HighCountry,

Yep, we checked the trees and didn' t see him. The only thing that I can think of is if he crawled in a tree that fell down last year. It isn' t much cover, but, if he got in between where the tree split and ducked down, we could have missed him.

It was just amazing to me that a 200 pound black blob could disappear so quickly

a.k.a.

I honestly don' t know what to do about hunting in the wind. Sure, the rut is in, but that is some SERIOUSLY strong winds out there. I think mother nature may just prevail over the rut this time If you do go out, I would say that you should try to stick in a bottom that is fairly open. Deer can' t stand woods that are noisy when the wind is blowing. The wind should be less powerfull in a bottom which means that the deer will feel more secure considering that they will have better hearing and a better sense of smell there. Either that or set-up on the edge of a field, maybe on a cut powerline also. One of my favorite spots on windy days is my " pond stand" . It is a tree that is located in a field, right on the edge of the woods. The field is just grown up golden rods with green briar patches scattered throughout it. The deer don' t have to worry about tree limbs making so much noise that it blocks their hearing and they have the extra security of the golden rods instead of being in a open cut field.

As far as the beer goes, I ain' t old enough to drink yet, but hey, you never know, I might be one of those guys that would shoot you over a game of pocker hahaha