We had lots of rain predicted for opening day. When I got up it was not raining. I decided to head out to my ladder stand South of the house. About 100 yards from the stand it starts to rain. I changed course and headed to the new tower stand we had built for my brother who was apparently sleeping in due to the forcast. I did not see a thing until around 8 AM. Turkeys have been pretty scarce around here with a bad hatch the last two years. Well at around 8 AM I had six jake's file into the end of the food plot. I had been watching them for probably fifteen minutes when a doe arrived followed by her almost full grown fawn, with a spike following then. The doe and spike just passed through the food plot without eating anything. I think the spike was interested in the doe more than food. The smaller doe decided it was breakfast time and stayed to eat for probably an hour. Then all at once she figured out that the other two deer were gone. She did some frantic searching with her nose and lined out on their trail. Other than some crows that showed up overhead in the trees for a couple minutes that was about it. It was interesting to watch the low spots in the trail turn into water holes as the rain fell.

It is now Sunday Morning. The rain has been replaced with a strong wind. I decided to go to Church and wait till this evening to hit the tree stand again.

I worked up a load using the 160 FTX bullet for the 308 Marlin Express in my 7.62x54R Encore. I did not get time to test the bullet for penetration and expansion. I did however get a brand new Facler Water Box made and armored up to take the abuse of the Encore rounds.

More to come.

Bob R