Sullivan's Travels

[Suilleabhain]

well, got back from 3A, Livingston Manor had a small flood again, water running all over the property, Willowemoc looked like coffee. And, best of all someone stole my trailcam. Saw some small to medium deer on the roadsides, all this year or last year's. No racks, no size, no turkey, no bear.

[Fletch]

errr I hate theives!!

[Suilleabhain]

Yeah well, it is what it is. Hope he enjoys it. My blueberry bushes took but they were under an inch of water from the rain and my hawthorns made it. Forsythia may not have.

Guys at Montauk are having tackle taken right off their trucks. One guy walked around the back of his truck and some idiot tried to take his rods from the front!!!

[Suilleabhain]

Someone is ready to roll

Edited October 6, 2012 by Suilleabhain

[Suilleabhain]

So while all you guys and gals are out getting wet, tired and some frustrated, I was in Florida for my g-daughter's 4th birthday. Good seven days with her, we practically raised her and they had to move in July because of the economics. Nanny is pretty broke up over it so we'll be frequent flyers I'm sure.

Anyway, go to Applebee's for dinner and a woman walks in that looks just like Julia Child. 6 foot tall, high heel black boots, black short skirt, she ain't half bad for a 60 year-old. Only problem was..it's a guy.

Still haven't gotten over being skeeved at that yet.

[Suilleabhain]

So here is how 2012 went.

The drive up to South Wales was uneventful, the gear shift on my steering column had been acting hinky and I had to push it to park to get the thing to start. Had that creeping feeling that I'd stop to take a leak and she wouldn't start but it went fine. Turned out the column needed a re-build. The 7 1/2 hour ride seems to be getting shorter after doing it 15 or so times.

I get there and I'm told there is a huge buck with a rack like they've never seen. They haven't counted points yet, no one has gotten close enough.

Day1 7:30 I have a doe trot in front of me but she's small but flagging. So I wait and 2 more come down, these are nice but its opening day at 7:35 and I leave them alone..and they are flagging and turning back. 2 minutes later two more start coming and they are horses so i have a dilemma. Take a doe in the first hour or wait. I only have three days to hunt and my job is to put one in my brother's freezer. So I let them all pass after they browsed around for half an hour.

About 11 another nice doe bounds down the hill and stops..and she's tyurning back and flagging. So I wait good 10 or 15 minutes, nothing shows. So I decide to put her in the freezer and have two dand a half days to hunt horns. Get set, lean my shoulder into the tree I sitting at, put the scope on her, check the scope to be sure its clear, crosshairs in place on a standing 60 yard shot and bang. She looks at me, tail goes up and she bounds away pretty as a picture. No flinch, no hunch, no corksrew tailing. I'm mystified, I MISSED. I sit back in my eat with the gun butt on my knee and the muzzle at the sky and I turn, theres high rack 6 or 8 pt 25 yards from me.

We are eye to eye, he's not spooked but I won't even think of a shot, I have to do some tracking and blood checking so we stare each other down and he walks away. He'd have jumped as soon as I moved anyway.

So I go to wher she stood and took her firs jump, no hair, no bone chips, no blood. Walk her trail, walk it back, my brother comes and we both walk either side of her trail for 100 yards, nothing.

Back in the stand, now I'm spooked, I never had an unexplained miss like that.

2 o'clock a nice deer comes upbut since I'm in doubt mode I'm looking for the perfect shot, even more perfect than standing broadside 60 yards. It stops, and turns its head away from me and I have a beauty base neck shot right in the crosshairs but I wait for abetter shot and don't get it.

3 o'clock the big rack comes into view 100 yards out. All I can make out is the main beams and they go way out in front of his nose, he is one beautiful animal. Nowhere near any kind of shot but he was just fun to watch.

3:45 a deer comes across the top above me. He gets directly uphill from me aboout 90 yards and there is heavy cover that a mouse can't get thru between us. I can hear him but can't see him. And he turns and he's coming..and coming. real slow. I hear a twig snap, then nothing then another. I get set and now he's in the deep cover forcing his way thru making all kinds of noise. Now I can see movement and I get a rest and just waiting, another 25 feet and he'll be clear at 30 yards. He's picking his way thru and teh light is failing. He's walking so slooowww. I can see horns now and he's jus about out and all I can see is the white on his chest and the white around his eyes, the light is gone. Game over, he won. let him go.

Last day I move to a tent blind. Mid day over my right shoulder a deer comes up out of this deep stream and ravine. So deep and steep I don't know how they do it. It's small, may be the first one I saw opening morning. Walks across the logging road and then turns to look back and I'm Oh there's another, then another. I know exactly where they are going to walk buts its too far out in heavy cover.

Now I have 4 of them that I can't get a shot at. Sit back in my chair and suddenly a fifth one comes out of the ravine and stands in the logging road. This is the same group from opening day minus one. And the last one is a horse. She saw something because she's staring at me, foot stomp, craining her neck looking at me and starts walking to me. I got no shot, she's spooked, gun is facing the wrong way, and she's over my shoulder. But she settles down and turns to follow the others but real spooky slow. Finally there's a tree between us and I move into position. A soon as she steps from behind the tree I'll take her. A squirrel comes running hell bent and her head comes right up. She heads downhill at 90mph. Then I see orange and its my friend Donnie's son Chris out for a hunt. That's how it goes. Chris asked if I saw that deer. Yeah the one I had my scope on? sorry. Who cares, always next year.

Talked to my brother later that week. Donnie had his scope on the high rack 6 or 8 and the Curse of Chris got him too. he forgot to turn his radio off when he saw the buck & Chris called him. I signed my tags over to Donnie but he couldn't get the job done either for my brother. That's like Hawkeye not getting a deer, unheard of.

Back at 3A for muzzleloader I didn't see a deer but the weather was sun and mid to high 20's beauty days.

My brother did get his freezer filled finally. Women they know who shot a doe and 6 pt and its her first season had a friend with a button buck they were going to donate, so my brother went and got it. No button, an early shed. Deer weighed 150 lbs.

So the tally was 41 deer seen, 1 miss, saw my first Piebald in the field at Harriman, no rain, no snow, saw plenty of horns, squirrels, hawks and my brother got his freezer filled. I chalk this up as a good one for the books. Its not all about killing.

And the club in 3A, one 6 pt 2 muzzleloader misses..actually 3 because there was a follow-up shot but he forgot the percussion cap.

[wooly]

You sure had an action packed 3 days in town. Guess all these deer run down into the valley when the guns start going off. That doesn't surprise me.

Will your brother be running any cams to try and keep tabs on that big racked buck durring the off-season? Sounds like a smart ol' buck that may run back up the hill to some of the fields this winter.

[Suilleabhain]

I tried to get him to put up cams but he's hard to motivate. He was thinking about buying a .32 muzzleloader just to taget with, this is a story me & my other brother go over all the time. So I said take my Hawken and play with it to see if you like black powder. That as season before last, gave him my whole kit, two boxes of powder, ball, buffalo bullets, tools, cleaners, the works. He took out the instruction book and never got the gun out of the case. Took it all back this season. He's into that relaxing life of a 70 year old in the country. Sit by the fire, watch the deer out the window as he reads in his recliner. As far as we know that deer and the high rack both made it this year. They should be something to see next year.