***MUDBROOK NEWS BULLETIN***


Our rut hunting weekend has come and gone but we sure had a good time while it lasted. I think next year we should extend it to 4 days…what do you think? Although the deer sightings were very random there was still plenty of rutting activity witnessed and four people had close encounters with large racked bucks…thats pretty darn good! The down side is that only one of the four bucks ended up on the buck pole…a dandy 9 pointer that our visitor and new friend Mike Austin was able to bring down on Sunday morning from the Bulls Eye stand despite getting to the stand at 8:30 and being hung over. Way to go Mike!!

Here is a recap of the other big buck encounters:

Hunter     Stand  What Happened
Lefty   Bernards     Big Buck walked through thick brush at 30 yards…no room for a shot.
Lefty  Bare Foot    Big 10 pointer at 8 yards but was changing socks at the time…no shot.
Chris D.    Dead End    Had a 10  pointer standing broadside at 20-25 yards. Shot over top.
Paco   Circle   Had the same 10 pointer at 25 yards but brush was too thick to shoot.
Paco  Dead End    Hit a big 8 pointer. We tracked it for 2 1/2 hours until blood dried up.
Mike A.    Triangle Saw a couple of nice bucks just out of shooting range.

It must also be noted that everyone in camp saw, and passed up, multiple small bucks and all does. It's good to see so many deer in Mudbrook and know that next years crop of bucks is looking good. 

I was thinking of some things that made this years rut weekend memorable. They are in no particular order ...

1) Trying to canoe down the Mudbrook on Friday morning while breaking through 1/2" ice…then turning around after 200 yds.
2) Seeing the 6 pointer that Chris had wounded earlier in the year and giving him non-stop crap about it all weekend…well, at least until he missed the 10 pointer.
3) Listening, in disbelief,  to Lefty tell his story about the 10 point buck / sock in hand encounter. Sad but very funny too! I can see lots of jokes about this in the future.
4) Hearing both Paco & Poison complain about the lack of shooting lanes at the Circle Stand…hilarious!
5) Having the Rattlesnake in camp…enough said! 
6) Hearing Rattler & Poison tell the story of Elvis (the decoy) almost getting his ass whipped by a buck in the back field.
7) Waking up in the middle of the night to Chris D. moaning & groaning in his sleep. A definite wet dream! That replaces Kurt Gaber's "bee sting on the lip" as the weirdest thing that's happed during a rut weekend. Unbelievable!
8) Mike Austin not getting to his stand until 8:30, all hungover, then shooting a 9 pointer at 11:00 a.m. just before climbing down.