After the Kiwi left Arkansas……

Our rifle season started on Nov 9th. I hunted Craig’s stand the first 2 mornings…saw 7 does day 1, 2 small bucks that weren’t legal the second day. The hunting conditions were tough..warm temps, big moon and still lots of acorns. The deer were moving at night according to my cameras…

From the 9th on we hunted everyday….sitting early and late. My wife had decided to just hunt from the cabin porch window, a spot that has proven to be productive…it looks out over a 2acre foodplot planted with clover, chicory turnips and native grass. There is a feeder and a waterhole about 100yds below the camp. I hunted 5 different spots..3 box blinds and 2 pop up blinds that I use for bowhunting…. It didn’t matter…the deer were not cooperating. A strange year for sure…we usually always see at least does…not this year. We kept at it.

On Nov 21st my wife and her friend Patti left camp and went home…my wife had a Dr. appointment. That left me unsupervised! I had got some hog pictures not far from camp the night before. I was hoping that the hog would show up at the feeder below camp…when Raye left..I took her spot at the window.

True to form no deer showed up…the sun was going down..the shadows were long. About 5pm that boar slipped out of the thicket and slowly moved into the foodplot. I grabbed Rayes 270 Mark X and slid the window up enough to get the gun on the sill. The boar was very cautious..walk a bit..stop and test the wind. Eventually he made his way down the hill toward the feeder. He stopped in the middle of the slope and seemed to be getting nervous..he looked tight up at the camp. He was facing me squarely…I put the cross hair right between his blinkers and touched it off.

He folded right up..rolled down the hill almost to the feeder. I was excited to get that boar..hadn’t shot one in a few years…
I went out to the shed at got the tractor fired up..then called my friend Ken to give me a hand.

Attachment 264566

Ken and I got him skinned and gutted..and had a few beers to celebrate. It wasn’t a deer..but I need some pork for lunch meat and sausage. I was hoping maybe our hunting luck would change.


To be continued..

Our deerless hunting continued for a couple days…then the weather cooled off considerably. It was mid 20s F as I headed to the pop up blind in the dark…perfect morning.

Lots of squirrels and birds working in the woods this morning. I could have shot a pot full of squirrels right in front of the blind…they were busy breaking into the hickory nuts that covered the ground…acorns were getting scarce. About 8:30 I saw a couple deer moving down the road that comes thru the food plot. It was a doe with a good sized fawn. As they got closer I could see that the fawn had nubs on his head and I could also see that the doe had a bum leg. Really had no intention to shoot a doe, but decided to take her before the coyotes did.


Eventually, the doe got broadside at about 45yds. The red dot settled just behind her front leg and the gun went off. At the shot both deer spun to leave…I lost track of the doe for just a second….one deer ran back up the road the other crossed the foodplot and started to run up the hill. That was the doe..she tipped over backwards and fell over as she started up the hill…never got out of sight. She was done!

Attachment 264579


First deer I’ve taken with my contender pistol, it has a 14” 30-30 barrel and I’m loading it with Barnes TAC-x 110gr copper bullets. If you look you will see that the joint on her front leg is swollen, that leg did not bend at all. Not sure what happened..didn’t look like it was a bullet wound. Impressive results for a 110gr bullet and an old time cartridge. So…more meat to process!


A few days went by with no deer movement. That hog was all cut up and resting in the tractor shed freezer…and the doe was chilling in the cooler. We kept hunting and I moved to different spots hoping to see some deer. Raye had hunted all of muzzle loader season and all of rifle season and didn’t see a single deer in the daylight. We saw lots of deer after dark at the feeder below camp when the motion lights came on.


One afternoon I decided to go to the blind we call the skybox. It’s a box blind sitting in the corner of the first foodplot we established on the forty and it’s on the highest point of the property. We planted clover there last year and had a failure…this year it is only winter wheat and some turnips. It was a beautiful afternoon but nothing was moving…

The clock was ticking and I had about 15 minutes of legal shooting light left…I was about to gather my gear get back to camp when I spotted a buck on the far side of the foodplot. He was feeding along slowly moving parallel to our boundary fence. Because of the wind direction I had closed the window on that side of the blind earlier… I needed to get the window open and get my pistol in position…moving as quietly as I could…I managed to open the window without him spotting me. He had moved enough that he was now broadside for a decent shot at about 65yds.


At the shot, I knew he was hit..but about 4 big leaps and he was over the fence into the neighbors pasture. I have a good relationship with my neighbor so retrieval wouldn’t be an issue. When I got to the spot he had been standing…I didn’t see blood but it was getting darker by now. Putting on my headlight at the fence crossing showed lots of blood…I crossed the fence and followed a massive blood trail down the hill…the buck was laying dead on the edge of the woods. To get the buck back to our place was going to be a slight uphill drag of about 70yds. Being old and slow…I called Ken to help drag and headed down the hill to warm up the tractor.
Attachment 264587


Over the years I couldn’t count all the times Ken and I have tracked, dragged, skinned and gutted critters we have both shot. It’s great to have a dependable hunting partner to help with the work part of hunting! Anyway…tractor retrieval and in no time the buck was hanging to cool.

So that’s the way things went after the Kiwi left. My deer hunting for this year is probably done…unless I get tempted to do some late season bowhunting.

Really nice Buck Bob! Worth the time spent waiting for one to show up.

Thanks Craig…he is one of the better bucks to come off the place. I was surprised to see him…he never showed up on any of the camera pics.. That’s happened before though..strange bucks out trolling for does….
The funny thing is the day Raye and I headed for home..2 very nice 8pt bucks and a smaller scrub head came to the feeder below camp and hung around for about 30 minutes. I asked Raye if she wanted to shoot one of them…she declined..she said we have enough meat to cut now!

If those 2 bucks are around next year they will be very nice!!