Dudleys Diary

his buddy Jeff had just shot his first deer! Today is the first day of a four day antlerless deer season in the county they are hunting in. Frank said about 6:45 AM a big doe and a fawn came out into the oat patch toward the top of the hill 130 yards away. Jeff quickly put his Remington model 700 30.06 out the window and lined up his cross hairs on the big doe and squeezed the trigger. Frank said the doe went down at the shot and then got back up and disappeared into the woods. They were sitting in the stand talking giving the deer time to expire. Frank was looking out the window in the other direction and another doe walked out into the right of way 50 yards away. Frank grabbed Jeff's gun and aimed for the base of the neck and fired dropping his doe in its tracks. They were two very happy hunters having both just shot a deer about ten minutes apart! Frank said they went and got his truck and drove around down to his deer and loaded her up. Then they drove back down around and turned back and went up to the top of the hill where Jeff's deer had been. They got out and found her piled up about ten yards inside the wood line. They loaded the second deer into the truck, filled out their tags and headed into town. They used a come along and hung the deer up from a ladder under the big oak tree Franks grandfather has been using to hang deer and hogs up for over thirty years. After they get the deer dressed out, they are going to take them to the processor Dudley always used about 45 miles away. Dudley is glad to see all of Franks hard work planting the food plot and putting out the corn and acorns paid off in a big way. Helping your buddy to kill his first deer and then taking a second deer your self ten minutes later, man it does not get any better than that.

down at the farm in East Texas. Frank sent me a text to let me know that they saw a buck walk across the power line right of way his stand sits on. He said it was a dark bodied buck and appeared to be fairly large. He only saw the deers antlers from the side so he had no way to know if the deer would meet the new antler restrictions. To be legal a buck has to have an inside antler spread of 13" or greater. I told him he should have grunted at the buck to try to stop him and get him to look his way so he could have tried to judge the width of the rack. He said he did not think of that in time. I think he was so surprised at seeing a deer after so many trips to the stand with no deer sightings. He is back hunting by himself right now. He is hoping the buck or another one will make a mid day appearance. Later this afternoon, Frank will go back to town and pick up his grandfather so they can go back to the farm for the evening hunt. Dudley never got to go deer hunting with his father or grandfather. Frank is a lucky man, I wonder if he knows just how fortunate he is?

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the ESPN Wildlife Cam by clicking here. Be sure to make a bookmark so you can check it often as this is the best free wildlife cam out there. It streams live video in real time day and night. In the day time you see a color image and at night you see a black and white infrared image. Dudley has seen bunches of turkeys, tons of deer and a black bear. The exact location of the camera is being kept secret. The camera is located on a small piece of property in southern Arkansas, I do know that much. It is a low fence property located some distance from a river. You can check it out at the posted feeding time but now that the rifle season is open in Arkansas, you will probably see more deer after sunset. It is really fun to watch the deer interact with one another after dark. Dudley has seen some monster bucks as the photos above will show. Last night Dudley saw two large bucks with their nose to the ground in the background trailing a hot doe that had passed by earlier. Frank talked to his grandfather last night and found out he went down to the farm yesterday morning about 10:00 AM, he was walking by Franks stand en route to fill up one of their corn feeders and he saw a buck crossing back and fourth across the power line right of way three different times no doubt trailing a hot doe. It is all Frank can do to wait until his last college class Thursday night so he can head to East Texas and get in his stand Friday morning. Frank saw a photo posted on the Texas Hunting Forum of a huge 8 point killed last weekend in the county where he is hunting and that buck was running a doe hard when he was taken.