Sittin' Rock Farm

Firearms Opening Day, 2015

Date(s): November 13 thru 16, 2015
Attendees: Mike Cerruti, Hugh Shytle, Herb Coleman, Lee Owens, Christopher Owens, Jimbo Sadler

Wow, another GREAT weekend for hunting at SRF! The rut was definitely in full swing despite the warmer daytime temperatures.
The Firearms 2015 motley crew.
The Firearms 2015 motley crew.
With a solid group of hunters we were able to cover a great deal of the property and all of us saw game at one point or another. On Sunday morning Jimbo used one of our extra DMAP doe tags and shot his very first deer (congrats to Jimbo!) with the able coaching of Lee Owens seated next to him in the Redneck Blind in the Big Field.
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Later that same day from the box blind in the New Field, after watching two does graze for nearly an hour, Hugh was able to connect with a terrific 8-pointer that the trail cameras had captured a month or so before. The buck has a distinctive twisted brow tine on his left side and he carried the largest rack of any deer we’ve taken at SRF (19.25 inch rack, though Herb reminds us all that his deer taken during muzzleloader season was 50 pounds heavier!). We donated the meat to Hunters For The Hungry and we’re having the head mounted by Appleberry Taxidermy.
Hugh's 2015 deer on trail cam
Here’s the bruiser in Field 1 a month earlier. It’ll be interesting to find out whether the deer is 2.5 or 3.5 years old.

Here's the happy hunter. We've got to get better at taking pictures without the blood...
Here’s the happy hunter. We’ve got to get better at taking pictures without the blood…

In a crazy turn of events, the very next day, from the same blind in the New Field, Mike had an encounter with a deer perhaps even larger than the one Hugh shot the day before! Indeed, the deer entered the field on the same trail that Hugh’s had entered the day before. Mike’s 160-yard shot downed the deer for a few minutes, but the deer regained his composure and slipped away. After waiting 30 minutes, Hugh and Mike entered the woods to recover the deer. We had a brief encounter with the very large buck in the woods at the north end of the New Field, but he was strong enough to quickly climb the nearby hill and escape before Mike could get a shot. Despite 1.5 hours plus of searching without a blood trail, we were not able to recover the deer. We’re not absolutely sure that the deer was fatally wounded, but even if it wasn’t, it was our second heart breaking non-recovery of our lives, both of which occurred this season.

Other wildlife sightings:

  • Too many to list, including deer in every single field on the property, deer in the woods, and a chance encounter with some very large turkey while driving in the Polaris near the house in the Tirrell Field

Projects Included:

  • Adding a rebar grate to the bottom of the burn barrel to achieve better, more complete burns
  • Fixing the lights on the Bad Boy Buggy (nice job Jimbo!)
  • The six of us shared the two lone apples from the Goldrush and Yates trees. They were yummy and a harbinger of good things to come!