Date(s): October 30 thru November 3, 2015
Attendees: Mike Cerruti, Hugh Shytle, Herb Coleman, Phil Luci
Mike, Phil, and Hugh arrived on Friday afternoon before muzzleloader season started, so we took the opportunity to bow hunt that afternoon.
Phil arrowed this 4-pointer from the ground blind in Field 1.
As he’s done in the past, Phil showed his hunting prowess by taking two deer this trip, connecting with this 8-point from the box blind in the Big Field on Saturday afternoon.
At last light on Saturday afternoon, Herb shot a terrific 8-pointer from the box blind in the New Field. Unfortunately, the shot was farther back than planned and the tracking job was the longest successful track we’ve ever done. In total, we tracked the deer for 1 hour and 45 minutes over a distance of probably 500 yards, several times losing the very weak blood trail. About 1.5 hours into the track Herb and Hugh were ready to pack it in and resume the search the following morning, but Phil (MVP!) kept us going! We found the bruiser about 15 minutes later in a ditch; he was probably headed to the bottom land at the far side of the property. He was a terrific, mature buck, weighing 185 pounds and sporting a rack with a 18.5″ spread.
We had the meat processed into jerky and ‘deer sticks’ at Linthicum Custom Slaughter in Manassas, VA.
We had the meat processed into jerky and ‘deer sticks’ at Linthicum Custom Slaughter in Manassas, VA.
Other wildlife sightings:
- Again, many deer sightings all over the property
Projects Included:
- After the hunters left on Monday, Hugh worked with Duane on Monday afternoon to augur 27 holes for persimmon trees that he planted on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Hugh purchased the trees from a QDMA forum friend from Louisa County that had grown the trees in rootmaker pots. We have had a tough time getting bare root persimmon seedlings and trees to ‘take’, but with any luck these trees with extensive root systems will thrive.
- Cutting down some cedar trees (to mitigate the cedar apple rust that affects some of our apple trees)
- Herb reinforced several towel holders