Laurel Hill Hunt 2012

Happy New Year everyone. Here's a synopsis of our annual hunt up in the Panhandle.

Me and the boy left the house in Tampa around 730am the day after Christmas and drove the 8hrs north pulling my golf cart up to Laurel Hill. The trip was uneventful and we arrived around 230pm (local). After we unpacked the truck and set up camp me, Jesse and Art put on our camo and headed to the woods while my son and his friend Josh went in the opposite direction to gather firewood. It was going to be a cold night. I sat in the stand overlooking the food plot with about a 100yd shot to the corn. All I saw were squirrels and rabbits but no deer. Art chose the stand on the far left of the property line. Jesse chose the stand that was in the very back of the property next to the creek.

After about an hour or so I got a text from Jesse that he spotted a young spike. I told him to let him pass if he was too small and we'd get him in a year or so. He agreed so on we sat until I heard a crack from a rifle in Art's direction. Art didn't have his cell so I wasn't sure if it was even him that took a shot. After the sun had set good I came down out of the woods and made my way back to camp up on the hill. I was sitting by the fire enjoying a hot cup of coffee when Art walked up. I asked if he'd shot anything and he said "yep a 6pt." So he sat and warmed up a bit and we were off to the woods in the cart to retrieve his prize. It was a nice little buck. He told me when he shot it he had to track it about 50yds in the dark with his headlamp. Finding very little blood at sporadic points in the leaves it took some time. We loaded him up and headed for the barn.

The next day I was feeling sick so I didn't make it out in the morning. Art woke up around 4am local and looked at the clock in his van and thought it was 5am so decided to head to the stand again. He realized his mistake after sitting an hour in the dark. Well it paid off because he shot a nice doe before coming down. Again he had to track her as she ran off. Art was shooting his modified Mosin in 7.62x54. He got back to camp, we all ate some breakfast that his wife Jenn had prepared and then we went to the woods to pick up the doe and take her to the barn. That proved to be the last deer anyone would get this trip.

The reason being is that everyone came down with the flu. Man it was miserable. That's the sickest I've been in years. We finally came home on Saturday and I'm still recovering. All in all though any day in the woods is better than any day at work. Art gave me the doe so all was good. Here are some photos to enjoy.