2012 Deer Camp-pic heavy

[EdB]

After 7 straight days on the stand, I took a pause in hunting to come home for the holiday. Sure have a lot to be thankful for this year. What a great year and one of our best deer camps ever in the Spring Brook Co-Op in Parma.

The shooting started opening day with our youngest hunter Alex scoring on a nice 10 pt. The adults in camp would have passed this deer but we let the young hunters shoot what ever they want. Alex passed a couple small bucks and then got his biggest ever around 8:20.

About a half hour later, my brother shoots and gets his best deer ever, a nice 11 point. Tom hasn't shot a buck in a few years passing lots of small ones and his restraint paid off.

At 10:30, I see a real nice buck crossing to the front of the property out of range for me. It looked like a buck we got on our trail cam. He went by one of our hunters who shot and missed. He then went to my buddy John who got this nice 8 point.

Here is the trail cam pic and a matching side angle pic.

That was our opening day. The next post will cover the rest of our week.

[EdB]

I'd been seeing great deer movement on day1 and now day 2. Been passing quite a few small bucks and a ton of does.

This little guy was under me at 8:00AM.

He walked away and stood off with a much bigger 6pt and started butting heads 80 yards away. After sparing for a short while, the 6 pt backed off and walked away.

I see a nice shooter out of range around 10AM. About 10:45, he starts coming back my way on a deer run that will put him in range. He came into 30 yards for an easy broadside shot. He had a broke brow tine and was a 7 point. He was a big deer, DNR aged him at 4-1/2.

On the evening of the 16th, I stayed on the deck celebrating, cooking and deer watching.

This herd of does came out and across the field and got within 50 yards of me. Could have picked out a couple nice does but I was just a watcher tonight.

This lucky buck came by me and my buddy on the 17th. We passed. He then went to the neighbors who shot 3 times and missed. He came running back by me and my buddy with no signs of a hit. My buddy video taped him and I took this pick off his tape.

I shot a doe on the 20th for our 5th deer in camp. That was our kill for the first week. We'll probably take a few more does in the 2nd week when deer camp resumes tomorrow. I'm off work till Sunday.

QDM Co-Op's are growing in the state. We have all went buckless in some past years but the results of our and the neighbors trigger restraint is really paying off in recent years. We have seen a lot of nice bucks in bow and gun season this year. Way more big ones that we have ever seen in the 20 past years hunting this property. It was a fun ride taking these bucks to the DNR check station.

[flyman013]

Nice shots Ed. Congrats on a fun and enjoyable season so far. Have a Happy Holiday!

[NO MO BEGGEN]

nice job ed those are some really nice deer congrats

[somethin' fishy]

That's a pick-up full of horns Ed! Congrats to all, nice deer!

[Just Hook'n]

Thanks for sharing Ed. I think I would have driven that truck around the entire state of Michigan on the way to the check station - showing it off all the way. VERY NICE.

[GLF]

Looks like you had a GREAT week at deer camp! Hopefully next week is just as good.

[phishtix]

Wow! Nice ones!

You guys did real good. Congrats on a fine season for sure