The much-anticipated opening weekend of modern gun season
has finally arrived. We have been
waiting months for this weekend. We have
sighted in our guns, prepped our gear, hung our stands, set up cameras, cleared
our calendars with our employment and families, and cleared shooting lanes and
trails with the tractor. We do all of
this work in preparation to hunt, but what we are really interested in is
getting away from the busy everyday work, work, work. We would rather spend some quality time with
each other than harvest a lot of big deer without the companionship of each other. We figure that spending quality time with
friends that are more like family is more precious than deer. Deer are just deer. Deer are just a good reason to spend time
together and if you’re lucky get some meat or maybe a trophy. But lets face it, there are easier and
cheaper ways to get meat. Don’t get me
wrong, hunting deer is fun and the chance of bagging a big buck continues to motivate
us to do all of the work, deprive ourselves of sleep, and spend hours in the
cold and/or rain.
This year was a little different because this past season we
started managing a piece of property. I’m
using the word managing very loosely for now.
We are just getting started so here is all we have done so far. This particular piece of property in the past
has had tremendous hunting pressure and was basically used as public land. The first thing we did was try to shut out
the public. Turns out, this is harder
than one might think. There is one way
in so we put up a gate. We believe this
one action has done the most so far. After
that we brush hogged some trails and shooting lanes. Turns out if you make a trail for the
wildlife in thick areas they will use them.
We also put up some cameras to get a feel for what is out there. Our goals for now are to get a good healthy
heard with mature bucks for the taken. Like
I stated before we are just getting started and we have big plans. There will be more on this management process
in the future.
This year the hunting was tougher than normal for us. Usually, we harvest several deer and almost
always a deer or two on the first day. Going
two days in a row without a deer is almost unheard of for us. My grandpa once told me that there would some
years when you can’t keep from killing deer and there would be some years where
you can’t buy a deer. It was starting to
look like the can’t buy a deer option. We had six of us in the woods and two days
with no deer on the ground. Robert got
a bobcat, Daniel had a bear encounter (a story for another day), and we had
come close a time or two. I know I said
killing deer wasn’t the most important thing to us, but we’ve kind of come to
expect it and we do eat a lot of deer meat.
Things just weren’t working out.
We blamed most of it on the weather and the peak of the rut had already
past.
On the third day we were still persistent and went back to
the two basic rules of deer hunting for us. 1. Hunt where the deer are. 2. Hunt
using the highest percentage tactic. We
knew where some deer were based on pictures and sightings and siting in tree
stands is the most productive tactic for us.
The weather wasn’t helping us at all.
Lots of rain was moving in so that meant sitting in a tree in the
rain. This finally paid off and I happen
to be the lucky one. I had been in the
tree for a couple of hours and was trying to stay dry and just looking up every
couple of minutes. I had just finished
eating some fruit snacks for a snack.
Don’t laugh until you try them, they are good. I looked up and there was a good buck walking
up the hill in a little opening about 120 yards away. At the rate he was going he wouldn’t be around
for long. I could tell that it was good
buck and worth shooting, not that I have much restraint anyway. I’m working on that. Without hesitating I got my Ruger 44mag
ready, took aim, and pulled the trigger.
To my surprise the buck went down.
He started to get up and I put another one in him and he was done. It was about an hour before dark so I decided
to just stay in the stand to see if anything else would come out, but it didn’t
take long for me to change my mind. I
got to thinking about the camera pictures and he could be one of the good bucks
we caught on camera. Once my mind went
there, I was out of the tree in seconds.
As I cautiously approached the downed buck I started to realize that
this buck was bigger than I realized.
Once I got to him I realized that this was the biggest buck we had on
camera and the biggest I have taken to date.
I will admit I was lucky. This
deer could’ve walked by anyone of us. I
really don’t consider this my deer because all of us at camp did all of the
work, it just happen to walk by the stand I was in. So this was a trophy for all of us and hope
for the future to come. This was the
only deer we came home with on this trip, but was the biggest one we have ever
come home with. It is the possibility of
deer like this that keeps us going after them and encourages us to take care
and manage the land. Not just for our
good, but for the good of the wildlife.
So in keeping to our theme, continue to do your part to “Save the
Acorns”. This means harvesting animals
and becoming conservationist with the environment they live in.
