November 22, 2006
A fitting reward
Here's a shot of my good friend Bobby Hogan with the great 8-pointer he shot in Botetourt County with a muzzleloader last Friday. The buck's rack is heavy and has great character, and is the best buck taken off the property in a number of years.
No one deserves a deer like this more than Bobby. He is as passionate about deer hunting as anybody I know. He scouts a lot, is careful about his preparation, and he hunts a lot. But, he also realizes that this is supposed to be fun so he doesn't take himself too seriously. He's also not shy about doing his part for population management, and will hammer does with the best of them.
In short, he's a guy you love to have in your hunting group.
I got out of a few hours yesterday evening and this morning in Botetourt County. I was hunting with my friend Jeff Fletcher and his daughter Claiborne. Actually, Claiborne was hunting. Jeff and I were just the guides.
Tuesday afternoon was tough. The wind was terrible. It finally laid down at sunset but we didn't see any deer.
Wednesday morning was better, in part because we found a hillside out of the wind. Just before sunrise we had a buck come in. I never got a good look at it but Jeff said he thought it was mature deer. We were hunting on the ground and the deer spotted us and bolted.
A while later we had a young doe come in to about 15 yards and walk around us. She saw us, too, but didn't know what we were. The landowner had asked us to not shoot a fawn so Claiborne held off. While that deer was around us two more does approached but didn't get close enough for a shot.
We called it quits about 9:30 a.m. That was fine as I had some work to do. And, of course, the weather turned rainy this afternoon so I don't mind that I'm not out there in it.
I might try a quick hunt in the morning, then try to hunt a good part of Saturday.
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