Banking'em At The Bank.

October 22, 2011 – Saturday morning, it is the first time this year that all the Krack Boy’s would be in a stand at the same time.  It gave me hope knowing that all three stands would be occupied.  The odds of someone getting a deer were in our favor. 

I took the “Killer stand/Hotspot/Upper stand”  (I think we need to nail down a name for this stand).  Dad took the “Poison Ivy Palace, and Chad was in the lower stand. 

My last encounter with a deer was in the Poison Ivy Palace (PIP) where I shot a nice eight or nine point buck.  The reason I’m not sure how many points it was, is because we never found it.  I hit just a bit too high.  We had good blood for about 100 yards and then it shut off.  It was very disheartening to say the least.  That was two weeks ago and every hunt in between then and now I ended up getting skunked. 

Now that you know that story, you can understand why I got so excited when two deer came walking in this Saturday morning after only sitting for probably 45 minutes.  I was out to redeem myself and prove that I can hit what I’m aiming for.  My heart was racing and my legs were shaking.  The deer came in so fast that I had no time to stand up.  The first deer pasted over the bait pile without giving me a shot, but the second deer came in right behind and was not as lucky.  I drew my bow from sitting position and took a perfect 20 yard shot.  It was a money shot! 

Because it was so early in the morning and Chad and Dad were still hunting, I decided to just continue to sit in my stand.  About 45 minutes after the last excitement, a doe and two button bucks came running in on the same path as the earlier deer.  I could tell the story but it would sound like I was repeating what I just said.  The only difference is that these deer were much more wary and I had better shooting light.  It took a bit longer for the mamma to give me a shot, but it finally happened, and it was a shot that most hunters are not proud of.  I spine shot her.  I shot another arrow and finished business.  It’s sad, but it is true what they say, “you spined it, you find it”. 

Two deer in one morning was very exciting, but some of that excitement quickly faded when we found the first deer and shot and discovered it was a button buck.  I’m a baby killer.  I thought I was done with these days.  I could make a bunch of excuses, but the reality is I shot a button buck and I have to man up to it.  I need to get better at judging the size of deer from my stand......

Or I am going to have to get used to taking the abuse from the other Krack Boys.  They are not going to let me forget this one.   

Funny stuff guys!!!

Deer #1 Stats:

Shot Distance - 20 yards

Dressed Weights - 63 lbs

Shot Placement - Double Lung

Sex - Male

Deer #2 Stats:

Shot Distance - 20 yards

Dressed Weight - 92 lbs

Shot Placement - Spine

Sex - Female

Top 2 reason why you shouldn't shoot a 3 point on October 4

I trust that you all understand what the title means.

Early Season 3 Point

October 4, AM
My second sit of the year resulted in another productive hunt. So far this is the best year of hunting I've ever had. It's no B&C but it made me a pretty happy guy. I also want to let you all know that I did get permission from my older brother before I touched off the release. And I also broke my record of closest shot on a deer at about 4-5 yards. Luckily the deer only went about 30 yards and died. I say that because at this point Enzlee was still in the hospital and Amber wasn't allowed to lift the kids from their beds. Maybe I shouldn't have been hunting.

Meat in the Fridge

October 4, 2011 - It was a Tuesday night hunt, the temprature was in the mid 70's, and I had already been skunked in the "killer stand" during the firts two times out since opening day of the regular season, so I decided on trying the "lower stand".  I got in my stand around 4:15pm (plenty early considering it gets dark around 8:30pm). 

By 7:00pm it looked like I was in for another night of being skunked when out of no where a couple of deer showed up to the north of me.  With all intentions to harvest another doe because of the low inventory of venison in my freezer, I prepared for a shot.  The deer came in to about 10 yards in no time at all.  She looked as if she may have been a little on the small side, but I knew it was not small enough to be a yearling so all lights were green to take the shot.  I drew my bow and followed her as she walked to the backside of my tree stand.  Just as she gave me an open shot, I realized my bow was tangled in the bow holder on the side of the tree.  I quickly cleared my bow of the holder while still at full draw, crouched down below it, and took the shot. 

It was a double lung shot and the deer was down only 20 yards away.  Andrew came in to help me drag it out despite of his allergic reactions.  We didn't have a great camera or any lighting so sorry for the poor picture quality.  Thank you Andrew and sorry about your puffy, red eyes.

This makes two doe for the year already so the pressure to fill the fridge up with venison is off, and I can hold out for the big boys now.  Did I mention I love bow hunting!

Fall Salmon Fishing

I have been getting some grief about not posting this sooner so here it is!

Chad and I were anxious to try out a new fish finder so we headed out onto Lake Michigan just before sunrise. Thank goodness the new fish finder had GPS because it was pitch black. Its a little scary trolling out into the big lake with decent size waves when you cant see anything but what your spotlight is pointed at.

Anyways, on to the good stuff. We got out to 90 feet of water and started to put lines down as the sun just started to rise. Once we hit around 110 feet of water we got our first hit followed by 2 others. 2 people on the boat and 3 lines with fish on. Imagine the chaos.... We ended the day going 7 for 8 in only 2 hours of fishing. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and we can be as productive everytime we go out.

Got em!

Just kidding Aaron.