After another early morning, we all met at the truck. Lisa was also joining to hunt, although not staying in camp since she was house sitting for her sister.
The morning was pleasant but cool and very humid. But it felt like a hunting morning.
I was dropped off at Nelson Green Hunting with Lucy stand. I carefully made my way back since Rick said there was likely to be hogs nearby, if not on the corn. As I got close, I heard hogs so I slowed way down and was as quiet as I could be. I felt a little bit like my dog. When she sees a squirrel or something she thinks she can stalk, she goes into beagle-stalk mode, but her tags are jingling and her nails make noise on the road. Every step I took sounded much, much louder than it was to the hogs more intent on their food than anything else.
I managed to get into the stand quietly enough that the hogs were still there. I carefully got situated and waited for daylight. There were two piles of corn and both had hogs on them.
The stand needed some work, it was tilted at enough of an angle to be a little uncomfortable until I found a good way to set. The Lucy board was on the last of its lifetime.
Right around the time it started to get light enough that I could probably see shapes in the binoculars, I no longer heard the hogs, they must be able to tell time; they were gone.
The gods damn that man who first discovered the hours. - Titus Maccius
I enjoyed the morning partially because it was the first one where my headache was completely gone. I also like cloudy cool days. But apparently the deer and hogs did not.
As the morning wore on, I heard some noise right next to me. It did not sound like deer, hogs or squirrels. Slowly looking over the treestand, I saw a very small doe right next to it. Apparently it was just a very clumsy deer. It heard me shuffle and ran a few feet away looking around - only a little nervous. Then it made its way slowly away.
As it got close to the time to get picked up, I think the same deer came out and walked in front of me. This was followed by a spotted fawn chasing it to the left.
Everyone had seen something, but no shots.
Breakfast was some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had.
Rick and I fed a bunch more stand before getting a huge load of corn. Feed them pigs!!!! Nothing is ever easy here, but we got one and a half hoppers full of corn - at least enough for the few days I have left.
After corn duty, it was just a few minutes before we had to pile into the truck to take off again. I sat on the stand where I missed the hog last year. I really like the stand, even if I did have a shirt tail at it.
It was easy to get comfortably situated. I hadn't been sitting too long when a few turkeys came out. I was semi-dozing before I saw them and in that first glance, I thought they were baby hogs. I ain't hunting turkeys!
I caught a fleeting glimpse of a deer on the far treeline. All I could really see was that it was a deer, probably a small buck, definitely running. I recall deer walking this same line from the previous year.
The afternoon wore on and a very well defined edge of the clouds rolled overhead as the area suddenly got very sunny. This was actually kind of nice since it was almost (almost!) cool in just a T-shirt. The sun picked my spirits up a notch. Although it was not the nice serene hunting evening that I enjoy so much. The house(s) nearby was painfully noisy with kids screaming, dogs barking, ATV buzzing, lawn mowing. And I think the sound echoed in such a way to make it sound even worse than it really was. I was somewhat annoyed at times.
Around 6:00 I heard a shot that I figured had to be Mike who was sitting on another stand on the same farm. I didn't hear anything more, so I was hopeful for him.
The rest of my evening passed quietly. I did glimpse another fleeting few minutes of two does along the far treeline, but that was it for me.
At dark, I met Mike at the meeting spot. We talked quietly while waiting to get picked up. It was a beautiful night. Once Rick came, we headed back to the lodge to get Dixie. Kevin hadn't seen much. Lisa had seen many deer, but no shooters; she headed back to her house.
The rest of us went to go to find Mike's deer. Rick turned Dixie loose after making sure the GPS was working. We found no blood and it was looking hopeless until Dixie went on point. We made our way to Dixie and found Mike's deer, barely visible in the water. Mike was looking elsewhere so I pulled it out, soaking my shoes in the process (water shoes thankfully). It was a fairly nice 9-point with one broken tine. Mike's shot was a bit far back, probably hitting liver and exiting the gut. It likely would never have been recovered without letting it lay and without Dixie. Watching Dixie do her work was impressive as was her excitement after finding the deer.
Rick and Mike got a few pictures before loading up to go to the processors. Then it was back to the lodge. I couldn't decide whether food was the right thing to do at the late hour, but I was really hungry. So I had a quick bowl of chili before turning in on one of the latest nights I've had in a very long time (actually not true - a few bear hunting nights were pretty late...).
One more day to go...
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