Frank's outdoors...

Yes, its been a long time, but its never too late to post some preseason pictures!  In preparation for the coming season, I have setup 3 good locations to sit with my bow and take my first game with it.  Just looking at my setup, and I know I'll be able to get on something.  I will take some photos of the blind layout on opening weekend.

Opening weekend came and went with nothing taken this trip.  However, I did have some pretty good excitement that I have never seen. Opening morning, I saw the biggest deer of my life.  A tall-tined, chocolate antlered 14 pt.  Its the best count I have, need to get him on the ground to get an accurate count, but double crab claws on his upper main beams of an otherwise 10pt, and little kickers here n there. Sunrise was at 7:13am, and about 5 minutes later I see movement about 50-60yds in front of me through the woods.  This deer (coming from the right) goes behind my protein feeder, and around the corn feeder, and passed me to my left.  I was thinking, "why isn't he going to the feeders???"  That became very evident when he took a sharp turn at the treeline to my left, and came in behind me to a scrape that was 7yds from my tree!!!  Of course, no chance at a shot on him through the tree I was in, but I could turn and see the whole thing. ...

My buddy Mark found the old fella back and still alive after the crossbow shot on his shoulder last season on opening day archery.  He appears to be no worse for wear and still in the area.  Oh yeah, and his rack has grown!

My buddy Mark's camera has been capturing some solid action of the same bucks I have been seeing.  Take a look at these pictures of this bad boy giving the camera some up close and personal views.  This bruiser better watch out come opening day!  The bucks still seem to be running in bachelor groups as evidenced by the first photo.  On my cameras, I have pictures of 6-10 does...  so hopefully in a few weeks when the first rut starts, they'll get moving all over again.

Thanks to my good friend, Mark, we have another spot to hunt this year after the much maligned loss of our lease at season open last year. We are up in Crockett, TX and have a solid 1200+ acres.  This piece of property has some elevation changes and is used as a privately owned timber property, so there are selective cut lanes throughout.  The timber company grades roads after a cut, so access in and out of the property is pretty easy. At the moment, I have 2 box blinds and 2 tripods setup.  One of the tripods is a bow blind for the coming season and will be my first go at that.  Will post on that at a later time. Below is a pic of my big box blind looking down a lane, and it has 5 directions to really keep an eye on.  2 in front, 1 out of both sides, and a lane directly behind!  I only have one feeder in front 70 yds at the moment. My son is silly!

Here are the highlights... a write-up of the setup soon.

My good friend and hunting buddy, Mark, took me to a sweet spot on the last day of the season!  Not 20 minutes from my house.  He told me there was a small pond surrounded by trees in a 12 acre cow pasture that he had access to.  He told me there were tons of ducks piling into that spot.  My waterfowl luck hasn't been so great in the past few years, so I wasn't all that optimistic, but I am always game for a hunting opportunity! Well, to say the lease, we hammered them.  We were done 30 minutes after shooting time began.  It would have been sooner if I was "on" at the beginning.  All told, we each took limit, totaling 12 birds (6 wood ducks and 6 gadwalls).  The pond we were hunting on was shallow on one end (up to the waist), and way over your head on the other end.  As we didn't have a dog, Mark brought his "retriever" (aka fishing pole with a  top lure) that we used to get the birds!  Brilliant!  Took us a little bit to ge...

Found out last night that the property owner has committed a sale on our lease.  The buyer asked for us to be completely OFF in 3 days!!!  Are you kidding me?  Well, our lessor successfully negotiated us to have 2 weeks...  how generous.  So, we get to hunt opening weekend, and attempt to get ALL of our stuff off the property ASAP.  I am pissed.  That is all.

Been a crazy  2 weeks.  I'll explain. About a week and a half ago, my hunting partner, Mark, calls me to let me know our lease property had been sold, and it wasn't likely we would even get to hunt the upcoming season!  Apparently, the developer who was acquiring the property was going to get started immediately to begin land preparation for a subdivision.  Needless to say, given the timing and the news itself, I was floored.  Pissed. Distraught.  Frenzied.  Angry.  I need not continue.  In light of this news, I began to reach out to all the people I know that hunt that may have potential openings where they are, or know of spots. I got some replies, but the reality of being able to get something, see it in person, and actually get something going in time to actually hunt it this season were just not realistic.  It also made me realize how lucky I have been to have a spot less than 30 minutes from my house that I have had quick and eas...