Gentlemen - the Autumnal Equinox is only 3 weeks away. The nights are cooling off. Leaves starting to turn. The fall of '08 is taking shape.
Duke - I feel ya man. It actually smelled a little bit like fall, yesterday morning. I'll PM you my cellie no.
Marty - I'll get my cell number to you too.
Danno - Nice pictures, buddy. The big boys will show sooner or later.
Al - I almost bought a 2-pack of trailcams on Friday, but I resisted the impulse. I have a feeling that trailcamming would develop into yet another hunting-related addiction, and my wife may shoot me. LOL
Weekend update: I was busy all day onSat & Sun, so Ideclared Monday as a NationalMan Holiday, and headed west, alone,to Ohio. The day started off badly, b/c it was a little chillier than I bargained-for, but the goosebumps quickly turned to sweat andmisery as I slogged around trying to find all the stand sites that I mapped-out way back in Feb/March.
Swamps that were ankle-deep with brush this spring were 8' deep jungles of bugs, weeds, burrs and bees. I got bit twice by some kind of horsefly that was the size of a goddam turkey. I almost tore my own head off, just trying to swat him off of my red neck.
5-minute walks turned into 50-60 minute jungle safaris. What I wouldn't have done for a giant spraycan of Agent Orange.
Due to the heavy foliage, I was going through trail tacks like mad. I'll have to pop some out once the leaves come off. A lot of these places, yesterday was only the second time I've ever been in there. Things look a lot different between March and September. Ugh. I definitely underestimated how thick these areas really were.
Here's the spot where I killed my Ohio buck last year.
Looking up the hollow
In sum, I wanted to hit up 10 stand sites. Due to the dense overgrowth, I was able to get to 5. The other ones are justgoing to have to wait a week or two. See, my frustration is a natural side-effect of my own tendencies. I always tend to find stand sites that are just a little farther away than I'd like to walk. I gravitate towardholes in thethickest travel corridors that I can find. The geologic barriers that I like to hunt are seemingly always in places that are tough to access. The summer foliage only makes it worse.
Granted, a few of these sites won't be hunted until 11/1, but I still can't rest until I get in there and visually confirm what I saw back in the spring, and see what it looks like now, versus then.
This is the view off of a trail that leads out to a nice oak flat.
I hate cattails.
Some old Coal Strip that I like to hunt.
Easy to find natural funnels in places like this.
Last night, I got home, took a nap - then went out spotlighting locally. 108 deer, 32 confirmed bucks. 18 1.5 year olds, 13 2.5's and maybe 1 deer that might have been 3.5. 120'ish. I'll post a video soon. Lots of bucks out of velvet.