Deer Season 2020 - Part 2
After hunting day 2 of the firearm season I took a break from deer. I butchered the one I had later that week and kept duck hunting until the end of the season. The day after the ducks ended and I noticed I had a perfect wind for deer hunting in "muzzleloader" season. Well it used to be muzzleloader but now it is just gun season 2.0 in zone 3. I had my restricted tag and a doe tag for the private land I was hunting left. In Ottawa county there are no antler restrictions on the restricted tag because of the CWD management plan and this was another pure meat hunt. This property is mostly just a go through property, I will most always see the deer come out of the neighbors property where they bed. Oftentimes they never come my way or make it over my way with daylight left. Not surprisingly I noticed some activity on the neighbors property first and I had hopes they would cross the field and come my way. I couldn't see everything going on over there but there I'm guessing there were about 8-10 deer. Does/fawns and one small buck from what I could tell in the binoc’s.
It is often unpredictable where they will cross the field at but as it got darker I could see they were coming to my woodlot. I needed them to come in the woods or come through the corner and into my field. At first it was just a doe and fawn heading my way but the others followed. They all entered the woodlot and I knew the challenge was going to be picking out the right deer as I was losing light fast. They all bunched up and milled around in the place that had the thickest tree cover. They were right next to a great shooting lane but I needed one to pop into it. They milled around for longer than I would have liked and I was only able to catch glimpses of them. It was impossible to keep track of who was who and my biggest concern was popping a fawn when it stepped into my lane.
I assumed I was going to have to take a long hard look at the first deer that popped out to ensure it wasn't a fawn. However fortunately for me the buck was the first deer to pop out and that was good enough for me. The deer made it about 60 yards and collapsed, it is always a great feeling to see them go down. Unfortunately none of the does stuck around for me to double up and I didn't have much light left. So I got down and got to work early. The pressure was definitely off for the year now, I had big goals of getting 3 but 2 would definitely get us by. It was also the first deer I've harvested on this property so that was a great feeling. Perfect hanging temps for a few days and deer number 2 was tucked away in the freezer. Another great part of the night is my dad shot a nice deer on the east side of the state that night. It was cool to double up even though we were 2 hours apart.