I can't bring myself to hunt ducks. They taste like liver and I feed them in the driveway all winter.
The day yesterday was full of radical changes Andrew. A 40 degree temperature departure from mid-night, rain, nnw wind, and precip changinging to light snow, no help from moonlight during the early morning dark....all spell confusion for the deer herd. Had it stayed warm, the deer would have been bedded until dark. I held off hunting until I knew that rain was not going to be the precip. The snow was in the air and its amazing how little of it the first time in the fall throws the deer into a panic....kinda like our drivers here in MN. Anyway, the weather elements we had combined worked to keep the deer up and moving. In another month the deer will have the weather figured out.
The antler bases are fairly thick but not real visible in the pic. He must have been carrying 10 pounds of tree bark ground into the bases. When I first saw him he was only 10 yards away from a big doe and a fawn that were laying in deep grass and that doe was what I was looking at how to get a shot at, until the buck started to work a tree fairly high up.
For only a so-so rack it sure is symetrical and well balanced side to side. I might have to add the rack to those in the house....I have yet to get an 8 point that is this perfect and I need an 8 with the others. I have a 9, a 10, an 11, a 12, and a 13, all of which are at the taxidermist getting cleaned so I have time to decide what to do.
Anyway, now I can close the 2012 chapter to deer hunting happily and rewarded. Back to fishing for this guy now.
