Big Buck Down!

Tim Ellis, long time friend of my father-in-law Ed, shot a nice buck on the afternoon of 11/18/06. It had been a long couple of years for Tim in the woods until last season when he shot a good 6-point buck. This year he improved to 7 points. The deer would have been at least 8 points had it not been for an injury to the right side of the skull, probably during the early development of his antlers. This caused the right side to grow nearly straight up into a 3-point pitch fork type spread. The other side however, was a beautiful typical four points making this his "big buck" tag for the season. Congratulations Tim!

Tim's big buck brings our harvest total to four in Crawford County, half of which are mine, and the one I also took in Bibb. This has been, by far, our best hunting season since I started heading into the woods with Ed and Tim over a decade ago. I would bet that this is due in no small part to the work we have put into our food plots over the last few years. The funny thing is it has done more than just improve the deer herd. It has also attracted more turkeys, a few hogs and more armadillo than we care to see. So far this season our armadillo "harvests" far exceed our deer, with twelve 'dillos falling victim to our wrath. The groceries are for the deer!

As I type this Ed and I plan to hunt several days this week, the week of Thanksgiving. The deer Tim shot was with three others at the time so we think there are still big bucks out there. We each have a buck tag to fill and with any luck the deer are still rutting enough for us to get a shot at one. If not, it may be slow going the rest of the year. I sighted in my .30-30 and .243 the other morning so I have no excuse if I get the chance to take a shot. I'll be sure to post any success I may have with either!

M@tt