Monday, October 20 , 2008 p.m.

Monday, October 20, 2008 p.m., 58 degrees, mostly sunny, wind N 10-15 mph, sunset 6:17 p.m. (Hunting closes 6:47 p.m). It was an early morning as I had to drive all the way out to the south western part of Minnesota. I don't mind getting up early to hunt, but this work thing can be challenging. Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised when I got home that my farmer was out cutting my beans. Since I was late, and I generally love to hunt over a newly picked field, I decided to try the ladder stand. I have found that deer love a freshly picked field as it is easy to scrounge around and find food. Lastly, the wind was good and I could sneak in under the noise of the tractor. I was all settled in by 4:25 p.m. At 6:05 p.m., I looked to my right and could barely see a doe about 100. Yards to the south of me already in the bean field. There may have been more, but it was too tough to see through all of the leaves. At 6:40 p.m., I looked to my right (south) toward the field and I saw some movement. By the time I got my binoculars up it had already moved into the trees. Fortunately, there was a second deer behind it and I was able to identify it as a small buck. They worked behind me to the west and the started grunting towards one another. They ended up meeting and I could hear them push back and forth and hear their antlers rattling together. The smaller 6 pointer ended up walking north and headed over toward the NW territory stand. After about 5 minutes, the really nice 8-10 pointer (not very wide though) appeared in my shooting lane about 10 yards to the south of me. He then walked to the main trail just to the south east of me at 12 yards. I tried to get some video but it was just to dark. I could see my pin; no problem with him being this close, but I really want to get this years shot on video for the blog. I would guess that it was a 2 1/2 year old deer with about a 16" spread. He would score 120-130." He ended up walking slowly to the east and disappeared over by the "X" stand. Totals; Bob - 3 deer, 1 Doe and 2 Bucks