Ikarus1
Avtomat Krishna-kov
So I'm running on about 9hrs sleep for the last 3 days, but I can say that my deer season has started on a positive vibe.
Every year we hunt the Pee Dee wildlife refuge draw hunts, but this year was special. We were able to share alot of new hunter joy, share our love of the outdoors, and pass on the torch to a new generation of up-and-coming sportsmen.
1st off, my youngest son scored a button buck on the Youth hunt 3 weeks ago. At the time he was the only kid on the board, but we checked and one other young hunter scored a decent doe. I even got that on video!
I was happy then but that set the tone for this weekend. I am tired and my feet and back hurt but it was worth it. And no I never pulled the trigger, and I walked about 20 miles total in 3 days time so I am definitely ready to sleep in Sunday.
This week we took my wife's brother, his 2 sons, my 2 sons and our other nephew. My brother-in-law has hunted a long time but this is the first time we were on a draw hunt together, along with his 15 and 20 year old sons. They're pretty green hunters so we wanted to show them a good time.
Right out of the gate, my wife killed a deer Thursday morning. We got up at 2:30AM, got to the spots before 5AM, and at 5:05AM there were already loud open exhuast turbo diesels riding by and making a racket. I set up in beanfield in a ground blind, and she set up in the woods near a body of water. Shortly after daylight, there was a dense fog and I saw about 8 does' heads above the beans around 200yds. No shot other than a headshot which I don't take on deer. They ran way from where my wife was, and then back to her. Wasn't long before I heard a shot, and I radioed the wife. Just like my youngest, she thought she shot a doe also, but turns out to be a small button buck. Very tender meat! Any deer on public land is a trophy to me, and the smile says it all.
I think we're gonna smoke the hams whole and slice into venison roast beef.
Friday we persevered thru the hoards of hunters cruising the roads before daylight, found a decent spot off Dennis rd, and walked down to Brown creek. Pee Dee refuge DEFINITELY has a hog problem now, and a half dozen dogs up to 300lbs were checked in. We saw evidence of hogs rooting up the ground all over the creek area. That's why I wear a 17-rd 9mm with +P loaded gold dots any time I walk those deer woods nowadays. Jumped a couple of deer later in a different spot on the creek after lunch. The deer are definitely hiding on the creek during the day in the heat. I don't blame them. It was 83 degrees on Friday afternoon
We ended up hunting fields on Friday (on my brother in laws request). He convinced us he had been there since noon and not one truck had drove past him on a dead end road. Of course we came down, parked, walked in about 300yds and ran into a couple (half a dozen) guys. These guys must've been stealth operators that basically hid their truck in woods, walked 500 yards across a finger of woods, thru a huge field and set up on it in a canopy where you couldn't tell there was anyone on that road at all. That is about the dumbest thing you can do on public land. I parked across from where we walked in, and when the guy finally saw us and started yelling (at 2pm....heat of the day). I told him flat out that we had no idea anyone was in this spot, and I had no thoughts of leaving. I was like dude where are you parked? He motioned that he already had 3 guys in the woods blah blah. I'm like bro......there are plenty of acres (probably 150) in that area and I'm gonna hunt a few. We proceeded to walk in a half-mile to the creek and marked a few nice stands in there. My wife while walking out finally said she saw one guy 50ft in a tree above the canopy where you wouldn't even see the ground due to green leaves. I laughed and kept walking. These guys looked to be from Laos so maybe hiding your presence on a dead end public land road and hiding from actually seeing the deer is part of the tradition. I like people to notice I am already hunting in an area - that's one reason why everyone looks like an orange safety pumpkin out there.
Regardless of the (not unusual) public land drama, my nephew managed to kill his very first deer every, a 130lb small 6 point buck. I got to help him drag it about halfway. I noticed our neighbors didn't appreciate us killing a deer 1000yds from their location, and I didn't loose sleep over it.
This morning was a 'late' morning, we got to the spot we had picked out last week around 5:30am. My sons and their cousin hunted a ground blind along a creek and field area close by. However, my wife and I got to take a little nap for about an hour before walking in. Around 7:10am I heard a shot and the radio crackled so I knew it was one of mine. About 30 minutes later, my wife came to show me pics. My son had killed a doe in the fog with his trust ol .35 Remington (his backup gun since his Rem700 wasn't sighted in on time) and they already had it in the truck by 8AM.
Went and got it cleaned and in the cooler and a trip to Cookout for lunch. This afternoon the weather turned on us so I knew my chances were pretty slim.
