We sat watching the feeder diligently, hoping the game would cooperate.
About 30 minutes into our hunt, Ryan taps me and tells me he's got a doe at 10
yards out his side of the blind. When I look out the window, I see nothing
but antlers. What Ryan had suspected was a doe, turned out to be a 6
point. The deer hung up at our side and for whatever reason, decided
against going into the feeder.
At 6:30, the feeder went off and we began to settle down in anticipation of a
visit from a whitetail. We heard several deer snort behind us, and felt
quite certain they had winded us. At about 6:45, a spike appears beyond
the feeder on Les' side of the clearing. We watch the spike ease up to the
feeder, ever so nervous about the new "bush" on the west side of the
clearing. He feeds for what was probably a half an hour, all the while
watching our blind and behind us, down the road. We were certain that some
deer or hogs were making their way up the road to us, but nothing materialized.
The spike gets his fill of corn and then makes his way out of the
clearing. When he reaches the clearing, he snorts loudly and dances
off. By this time, it is probably too dark to continue hunting. With
the Ultramatic feeder light glowing brightly on the feeder, we decided it
wouldn't be a good idea to push our hunt, given the lights would give us an
"edge".
This spike entertained us for most of the afternoon.
Once darkness had settled in, we signaled to Les
and then assembled under the feeder. Les informed us that he had only seen
the spike and a lone hog that stayed in the area, at times, just 10 yards from
our blind. Ryan and I had heard something moving around us, but had
no idea the hog was that close.
We made the walk back to the cabin where we met
up with Leo and Mr. Bassham. Again, Mr. Bassham had sat on a stand to
watch animals, and saw more than his share of hogs and deer. Ryan and I
have pretty much had it with his "hunting". We feel quite
certain that Leo finds it necessary to put the man in charge of the Bassham's
finances where he will see game, thus assuring the ranch of a repeat
customer. We all gave Leo a good bit of grief over this and then started
dinner preparations. Ryan and I feel that the spot we hunted this evening
will be productive in the morning, so we'll head back to the ICE Blind in hopes
of putting some meat in the ice chest.
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