Deer 1, Jack 0

[Forester]

Hey Jack!  Isn't your freezer full yet?  Keep up the success.

Things took a turn for the worse here today.  My property's "big boy" - you know the 10 point I have been after since he showed up in my yard in June - was tending a doe in my thicket at first light.  She was in my thicket and he was standing in the neighbor's open pasture 10 yards over the fence.  A different neighbor drove by on his way to "hunt" another property when he spotted the buck.  He drove on and turned around for a better look.  He came back and the deer was still there so he let his buddy out of the truck.  When it was light enough to shoot the guy slipped under the fence into the field and killed the buck with his rifle.  I'd bet it was the first deer killed in the county this morning.  They went on to shoot two more bucks later in the day (three hunters) and after spotting each of them they had to get out of the truck to shoot.

There are more and bigger out there and I'll be back after them.  Good luck to everyone.

[Hillbilly Bowyer]

Hope you folks don't mind if I throw my short story in here. We hunt a small 42 acre peice of private land just South of Winchester in Frederick County about a mile as the crow flies from I81.

This property was hunted hard until we purchased it in 99. Last year(my last with the compound) I took a huge 10 pt with a drop tine on opening day.

This year, I'm hunting with a custom Osage longbow the folks out at Martin Archery made up for me after I sent Gail Martin some locally grown Osage.

During the extremely hot month of October we found over thirty dead deer within a mile surrounding our property, including one monster 11 point. Blue Tongue outbreak.

I've hunted hard since the third week of October and finally got a shot at this five point chasing some does.

 

He gave me a 15 yard shot and I took it.

I know he ain't no monster, but taking him with traditional gear has left me with an unbeleivable sense of accomplishment. I have seen lots of deer that were easily within compound range and I can honestly say I'm danged tired of moving stands in an effort to get close enough for the shot with my long bow. Now to settle in and wait for the big one!!!

[Jack Denbow]

Way to go Clay. There has been a lot of dead deer in Clarke and Loudoun Counties this year do to HD. I talked to the state biologist and he said this has been a weird year, where it normally is, there is nothing and where it normally isn't, there are tone of cases. He told me it is bad west of Rt. 29 from Maryland to Tenn. I shot a 7 pt. that I had to leave in the woods do to a infection that it had. It wasn't HD or CWD just a bacterial infection. I need to get back out there now that I have gotten caught up around the house. Good luck with the big one.
Jack