CAMP RIPLEY 2nd weekend

[dakids]

Sitting in line now. We are about 75 cars from the front of the line. Already shot the bow and prepared everything. Only thing left to do is wait for the gates to open. The line is well over a mile long.

[HD]

  Good luck!

[dakids]

Here is a picture of the people behind us in line.

[dakids]

At first light I had a beautiful red fox come by and when he got down wind it stop and looked for me before running away. I didn't see my first deer until about noon.  It was a doe that entered a shooting lane what I thought was 30 yards.  Put the pin on her and at the shot she dropped and wheeled out of there.  My shot was right where I aimed.

[dakids]

Yep, I whacked a tree.  An hour later I had a fawn looking up at me from the base of the tree.  He was lost without his mother.  Around 3 that afternoon I saw my last deer of the day. It was a spike buck that came from straight down wind and had to have walked right passed the truck.  I wasn't about to burn my buck tag in Ripley on a spiker. 

The deer kill for the first day was less than 85 deer.  220 was the heaviest buck I saw at the scale and a giant doe that weighted 147.

The Sunday brought a wind direction change and a lot more hunters in the area that we were hunting.  Saw a small buck walking the ridge next to the road and then passed the truck.  I had to get home before 2 so we packed up and headed for home and a shower.

Didn't see any giants but I had a good time hunting with a friend.  We talked about possibly not applying next year and just committing to a weekend up north to hunt together.

[MNRealtree]

We were lucky this year and got a spot 20 cars back in that humongous line. Got to our spot and set up. At first light a doe walked 50 yards from me. I flung an arrow which promptly hit a branch and sailed under her. Bummer. Then at 11 I had an 8 pt walk under my stand, he wasnt as lucky as the doe. Not one of the Ripley monsters but I was happy with him.

My buddy came over to help me drag him out, and noticed that there was a goofy looking patch of hair directly between his eyes with a few drops of fresh blood on his snout. We pulled the patch of hair out of the way and there was a broadhead buried in his skull. When I cut the rack off you could see the broadhead was sticking almost an inch into his brain. Pretty amazing that shot didnt drop him. Someone out there probably wasnt too happy that this guy kept going.