Yesterday, being my birthday, was celebrated in a tripod stand on the west side of my place.  Seeing nothing right at sunup, at 7:15 there was a nice buck trotting along just outside of the fence that’s the property line.  Giving him a couple of grunts it looked like he went on his way, but not 5 minutes later he showed up right along the fence, looking for the buck that challenged him.

It looked like he was looking my way so I froze, but my rifle was on my shoulder, half way into firing position.  Being able to see him through the scope, he was nestled behind a mesquite and if I shot there was a good chance the bullet would be deflected, so he trotted on, never knowing how close he came to being a roast for Thanksgiving!

Right at 7:45 here came a young 6 pointer, previously “shot” at the corn feeder.  He’s the one with the long brow tines on the left of the “shot” and I’m glad he’s made it this far into the season because next year, he’ll be a real shooter!  He sauntered up to a cedar tree, rubbed his pre-orbital gland on the spines then peed on his tarsal glands, marking his rub.  This was classic, but I had decided that I wouldn’t try to take a picture or video because yesterday morning I was out for meat, not good pictures.

The weekend wasn’t a loss because Colton and his girlfriend, Lauren, hunted Saturday afternoon and they scored with 2 doe, making our total 3 doe and 2 spikes.  We need to take at least 3 more doe and 3 spikes so for the midpoint of the rut we can concentrate on the big ones.

Planning on going out yesterday afternoon, my plans were changed by the weather, because we were under a severe thunderstorm warning beginning at 6:00 PM.  Opting on passing up the hunt, not wanting to get hailed on, large hail was predicted, so I called it a day.  For the past 18 months, we’re way behind on rainfall so any will be appreciated, even the hard variety!