I wish I had one of them wild stories to write about, but I got me a buck today. Just a regular hunting morn. Wake up at 4 am, make 12 cups of coffee, then out the door for an hour ride up to Yazzo County. Oh! I made one stop for sausage and biscuit in the Town Of Flora. Flora is a small and up and coming community. There are 100's of under ground ammo bunkers there from WWII. At one time big cotton plantations were the big money makers. But some good size industries have move there. In fact Primos is located in Flora. I've been getting sausage biscuits for over 20 years. It's a working man's get what you need to eat, then off to work. When I first started going there it was black cooks. Now It's some kind of clearing house for the Chinese! They added a Chinese Takeout restaurant, but they still make the same ole sausage biscuit. Every year there's a different oriental lady behind the counter. Each and every one has been fine and sexy. They all do the same thing. Watch TV, hustle biscuits, flirt, and take your money. I must say a nice stop!!!!
Well back on the road I cross the Big Black River. In the morning it's always to dark to see the river. But I always feel good crossing it because I getting closer to the camp. Once on the gravel road going to the came I start reading the road. Being gravel you can see how much traffic been traveling on it. I look at gates, and parking spots for the same read. This morning I could tell not many hunters have been down the road. Oh! It's Judkins Road by the way!
I get to our turn off, and see Bill has beat me there by his tire tracks. Once through the locked gate I have a spot I like to hunt. I pass this morning because I haven't see Bill since last hunting season. I ride through the second locked gate, and there’s Foots, Bills dog wanting to bite me. He's just a Dash Hound that doesn't like to make friends. Oh hell, he's Bills dog!!
Bill looked good! He had his 200M warming up. Getting his rifle, gear, and Foots ready to go. I'm not far behind him. We talk briefly about where each of us was going to hunt. I try to give him my spots for a SE wind. But he has nothing to do with the likes of that. He's going to the South Pipeline Stand!!! That was a GOOD stand at one time! It's the one I made the 200 yard kill with the SaPan Special. My first muzzy loader, before I got in to Whites. In fact I made a 300 yard kill on a good 8 point there in 1992, and sent a long time hunting buddy home to New Orleans, because he hated to be out done! He gave up hunting! I tried calling him several times. But we've never talked since that day! Flock Him Then!
My buddy Allen always got that stand just because that's the way it was. Then he left to live in Florida. Then he died there from a heart attach. His dying hurt Bill! I lost a good friend! So Bill and I started sharing the South stand. Then I saw Bill was getting old, so I would only hunt it when Bill wasn't there. Or if he made up his mind he wanted another stand. But when you hunt with a dash hound, and another lap dog, one needs all the distance one can have. The South stand works for Bill and the dogs. But last year, after being there since 1987, and having the woods to our selves, here comes a local red neck. So what does he do?? He builds stands on both sides of the pipeline on the deer crossings!!! Well that killed the South Pipeline Stand!
Well I could go one and on about that red neck, but back to the hunt. Bill goes to that stand, and I head to the other end of the 55 acres. We're well over a 1/3 of a mile from each other. We didn't bush hog the trails this year. So I didn't know how thick, nor what was going to be lying across the trails. It was just like we hunted last weekend. The trails weren't over grown, and I was able to ride over or around the fallen trees with my 250 Arctic Cat. Once I started getting close to the Second to Last Stand, I started seeing deer sign. Tracks were crossing the trail, along the trail, and scrapes every where. I park, get in the shooting house, and pour some coffee. I test the wind. Set my S91 up. Pull out the Primos Can! And wait. It's about 6:40. At 7 I start the can. This stand it totally in the woods. It faces South and East. There is a 30 foot ridge to the North that runs East and West. There are ridges to the West. Then there's a creek to the South running East to West. This is where the hill country first runs into the delta of the Yazzo River Valley. There is no open views from this stand. But there are shooting lanes, natural, and some I cut. I love it there. One can sit back and get lost in his own mind. I do that way to easily .
