Last week end was cold and drizzly, but if the wind is low (and it was) that won't deter deer movement. Being in Uvalde County, the rut runs a little late (first part of December), and the guy I shot was clearly sniffing the ground obsessively. I even spooked him 2 hrs earlier, but he wouldn't leave the area. Since the wind was favorable, I sat at the base of a big live oak, whose canopy stretched out like a sagging tent, and faced into a gentle breeze. Sure enough, old cold nose came snuffing along.

He wasn't big, but he had a "deformed antler set" (4 points on one side, a large fork on the other side). This usually indicates an injury earlier in his life. I don't know if that would affect his abilities to pass on good genes, but Uvalde has no antler restrictions, and the land-owner said there were a lot of young bucks prowling the area. So I took him, and left the dressed carcass in Uvalde for skinning and processing.

I saw several axis deer, but could get no clear shot. In fact, one crossed the trail of the buck I shot, looked around, then reversed course away (I have seen more white tails noshing with Rio Grande turkeys than with axis, though they pay attention to each others distinct warning snorts).

Topping off my freezer allows me to give away Christmas gifts of venison; so far, I have distributed 8 packets.

My friend has invited me on another hunt in Christmas, but I may have to beg off.

Last Friday, I finally took a nice buck in Coryell County, Texas. I had to move from two previous posts due to changing wind direction. Finally got a decent spot overlooking an intersection of jeep trails and oak mott. There I enjoyed the golden early evening light and many monarch butterflies, after spooking at least three deer in the process. But the rut is a forgiving time for clumsy retirees. With less than 30 mins. left of legal light, I caught movement over my "off side," which turned out to be a nice doe. My intent was to shoot her, but she wove through brush and trees and went out of sight before I could maneuver around and get a brace on the oak I was sitting against. I kept my eye on where she first emerged, and sure enough, a legal buck slowly revealed himself.

I got a sight picture, but the buck was single-mindedly dogging her same path. Then he stopped. He never turned his head, toward me or anything else. Somewhere ahead and out of sight, he was fixed on that doe who probably was sniffing out my old scent trail along the jeep lane before signaling to the buck all was OK. Most of his body was obstructed by brush, save for the front quarters and antlers. I just managed to get the cross-hairs over his right lower shoulder as he stood transfixed on the invisible doe. At the shot, he leapt backwards and disappeared. The only movement was the re-emerging doe who flashed into the open, then back into brush.

I was somewhat confident of my 100 yd. shot through the little "tunnel" I had for visuals, so immediately struggled up, grabbed my pack, and traced a bee-line for where I last saw him. Sure enough, he lay on his side only a few feet from where he once stood, with a lung through-and-through. He trembled his last, and I thanked him and bade him farewell. Then the work began. A week later after red neck aging in the ice chests, I finally had him boned out and dropped off at Hudson's Processing in the heart of hep-cat South Austin. God, I think this may be the last kitchen sink de-boning job I do! But 52 pounds of sweet, solid, well-trimmed meat will be returned as breakfast sausage, burger, link sausage, ham steaks, etc. It's a relief in many ways.

Happy hunting to all of you who deal with eating straight up.

With a federal concealed-carry reciprocity act in the offing, and with the prospect that Trump will appoint more 2A-friendly justices to SCOTUS, the so-called "gun rights" movement may be topping off at the bountiful victory banquet it has noshed at for some 20 years. (If there is a dessert out there, I don't know what it is.).

Now would be a time for the Party to seriously look at just what it aims to accomplish with its gun control outlook. No need to belabor the many arguments for or against this proposal or that; we've done it many times before. The greater question is why continue on with a culture war by proxy when it has resulted in complete policy failure, and very damaging consequences to the Party and liberal/progressive causes in general? The election results strongly point to the fact that, over the long term, Americans want to put-paid to this miscast issue, and the Party should take heed, turning instead to very real reform. With the NRA, et al no longer able to marshall some millions of now single-issue voters to the polls, the political effect of what is now a defacto arm of the GOP will be lessened. Further, Democrats will no longer have to drag a peculiar smell into the garden party of U.S. politics.

The Party should take advantage of this opportunity.

(January, 2016 New Republic.)
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A certain swing state voted over 71% to legalize medical pot, a state taken TWICE by a black man to win the presidency. Perhaps in the future a Democratic presidential candidate less politically tone-deaf will not venture to Ft. Lauderdale to deliver a gun control address.

From CNN's Steve Vladek in the on-line article "What are poll watchers and what are they allowed to do," posted on Saturday, 10-29-16:

"Every state makes it illegal to intimidate a voter... For example, an individual's [watcher's] actions designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by QUESTIONING THEM OR CHALLENGING THEM..." (my emphasis)

As a former election judge in Texas, I can say this statement by Vladek is true. Poll watchers MUST report any concerns to the Election Judge, and not otherwise interrupt the voting process.

Tell the Judge when a watcher is talking with you, and do so immediately immediately!

Even on an overcast, windy, rather cool day, dove were still flying into an oat field with a "perennial" patch of sunflowers. Durable, late afternoon field! Got six with 12 shells, fired from an IC choked Rem 870, all on the fly. Funny, how your shooting improves over the season!

In a peculiar twist, general gun deer season opens on November 5, while the first half of the long dove season overlaps to Nov 6. I have not seen that before, so I may try for a deer, and if everyone else gets one on the fifth, go for a few more dove on the sixth. What a treasure to hunt both species on well-kept land.

by voting straight Demo.

Is this a glitch on your end, or a posting error? No quibbles with post appropriateness, but I don't know without searching each where the core of the discussion lies or if a post is a road to no where. Can this be corrected? Thanks in advance.

Old tale my Grandmother told of that hurricane when it moved upstate and passed over Pasco County:

"Oh, that wind bent the trees over close to the ground. Then, we ran out to tend to the animals and get wood, then ran back in [the eye]. Well that wind came back the other way, and straightened those trees back up!"

Some humor during a bad time.

Note that the 1928 hurricane tracked a path similar to some projections of Matthew. God, I hope it doesn't squat on Lake Okeechobee (40 miles across) and create another self-contained storm surge! This is where over 2,500 souls drowned as "their eyes were watching God" (Z. N. hurston).