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The bucks are still fighting!  One buck especially, he one that I’ve been following for over a year, last year he was 2-1/2, an 8 pointer, a corn and protein pellet thief as this picture shows, he’d rear up on his hind legs, stick his nose into the feeder mechanism and eat away, but this year his horns are too big!  Besides he’s grown up now, 3-1/2 and fighting over the doe too!

He’s grown up and will be a fine buck next year if he survives this season.  This “shot” before the season opened shows just how grown up he is, notice the small brow tines and the curvy tip on his right, G-2, the main beam.

He even tried to pick a fight with the big 10 pointer that I shot on November 7th, see my post on November 8th, “Challenge Unanswered”.  Notice his head is down, but the curvy tine on his main beam clearly shows.

But notice now, it looks like he’s bulked up, both brow tines are broken off and the curvy tip on his right main is gone.  But, as he eats away, competition lurks in the background another 8, with love on his mind and it looks like all his tines are intact, sneaks up on the button buck. From the direction he’s coming in to the feeder, he’ll be surprised when he finds it’s a button buck and I’m sure the 8 with points broken off will welcome him right on in.  The second “shot” better shows the damage done, brow tines almost gone and the curvy tip to the main beam gone.

On Dec 26, (Boxing Day in some parts) 12 dove are feeding.  They sure don’t look like 12 drummers drumming either!  

The big wounded deer was “shot” just after 8:00 AM on Dec 23, with a wound on his brisket.  Then he was “shot” a little after 1:00 PM (still haven’t set the clock back) on the 26th going after a doe.  Judging by the width and makeup of the horns, this is the same buck shown on Dec 23rd “shot”, however, in this picture, the wound doesn’t show, but maybe, just maybe, he shows a nick on the front left.  The “shot” on the 26th is the last time that he’s been around, hopefully, he’s survived the last week of the season!

Just after 8:00 AM a Bobcat came by the corn feeder at MaMaw’s blind on Jan 4.  Two weeks ago, I saw this one in the County Road and still I can’t tell what variety it is, my guess a female.  Two years ago, on the last day of deer season, see my post on January 3, 2010, “Wesley Breaks The Ice”, we both scored, he collected a nice doe and I claimed a big, male bobcat.   

Probably the last spike, game cam “shots” showed we had 4 coming around the feeders, 2 have been harvested, one ran afoul of a barb wire fence, so this is the survivor.   Tuesday morning, Mickey Donahoo is coming over to try his hand on a spike or doe and his rifle is resighted in, so no miss this time (hopefully).  

This year’s white tail deer season ended this past Sunday afternoon and for my family it was a huge success.  Colton and Randy scored with real nice bucks, Tim Allbee, one of Brad’s friends, picked up a spike and overall we harvested 5 doe.  

Mickey Donahoo kicked things off with one of our Goldthwaite footballers, scoring on a spike.  Here's a game cam "shot" of the hunter and the spike.

Three weeks later, Randy out waited a nice buck, shot him, then, with a neighbors help found the buck the next morning.  Check out my post, "Deer Season, November 27, 2011, (Perseverance)".

Here’s the buck, tucked in a small clearing, where Spike the wonder Dachshund, closely followed by Wesley found him.

Almost a month later, Colton and I out waited this very good, old, buck.  Several game cam “shots” showed that he’d been showing up at the corn feeder at MaMaw’s Blind around 7:30 AM, so over the Christmas holidays we decided to concentrate on that spot.  It paid off and on Christmas Eve, right on time, Colton nailed him, one shot with my .270, dropping him in his tracks!  Look at the post on “Deer Season, December 26, 2011".  

On a sadder note, the spike that Rebekah missed, later was jumping a fence, on the way over got his foot caught in the top 2 wires and wasn’t found until a week ago.  Here’s the spike in healthier times.