Deer Hunting

My view for the weekend

Deer hunting is something that I only get to do so often. For whatever reason I am always busy on the first weekend in November. While sitting in the stand I realized that I had only gone hunting six times in the last 12 years. That's not a good percentage when the hunting is good and easy to get to.

I worked a few hours extra so that I could leave work early on Friday and headed up to the Farm around 2pm. Once I got up there I had to get in the woods and set my stand up. I usually choose the same tree every year, but last time I noticed that there were a lot of branches that had grown and made visibility a little less than I would like. I got the stand up in about 20 minutes and was back to the house to drink some beers. I picked up a 6-pack of 21st Amendment's Live Free or Die IPA. It was alright and my Dad's buddies kept making jokes about how it looked like a root beer can.

The morning came and I was up before everyone. I think that Saturday morning is your best chance at getting a deer and I don't want it squandered by trying to get 20 minutes more sleep. I got to my stand and had to wait about 40 minutes before things became somewhat visible. I had heard a few shots before then and wondered how people could even see a deer unless it was only 20 yards away.

Not long after sunrise I saw three deer. A doe and two fawns. They were walking from the field down to the river. I didn't really give them much thought and went back to listening to a podcast. About 30 minutes later I spotted two deer across the river. It was hard to see, but when I put the scope on them I could see they were both does. Still waiting. Time went by and I heard something coming up from directly behind me. I turned my head to look and it was a decent sized fork horn. He caught my eyes right a way and I knew that things would be difficult. He was not only behind me, but he started walking to my right side which meant I was going to have to stand up and turn around without him noticing if I was going to get him. I turned and there went the flag. To my surprise he only went about 15 feet and then turned back around. He was staring right at me and slowly walking away. By the time he went behind a tree so I could put my gun up I could barely see him in the scope. I thought I had his head in my sights, but since I wasn't too excited about shooting a fork horn so I decided to just let him go. Just before lunch there was a doe and a fawn that walked right in front of me. I had the sights on the doe... for practice. I just couldn't bring myself to shooting a doe yet.

Can you spot the doe?

When I got back to the house Matt told me that he had gotten a deer at about 8:30. We ate lunch and I went over with him to drag it out of the woods and hang it up in the shed. You can't really tell from the photo, but the other antler is messed up. It looks like it only sprouted out about a 1/3 of the way.

I headed back out to the stand around 1:30 and waited for a long time before I saw anything. There was a small doe that walked in front of me and once again I wasn't interested in shooting it. From there I thought I saw two deer off in the distance but I'm not sure as I only got a glimpse. Once it got too dark for me to see very far I started walking back to the house and in the field between me and the house was another good sized doe and a fawn. I thought about shooting the doe just to be done hunting, but the backdrop was the house and if I missed some bad things could have happened so I started walking again and scared them off.

I had four Sierra Nevada Torpedo's waiting for me when I got back. They were ok. nothing that I would buy again.

Once again I was the first one up and got out to my stand Sunday morning before the sun even thought of coming up. The next 4 hours were a nightmare. No deer, lots of squirrels, and it was cold. I had planned on staying in the stand till 10 (I had to get back for hockey at 2) but decided to call it a day at 9:30. Back at the house Roger had gotten a deer in the morning and was loading it into his trailer.

This deer was a "12 pointer" but I say it's a nice 8.

It was a good size deer and I was happy that two of the four of us got a deer.

I packed up and headed out around 10:30. I called my Dad at 4 and he said that he didn't see a deer all day. He has a lot more patience than me. I am still undecided if I am going to go back this Saturday morning. I have hockey again at 2 and there is a bike race at 4 in River Falls. It would make for a very long day. We'll see how the weather goes. I may end up only going to hockey and having a boring weekend.

I decided that I am going to stop being so picky and just shoot a deer when a decent opportunity is presented. I like venison jerky and sticks too much to not have anything for a year because I am waiting for the monster buck to come through.

Either way I had a good weekend and enjoyed some good beers and great food.