Big Jay's 8 Point

I am a little slow in getting these pics on here, but one of the guys in our group got an 8 pointer this past Saturday, the first day of black powder season in our corner of Virginia.
The Deer was about 3 years old, and dressed at about 130 pounds.
The rule for the section of land that Jay was hunting was antlers only outside the ears, and this one just made it into that category. The plan is to allow the deer to mature into larger bucks to be able to harvest larger racks in the coming years

The days of tossing a rope across a branch to skin out have evolved to such creations as this now.

I have to say, it looked a lot easier than the way we used to do it.

At our club, we took 5 deer on opening day between 7 hunters, so that was not bad odds, a few of the guys had taken deer during bow season, so the meat has started getting packed away in the freezers, so it is looking like a good year so far.

Done With The Snow

Most of the time, when you get the kids out in the snow, you see them smiling and playing and just having a great time.
With a total of 14 days missed from school, and many of those stuck in the house because of the wind and freezing temps, I guess even a little boy can get tired of it.
I took some pics of my brother-in-law working with my 4 wheeler to push some of the mess around, and got this one of my youngest giving me the evil eye

I rigged up a mount for the blade that goes on my John Deere 110, and put a temporary winch mount to raise and lower it.
It did a pretty good job.

Down at the beach was a dull grey scene, and was very windy.

Around here we are expecting a little rain, and some highs in the 50's.

I cant wait till late March to be out there in the water looking for rock fish

Mom's Tree

Mom wanted to get rid of a tree at the end of her driveway, so you know we had to come and take it down

It was right against the power and phone lines, so we had to limb it, and then rope it off near the top

Nick got to do the climbing

And the boy's got to do the clean up, and pulled brush with my Yamaha

Nick and Karl like their Stihl and Husky saw's, and I will agree they are good stuff but I am still using an old Homelite that is nearly 10 years old.

Best $100.00 buck's I ever spent

Sinkin' The Gator

We have had a lot of rain around here, and every bottom turned into a swamp.
We had a couple dogs doing circles in the deep part of the swamp, which meant some of the boys had to hike in and a couple rode in on 4 wheelers to get the dogs, and drag a few deer out.
One of the boys went over to the barn and got the John Deere Gator and was doing pretty good through the thick stuff, but then he found spring.

Before any of the wheelers got back, they decided to use a come-a-long a winch him out

Did not do much good, wound up having to use the winch on my Kawasaki Bear Tracker, and the snatch strap on a Honda Foreman.

We got him out.

After that, and all the deer were skinned, we all went down to the Turkey Shoot at Potomac Hunt Club

My son Bobby won a meat round

My brother Karl won a couple meat rounds and some money rounds.

Just so you know, you get some people shooting at a target with equal guns, and equal loads, at the same distance, and the one with the pellet closest to the mark, or the most pellets to the mark wins the round.

The money goes for a good cause, and it's a chance to get together with some good guys and just have some fun

We use an old Belgium made Browning 12 Ga, and have a Remington 870 to shoot with.

I did see a few Thompson's, Ithaca's, and even a Mossberg that gave a few good shots

In The Woods

My boys and I decided to do some squirrel hunting this past Saturday.
What this means to us is ride the trails where we deer hunt, clear away the brush and fallen branches, and maybe take a shot or two if the dogs get a good chase going.


We look around for scrapes, and deer trails and check for tracks




And sit back and enjoy the outdoors

After some scouting, and following some rub lines, we find some choice spots to attach our tree stands.

Black powder season starts in a few more weeks, so with our stands up and trails cleaned out, we enjoy the 4-wheeler paths for the last time until we are ready to hunt

All this week, the surrounding fields will have the corn harvested and with the cooler temps, and the full moon, Rut should be in full swing