So here goes...R.J. inspired me last year to start carrying my piece of junk camera in the feild whenever I remembered to grab it. These are some pictures from in the field along with some unusual finds that I would like to share. I'll start with the finds first.
This first one is a skull that I found early in archery season. The remaining remains were too old to be a lost deer from a bad shot so I decided it was probably hit by a car because it was near a road. It is a small basket racked 9 pointer with a double brow tine. Two or three more years and he would have been a trophy.
The next three finds all came from one lucky but sad day at the end of last season. I was in an area that has enormous potential because it is only open about a week a year and it has great genes. Sadly, poaching is a big problem there as well as everywhere I hunt, plus the game wardens and the higher powers allow there friends special rights to go anywhere at almost any time to hunt the good places before the normal people like myself get a chance, and they also get to go to places that are off limits to me year round.
The first day I went out, I was walking on clouds as made my way to the spot I chose. As I walked, I realized something was up. There was very little sign and I wasn't jumping or seeing deer every 1 or 2 hundred yards like I expected. I became worried and pressed on. I got about eighty yards away from the spot when I saw a ladder stand on the side of a field I was passing. This dicouraged me greatly because no body had been hunting that spot at the end of last year and this was the first day it was opened for the year, so how did the stand get there? I pressed on though and went to my spot. The spot didn't pan out. I didn't see a thing and again sign was scarce. On the way back, I passed the ladder stand and jumped a doe and her fawn, then I found the remains of a dead doe with an arrow beside it about forty yards past the stand.
The lack of deer was starting to make sense.My next visit to the area was two days after the one just described. I was angry but not surprised, so I decided to hunt in a different place close to the previous one where I had shot a nice nine point a couple years before. I decided to take the long way though which would take me through the place that the nine point came from before I got him. I had always wanted to hunt this place but never did because I allready had more spots than I could visit in the short window that the area was open. I still-hunted my way through the place and was taking everything in, thinking this is a great looking place when I cam up on the remains of a dead doe and then another. Getting angry again, I continued up onto a ridge where I thought deer would be bedded. I got to the top and started to make my way down when I cam across this:
It is a very, very nice 6 with a good spread and mass. What do you think Crazy Farmer? I would have problems passing this one up. I picked it up and set it down to continue my hunt down the ridge. Later I returned to get it and carry it out. I picked it up and went another thirty yards when I found this:
Quite uniqe, it had a lot of damage from the critters that were eating it. I wish I could have seen him alive. I carried them to the side of the road that I walked in on and went back out, to check out a thicket on the ridge next to where I found everything. As I made my way through the thicket I found the remains of another doe and this:
Another 6 but more of a typicaly sized one.
I had quite a day but I never saw a deer. I went out again the next day and went towards the field where the ladder stand was. It was pouring down rain steadily so I found shelter under a large cedar tree where I sat and watched the field and another field on the other side of a strip of trees dividing the two. I never saw a deer again but I did notice another stand. It was a climber that had been left at the bottom of a tree about 45 yards from the ladder stand. Later, I got up and started walking back to my truck when I spotted the remains of a large buck who's head had been cut off about thirty yards off of the little access road I was walking. So all together I found the remains of three bucks, four does, and a shed all in one small area in the matter of a few days. To cut this long story short, That place is done for. It will take years for it to come back to normal if it ever does. I did get one chance at a nice 8 about a mile from there the next time I went out but I didn't want to shoot because I new there were a lot of hunters on the other side of him and I didn't have enough time to scope it out and make sure it was clear. Here is a pic of my collection:
Other than that I have some pics of things I saw during spring gobler season. The first one is a Hog Nose Snake. They are rare here and probably my favorite. I see one about every five years so I had to get pics.
Allthough they are totaly harmless, when they feel thretened they act like a cobra, which is weird to me because no predator on this continent has ever seen a cobra. This guy started right up with the hissing and the hood.
If his show of intimidation doesn't work then he goes to the other extreme by simply going limp and playing dead. It is realy cool but I didn't push him that far.
Here are a few other things. The first is a realy cool flower I found growing in the middle of the woods:
