Arkansas hunt

We got home yesterday after 16 days at deer camp.... It was fun and it was exhausting... More about the exhausting later...

Started Nov 9th with some camp clean up and prep for the season that started on the 11th... It took 2 days since my wife and I ain't spring chickens anymore..  :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

November 11th: Opening morning found Ol' Arky's clan in our favorite stands waiting patiently for 1st shooting light... It was a long wait but our youngest grandson got the ball rolling at about 10:45AM with the 1st buck of modern gun season for our family...

Griffin's 2017, 7 point...



Fast forward to that afternoon after tall tales, skinning the buck and a hardy lunch combined with a quick nap... At about 4:00PM Ol' Arky saw a young legal buck but passed on him since he only had one buck tag left after killing a buck earlier in the muzzleloader season... 4:55PM... Same buck showed himself again or so Ol' Arky thought... It wasn't and at 5:00PM opening day of my planned 16 days at deer camp Ol' Arky's buck hunting was over... Done...

Ol' Arky's or PAW as the kids all call him 2017 9 point...



The rest of the weekend was a bit uneventful and the kids and grandkids had to go back home for work and school... So Ol' Arky and wife continued to hunt but not for bucks... A big gimp legged boar hog was now the target... Monday and Tuesday went by with us seeing more legal bucks that were seen by Ol' Arky all of the seasons combined last year.. :lol: :lol: You know the ol' no tag in your pocket thing... :-D :-D Wednesday morning at 1st light or about 6:30AM brought the big gimp legged boar hog to the edge of 1 of the shooting lane we have to watch... He only stuck out his head but that was enough... RIP ol' gimp leg!!!!!



Ol' gimp leg in tow back to the camp...





You can see ol' gimp leg's messed up right front leg in this picture pretty well...



The rest of the 1st week was mostly uneventful (except for see more and bigger legal bucks) as we waited for the kids and grandkids to return for the weekend... You asked why I continued to hunt the rest of the 1st week??? Cause we were there and the grandkids were out of school the next week...

More on the next weekend and Thanksgiving week to come along with a few pictures of deer kill from our camp the 1st 2 weeks of season!!!!!

Your gonna love the next weekend and week... Just a hint :mg: :mg:
 
2nd Weekend....

Nov 18th: Started as a normal hunting day... Had to beat the kids and grandkids out of bed so I would be dressed before they were... And literally had to drag the grandkids out of bed... Youngest grandboy (Griffin or G3) wanted to hunt with me.... So off we go on our own with middle grandboy (Gunnar or G2) in tow... G2 was hunting my power line stand and G3 and me were hunting my 4' stand... Oldest grandboy (Gus or G1) and his mom and dad went to the other area we have to hunt... Oldest son (Tim) and daughter in law (Melisa) hunted the 2 stands we have on a trail bordering 2 cutovers, one several years old and the other recent... Hot and windy day for November in Arkansas... G3 and I started seeing deer before it was light enough to tell what they were... We were constantly see deer... About 9AM a shot rang out from where G2 was hunting... We need walkie talkies since the cellphone reception is so bad you can ever so often send or get a text.... G3 and I waited till around 10AM (we usually stay in our stand at least till 11AM and sometimes 12 Noon if deer are moving good) and when to check on G2... He had shot a buck and was having problems finding him but had a biy of a blood trail... Solution-----HELP!!! With the help of Tim, Melisa, G1, G3 and 4 others from camp RECOVERY!!!!

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Don't go away until you here "The Rest of the Story"... :haha: :haha:   
 
Nov 18th "The Rest of the Story"...

That afternoon we all went back to our stands... Everyone including Melisa was back in the stand they hunted that morning... She shot a 7 point late but was easy to find...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Nov 19th: Another typical morning in the cabin... We everyone but G2 got ready to head back to our stands... Unlike me G2 had tagged out on bucks with nothing else he wanted to hunt for... Melisa AKA deer killer shot a better 8 point but this one wasn't as easy to find... But not being easy doesn't mean not being found... Tagged out on bucks in 2 days, 4 days of actual hunting...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

G3 and me were seeing deer but nothing either of us wanted to shoot...

The rest of the week the grandboys were out of school and got to stay at the deer camp...

Nov 21st was a cold day and "chicken glove day".... The little guy got cold and all I had for his hands were a pair of my wool military glove liners... Thus the "chicken gloves" is what he called them... 

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

G3 was hunting with me all week... We were still seeing deer but not the right one... But that afternoon things would change... Just before dark the doe I nickname "Spooky" made her way from the back on the lane in front of our stand, as spooky as she normal was stopping and looking all around after on a few steps... I had decide not to shoot her because G3 was wanting to shoot a buck and it was getting darker and darker... Then The little guy said "It ain't a button buck.. You gonna shoot her???"... He kept on and on and I told him we were waiting for him a buck... He still kept on and on and I finally made him feel good and dropped her in her tracks.... G3 said "you dropped her, you dropped her"... He was a bit excited since neither of us had every killed a deer while hunting together...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Spooky was no more and only 1 other doe remained on my hit list...

We hunted all the rest of the week and we just didn't have any good bucks show themselves and the big ol' doe on my hit list remained there...

The weekend brought Tim and Melisa back to camp and I lost my hunting partner to his mom... He did see a couple of legal bucks while hunting with his mom but made me proud and passed them up since he only has one buck tag left... There are still 3 more weekends left for him to fill his last buck tag and for Tim and G1 to get their 1st one...

As a family we did pretty good but as a camp, it was a good 1st 2 weeks of season... Here a few picture of deer killed by other camp member...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

I saved this one for the last one because she is still killing bucks instead of knocking out the boys...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr

Hopefully there will be more to come in the next 3 weekends....

Here's one I forgot...

Untitled by Philip Weaver, on Flickr 





 
Phil, I'm glad to hear you got to spend all that time at deer camp this year. You guys had a bunch of success, but I'm sure just being there had to feel better than any punched tag. Well done!
 
An old time member told me that this years was like the old days were when the area was mainly Harwood timber... In my 9 years there I've never seen this many big bucks and big bucks killed.... I've only seen personally 3 bucks the size of those in 9 years and had pictures of 6 more... Of the 3 I saw, 2 are on the wall and the other one should be..

I purposely left out the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend since I had run completely out of gas and was battling a bad cold... I didn't hunt but stayed at camp to give moral support to those that did... I still plan on at least one more weekend and maybe 2...
 
Well the 2017-2018 Arkansas duck season has come and gone... We didn't have any water in the public area we hunt until after Christmas... I got to go twice and didn't see many ducks either time... Dreams of next year now...

 
Ol Arky said:
Well the 2017-2018 Arkansas duck season has come and gone... We didn't have any water in the public area we hunt until after Christmas... I got to go twice and didn't see many ducks either time... Dreams of next year now...
Click to expand...
It?ll happen Phil! The season will be here before you know it.  :upthumb:
 
Only have the rest of the month for archery season, and they took my bow away from several years ago... The boys are to interested in resting up for turkey season now...
I'll just hang out till then and may try to go it I can get me a ground blind setup in a spot on the powerline we hunt...
 
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