Okay, yesterday was day one of bowseason for me. Since I work during the week, I am a weekend warrior.

I set up in my ground blind, about 15 to 20 yards off this heavily used deer trail, on my husband's uncle's private property. The deer use this trail to go up to the house to feed in the evenings. I am set up just before a gate. Past the gate I can not shoot, because its just yards from the front yard, and my husbands aunt does not want us to hunt in the front yard, because she wants the deer to feel safe in the yard. So I am set up in the woods, just in front of the gate so I can get them leaving the front yard to bed down for the night or I can get them on thier way to the feeder. Seemed like the perfect spot and I was sure to get a deer, because like clockwork they come to feed in the front yard everynight. So, here is what happend.

4:41pm The 11 pointer shows up first. But he never came up the trail, he jumped the fence about 50 yards in front of the trail and went into the front yard.  And it was quite awhile I sat and saw nothing. There were no deer in the yard.

5:48pm The 11 pointer and a young 5 Pointer (3 points on one side and 2 points on the other) came in again the same way still over the fence where I can not shoot.

5:58pm A little spike came into the front yard, the other bucks were grazing, and let the little buck go to the feeder and get some corn.

6:15pm My husband sents me a text and let me know, the doe's are up from bedding and heading up the trail for the feeder. I was hoping they would stay on the trail, unlike the bucks and maybe I could at least harvest a doe.

6:20 Finally one of the deer deside to come through the gate and gave me a perfect 10 yard shot. BUT it was the 5 pointer, he was about 2 years old, and by the size of him, I was guessing gutted he would be less than 100 pounds. His pointal was too good, and he was just too young. So I let him walk because my eye was on the mature doe's and the 11 pointer, who was a 4 or 5 year old deer.

6:24 The corn is all gone, and the bucks are done with grazing, so the bucks went further in the front yard, and went into the woods on the other side.  The doe's start coming in, and they come in the same way as the bucks. They did not use the trails either. The went to the feeder, saw the corn was gone, and went on the other side of the yard and into the woods, by 6:45, all the deer were gone.

So I came home empty handed. But the experince was incredable. I really enjoyed just sitting and watching them. I had a close encounter with the 11 pointer and I enjoyed it, even though I never got a chance to get a shot. There are other chances to get him, and I will try again, stay tuned to see if I get so lucky!

Well, we have been doing some scouting on property that is owned by my husband's uncle, which is 10 acres located in Elkins, AR. Well we knew he had maybe two bucks and a ton of does, so the focus for this fall was to take out some of those does, but after checking our bushnell camera's we have changed our mind.  On my husband's hitlist, is a mature buck, what he has nicknamed "Grandpa" he is very old in his face, he is a solid 12 pointer with double droptine. But the problem is, we can not get any pictures of him, my husband saw him once when he was setting up one morning when it was still too dark to shot. We think he only comes out at night. The other bucks were small last year, and we did except to find my hitlist buck. I have added pictures of him please take a look. He is a solid 10 pointer, but on his g3 he has a kicker, it might be long enough to make him an 11 pointer. You can't really see the kicker on the pictures, but we sat on the porch and put some feed out and he came in yesterday evening, you can see the kicker, but I can't tell if its an inch long or not. I am super excited. I have been practing on my crossbow and I belive I am ready, can't wait for October 1st!

Plus I am proud to say, this is my first real year as a hunter. I took my hunter education course, and passed with a 98 %. I have my crossbow and my H&R 223 ready to go and sited in. Good luck, can't wait to hear all your scouting stories!!! Also I inserted my favorite scouting picture of my buck when he was still in velvet!