Oh goody another hunt at the lease. We went up during the last days of muzzle loader season but took bows. I have several pics of deer coming to all me feeders and they have started to show up around 10:00 a.m. What is interesting is the fact that each feeder seems to attract different forms of bucks and hogs.

My oaks stand has sveral 8 to 10 point deer coming in with HUGE herds of hogs. These deer are all very nice bucks but my does seem to have left for the week. There is one special deer in there that I would not mind getting but he is a spike horned buck. The only thing about his spikes are the fact they are huge. I bet he is at least 8 to 10 years old because he is gray and saggy. His head looks like a bull cows. My swamp stand has only had two bucks show up on it but one of them has FOURTEEN points. It is the deer that I had seen when I went up during hurricane Faye. He is just a freak for Florida. The hogs in the swamp stand are absolutely unreal. The ground in there looks like a WWI battlefield. It is rooted and totally destroyed. My end of the road stand is just getting whacked constantly by deer and hogs. Nothing special in there just six pointers and lots uf varying pigs but it seems to be the most consistant stand I have.
I went to the oaks stand to try to get “pointy” and Todd (T-Bare) took the end of the road. This was a morning only trip and the deer (bucks) are coming later so we decided to sit till 11ish. It was a misty morning and pretty darn cold but I was layered and ready for my long sit. I sat listening to hogs do what hogs do and the doves flying everywhere and just generally enjoying the woods till a doe cam walking right at me. Then another doe comes following that one. Then I see him trailing them. He is a very nice 8 point with a real pretty rack that looks nice and wide. I stand up reeaaallll sllooowwww, knock the release and have visions of just where to put the backstraps on the grill with the corn. These deer are walking in like cows coming to the barn without paying any attention to anything. The buck is trying to plant his nose on the back does butt so I am feeling pretty good right now. They stop……look left….and start stomping hooves. It aint me……is someone driving over there….what is that white thing..? Then I hear it. AARRROOOOO…..DOGS. Someone left there hog dogs out and they are trailing my deer. Needless to say the deer exited stage left like a bolt of lightning and I am left to wonder how beagle tastes if they get near enough. It just aint ma season for Bambi this year. I am 0 for 3 on nice bucks so far. I sit till 11 with little hope but I do not want to blow Todds chances. Get up and head for Todd.

I arrive just as he is getting out of his stand and he announces that he shot two. Yippeee….backstraps for the table. Umm….nope, pork. Ok well we got that running everywhere and I am running low so Yippeee anyway. I ask him when he shot and it was about an hour and half ago…good. I asked him how he felt about his shot and he felt that the up and down was good and the side to side the same….good. Well then lets track the piggies. He metioned that he had only shot once, but got two, with a BOW. He did a pass through on momma and hit a baby on the other side. He told me that the baby was draging its back legs. We found the baby within 5 yards of the shot and he did sever its spine so we have meat. It is only about 3 pounds of meat but very tender, juicy, succulent meat nonetheless. We find momma about 10 yards from where he shot her. I usually tell people that you can not hit a pig to far forward and too low. This was just proven to me again. He shot her in the very bottom of her neck. There was maybe 2 inches of neck at the bottom. I mean come on that is pushing it but he did hit her jugular vein and throat pipe. It put her down QUICK. Hmmmmmm….this might be the new shot to take here…..ummm….no. But it worked. We cleaned hogs packed it in and were on the road by noon heading home. It is sometimes good to have quick success. Next week I get to carry a rifle and when I see the bucks they are on the ground RIGHT THERE.

Has anyone ever noticed that bowhunting is harder?

Cool story. At least you didn't get totally skunked by those dogs.

Cool story. thanks for the interesting read.

Good story Snook, sounds like you guys have a lot of game on your place, best of luck to you getting a good un.....Yes..Bowhunting is harder than rifle hunting, thats whatI love about it!!!!Just the last couple years Istarted huntingwith a rifle again after13 years of being archery only. My oldest daughter wanted to hunt and aftertrying the double bull with her at the ripe ageof 5, I quickly realized that we weren't going to see any animals,so we started hunting with a rifle...I enjoy the time spent with my daughter and have found gun hunting to be fun again!!!!! Really was cool last year when she got her first deer (spike), that memory is more vivid and special than my biggest bow kill ever could be....Ultimately, I hope she sticks with shooting bows as she has done for the last 3-4 years and one day she and I will be bowhunting together......

Beagles do not taste like chicken!Trap them and find owners and kindley return them with fair warning about next time.Yeah bow hunting is hard or everyone would do it,I'm going to carry the AR15 with me now it's rifle season to balance out the scales!