Chris was able to harvest two deer with his Thompson Pro Hunter muzzleloader on Saturday morning, one being a mature doe and the other, which he thought was a doe, turned out to be a nubbin buck upon closer inspection. So, Chris used his buck tag, and we hunt in a one buck county, which unfortunately means he won't be able to harvest another buck on the lease this year.
Lee saw the most activity of all on opening day - 3 bucks and 7 does. The bucks were a 9-point, an 8-point, and a 5-point, but none were big enough to be considered "shooters". Lee was able to get this picture of the 9-point.
My Dad only hunted on opening morning and had a 4-point walk by.
As I was driving across the front pasture Monday afternoon I saw a small 8-point chasing a doe on the east side of the hay field, headed in the direction of our free-choice feeder. About 5 minutes later, as I got closer to Tater Hill I saw the same two deer. The buck was chasing her across the ridge near my box blind.
I was finally able to get in one of my treestands at about 4:00 Monday afternoon. Shortly after 5:00 I had a 1 1/2 year old buck walk by at about 7 to 10 yards. He had an unbranched antler on his left side and a forked antler on his right. About 10 minutes later I heard something else walking in. I glanced back behind me to my right and saw that it was a very big boar hog at about 25 yards. He continued walking by on my right side as I grabbed my bow. I drew my bow and grunted at him with my mouth to get him to stop, which he did in a clearing about 30 yards away. I put the 30 yard pin on him and loosed the arrow. I made a bad shot and could tell that I had hit him too high and forward in the shoulder. I waited about 15 minutes and then got down to look for a blood trail. I couldn't find a drop of blood anywhere. I finally found what was left of my arrow about 30 yards from where the hog was standing when I shot. He had broken off about a 1/3 of the arrow as he ran by a tree. The remaining 2/3 of the arrow was half covered in blood, telling me that the arrow got about 16 inches of penetration. I called my uncle, Rusty, and he came to help me look for the blood trail and the animal. We never found a drop of blood or the hog anywhere. I think I hit him high enough that I missed all of his vitals and the shot was possibly not fatal. I suspect the hog weighed in the 250 pound range.
On Tuesday morning I saw three young bucks. Two of them were 1 1/2 year olds that looked like little 4-points (one of them was possibly the 3-point from the evening before). The other deer was a larger-bodied 4-point without brow tines, that I think may be a 2 1/2 year old.
Tuesday evening I didn't see anything, but Rusty saw a small 6-point hunting out of Shane's blind.
Wednesday morning I had a 1 1/2 year old 6-point walk by at about 15 yards.
I was able to check my camera and download the pictures. I found two fresh rubs along the tree line near my winch-up feeder, so I moved one of my lock on stands to that location. I also created a mock scrape and placed my camera there to see which buck is making the rubs. Here are some pictures from my trail camera. I can't tell if this is the same deer that Lee got the picture of above or not.
Nasty!
Here are some pictures of a unique buck from Shane's camera. This deer appears to have an extra main-beam on his left side.
I'm home babysitting the girls today and I'm gearing up for my hunt in East Texas that starts tomorrow.
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