New Page 1

10/25/2005	female	Liberty Hill, SC	7mm Mag Remington	4:00pm	70 yards
The coldest weather we've had so far came in over night, and I had to scramble to find my insulated coveralls for today's hunt. I went to Liberty Hill and again was the first one there. I chose the salt lick stand since William had seen several deer there two days ago. I didn't get much sleep last night, and had to struggle to stay awake in the stand. At one point I dozed off and awakened just in time to see a deer come into the field. A quick glance with my binoculars confirmed that it was a spike; yet another small buck that I couldn't shoot. When will I see a doe, I wondered. I watched the spike feed for awhile, hoping that something else would come along, but he was the only deer I saw this morning. As I arrived at the sign-in board to remove my tag, Arnold and William pulled up. They were hunting where we had put fresh corn out on Saturday, and both of them had seen a few deer. No shooters though. After an early lunch at the Riverdeck Grill just a few miles down the road from the lease, I went back to the sign-in board and decided to go to the family stand this afternoon. I was real early, so I drove over to the trail for the stand, parked, and napped in my truck for a few hours. At 3:30 I awoke and headed for the stand. At about 4:00, I saw my old friend the fox come into the field. I've seen this one before, but have not wanted to shoot and ruin my deer hunt. Now that I had a deer in the freezer, I could satisfy my long-standing desire to shoot a fox and get a full body mount of it. I raised my rifle, slipped off the safety and fired. The fox dropped to the ground, stone dead. Knowing that these animals can be rabid, I waited several minutes to be sure it was dead before I approached it. I wanted to get it out of the field so that the body wouldn't scare off any deer that might come in later this afternoon. I retrieved the fox, took a few pictures, then got back in my stand. Within an hour, a deer came into the field and began to feed. It was eating from right where the fox blood was, so this was a good lesson. I had fired my rifle an hour earlier, killed and retrieved a fox, and yet here was a deer standing in the same spot I had been messing around in. If you see a fox or a bobcat or a coyote and want to shoot it but don't want to mess up your hunt, don't worry about it. Shoot away... it likely won't bother the deer. As the deer fed I confirmed that it was buttonhead, so it was yet another no-shoot situation. The wind swirled, and the young buck caught wind of me. He looked my way, twitched his tail, and quickly left the area. The wind continued to pick up as the evening approached. I put on my Walker's Game Ear muffs to both keep my ears warm and to try to hear any deer walking over the sound of the wind. They worked quite well, because just as it got dark I heard a deer coming in. It crossed the field quickly, and I saw that it was a large spike buck. I'm really getting tired of seeing these small-antlered bucks, and am ready to see either a doe or a big monster buck! But, although I complain about how many young bucks I'm seeing, I'm really just glad to be seeing so many deer this year.

10/25/2005

female

Liberty Hill, SC

7mm Mag Remington

4:00pm

70 yards

The coldest weather we've had so far came in over night, and I had to scramble to find my insulated coveralls for today's hunt. I went to Liberty Hill and again was the first one there. I chose the salt lick stand since William had seen several deer there two days ago. I didn't get much sleep last night, and had to struggle to stay awake in the stand. At one point I dozed off and awakened just in time to see a deer come into the field.

A quick glance with my binoculars confirmed that it was a spike; yet another small buck that I couldn't shoot. When will I see a doe, I wondered. I watched the spike feed for awhile, hoping that something else would come along, but he was the only deer I saw this morning.

As I arrived at the sign-in board to remove my tag, Arnold and William pulled up. They were hunting where we had put fresh corn out on Saturday, and both of them had seen a few deer. No shooters though.

After an early lunch at the Riverdeck Grill just a few miles down the road from the lease, I went back to the sign-in board and decided to go to the family stand this afternoon. I was real early, so I drove over to the trail for the stand, parked, and napped in my truck for a few hours. At 3:30 I awoke and headed for the stand.

At about 4:00, I saw my old friend the fox come into the field. I've seen this one before, but have not wanted to shoot and ruin my deer hunt. Now that I had a deer in the freezer, I could satisfy my long-standing desire to shoot a fox and get a full body mount of it. I raised my rifle, slipped off the safety and fired. The fox dropped to the ground, stone dead. Knowing that these animals can be rabid, I waited several minutes to be sure it was dead before I approached it. I wanted to get it out of the field so that the body wouldn't scare off any deer that might come in later this afternoon.

I retrieved the fox, took a few pictures, then got back in my stand. Within an hour, a deer came into the field and began to feed. It was eating from right where the fox blood was, so this was a good lesson. I had fired my rifle an hour earlier, killed and retrieved a fox, and yet here was a deer standing in the same spot I had been messing around in. If you see a fox or a bobcat or a coyote and want to shoot it but don't want to mess up your hunt, don't worry about it. Shoot away... it likely won't bother the deer.

As the deer fed I confirmed that it was buttonhead, so it was yet another no-shoot situation. The wind swirled, and the young buck caught wind of me. He looked my way, twitched his tail, and quickly left the area. The wind continued to pick up as the evening approached. I put on my Walker's Game Ear muffs to both keep my ears warm and to try to hear any deer walking over the sound of the wind. They worked quite well, because just as it got dark I heard a deer coming in.

It crossed the field quickly, and I saw that it was a large spike buck. I'm really getting tired of seeing these small-antlered bucks, and am ready to see either a doe or a big monster buck! But, although I complain about how many young bucks I'm seeing, I'm really just glad to be seeing so many deer this year.