up of loading up a mule. 

Here’s a pic of James riding into the camp with Brownie in tow.  James said that after they made camp, he rode Brownie for                                              the rest of the trip.

Everett Sims sent me some game cam shots from his ranch in Jackson County, Texas.  This one shows a nice deer looking right at the camers.  Is he smiling?

The other one shot by the same game camera shows two of the big boys dukin’ it out.  It’s too early for them to be fighting over does so they are probably just practicing or fighting over the corn?

Randy Pfaff in Colorado sent me this pic of a bear in his tree stand.  Randy said he let the bear have it and walked, hurriedly away.

Last Tuesday I drove over to Temple and visited with my knee doctor and got the same old report from him, “In two or three years you’ll need a replacement for your right knee.” Not liking his report any better this time, on Wednesday I drove up to Irving and, despite the killing heat, 115 on Thursday, played in five, Senior Softball games. It was so hot and humid that our third game on Thursday was canceled.

As a side note, during the two-day tournament, three players fell out, with one having to be hospitalized for heat stroke. All three ate no breakfast and drank only sports drinks, no water. Replacing electrolytes are fine, but you have to replace the water that is sweated out!

After getting home from Temple, late Tuesday afternoon, I was able to get a couple of “shots” of a big, buck. This one is probably the one I mentioned in my August 14, post, [More Outdoors Pictures].

There was a group of 6 deer and the big one, the buck, in the middle, has his head down browsing.

After the heard broke up, the big one is still in the center of this “shot”. Cropping the picture helps some to see his size.

A third “shot” of the big one and more cropping shows the excellent size of this big boy!

I wonder if that young, dark one is a melanistic deer?

One of my softball teammates, Ev Sims, sent me these pictures of some real good deer he and his Son have coming into one of their feeders on their ranch. Last year, before deer season opened, Ev sent me the picture of a ten pointer they had caught on the game camera. This, the best deer they had seen on their ranch, was on my post [More Outdoor Pictures, November 6, 2009]. After the season opened, Ev’s Son shot the big one and posted it on November 19, 2009, “[We Got Him]”. This year, some excellent deer are already showing up on their game camera.

This one, a nice deer, is pictured on the right.

Picking up all this corn is really tiring. Must be time for a nap.

Finally, this last picture shows some good deer, but the one in the back by the blind, is really a “keeper”. Blowing up the picture, this deer has a drop tine on its right. If I were more technical I would show the blown up “shot”, but, still, it is a big one!