Lots of hunting and not much to show for it

[Catcher's Mitt]

I hunting from Saturday evening until Tuesday evening at the camp. the 8th through the 11th. the 9th-11th historically have had the biggest and most deer killed on our lease. I spent most of the time hunting from the "sniper" stand. Here is a picture of it from last year when the water was up. the field it overlooks is about 650yds by 2300 yds. so being a trained sniper wouldn't hurt to shoot deer in that field



here is the set up inside, it has a shooting bench. i have my 7 mag sitting in a Bull's bag. nikon 8x binoculars are a little short but suffice. and a Leupold mx-IV helps to get yardages out to around 700 yards. I have a Canon HF 20 with external mike on a tripod.

i hunted the sniper stand Sunday and Monday morning and evening and all day Tuesday. i saw 9 does and two small racked bucks. The larger of the two bucks chased a doe across the field. All those deer were seen before 11 am. So that means a lot of deer-less afternoons. I got a little video of the deer, I thought I had some great video of a Bald Eagle in the field, but in my excitement I must of hit the record button too fast and it didn't record.I did get a lot of video of blackbirds swarming......alive and well!

Captain Eric Dumas of Living the Dream Charters came and hunted with me Sunday evening and Monday morning. Sunday he killed this huge sow. It weighed 245 pounds. It was pregnant and had 7 fetuses in her when we skinned her but that was an 8 for 1 on reducing the pig problem. Monday morning he said a nice buck gave him the slip. I asked him if he had 5 seconds, he said, "not in a row". Oh well, he had a lot of bacon to bring home.

My wife called Saturday a little after i got to the camp and said she had slipped while raking up leaves off the driveway, can you say blower, and hurt her wrist bad. after going to the after hours clinic it was confirmed it was real bad. she broke her radius. she was a trooper and didn't summon me from the woods but i think i might have used up all my yard passes for awhile. so i might not get 500+ yard shot i having been trying to get out of the sniper stand. I have the best wife.

good luck to all you deer slayers that are still getting after it.

Mark

[weekender]

nice sow, great setup in the stand, best wishes to the Mrs. for fast healing. hope you can get a couple more chances to snipe one.

[Tenacious]

I wish I could have gone Marcus! What is that scent stick in your hand? Tell Ms.L to heal up bc the trout are right around the corner.

[Catcher's Mitt]

Steve that is my secret weapon. it keeps them from sneaking up behind and scaring me.