Emotional Roller Coaster
If at first you don’t succeed, make sure your husband is there to record it. Danni Noel of Ptacek’s Meats zeroed in on her first doe of the season and missed by inches. As the doe ran for cover I think Brad wanted to get as much pent up raw emotion caught on film as possible. He fixed the camera on his distraught companion and waited for the water works, but it was not to be, even after he confirmed that she did indeed miss high.
Missing a doe on camera might send some novice hunters into a tailspin, but not Danni. She decided to play a little hooky from work with hopes of redeeming her recent shooting faux pas. Redemption might be a understatement. A beautiful buck walked into Danni’s range giving her another chance, and she did not disappoint. I have learned that Danni cries when she slays trophies, not when she misses doe, and when that trophy is tracked down a party of epic proportions will ensue!
I Can Smell You From Here.
A slow start can’t begin to describe what the boys from Cranky Pat’s have been going through and the team’s two outings in the most recent episode can only be characterized as nightmarish. With nor a buck or a doe to show for their efforts the duo thought they were going to get their first crack at a nice shooter. Just as Mark was ready for the beast to stick his head out a small breeze kicked up and gave the buck a whiff of his Brut 33. Much like the men’s fragrance has done to the opposite sex for years, the buck did an about face and headed in the other direction.
Mark decided to hit the stand after his 12 hour night shift with his daughter Abby maneuvering camera. After several hours they heard a monster trudging through the canary grass and at 22 yards Mark let fly. Again, it wasn’t meant to be as the shot missed low. Upon hearing the news Rob decided it was time to call it a day at work and meet his distressed confidant.
By the time the team regrouped they only had a couple hours to sit in the stand, but it didn’t take long to get busy. They passed on a 6 pointer, but Rob couldn’t pass on taking a jab at his partner while relaying the distance. “22 yards, should be a familiar distance for you.” With only 20 minutes of shooting time left before dark a doe approached being closely followed by a monster. With time ticking before the end of the day, as well as the season, the boys delivered and are on the board with a beauty.
The Big Jimmie
Some people might look at the news of being laid off from their respective employer as a bad thing; maybe even get a little down in the dumps. Not Eric and Jim of BuckFever Synthetics. Nope, these two were downright giddy when they learned of their hiatus from work because this meant one thing; more time in the stand.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had recognized the correlation between hair length and buck size. Eric presented himself on screen reiterating those exact thoughts all while donning what can only be described as an atrociously majestic hair style. If that wasn’t enough, they decided to pull all the stops and bring in the Big Jimmie, a shockingly realistic decoy. Jim is very luck he didn’t have an arrow flung at him whilst standing in his driveway. These new tactics unfortunately didn’t bring in any whitetails, but they did attract a stray cat; a ridiculously boisterous and friendly stray cat. After Eric took his feline friend for a nice stroll they boys were ready for some action. When I say action I mean 100 rambunctious turkeys decided to set up shop right in front of the two.
The wig might not have worked its magic, but I definitely wouldn’t give up on the Big Jimmie. I would also suggest trying a robust mustache.
