It has been a few weeks since I could post anything meaningful about the farm, and here it is, almost time to open Deer Camp. Let me get y’all caught up.

Pre-Season

This is the view from the stand at Hundred Acre Wood.

As you know, I was feeling pretty wretched last year at this time. In fact, I was still having problems with stamina and fatigue until about a month ago. All of a sudden, my bone marrow and kidneys finally took the last step towards normalcy, and going into September, I was feeling the best I have in years. Yep, they poisoned me really well with the Chemo, but I’ve shaken off the last vestiges.

I decided I was going to handle dressing the stands for season. Within 6 hours, I had three treestands decorated as well as the tower blind at Hollywood. I also had all the ground blinds prepped with folding chairs, etc. A year ago, I could just barely make it up one ladder.

Early Youth Season

Yute Season came and went. This was the first time I have had a Yute to come out with me, fully armed since Angus’ last trip in 2016. Mooselette is now 11, and she was psyched. She has been going with me and Daddy Moose since she was a wee one. This was the first year she could handle the Savage 340 in 30-30, and was printing well at 100 yards prior to season.

We spent the Saturday morning hunt camped out at Midway and saw nothing over 4 hours. Ditto for the three hours we spent out at Hollywood in the afternoon. Sunday AM she had a sour stomach and slept in. However, she said she had a great time. I did too.

Early ML Season

I’m going to be honest with you. The last thing we really want to do during KY’s Early Muzzleloader Season is shoot a deer. It is fun to convene Deer Camp for a weekend and it is great to have a dry run. There were few highlights. Angus did see the 8-pointer that has been hanging out around the Thoughtful Spot, but he was way too far out from the stand at Blackberry to make a shot with his Hawken. SuperCore saw a doe, but held off.

I went out with the Pedersoli Brown Bess. Last year, the trip out to the Campground Stand was one of the hardest things I’ve ever attempted. It took me over an hour to make what is usually a 15-minute trip. This year, I was fully back to normal. I have to say that ‘Bess is a far more reasonable firearm with my strength recovered. Last year it felt ungainly. ‘Bess is by no means the best weapon out there for the task of deer hunting, but I found it serviceable. The really good news is that I loaded it of Friday afternoon, carried it on Saturday and Sunday, and reprimed it every time I sat in the stand. After all that, I was able to discharge ‘Bess optimally on Sunday as I was coming out. If I had been bothered by a deer, I would have been able to take care of business.

Sighting-in

Moose, Angus and I all got our deer rifles properly sighted in without a hitch. Moose’s Winchester M570 had always been a bit of a cypher. I replaced the scope for him. He had a 70s vintage Bushnell Sportview. I replaced it with a Bushnell Banner 3-9X40. These have proven themselves to be quite serviceable on all my rifles. Moose’s rifle held its zero over the winter– Problem solved. Angus’ rifle, similarly scoped was also dead on.

Me? I had originally wanted to bring the Whelenizer back out. My Remington 7600 in 35 Whelen has been off the active list for a decade. I was hoping to put it back in the line-up this year with 180 grain rounds that would be loaded like a hot 35 Remington. Neither the groups or velocity suited me when I had it out on the bench. Instead, I’m bringing back The Mauser from Hell and keeping it as my hole card/safety blanket. I’m still going out for the Opener with my Savage 99 and trying out new loads in my TC Compass in 7mm-08 and a custom Mauser in 25-06.

SuperCore has decided to switch to my 30-06 load: 150 Grain Hornady SPs over H4895. I cooked up a batch over the summer to try.

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