This is the view to East (leftside) and the West (rightside) out of my hunting blind.  I love this spot.  It sits up on a knoll, there is a pond to the East where lots of wildlife hang out.  It is always quiet even when windy, and deer are not very skiddish protected from the wind and any signs of humans by the surrounding trees.  You can’t see any roads or other blinds from my blind.  In the picture on the left, you can see where my buck came out.  When I spotted him, and he thought he spotted me, he was right under the little cedar between the two birch trees.  He then trotted out in front of me from left to right(North to South) and was shot angling away at about 50 yards.

I passed up another buck this weekend after listening to my brother-in-law talk about how we shoot too many little bucks and they would be bigger next year if we let them go.  He was standing on the trail (see photo on the right).  I was out of my blind helping Doug find and shoot a wounded deer (it had wandered onto our land.  We did not wound it)  I walked up and I spotted him on the trail.  I stalked up and then saw the antlers.  He proceeded to head south (left in the picture) and I moved around the other side of the blind to get a better look when he came out on the south side of the woods.  As he exited the small section of woods, he turned right at me and proceeded to walk slowly to within about 25-35 yards (bow range).  He was a decent 4, a little tall, but narrow.  It was really cool to be that close on the ground with him and out of the blind.  He moved south of me and began to smell the air…busted.  He did not see me, but trotted off to the south to leave that funny smell behind.

So I am holding Doug to this, he said if I let him go, there will be bigger deer next year.  I better see some bigger deer I guess.  We’ll see.

Hunting Success!!

The morning started out pretty slow.  I woke up on time in my blind, got dressed and opened the windows.  Saw a couple does, thought about one, but at 7:30am on opening day, thought that was a little premature for taking does.  My father-in-law shot one.  A three point, we tracked and found him after breakfast.  A little lunch and we were back in the woods for the afternoon.

So tonight, after a short nap, I was hearing shooting and some chatter over the radio.  I stood up and walked to the window, stretched, and noticed a buck staring right at me through the window.  I was busted.  I froze and we entered a staring contest from not more than about 35 yards away.  I couldn’t move.  No rifle in my hands.

He looked away which gave me the opportunity to grab my rifle.  I was busted again, but he didn’t know what it was he saw.  He turned broadside and started to trot away…blam! 

Though I tried hard to miss him…I spined him just an inch or two below his back.  He piled up right there where I hit him.  Here are the pictures.

There was a much bigger buck around, it was the stuff of legend.  A buck most people would need to pay thousands to shoot.  I have a picture and my brother-in-law took pictures I will have him send to me.  It was shot this morning.  23.5″ spread 7 point with enormous gerth.  3.5 year old buck.  This one was huge.  Makes mine look like a yearling.  But mine is the biggest for me yet, so I am thrilled with it.

Youth Pastor Woes

As a youth pastor, sometimes your the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield.  So the other night we had a trunk or treat program at Lighthouse.  It was pretty fun and overwhelming at the same time.  We were way understaffed for the more than 300 people who showed up.  Anyway, I had set up for a party in the Youth Room, but since I only ever had 6 people at a time, it wasn’t nearly as much fun as I had envisioned.  Of course all the candy was consumed, but mostly by those under 6th grade.

I also had soda there for the night.  It was close to the end of the night, and Kaylin Hill wanted to take a whole bottle of Mountain Holler ( a Mountain Dew knock off from Save-a-lot).  I told her there was no way she was getting a whole 2 liter.  She is hyper enough without the caffeine.  So she proceeds to steal my phone.  Ok that was a little frustrating.  But I was not giving in to her terrorist tactics.  She threatened to erase my contact list, empty threats I am sure.  But you start to wonder. 

Instead I have decided to get even.  Her and my young cousin Madeline decided to put a “fun” picture of themselves on my phone and make it the wallpaper.  So in the spirit of getting even, and having a lot of fun, I decided to post the pictures of them here for thousands on the internet to view.  Do you suppose that will make them pause before they mess with me again!  Probably, not.  But I needed to blog about something and this seemed to be pretty funny.

Looking good girls.  Hope you had a good halloween.  Luv ya!

Your Pastor