Well Bec's and I finally arrived at 5 pines after a long trip across country.
Stopped over to visit a few good friends in NE and IA, Vince from Lonesome Wind bows gave me a beautiful Bear style recurve which Im keen to get out into the action some point this week. Also picked up a couple custom Knives from Dave with Cheiftan Knives, Which I designed and sent over some Giraffe leg bone from the farm in South Africa as a gift for my Fathers 50th. Will put up some pics! latter.

Huge storm last night, thunder and lightning while we lay back in the Yurt for the night, the temps have dropped considerably over the last 24 hours and we'l be in the stands before light tomorrow. Really hoping this cold snap is going to get things rolling and hope to see some chasing.  

Jim and I got in some shooting and are ready to go.

Getting the new VPA Vapour ready for action. Will give some more details on this thing latter, Very fast, really looking forward to hunting with it more.


Jim and I getting in some shooting




Jim getting locked in. Pretty deadly let me tell you.

Gettin' Good Now!

Better safe than sorry, we decided rather than burn  good spots in crappy weather, we would hunt hard tomorrow and relax today. Had a very pleasant afternoon when Joe Lash " Whip" and his nephew Ross stopped by for a visit. His cabin and hunting property is about 90 minutes East of here.

Its so much fun to have another trad hunter in camp! Andy and I shot both from the ground and from the tree stand behind the yurt
 
Nothing like realistic practice to get your confidence up
 

Andy is that a Arno Bernard knife?

SWEEEET TIMES!

Enjoy the fellowship!

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

Got a sharp eye Jack        wish us luck on the track.

 

just don't leave us hanging too long.

Cool! Can't believe you did not tell us if it was a Deer or not    And even a girl or boy   :D
Good luck on the track job. Hoping for pics and a story before I leave the office today.

If Whip left you with any of the luck he "borrowed" from me you guys are all set. Go git em!!!

Cool! I wish Arlo was there to help.  But we've got one of our own to follow here.  Headed out right now.
Good luck!

Andy makes his mark, no dog needed for this blood trail!

Already.......  

Good job Andy. I too have two Arno Bernard knives but they are small ones, I have been thinking about getting a larger one.
Jack

Ok, so it was a doe! Where are the pictures    
This is supposed to semi-live right   :p

So why you are waiting for Andy to share his day. I'll share mine.

Not quite as eventful but a great day never the less. I sat over a decoy for the first time this season. I had stashed the decoy beneath the Justin stand situated on poorer food plot on the East end of the field with the nice looking rape. I like to decoy in this spot because you can place the decoy and everything for a couple of hundred yards can see it.

Ten minutes after rattling for the 2nd time this guy came in to 25 yards of the decoy. The decoy is just to the left of the picture frame
   
he came in acting like a tough guy. My deer decoy's head moves in the wind. A gust of wind pushed the decoy's head left to right. The deer saw that and stopped.    His posture went form aggressive to passive to I am out of here before I get my butt kicked! The decoys antlers were bigger than his!

Tonight I went to the rattle snake stand. At 4:30 I saw a deer come down the opposite hill across the valley. It crossed the dirt road , jumped the fence on to my place and was literally coming up the hill in my boot prints! As it got to about 60 yards I could see it was a small buck. He had little Y's on top of very long spikes. Right up the trail he came and stopped directly under my tree. After a few seconds he looked up at me but never made me. He took 2 steps forward then caught some of my scent. He spooked just enough to turn back downhill and then turned and continued walking along the outside edge of the woods. Later in the evening I saw a deer chasing two others down below me near the creek. Its hard to say if was a buck or just a couple or yearlings chasing and having fun. A string of deer then appeared below me heading to the picked corn field. Lots of deer sighted and a great shot on a good deer by a great friend makes for a great day.
I will be a spoiler and give you this photo, But I will let Andy tell his own tale.
   

Wow!!!!! That is a nice doe. How much did it weigh? Good job Andy

Wow Andy congratulations and a very nice doe...She looks like she could go about 150# ...This has been one of my favorite threads and look forward to reading it everyday....