A Deerhunt In Progress - 2005

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December 16 - HotTrails Brings A Fighter

MORNING: Tried to grab 5 more minutes of sleep after I turned the alarm off. Woops, I woke up 30 minutes late and arrived at the Point after daylight. 

Wednesday I had phoned Bill Moore at HotTrails (HotTrails) and told him about the wild hogs coming to the Corn scent candle. During our conversation Bill suggested I try a Dominant Buck scent candle. So I put one in the HotTrails Lantern and hung it on a wire on the fence. When I got in the Matrix ground blind it was 7:35.

A few minutes later I was squared away and ready if something showed up to be ready for. The sky was very cloudy so I pointed my camera towards the Matrix's window and set the White Balance. Since I wanted a pic of the HotTrails Lantern hanging from the fence wire I zoomed in on it and took one. 

Then I zoomed back and took in a wider area. To be certain the pictures were in proper focus I selected the Play mode and checked out the last pic. It was in good focus ... and there was more in the picture than the lantern.

There was a deer! And even though I only caught part of its head I could see antlers.

I looked up. There the buck was -- standing 10 yards from the HotTrails. Calmly looking around, ready to kick some buck's butt. (I say that because I recognized this buck. I took a pic of him on Tuesday (Dec 13) His left main beam was broken as was the right brow tine. This buck was a fighter.) Not finding any buck to whip he turned and casually walked along the fence.

He had dark spots on his left side. I zoomed in to see what it was.

Dried blood was on his coat, along with cuts and gouges. He did not have these wounds when I saw him on Monday, this is a from recent and brutal battle. 

When the Fighter reached the cross fence he hopped over it and disappeared into the trees ahead. He is on the prowl for does.

At 10:21 a button buck came to the fence from the right. It was totally absorbed in checking the scent.

The wild turkeys hadn't showed at 11:15 and I started walking along the fence toward my truck. In 60 yards a  deer trail caught my eye and I saw a hole I hadn't noticed before in the (rusty) fence. (The pink ribbon is a marker from an earlier property survey.)

I had a TrailTimer EZ-Cam at the Point and moved it across from the hole in the fence to watch the crossing and trail.

Thirty yards further I saw a fresh scrape. I will put a TrailTimer on this also.

This morning was eventful. The HotTrails dominant buck scent certainly made a believer out of me. The Fighter followed his nose to within 10 yards from it. It was very cool. 

Plus, we will see what the TrailTimer tells us about the activity further down the fence from the Point. And we have a smoking hot new scrape to keep track of.

And surely the wild turkeys will shot back up before too long.