Howdy All,

This year's Deer Camp included Con, Jay, Kyle, Doug, Cale, Bob, Matt, Adam, Click, Ross, Dan, Adam, and myself. I hope I didn't forget anyone. Saturday morning brought a very foggy morning and the quietest opening day I have ever heard. Mark started it off by tagging a doe on Benny's ground. On Saturday evening at 4:25, I had 2 bucks file singly past me while sitting in West Fenceline Stand. The first was a 3 pointer, followed by a spike. They stopped to investigate a scrape 40 yards in front of me. I heard some noise behind me and slowly looked back. After nothing materialized, I looked back at the 2 small bucks only to find that they had disappeared and had been replaced by a large 4x4. He freshened the scrape while being screened by the buckbrush. When finished, he darted across a narrow opening and into some thick buckbrush. I had a very brief opportunity as he flashed across the small opening and I took the shot. Jay shot 2 minutes after my shot 200 yards to the north of me (in Northwest Stand). I had a good blood trail to follow. I jumped him after 150 yards and he ran another 100 yards before piling up 2 yards from our west fence. Jay shot once more to anchor his buck for good. Both were nice deer that would make our Top 10 wall. Mine fit in at Number 6 and Jay's secured the Number 10 spot. It is the second largest deer I have ever killed.

On Sunday morning, Doug made a nice shot at a doe out of the Powerlines Middle House Stand and Cale followed the blood trail to find his Dad's deer. Meanwhile over at Benny's land, Dave lip-squeaked a coyote to his demise and then followed that up with a nice doe. Sunday afternoon was spent boning out deer.

On Monday, Jay and I took our meat to Polk to be processed into burger, and on the way back, Jay, Belle, and I walked a treeline and picked up 7 quail. There was just enough daylight left to try to dupe a coyote, so we headed over to Craig's CRP field. I started calling at exactly 5:00. I was set up 100 yards to the Southeast of the CRP field. On my second squeal, a large male hurdles the fence and continues running across the grazed pasture right towards me. His quick appearance catches me off guard, so I keep my call to my mouth and don't move. At 20 yards, I figure he can do anything he wants and I still own him. I drop my call, pick up my shotgun and by the time I squeeze off the shot, he is 5 yards in front of me. The #4 Buckshot sends him backward 1 yard. I check my watch and it is just turning 5:01.

On Tuesday, Jay continues on what will become his "Career Week". He picks up a rooster out of a weedy draw and jumps a pond next to Craig's CRP field and collects a drake mallard.

On Wednesday morning, we try calling Craig's CRP patch again with no luck. Since Jay is using steel shot for coyotes, we sneak over to the pond to see if there are any more ducks. Jay's luck continues as we spy approximately 20 mallards sitting at the far end of the pond. We sneak closer and crawl up to a small ledge that overlooks the back of the pond. Jay is the only one that has steel shot as he was using Steel T's for coyote loads. He lays down next to the ledge waiting for the ducks to swim around the ledge. I quietly watch over the top to see what the ducks are doing. Finally 2 ducks swim towards us disappearing below the ledge. They do not reappear for quite some time, so I slowly rise to see where they are. What I told Jay next about made him drop his gun. There was a flock of 2 dozen Canadian Geese right on the other side of the ledge below us. Jay told me the day before that he has never shot a goose. Now he has two. One lies dead in the water and the other was wounded and swimming in the middle of the pond. Jay is now out of steel shot and we decided to head back to the cabin to get Belle and more shotshells. When we returned an hour later, the dead goose had floated in and the other was nowhere to be seen. There were coyote tracks all over the pond and Jay wondered whether a coyote had picked up the other goose. I took Belle and started checking the cedar draws on the windblown side of the pond. Jay headed over to the west side of the pond to check the draws. Our search turned up nothing. We met back at the dam and Belle headed over to the west side of the pond. She took off up one of the draws and chased out a hen mallard that had been previously shot (possibly by Jay the day before). We collected the hen and started to head home. Jay noticed another mallard land at the far end of the pond and we decided to try to sneak it. Somehow, it disappeared without us seeing it. On the walk back, Belle hunted up some of the draws on the west side and all of a sudden, we heard heavy wings and hrrooonk, hrrooonk. Out comes the wounded goose and Jay drops it on the far side of the pond. Belle is not a big lab, and I was even wondering if she could handle a goose. When she retrieved it across the lake, all you could see was the goose being pushed across the water.

We went home on Wednesday afternoon and returned for supper on Thursday. Jay's brother-in-law, Mike, joined us to try to shoot his first deer. He accomplished this feat on Friday evening out of Powerlines Middle House Stand. It was a nice doe that he dropped in his tracks. On Saturday morning, Ross shot his first deer. Likewise, it was a nice doe out of Come-Along Stand. All during this time, Con had been seeing deer, but nothing he wanted to shoot.

Click (formerly known as Griz, formerly known as Cookie, formerly known as Luke) got his chance Sunday morning. Two doe at 21 yards. But as his new name entails, that is exactly what the two doe heard. However, this excitement for Click paled in comparison to what he experienced Friday evening. He found a huge 4 pointer dead near Northwest Stand. It had been dead for a year, maybe two. But the skull and antlers were still intact and in relatively good condition. The heavy, massive 4x4 grosses 140 2/8 and nets 138 6/8. That is incredibly huge and symmetrical for a 4x4. It has a special place on our wall.

Bob and Matt passed on smaller bucks and could not get the shot they wanted on a larger buck they saw.

All in all, it was a good year and a "Career Week" for Jay. He harvested everything that he hunts in the fall except for a coyote. He harvested deer, pheasant, quail, ducks, and geese.

Click here for the pictures.