I hit that can again at 8:00. Then what the HELL! 10 feet to my left coming off the ridge to the North, is a yearlin looking straight at me!!!
We look at each other for a little while. Then I start thinking about something I read on my Mississippi board. About if you only see one young deer by itself. It's most likely a young buck, because does hang with their mother. He then takes off to the top of the ridge. Looks back down at me. Then starts to blow, and blow. Then he takes off blowing. He must have blown for 10 minutes, for as far away at I could hear! I thought that was funny!!
! I wasn't too worried. I had time. I hit that can again calling him a liar!
I let the big boys know that a hot doe was on the grounds!
Sure enough at 8:20 coming out of the thick ridges to the West was a deer!!!!
I'm on ready!!!
It comes through one of my shooting lanes. It's a buck! Yep! Way more than a 4 point!! He's got a big body! He's looking for that doe in the can, because he's looking at me from 80 yards away. His rack ain't that big! It's a heavy deer! It is the first hunt of the year! He is a legal buck! I wish Bill were here! If I don't kill him that red neck will!
BOOM!FLOP!I reload quickly looking at where he was!! He's still moving some! DAMN! Is that flocker going to get up and run off?
I move in on him, because I don't need him reaching that creek with 20 foot banks!!!
I reach him. Yep he DRT!
I look him over good! I give thanks! He's a big young buck sporting 10 points. I guess may be 2 years old. About 180 pounds. His rack is nice. But it would have been good to give him a year or 2 to mature. I look at his 10 point Candle Oprah rack, and remember me and Allen running in to his great great great grand dad while squirrel hunting. A BIG 10 Point Candle Oprah BUCK!! We never saw the big deer again! We don't own these deer. Chances are if I had let him walk, some body would have killed him spot lighting that very night.
These are Gods deer! Wild and free! Well enough of that! I've got to get him up on top of our hill a 1/2 of mile away!!!
I need some rope, and tools, because even thou I was able to get back there on the Arctic Cat. There were trees across the trails. And I didn't want to drag him that far, because he was a good-looking buck. I road back to the pipeline where Bill was. Parked 100 yards away then walked. Foots came up wanting to bite me again!
Bill looked at me and asked, "You got another one with that muzzle loader didn't you??"
YEP!
We talked for a short while. He showed me the beer cans the red neck had in the shooting house. I saw Bill bagged them up, and where he threw his stool out on the ground. It just blows my mind how some one could move in and take over someone else's stand. I know we don't own the land where the house is. But the red neck doesn't own it either!!!
Well Bill wants to help get the buck out. We ride to the camp on the hilltop. Get ropes, tie down straps, come along, and chain saw. Off we go! I get to the first down trees, and start cutting. Bill gets to picking up the cut trees and limbs. I keep an eye on him. He's gotten old!!!
He just doesn't have what he had 2 years ago. I cut a little, stop, and help move the derby. He comments that he just not the man he use to be. I smile, and tell him, he's more than the man he was. He's over 80, and we've got a deer to get out. May be next time he should hunt that stand. I point ride the trails, cutting and moving the derby out he way. Once we get to the buck, Bill looks at him and smiles. " That's One Deer That Red Neck Not Going To Get!"
Bill comes up with a plan to load him on my front rack. We tie his head up on one side of the rack. Then we both grab his hind legs and lift him on the rest of the way.
It worked!!
We got to the skinnin tree, and went to work. Bill moved in with his knife, I stayed back and watched, until it was my time! We got it done. The cool thing was this was a nice deer. Young & Clean! Bill hasn't taken any deer meat for a few year. But he took half of this one!
We broke bread on the porch. Talked, ate, and just looked around. Bill wants to move the South shooting house from the pipeline to another part of the property. That WILL keep the red neck out of it. OKIEDOKIE!!!
All in all it was a good day to be alive! A very good day to hunt! I hope I didn't bore Ya'll!
