Day 6 - the Deer

After dinner and much regaling of the hunt.  It was time for the gutting.  Many bets were taken on how long Doug would last.  Even Doug thought he'd last about 5 minutes before losing his supper.  Fortunately or unfortunately for everyone (depending upon your reference), no cookies were lost.

Joel took the picture of the night (at least he can shoot a camera...well he can shoot a bow too, he did get great penetration through siding)

Dressed weight of buck was 115 lbs.

Weapon:  a used PSE Nova which included 5 aluminum arrows and a Plano case ($150).  The rest was updated to a whisker biscuit ($45) plus carbon arrows ($10/ea) cut to fit to the draw length were purchased.  Rage broadheads ($35) were bought a few weeks prior to opening day.  Word is, Doug will be glad to sell this fine specimen of a bow...signed by the buck slayer himself...cost:  PRICELESS.

Day 6 - WTF

Hunters in the Michigan found contributing to the delinquency of deer by providing alcohol to them.  Here is proof of irresponsible adults getting a buck drunk.

Please report all deer alcohol incidents to the Animal Safety & Security - Hunters Organization (ASSHO).

*** If anyone knows the identity of the hunter on the left; please contact ASSHO Sexual Abuse Hotline.  The buck in question has filed a complaint ***

Day 6 - the Joke

So after dragging the deer back to the truck, Eric raced back to the Double R.  Upon arriving, it was noticed that Kent and Becca were there, but NOT Joel and Mike.

Eric quickly got changed and "relaxed" with the company.  Doug got cleaned up and made a video by standing in front of cabin 2 in the moonlight, looking like he was till in the tree stand.

After the rest of the team arrived, Joel started on making supper right away...never asking how Eric or Doug's hunt went.  Doug showed up with computer in hand telling everyone they just had to watch that video.  The look on Joel's face was a Visa "priceless" moment when it was revealed that a deer was shot.

Upon hearing "take a look in the back of the pickup", Mike was the first one out the door.  He opened the tailgate and started pushing on the tarp stating "yup, that's a deer".  Once uncovered, everyone saw it was a 6 point and many high-fives were exchanged.

Day 6 - the Hunt

Joel and Mike hunted Jeff's Road.  Nothing exciting happened; no deer and no porcupines (and no cougapines too), but they did retrieve the tree stands.

Eric and Doug hunted Kent's family property.  Doug took the "pond" stand and Eric took the "stream" stand.  Eric initially saw several deer, but none came in range for a shot.  While waiting for deer at the "pond" stand, lines of fire were planned since the brush was thick in front of the pond.  Only 4 spots were available for any shot at the pond, but plenty of shots in front of the brush and to the right if any deer so happened that way.

Doug heard a few, including a large doe behind him around 5:30.  Around 5:45 Doug spotted a deer coming from the south headed towards the pond, it was a 6 point buck...fortunately the arrow was already knocked, red dot was set for the amount of sunlight and the release was set.  Before the deer got to the pond, the bow was brought up and drawn.  The buck stopped to get a drink when its hooves hit the pond; as it dropped it's head to drink, the bow was aimed just behind the shoulder (as was taught to him by Joel and Eric during many hours of 3-D training).  A tinge of excitement & nervousness hit which caused the heart rate to go up; so a deep breath was in order.  One deep breath, then the red dot was moved up a few inches to compensate for yardage; the trigger was pulled on the release and the arrow flew straight through the second opening from the left (see pic above), hitting the deer just below the spine, hitting the lung and exiting clean through.  If you click the picture below you will notice the deer has dropped right below the second opening.

Eric showed up at the pond stand about 7:15.  It was decided to drag the deer back w/o field dressing it to play a joke on the rest of the group.  That story to follow...

Day 5 *** Newsflash *** IMPORTANT SAFETY UPDATE ***

This is an alert of the National Organization for Safe Hunting In Trees Network (NOSH*T Network) - Dateline October 21 - 7PM -Cougapine Spotted!  Please grab your gear and run screaming out of the woods like a girl being chased by a Borilla (bear+gorilla hybrid); it's an urban legend that screaming like a 12 year old girl will ward off cougapine and borilla attacks.  Below is a composite drawing of said cougapine; unfortunately the hunter in question who provided the description for our drawing had a BlackBerry camera but was too scared to use it at the time.

Day 5

Joel and Doug hunting at Kent's family property.  Joel took the "pond" stand and saw 8+ deer including a large buck.  Doug was at the "creek" stand and saw his usual zero.  Joel took no shots..  As Doug was leaving his stand, he took the wrong path on the way out, so he got lost for 10 minutes and was late getting out.  Taking advantage of his lateness, Joel hid in the brush near the truck and imitated a pig as Doug walked by and startled him.  He elicited a "whoa" from Doug; but what he really wanted was for him to scream like a 12 year old girl.  (Sorry, but there's already one 12 year old girl in the group so another wasn't necessary).

Mike and Eric were hunting food plot 5.  Mike was in the tree right at the opening of the food plot and Eric was in LOLA (little oak, little acorns).  Eric observed a fight between a porcupine and a cougapine (aka: porkugar). While it was the shape of a porcupine, it had agile catlike moves while running across the plot to attack the porcupine.  Mike witnessed this from a distance and confirmed sighting of large unknown mammal, approx 300 lbs and 5 ft tall.  The porcupine was scared and climbed up LOLA beneath Eric; causing Eric to climb down the tree.  Upon leaving the tree, Eric made a beeline to Mike to avoid being pounced on by the quick and agile cougapine.

Needless to say, Mike and Eric spotted no deer with the cougapine around.

Day 4

Weather:  Rain and very windy.  Doug showed up late and was placed in food plot 3.  Mike was in food plot 2.  Eric and Joel went to Jeff's Road.  No deer activity for anyone.

Days 1 through 3

This is the start of the week long hunt (Oct 17 thru 24th).  Hunting Data for Days 1 through 3 were unfortunately lost due to clerical errors.