The Freezer is Full

Things escalated quickly this year after a slow start. The biggest challenge for most of the season this year was just the temperature. It made me way too picky, I passed up deer that I’d have happily put in my freezer. Too many hunts where the focus was only on a nice buck because I knew how much work that would immediately lead to. But I also knew that the time would come with lots of deer activity and favorable temps for hanging for a few days. Rather than have to process everything that night. I’ve got no interest in taking any into a processor for a lot of different reasons. I even passed up a buck on opening day because of the temperature and travel involved. Opening day and I have a history of being a waste of time so that was hard to do.

Things finally got cold and my daughter made me a “lucky” bracelet. My hunts went from empty handed to extremely productive. The first hunt with the lucky bracelet yielded a doe while stalking blueberries. The next yielded a unicorn buck that had already shed one antler. But when that deer popped out 130 yards away and I could see his body was big enough. I had zero hesitation in putting the crosshairs on him. That was a Saturday and Tuesday, I had talked about hunting the next day too. But I was going to skip it with a snowstorm and whatnot but Amanda encouraged me to go since she was going to pick the kids up anyway.

You don’t have to nudge me hard to get out in the woods even if this was just going to be a last hour of daylight sit on an experimental area. The roads were so bad on the way out there. I slid past the drive to the farm and had to go a ways down to safely turn around. I finally got there and started making my way in during blizzard conditions. I rounded a corner and caught movement in a thick ditch line 45 yards away. Right away I knew it was a doe that I would be happy to put the last tag in pocket on. Luckily it was thick enough in there and snowing hard enough that she didn’t pick me out. I flipped the caps off my scope and finished up my quickest deer hunt ever. It was another one of those moments in life where the timing happened to work out just perfect. If I had been there earlier or later things might not have happened like that. Sliding past the driveway saved the day! Another lesson where it isn’t wise to get too wound up about things and sometimes they happen for a reason.

I was going to wait until the late season with 5 dollar tags to finish filling the freezer. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to continue riding this hot streak. I picked up a couple more tags and went in for a sit on the experimental spot that I was heading on the last hunt. To my surprise the lucky bracelet let me down but it answered some questions on what I thought would be a really good night.

I had really felt good about the area the unicorn buck had come from so I knew my next sit would be there. Stalking berries would also be productive but I was only getting the time for some quick evening hunts. I learned a ton about stalking the berries this year and I like it much better if they are not on their feet. So I try and avoid the most active hours. I sat down on my “spot” (more on that in a minute) and I don’t think it was 10 minutes before a nice doe popped out way to close to me. There wasn’t much time to think on that one but deer number 4 was down. I had plenty of time left so I sat back down and hoped to just finish it up tonight.

Another one popped out on the wrong side and was safe for now. It was not a very big deer but it is easier to butcher 2 deer in one sitting then doing it 2 separate times. It is also always fun to double up. But I could not make a move on this deer and it had me picked out. I won the stare down and it went on it’s way only to pop out in the wrong spot for it awhile later. I won the stare down again and decided it was time to double up and be done with my season.

This spot is the edge of a blueberry farm where the deer are crossing from a neighboring property. It is a great shooting lane but since blueberry farms are surrounded by ditches there is literally no where to hide. There is one tree that is growing in the ditch in the perfect spot (there will be a stand in it next year) but where it is growing you can’t even silhouette yourself against it. Which is the most important thing when going in on the ground. You need cover in front of you and behind you. Here I had none but despite popular belief that you need some sort of blind to kill deer with gun. There’s also crazy thing you can try and it is called sitting still. That is one of the fun things for me about going in on the ground, especially on new properties. Finding that nice little nook to tuck into and really thinking about how you can use the cover, wind, and deer sign to your advantage. Plus dealing with the elements and having the discipline to sit still. Sitting still is an art especially when you are getting the stare down of one trying to make sense of what you are.

Hopefully this year we won’t run out of venison months before hunting season. Although it was so much fun having 4 out of 5 successful hunts in a row that it was tempting to get one more tag for some fun meat projects. But this was also an opportunity to help some close friends put some meat in there freezer instead. It has meant a lot to me when friends have offered that opportunity to me so it would be good to do that for someone else. I did miss out on my annual doe hunt with Drew this year because I couldn’t hold off on that last deer. There is a part of me that wishes I’d have held off because it is such a fun hunt. But at the same time I appreciate that deer too much to think about going on another hunt. Another cool thing is that the girls really helped out this year. They did a lot of meat grinding and actually packaged everything for the last 2 deer. Their packages are very festive with red and green writing but I’m very proud of them for helping out and having fun doing it. Millie is still getting used to dead deer, it is interesting that she is the only one who’s ever really been scared of animals. She does not discriminate when it is on here dinner plate though and hopefully by next season she will be right in there with the other girls.

I’m pretty happy with how this season played out although I would have really liked to have gotten one with my bow. I had some great bow hunts though they just never played out exactly like they needed to. There is a much larger margin to accommodate variables after November 15. It was awesome to have a place close to home to go and hope to be a lot more prepared for next season. There’s a lot of fun to come between now and next season so until then we are going to enjoy having a freezer full of venison and I think I might wear that lucky bracelet for bass tournament season!