Good news bad news season.
Good news: five deer down out of seven tags. Best year ever for my group. Four does and a button.
Bad news: we're probably going to lose the ground we got them on. We've been steadily losing ground for several years. Our contacts were old farmers who are now retiring and giving up their farm leases. Our experience in that area (Indianola) is the new renter always snags the hunting rights. We may be down to two parcels.
Somewhat interesting news: We ran four rifles this year, three 450 Bushmasters and a 45/70. Of the deer we put down, three were shotgun kills (one 12 ga and two 20 ga) and the two rifle kills were 450 BM out of a Ruger Scout rifle. Both of the rifle kills could have been handled by a shotgun. A 450 BM into a deer's boiler room absolutely destroys the heart. I've never seen a heart that badly mangled.
All returned safe. Didn't hear as much shooting this year as in past. The afternoon was absolutely dead, too warm I imagine. Will be interesting to see the harvest numbers.