3 guys, 3 days, 2 deer and the Ghost

Myself my BIL and a friend arrived at our camp late last Sunday afternoon. Started snowing around 430 pm and was off and on most of the night. Woke up Monday at 530 am to 16 degrees F, wind and 4 inches of fresh snow but at least it was sunny. Actually other than a bit windy (but manageable) it was probably perfect weather. Cold, crisp, snowy - just perfect to get those deer moving and they were. The scene at camp Monday mid-morning:



We headed to our respective stands/blinds and 5 minutes into legal "boom" from the lower food plot. BIL dropped a 7 point in its tracks about 40 yards from his blind in the middle of the plot. I was set up in a fence line watching a field and tree line that they like to travel along in the mornings. Well 10 minutes later i spot the "ghost" who is a big heavy 10 that i have been chasing for 3 years. Only seen him live once before 2 years ago. Problem is he saw me first because it was his head cranking around to stare right at me that got my attention. He stared at me for about 20 seconds with me hoping he would look away so i could get the gun on him. Not to be. He took of full tilt and i never had a shot. About 10 minutes later i picked up movement and it was a big doe moving across from east to west. This time i saw her first and as soon i had a shot i took it. Neck shot at 70 yards with the 260 Rem launching 125 grain partitions using the rail fence as a rest. She never took a step - dropped on the spot.

The two deer from opening morning:



My buddy also saw 3 does from his tree stand but they busted him and no shot. He hunted another of the food plots Monday afternoon and at 345 pm the ghost made an appearance and stopped broadside at 30 yards wide open. Buddy put his cross hairs on him and squeezed the trigger on his 6.5 Swede. Nothing but a loud click. Ghost immediately cranked his head around for a fraction of a second and than took off full tilt and buddy never even got a second round chambered before it was too late.

Tuesday and Wednesday were uneventful but was still nice to be out. Back to work Thursday.

The view from one of our stands (pic was taken about 5 weeks ago):



River bottom just about melted out after Sunday's snow - this is about 1/4 mile from the lower food plot:



My grand daughter who is 3 also requested some pictures of where we eat and sleep with particular emphasis on our kitchen. As she will be looking at this tomorrow these are mostly for her:

The shack as we call it Wednesday morning with most of the snow melted off (went up to a balmy 45 F). You can sort of see the wind mill and panels we use on the right hand side of the building:



The kitchen which is in the front portion of the shack and has a dirt floor and wood stove for heat:



The sleeping quarters in the rear portion of the shack which are R20 in the floor, walls and R40 in the ceiling with heat ducted in from the wood stove in the kitchen:



So the remainder of the season will be either bow (when it's nice weather) or crossbow (nasty weather). One tag left to fill.

Beautiful scenery!

Big body deer Thanks for all your posts!

Really enjoy your posts, keep em coming!

That is one Big Doe, about how much did she weigh live weight?
Do you have any pictures of the Ghost buck, if not can you describe him please.

Cool er I meant cold.

Nice

Yep, thanks!!

That doe was about 175 lbs. I will see if I can track down some pics of the ghost.

Very nice

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

If that's live weight, it would field dress at about 140, I would have guessed that it weighed a bit more. I'm thinking more like 190 live weight or 150 field dressed.

You could be on the money. Never put it on a scale and typically i underestimate - keeps trolls under their bridges. For scale I'm on the right 5' 10 and 200 even.

She's a fairly typical size for our area - little bigger than average.

Had to look through a whack of pics to find this one. There is a reason I call him the ghost - very few pics of him and even fewer live sightings.



He is easily a 300 lb buck and getting older as is he starting to show the characteristic paunch that older deer have. There is history there too as i chased an almost identical buck for 6 years who was i believe the father or grandfather of this guy. Only ever saw that guy once and it was the night the remnants of Hurricane Sandy blew through. I was bow hunting and had him at 25 yards for 20 minutes but just could not get him to step into the open enough for a clean shot.

Moments like that provide the adrenaline that makes it an addiction and worth sitting out in a hurricane (at least the remnants of one) or blizzard.

It looks very similar to one I shot a few years ago in MN that field dressed 147.

Great pics and story. Beautiful country up there. Thanks as always for posting.

Great story. Love that country. Thx for sharing