Our 06 shotgun hunt WMU80 ( the week in review,ended today)

[R.J.]

Great first day ...

Another beauty sunrise !




Randy S. got a beauty 8 point ... on his morning ground stand ... 50 yard shot ... right in the boiler room !



The 1st doe that came by my stand ( although we had some deer by our stands before legal shooting light ) in the a.m. ... pushed from another group from the other side of the conncession road .



With Randy's deer tarped and tagged , we headed for breakfast ... which is just as much a tradition as the deer hunt ( peameal and eggs at the Teviotdale Truckstop ! )





After breakfast ... Got some cool pictures from 1 drive we did .... turkeys , does , a fox .








Never pushed a buck and no shots on the does during the drive ....

I missed an 80 yard shot on a Monster 10 point on an evening stand in the swamp ( will be back in that tree for an all day sit tomorrow )

Back at it tomorrow ...

[pphoenix]

Once again great pics and story, the breakfast looks great

[ecoaster]

Nice buck! Did you shoot and miss the 10pt or just not take the shot ? This week is killing me. I think I'll have to put in for the shotgun hunt next year.

Love the pic of the "flying fox".

[TPM]

I spent the morning on a farm near Haysville. Never saw a thing but heard a lot of shooting in the area. In the afternoon I joined my wife at the farm she hunts between Breslau and Guelph. She was in her pop-up blind at one end of the field and I was just inside the tree line at the other. Around 4:30 she heard some noise behind her blind on the railway tracks. She did a few grunts on her grunt tube, looked down to tuck it back in her vest and when she looked back up she had a nice six pointer standing broadside at about 35-40 yards staring at her in her blind. After a bit of a staring contest she clicked off the safety on her shotgun and that small click sent the buck heading for the tree line. She managed to stop it with a few more grunts but by this time he was 75+ yards out. I was able to see him trot into the bush from where I was about 150 yards away.
She's in bed right now as she plans on being back out before sun-up in the morning.

[Ben S.]

Those are great pictures R.J. What a great day you must have had. Just where is it you hunt? I'll be there tomorrow morning.

[mtbyak]

Nice pics again RJ.

Cannot beat a good breaky in the metropolis of Tiviotdale

Also just an FYI for you, the butcher shop across the road there makes good venison sausage & pepperettes if you are inclined to get some of your venison done that way.


Shoot Straight
Kirk

[A.W]

R.J what kind of camera are you using. Great pics.

[wabi]

Love those pics!
Congrats to Randy S.

[Sandman]

Congrats to Randy and the gang RJ~!

Mickey Vee would get a kick out of the breakfast plate with your "Fruitopia" for sure~!

Regards,
Robin

[Quickshot]

great pics and story as always, thanks

[R.J.]

Thanks guys ...

ecoaster wrote :

Did you shoot and miss the 10pt or just not take the shot ?

I took the shot and missed ... shot over him Real thick cover ! .... better a clean miss then a bad hit !

Sandman wrote :

Mickey Vee would get a kick out of the breakfast plate with your "Fruitopia" for sure~!

Yep he always got a chuckle from the fact that I don't drink coffee but had a fruit dring instead ! .... He thought Fruitopia was for " Nancy boys "

mtbyak wrote :

Cannot beat a good breaky in the metropolis of Tiviotdale

Also just an FYI for you, the butcher shop across the road there makes good venison sausage & pepperettes if you are inclined to get some of your venison done that way.

Yep ... they make a breakfast that sets the standard ! ... and yep I know the butcher ... he is a local bow hunter as well !

AW wrote :

R.J what kind of camera are you using

It was a Pentax SLR digital * ist DL .... I have had it since August ... I took it back tonight and upgraded to a Pentax K100 D ... the * ist DL had a scratch on the internal mirror .... took it back to future shop tonight , they said it was covered under warranty ... I bargained with the manager , because I told him I can't be without a camera for 6 weeks while it goes out for repair ... he gave me a full credit against the new one

Ben S. wrote :

Those are great pictures R.J. What a great day you must have had. Just where is it you hunt? I'll be there tomorrow morning.

I hear ya ! .... I hunt between Cambridge and Mt Forrest ... any more detail and I wouldn't have any honey holes left !

TPM : Sounds like you had fun as well ! .... nice to be able to get your wife involved also !

[bsmith]

Cool pics and story! Congrats!!

[R.J.]

Day # 2

Lot's of rain !

Lot's of small deer ... 2 of the older gents in our group tagged a couple .... I saw many small bucks , does and fawns ... due to the rain these are the only pictures I got today ...

A small six point following a doe across a stubble field at approx 85 yards .





The small creeks we usually walk across were getting wider today !



An old stand at one of the Mennonite farms we hunt ... they have taken many deer from this stand .... generation to generation !



The little fork horn came by me again today around 4:30 pm in a different ground stand on the same property I saw him last week . ( same buck as in the link below ).

http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... hp?t=15728

I got three nice frames of him ... he was so close I could hear him sniffing the clover !





I have been leaving the house at approx 4:30 am every morning and getting home late , so not much time for TV .... I did see this good news in a farmers lane !



Off to bed soon ... back at it tomorrow !

[TYE]

Great pictures RJ! Good luck!

[R.J.]

Day # 3

Very foggy and wet !

After missing a shot on a " wopper " 10 point Monday night with my scoped Remington 870 ... I resighted it in .... it keeps moving The scope is pooched ... I put it away and used my 20 gauge Beretta AL391 Teknys Gold semi .... a quick sight in and it shoots right where I point it !

A slow morning stand again ... the fork horn showed up and a medium sized doe ... ( no pictures due to rain and extreme fog ! )

I hook up with CH for breakfast .... and we make a plan ... My goal is to harvest a large doe from public land so as not to deplete the doe supply on our private properties ... I have an extra controlled hunt antlerless tag and have passed many does on other properties since Monday .

Problem is ... where to go ? The Conservation lands have been hit hard since Monday by several groups ... we talked about still hunting the large grass areas of area # 3 etc. ... and finally decide to do the " One man push ! " ( our only option since there are only two of us ! )

We setlle on a sweeeet spot that has worked for us in the the past ... but it is a big area and the " One man push " means CH needs to zig zag the bush quitely / stealthily / tapping trees and making it sound like there are many silent pushers coming thru ....

To make a long story short ... CH puts the " sneak on " ... weaving thru the bush and cover .... 5 deer run towards my position ( I can barely make them out from the fog ) ... one more deer approaches ... it is a big doe ... I let the other 5 slip by me as I stand like a statue at a fence post ... when she gets within range , I shoulder the 20 gauge and take her in between mid air leaps !

CH crossing the field ( see the fog and the vast bush behind him ! )
the " One man push " is complete ! He is one stealthy mo fo !



The walk up



Check out the hoof on her !



A beauty doe ... to compare scale .. I'm 5' 6'' 205 lbs ( I know , I know , not exactly an athletes stat's ) but I can still keep up with the best of them !



Wrapped , tagged , dragged and ready for the butcher !



We end the evening on stand where I saw the Monster 10 point ... no big bucks show but CH gets some great video of turkeys , and 2 dogs harrassing a doe ( in the neighbors field ... his dogs ... and something I will be reviewing with him shortly ! )

Tomorrow is day 4 ! .... now if that monster 10 point would just give me another chance !