Lightseyhuntingclubforladies

Well, it was a nice long weekend, with high hopes of killing a buck.

I had other plans, but was able to make it to the club Sunday afternoon to hunt Sunday evening and Monday morning.  got there in time just to jump in the shower and head over to the junkyard stand.    

Was sitting there maybe an hour when I heard something to my left, and saw a deer!   not 15 yards from my stand, but it was at a nice trot, and then I saw the damn dogs that were chasing it.  If I could have shot the dogs I would have.  I had heard them all evening all over and was very upset thinking my hunt would be over.   but I thought maybe since they came through so fast the big deer were just hiding.

So I waited.   in the meantime, had two hummingbirds fighting over my orange hat, one of them came within 3 feet of me!  I had visions of this tiny little bird pecking my eyeballs out, or at least trying to suck the juice out of my eyeballs…..but I enjoyed it thouroughly none the less.    Also saw 6 baby racoons, under 5lbs that strolled on by and they were so cute!

as for deer, heard some more dogs and noticed a deer to my right in the old cut down.  that doe stood there for 35 minutes, only moving her head.  NEVER MOVED A FOOT.   there were two with her, one I couldn’t identify and a little one.   I dont think she knew I was there and it was neat to watch her feed and do whatever a deer does (I learned they eat a lot and poop alot).  they were still there when I got down and I dont think I spooked them becuase I heard them munching when I left.  so I was pretty proud of my stealth skills.  also heard another one to my right but never could see what it was.

so to me, two hummingbirds, 6 racoons, 5 deer was a great hunt.

Didn’t see much but doe season is coming and we’ll be out there ready to harvest something.    spent Sunday putting up a new feeder, getting eaten by red ants and putting out lime.   hopefully it will pay off soon!

What a nice opening weekend.    We had 4 ladies at various times and we all saw deer.  That’s the good news.  We drew numbers for our best stand (meaning where we saw the 8 points) and Ann saw the small 8 Friday night but passed on him becuase she knew we had better deer.    She also encountered a pack of dogs that she had a hard time getting rid of.  they were not afraid of her at all, and they were not pets.  so it’s now an understood rule that if you go to that stand you carry a pistol.

I hunted in the cutdown and saw 1 deer, but my hunt was  interrupted by some other hunters.   not that big of a deal and I was happy to see something.  When the other hunters arrived they spooked some deer so I knew they were out there.

Saturday morning I was in the cutdown by our bunkhouse.  We’ve seen bucks there and I didn’t think they’d go far, even after they logged.   I got out there 5:3oish and discovered the round seat cushion made an excellent pillow.   Was about to give up at 8:00 when I saw a deer.  It was a buck, but only like a 4 pointer.  but I was still excited.  watched them move through some shrubby stuff and then I noticed another group of deer.  one of them was an 8!   there’s not a real clear shot, but I got the gun up and then realized it was only on 4 power and I couldn’t totally 100% sure say it was in 8.  so I upped the power to 12x and in the process couldn’t find the deer.   I finally got the scope back on the deer but it’s head was behind a bush and I didn’t want to shoot without  making 100000% sure it was a shootable buck by our rules.  I watched them mosey on off slowly and saw a few other deer, but nothing worth shooting.  A great start to the season!  My first sit and I saw a shooter buck which is more than I saw last year.

Saturday evening turned out to be fun too.   Ann covered the cutdown and didn’t see anything, but I sat in the condo stand and right at dark, Mr. Big one came out.   It was the best moment of my life, I swear.  I knew what they were going to do, head towards my right and I would probably lose sight of them over the cotton.   they had no idea I was there and I swear there was a train of bucks coming out of the woods, with Mr. Big in the lead.  I had the gun up, the scope on  him and pulled the trigger, and then racked another shell in.   I thought I saw him jump but then I saw one of the little ones standing there.  I think it was the 8 Ann passed on the night before.  It was so weird!   why would that stupid buck stand there?   Then I saw another deer, and it was Mr. Big.  I was like HOLY SH*T!   I lined the crosshairs up on him again, and CLICK!   there was no darn bullet in my chamber.  I guess I didn’t get the bolt all the way back.   by the time I got a shell in there they were GONE.