All in all my wife and boys put deer in the cooler, I got to put them in good places with good equipment and they put good shots on deer. I can't ask for anything more
This is not my pig nor my farm
Every year we hunt the Pee Dee wildlife refuge draw hunts, but this year was special. We were able to share alot of new hunter joy, share our love of the outdoors, and pass on the torch to a new generation of up-and-coming sportsmen.
1st off, my youngest son scored a button buck on the Youth hunt 3 weeks ago. At the time he was the only kid on the board, but we checked and one other young hunter scored a decent doe. I even got that on video!
I was happy then but that set the tone for this weekend. I am tired and my feet and back hurt but it was worth it. And no I never pulled the trigger, and I walked about 20 miles total in 3 days time so I am definitely ready to sleep in Sunday.
This week we took my wife's brother, his 2 sons, my 2 sons and our other nephew. My brother-in-law has hunted a long time but this is the first time we were on a draw hunt together, along with his 15 and 20 year old sons. They're pretty green hunters so we wanted to show them a good time.
Right out of the gate, my wife killed a deer Thursday morning. We got up at 2:30AM, got to the spots before 5AM, and at 5:05AM there were already loud open exhuast turbo diesels riding by and making a racket. I set up in beanfield in a ground blind, and she set up in the woods near a body of water. Shortly after daylight, there was a dense fog and I saw about 8 does' heads above the beans around 200yds. No shot other than a headshot which I don't take on deer. They ran way from where my wife was, and then back to her. Wasn't long before I heard a shot, and I radioed the wife. Just like my youngest, she thought she shot a doe also, but turns out to be a small button buck. Very tender meat! Any deer on public land is a trophy to me, and the smile says it all.
I think we're gonna smoke the hams whole and slice into venison roast beef.
Friday we persevered thru the hoards of hunters cruising the roads before daylight, found a decent spot off Dennis rd, and walked down to Brown creek. Pee Dee refuge DEFINITELY has a hog problem now, and a half dozen dogs up to 300lbs were checked in. We saw evidence of hogs rooting up the ground all over the creek area. That's why I wear a 17-rd 9mm with +P loaded gold dots any time I walk those deer woods nowadays. Jumped a couple of deer later in a different spot on the creek after lunch. The deer are definitely hiding on the creek during the day in the heat. I don't blame them. It was 83 degrees on Friday afternoon
We ended up hunting fields on Friday (on my brother in laws request). He convinced us he had been there since noon and not one truck had drove past him on a dead end road. Of course we came down, parked, walked in about 300yds and ran into a couple (half a dozen) guys. These guys must've been stealth operators that basically hid their truck in woods, walked 500 yards across a finger of woods, thru a huge field and set up on it in a canopy where you couldn't tell there was anyone on that road at all. That is about the dumbest thing you can do on public land. I parked across from where we walked in, and when the guy finally saw us and started yelling (at 2pm....heat of the day). I told him flat out that we had no idea anyone was in this spot, and I had no thoughts of leaving. I was like dude where are you parked? He motioned that he already had 3 guys in the woods blah blah. I'm like bro......there are plenty of acres (probably 150) in that area and I'm gonna hunt a few. We proceeded to walk in a half-mile to the creek and marked a few nice stands in there. My wife while walking out finally said she saw one guy 50ft in a tree above the canopy where you wouldn't even see the ground due to green leaves. I laughed and kept walking. These guys looked to be from Laos so maybe hiding your presence on a dead end public land road and hiding from actually seeing the deer is part of the tradition. I like people to notice I am already hunting in an area - that's one reason why everyone looks like an orange safety pumpkin out there.
Regardless of the (not unusual) public land drama, my nephew managed to kill his very first deer every, a 130lb small 6 point buck. I got to help him drag it about halfway. I noticed our neighbors didn't appreciate us killing a deer 1000yds from their location, and I didn't loose sleep over it.
This morning was a 'late' morning, we got to the spot we had picked out last week around 5:30am. My sons and their cousin hunted a ground blind along a creek and field area close by. However, my wife and I got to take a little nap for about an hour before walking in. Around 7:10am I heard a shot and the radio crackled so I knew it was one of mine. About 30 minutes later, my wife came to show me pics. My son had killed a doe in the fog with his trust ol .35 Remington (his backup gun since his Rem700 wasn't sighted in on time) and they already had it in the truck by 8AM.
Went and got it cleaned and in the cooler and a trip to Cookout for lunch. This afternoon the weather turned on us so I knew my chances were pretty slim.
All in all my wife and boys put deer in the cooler, I got to put them in good places with good equipment and they put good shots on deer. I can't ask for anything more
This is not my pig nor my farm
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