This past Saturday was labeled by Field and Stream as one of the best days to hunt this year.  I set up on two scrapes right in the middle of the logging trail which leads into the woods.  I used Code Blue doe urine around the scrapes and waited.  I was losing hope when the first deer that I’ve seen all year strolled into view at 10:25 AM.  Is he a monster?  NO!  Does he taste fantastic fried in a little butter and layed on top of gralic toast?  Oh yes.

And the best part is that rifle season opens this Saturday and I feel like the stress of having absolutely no meat in the freezer has been lifted.  Now I can hunt in new places, spend more time still hunting and exploring different stands.  The rut is really just getting started and we have at least three more weeks of fairly good action before it slowly piddles out.  What a great time to be a deer hunter!

I shot this buck with: Fred Bear Element Bow, Carbon Force 300 Arrows, Muzzy 100-grain 3 blade broadheads and a Cabela’s release.

The worst part about both weeks of hunting so far has been the weather; deer seem to be less inclined to travel  near my stand when the temperature is into the high 70′s and 80′s and that has consistently been where the temperature has hovered.  The good news is, the mosquitos and other airborn dive bombers seem to really thrive in the warm, jungle like climate and we all know nothing makes a good deer hunt better than the uncontrollable urge to swat ever bug in a 10 ft. radius like some sort of crazed school crossing guard.

Needless to say, I wasn’t inclined to sit for an entire day while the mosquitos worked at turning me into a human prune.  I hunted the treestand until about noon and then climbed down, frustrated and tired of hearing tiny wings flapping in my ears.  As I buttoned up all of my gear and headed to the truck, I couldn’t help but dream about frost-covered leaves and cooler weather.  I must have gotten just a little too lost in my day dream as I was walking up the trail, because I was quickly brought back to earth by a very disgruntled snort from two does standing in the middle of the logging path.  I was so surprised by the presence of these animals, which I suspect were deer (I wasn’t sure, it had quite a while since I had seen the mythical beasts), that all the gear in my hands went flying in different directions as my brain tried to simultaneously kneel down, knock an arrow to the bow string, clip my release to the string, draw the bow and shoot.  Unfortunately, I got to step 0.5, which was drop my hat to the ground and stare dumbfounded at the deer as they ran away.

Oh well, this is what hunting public land is all about.  Looks like the weather is cooling down, so there is always next Saturday!

The good that comes from any unsucessful deer hunt is the opportunity to ponder a variety of subjects until you honestly don’t care to ponder on them any further.  There is a lot going on for us right now, so it was easy to let the mind wander through those important things first.

Next though, my brain started working on some less remarkable facts:

1. This is my 12 consecutive year of hunting; I’ve been alive for 24 years at this point, so I have been hunting for 50% of my years on Earth.  Interested yet?

2. In those 12 years of hunting, I have taken 5 deer, 3 turkeys, 20 squirrels, 2 pheasants.  Hold tight, there are some depressing numbers coming.

3. That means that I take, on average:

A deer every 2.4 years

A turkey every 4 years

A pheasant every 6 years

And a squirrel every 7.2 months

Following from that, I average one head of game every 4.8 months.

Lastly:

4. If not for the local Megamart, we would starve.

I guess we shall see!!