Re: DEER HUNTERS !!! Got buck fever yet? Maybe we should post pics ?
Day 1 continued:
0830 ? I heard a gunshot off in my 2 o?clock direction about ? mile away. A few seconds later, another shot. I turned my head in that direction to see if the noise would bump a deer my way. Then a few more seconds passed and still more shots. Then even more. Some in rapid fire. The Hernando Sportsman's Club is located there, but doesn?t open until 0900 and closes at 1500 on the weekends. Hmmm? I figure that the range officers must have been there and putting in their time before opening for business. It took less than thirty seconds before I turned my attention back to the field in front of me.
And when I did, there was a doe and a fawn some 75 yards right in front of me, moving diagonally from my right to my left. Nice! I grabbed my camera and took a couple pix of them as they moved. I was only able to catch the mom though. When they were 141 yards away (ranged with my Bushnell laser rangefinder after they left) I gave a very soft buck grunt call from my Bone Collector Flextone call and the doe stopped and looked in my general direction. Not seeing the buck, a couple seconds later she pressed on across the field. Meanwhile, I was watching intently for a trailing buck that never appeared.
0843 ? I noticed a tiny bit of motion out of the corner of my eye and spotted a flock of Osceola turkeys feeding under a sand oak tree. More pix! No season for turkeys in Chaz this fall though, which is why I have pix and not a turkey dinner!
0900 ? the gun range opened and shots fired? not really too bad, but I did notice that the birds pretty much shut up. A gray squirrel flitted about for awhile.
1000 ? the cacophony from the gun range was becoming annoying. I noticed that no wildlife activity was around me anymore. Everything either left the area or went quiet.
1030 ? I had enough. The noise from the gun range wasn?t just annoying it was interfering with my hunt, so I left the tree stand and headed for the Jeep.
1045 ? I went to a spot in Chaz where I knew there to be some wild boar. I found plenty of very recent pig sign, but no pigs.
1115 ? called it a morning, checked out of Chaz and went to lunch, then home for a few hours.
Day one, Part two
1635 ? back in the tree stand, watching and waiting.
1738 ? sundown
1808 ? day over, headed back toward the gate. No take home prize for me, but still a good day.
1815 ? while checking out at the ranger station, met a 15 y.o. boy who had just shot his very first buck, a nice 135 pound 7 pointer! That?s a GREAT buck for around here. It really made my day to see that young fella with his first deer. The crowd at the checkout station gave the young man ample praise for a job well done and he took it with grace and poise. A fine young gentleman.
14 Nov 10
Day 2
I assisted in a search & rescue effort of a lost hunter and his 7 y.o. son! They were STILL IN CHAZ and being searched for by helicopters, dogs, sheriffs deputies, FWC rangers and other volunteers. They got lost around 1630 and by the time I ran low on fuel and left at 1930, they STILL had not been located!
Didn't see any deer while hunting today but did spook out an armadillo. LOL
15 Nov 10 Monday
Day 3
Got an update on yesterdays lost hunters today. They were eventually found late last night by the helicopter with IR camera. Turns out that they'd entered Chaz by coming in from US 19 and jumping the fence. A big no-no. Couldn't get any other details because the guys working today were not the same ones working last night.
I will say one thing... that whole mess really opened my eyes about the lack of a real emergency plan on getting to a hunter in a hurry. The lost hunter had a cell phone and the LEO crew was able to get a fix on his location via GPS but didn't know exactly where that was in the WMA! They just had all the volunteers AND the LEOs drive all over the WMA in hopes of spotting the hunter's vehicle. Completely random.
Just imagine if he'd had a broken leg or something... he could have died from shock while waiting to be found.
Hunting - I did go out in the morning and again in the afternoon. I was genuinely overtired in the morning though. Forgot some things at home and then when I did get to my stand, I'd left my backpack in the truck. Duh. Sleepy. Anybody else go through that? LOL
Didn't see any game at all. But, in the afternoon, I went to a tree located 98 yards from my stand and soaked the ground and a low branch with some hot doe estrus urine. The check station agents are saying that the rut is at peak right now.
This morning I have appointments, so won't be hunting. Dunno about the afternoon either. My house is a wreck and all my camo needs to be washed. Heh heh.
