The Deer Blog

Deer season 2023 was a fun one. An exciting start, a boring middle, and an action packed finish. I for one am grateful we have a long deer season here in Michigan. I know all the “big buck hunters” complain about it but as someone with other outdoor interests and someone who processes their own deer. I need both the time to go and the temps to be right to even make it to the woods. That usually means December is my time.

I had a couple exciting bow hunts followed by a typical firearm season of looking at nothing. Most of my regular season firearm hunts are on the east side of the state and it is time to change things up over there. My real motivation to even hunt over there doesn’t even involve deer anymore. It’s just about the family traditions. I have a horrible track record of seeing deer around opening day, let alone getting an opportunity. It’s not like I’m over there being picky for a particular deer either, I just never see any. There was a shot fired though and my brother got a really nice 9 point. It took just a couple minutes of legal shooting light for him but that would be the end of the action for any of us. All was great with that deer except the ticks. I found 4 on me on the ride home in the truck and took a good look at the deer afterwards. It wasn’t hard to find more ticks.

I was feeling motivated to get a deer over there this year so instead of the typical Thanksgiving weekend duck hunt I spent a couple mornings watching for deer. I’m going to guess with the weather we had the duck hunting might not have been any more exciting but I also never took a look around scouting. The good news was there were no ticks involved that weekend. The bad news is the pressure was on. 3 deer was the goal this year and I wasn’t any closer to that ( I did find a nice shed).

December was going to be my meat month again. It can be tricky juggling the end of duck season which is usually some of our best hunting, the holidays, and whatever else is going on. Fortunately D&R Sports did not have an ice show this year which gave me some extra time. December also opens up my options of places to hunt. I’m incredibly grateful for good friends who will take me to their spot or give me access to their property. It’s almost a tradition at this point to go on a late doe hunt with Drew and if Drew is involved I always feel like the odds are in my favor. I also love that is a low tech hunt, just being hunkered down (usually not for very long) in a section of woods. This was the first time I’d gone in the evening with him and it was cool to see the deer movement from the opposite direction. We didn’t have to wait long until a group of deer got in the woods and began feeding on acorns. Unfortunately where they chose to feed didn’t give me the greatest shooting lane but there were little windows here and there. The toughest part was trying to make sense of which deer was which to avoid shooting a yearling. We had a good 80 to 100 yards between us but still at one point a doe picked me out and we had a Mexican standoff which seemed to last forever. I could have taken a shot of her standing straight on but I just didn’t like it so we kept practicing the art of sitting absolutely motionless. Eventually we won the staring competition and she went back to feeding throughout the trees. Patience paid off and I got a shot opportunity at that very same deer. The pressure was finally off! We elected to sit a bit longer to see if another would make an appearance but the rest of the night was quiet. Amanda said she was going to let the girls be surprised and made a joke about how Drew came to the rescue again. One down and 2 tags burning a hole in my pocket.

I got out again the next night on some property close to home. Hopes were high but I was bumming a little bit about less deer sign than my last visit here. No deer were spotted that night but I was appreciative of getting invited back to this property. Having a spot to go less than 15 minutes from home is awesome. I got an invite to another target rich environment that Brandon had been telling me about all year. I’m not sure how I feel about sitting in one of the huts but it was fun to get to talk with Brandon all night. It was like a quieter version of duck hunting. The deer read the script but things didn’t quite go our way. My 450 is an on the AR platform and as soon as I pushed the button to rack one in…the elevation adjustment on my scope went flying. I could see down into my scope but what effect was it going to have? I decided to roll with it and see if it nothing changed or maybe it was going to be way off. It took longer than expected for the deer to get moving but a magnum doe gave me a great shot at 80 yards. I could not find any blood on her as she ran off so I never shot again. My gut told me it as a miss and we had a great mark on where she exited the field and into the woods. More deer came out and Brandon wanted to give it a go. One confused deer later and it was obvious the scope was no good. We checked for blood and walked some runways and were confident that no deer were harmed. All we could do is laugh, my 300 dollar scope is going through the warranty process so hopefully that all goes well.

Fortunately everyone who found out about the scope offered to let me borrow a 450 so this was no season ending injury. One quiet hunt in a normally high traffic deer area and then I finally had the right wind to get to a place that I knew I would see a bunch of deer. The big question would be if they would cross the neighbors to get to me or not, regardless I would with 100 percent certainty have some deer to watch. I’ve never killed a deer on this property in the spot I was going to sit tonight but with the current wind situation it would allow me the terrain and cover to make a move if need be. I also had a hunch they were using that end of the property to cross more frequently. It didn’t take long and they were popping out. The first bunch popped out in an area where I thought for sure I’d have to make a move. I knew they were going to make it to my side but it would be too far for me to get a shot. I would have to be patient on making this move and make it at exactly the right time. Of course there were other deer out that were going to complicate the situation. They started trending west as the got to the middle of the neighboring property and now I really had some decisions to make. Were they going to pop out just out of range now? Or were they going to make it to exactly what I set up for? Eventually there was too much brush between us to really tell but I had gone all in on being patient. Then again sometimes it’s just your time and the next time I had a sighting it was the biggest doe in the bunch popping out right where I’d planned. I hesitated for a second thinking I needed to see one of the other deer next to her to be sure. But the white on the face and the big long nose didn’t lie so I took the 80 yard shot. She didn’t go down on the shot but hunched up and I had an obvious hit. All 4 deer followed her into the field and it looked like she was going down. I switched my focus to the other big doe and that one went right down. I was panicking a little bit when the first doe was able to regain her footing and make it over the hill and into the woods where she expired.

I’ve always wanted to shoot 2 deer in one hunt and I guess I can thank my scope imploding for all that. It sure was an awesome feeling to have such an exciting night and loading up a truck bed full of meat. I had my work cut out for me the rest of the night though and in the coming days. Warm temps coming over Christmas when we would be out of town were really going to complicate things. But being prepared to do all the work that comes with a successful hunt is just part of it and I was ready to get to work. However I would still be there trying to lift those deer into the back of the truck if it wasn’t for the deer hoist my dad had made me. Not only does it work wonders for getting them in the back of the truck but I’ve been hooking it up to the quad in the garage for all the skinning/hanging duties.

I did get some help which was awesome and definitely sped things up (thanks Trevor and Dragon). The girls got in on the action too, they were already in their pj’s all snuggled up on the couch when I got home. But they threw their santa hats on and got out there for the excitement. I had big plans to see if they would help with pulling the hide off this year. But since they were all ready for bed getting really messy was out of question. I did ask them if they wanted to use the knife to help with the skinning and they both jumped right in.

It was a great end to the season and the freezer was full. Any deer I kill is special to me, antlers or no antlers it truly doesn’t matter. I’m grateful for the deer, the friends, and the places I got to go this year. I’m looking forward to being reminded of it all every time dinner comes from that freezer during the off season. We can probably do some fun sausage projects this year but it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. The youngest at 18 months has been crushing it now too and we had to up the size of the meat packages again. Until next October that’s all I’ve got for the deer!