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[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Not been posting much lately. I've been at deer camp every weekend and every possible weekday since mid November.

Today was the last day of Indiana's muzzleloader season so it's over for another year unless I try some late bow hunting.

Looks like 16 deer and several coyotes and squirrels taken this year at camp. No big bucks, 15 smooth-heads and one small one-antlered buck taken mistakenly so there ought to be some big bucks there next year.

I took two does with gun, none with bow. Son Joe got at least three deer this year. Son Andy (AKA The Duc Man) got at least seven. Two with bow from camp and two with his muzzleloader from camp. The rest he took closer to home including a really nice buck opening day of gun season. It was a pretty tough season since a large part of this areas corn crop is still standing unpicked. Not much reason for a smart deer to leave those standing fields of corn.

I've been kinda makin' up for last year when I was laid up most of the season and it's been a very large time I'm sorry to see end. But ridin' season will be back soon and I'm ready for it now. I've spent a lotta time in God's country this fall, sleeping in a snow, sleet or rain covered tent and enjoying my time in the woods watching the sun rise and fall. I'm 52 years old and still not anywhere near tired of it. Hope the Lord smiles on me and let's me keep scooterizing, camping, hunting and chasing the ol'lady around for a good many more years. But if not, at least I'll have lots of good memories.

By the way, my wife's nephew Brent Irelan, whose huge double drop tine buck I posted a pic of last year was on the Whitetail Revolution television show last week. It was the episode titled "best hunts of 2009" even though he got it in bow season last year. He'll be lucky to ever see a buck like that one again.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Sorry, I forgot to label the pics. The top one is Andy and the buck he got this year. Next down is Andy and Autumn's son Lane with one of two coyotes they got with muzzleloader this morning. Bottom pic is son Joe and grandson Mason who spent a lot of time at camp with me this year.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Good read Mike    Kill'em all ...The coyotes what do you do with them ?  I've been having a small war here with skunks I've shot 4 in the last 2 weeks and my daughter said she saw one in the drive-way last night.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

The boys will sell their pelts or have them tanned. Andy has one great pelt including the face and ears which is very cool to scare your friend's kids with!

He didn't have enough hands to drag that big one back today while he was carrying Lane,  his gun and movie camera but plans on going back for it tomorrow. A local taxidermist is offering to do a free full body mount of the biggest coyote brought in this year and that one might be a contender. They stink horribly and nothing but crows seem to eat them so it should still be there.

Andy and Joe both hunt them hard. Joe beat his first one to death with a log while it was fighting his coon hound when he was 11. I didn't think he was old enough to let him out alone with a gun but after he brought that coyote home over his shoulder I relented and told him to take a .22. He killed two more the next day. Andy watched his dog die from having it's guts ripped out by one when he was 8 or so and he's been getting even ever since.

We got a lot of them around here and we've had a lot of stunks this year too. None hanging close to the house thankfully but I've been seeing a lot of them dead on the road. Skunks sometimes carry rabies from what I've heard so be careful and good luck gittin' rid of em.

[Black Pearl's Captain]

Good reading Frye. Keep it coming.

Raymond

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Here's another pic of Andy's buck. Andy built the timber frame arbor in the pic for his wedding. The woods in the pic is their yard, they got married under the arbor shortly after dawn on Oct. 31. Since he's a teetotaler it was an unusual wedding even by Frye standards. But the Frye's all hear a different drummer I guess.

Soon as the wedding was over they ran us off. Think they had something they wanted to do under that arbor.

[solo1]

Thanks a lot for the great post.  Takes me back to my bow hunting days in Michigan with a bunch of the guys.

I stopped hunting when I was 65 or so so you've got some wonderful times ahead of you yet. 

I finished my hunting days with a bang (pun).  Eight point Indiana buck with a .44magnum Super Blackhawk, iron sights, hand loads, at 42 yards. 

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Thanks for the kind words Wayne.

I hope to someday get a big buck like the one you mention. I've taken somewhere over 30 deer and some of them were bucks but I've never taken a big buck. Once I somehow missed a true giant and twice I've had big ones hang around in front of me after my buck tag was already used for the season.

Once I got distracted by what appeared to be a small child in a bright jacket standing in tall weeds 75 yards away. As I stared at the child wondering where it had come from it suddenly got taller and became a female kayaker who was peeing in the weeds. By the time I was done quietly giggling I realized the buck I was waiting on  had already walked by and was out of bow range. He was an old grey face I only saw that one time. Guess that's why it's called hunting, not shooting!

If you ever feel like sharing some of those hunting stories I know we'd all enjoy them.

Mike

[solo1]

Mike.

  I have to laugh and thank you for the compliment but,  as you know, not all eight point bucks are equal.  I could say mine was great and no one could disprove it, but it wasn't. It was a small buck with a scrawny rack.  I had waited patiently behind my ground level blind for a really nice thick tined widespread 10 pointer to come in range but he didn't. He knew that something wasn't quite right so he came no closer than 80 yards from my blind, a distance that I considered too far for good placement using iron sights.  The eight pointer was more stupid.

It was the second day of the season at 4PM and getting colder and darker by the minute.  I distinctly remember arguing with myself about whether to shoot and then having to gut and drag the buck out by myself when it was almost dark (now that's confidence!)  I shot anyway, the deer ran about 20 yards right into the middle of bramble bushes and fell, tangling himself in the bushes very nicely.

After field dressing, it was a long hard drag to the nearest path in the woods, those brambles didn't want to let go..  I gave up when I reached the path and went and borrowed the farmers wheel barrow.  Trying to get that deer into the wheelbarrow was like stuffing a Blivet.  In case you're wondering, a blivet is 10 pounds of sh++ in a five pound bag.   About the time I thought that it was done, the head would fall to one side and the wheelbarrow would tip over.

I managed but decided that hunting by one's self sucks!!!   I swore that I would go back to hunting squirrels but never did. As a result, my trusty model 75 Winchester has been gathering dust for years.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Now that's a great story Wayne. I can't wait to work the word Blivet into a deer camp conversation next year (or a break room conversation tomorrow). Hunting alone can be a ball, but recovering a deer alone is a bad deal. Man, I can picture dealing with a limp deer in a wheelbarrow.

[Doc Moose]

Congrats on the nice harvest!  Keep it up!