Beth was close by and picked me up in the truck and we went over to look.  I was thinking I did hit him.   there is so much deer sign, it’s too hard too tell what is what.  They’re all over back there.  Beth and Ann both thought they heard what sounded like a deer down, so we decided to leave and go pick up Kris, regroup and come back.  

We went back, and searched throught the thickest stuff I’ve ever seen.   no sign of anything.  it was thundering and lightning so we decided to call it a night.

Ann and I went back the next morning, but didn’t see anything, but didn’t expect to becuase of the rain.  I am so crushed.  it’s the biggest miss of my life and I’ve even had nightmares about it!  you know you might be a redneck if…..haha.

Kris and Beth were there too that weekend, and sat all over.  saw a nice variety of deer but we ended up killing nothing.  only 1 shot fired and we’ll call it a miss, as much as it pains me.

all in all, a great opening weekend.  we all saw deer, we all saw bucks and half of us saw shooter bucks.   not a lot of shots fired, and not many people are hunting any time soon, so maybe one of us will have a chance at Mr. Big.

We’ll be hunting Labor Day weekend.  Ann & Beth will be there Friday-Monday, and I will be there Sunday
& Monday.  I really must overcome the humiliation I have from missing that deer.  I still dont know how, but I have to move on or risk my entire season, and I dont want to do that!

Happy hunting!

Robin

Ok, I’m sitting here at work going nuts waiting for 5:00pm so I can run home, grab the gun and the dog and head to the club for opening weekend.

Hopefully we’ll have a much better season than last, it cant get much worse for some of us!   We have put many hours soil testing, liming, tilling, planting, fertilizing, pulling weeds in our four food plots.  Have a little ways to go but they’re not too bad.  should be awesome next year!

Should be interesting becuase of the new clearcuts on the property.  we moved two stands to overlook the new cutdowns, plus added a bow stand so it will be fun to see what sort of activitiy we see.  We did get some decent pics on the trail camera.   The farmer started cutting some of the corn, and hopefully he wont be cutting this weekend.   that will open up a few more of our stands, which might be the hot places this weekend!

We also moved a few other stands just for some variety.     Got most of the trails cut last weekend and the property is looking pretty good.    It will be so nice if someone bags a buck – makes all the hard work seem so much more worth it.

We have Robin, Ann, Beth, Kit, and Kris all hunting this weekend, and maybe Helen.  We will probably end up drawing for the condo stand since that is where Ann and I saw the big bucks a month ago.  We’re hoping to hunt till noon tomorrow, then head to the gun shop so Ann can pick out a new gun (that she won at the QDMA banquet) and Robin can finish sighting in a new scope.

Has anyone have any good solutions for dogs?  we have problems with dogs on several sections of the property.  our best field is often visited by two lab’s (with collars) who have ruined many a deer, turkey & coyote hunt!  another part of the property has a problem with stray dogs.  people let them run all over town and since we’re so close to town they’re on our property too, at all hours of the day.  not quite sure what to do about them.  I shouldn’t complain too bad becuase that’s how I got my little Lady Lightsey Bean!  (you might be a redneck if you name your dog after your hunting club).

For entertainment we’re going to watch the movie Escanaba in da Moonlight this weekend.   Totally ridiculous movie based in the UP of Michigan about a gent who has never shot a buck.  his nickname is the Buckless Yooper – totally hilarious.  if anyone has access to a copy, I recommend watching it.   In Michigan our gun season was only 2 weeks long, so most folks went away to deer camp for the entire two weeks.  not as lucky as down south with a 4 1/2 month season!

Happy Opening day to all!    Hopefully will have a nice big buck pic next week!

Robin