Hunting Journal

I headed back to my old stomping grounds tonight. As I sat at work today, something in my gut told me where to go, and I listened to the voice. I got out early enough to be sitting in my stand by 4:30.

Within minutes of getting settled, I spotted a deer on the hill above me. I watched it feed across the ridge for about 20 minutes, until it disappeared over a knob. Around 6:00, I got some movement off to my right. Two deer quickly materialized, but neither one of them had antlers. They didn’t waste any time coming down the ridge and disappearing into the jungle of green beyond my stand.

Although I didn’t see anything after those deer went past me, I felt good about the evening’s sit. I can’t predict the future, but it seems like I’m going to see a lot of deer this year. Usually, the years that I see a lot of deer, I don’t do so well with the taking of them.

The temperatures won’t let up. It’s been staying in the 70s and 80s. I’m hoping that it breaks in the near future.

The season opened statewide today. It was a great morning to hunt. After yesterday’s washout, it was a pleasant relief to hunt on a cool, calm morning. Dad hunted with me today. I was certain that we would see deer, but we didn’t see a thing.

It seems that most of my friends saw deer today and had some luck, too. Smitty killed a really nice 8-pointer, and Brian shot a doe. Smitty did a good job with his cameras, allowing himself to be set up in the right place to get a great opportunity and capitalize on it.

As I sat in the stand today, I listened to a few flocks of geese heading south. It brought me back to a time when I did the same thing in the same piece of woods 34 years ago. My father had built a tree stand for me, and I sat in it on opening day. On that morning, I listened to geese for the better half of the time I spent in the stand. It’s one of those day that I will remember for as long as I live. After years of waiting, I was finally able to join my father in the woods while he went one day to hunt and I went in a different direction. He came back to get me, and we walked out of the woods together.

This morning made it seem like that day happened a few years ago. I’ve learned a lot about many different things, including life, in the time I’ve spent in the woods after being introduced to bow hunting when I was 14. I’m hoping for many more great days of hunting with Dad this season. Although we didn’t see any deer today, I had a great time.

Tonight I went back t the place where I put the stand up the other day. It was a little breezy and warm, which kept the movement to a minimum. As I sat there and waited for it to get dark, I could hear a lot of different birds. Ravens cawed, blue jays cackled back and forth and geese honked in the distance. Before I knew it, I couldn’t see my pins well enough to shoot, so I climbed out of the tree and headed home.

My walk out of the woods was peaceful. As I cleared a hill about halfway back to my truck, I spotted a deer running, then another one joined it before disappearing into the darkness. Shortly after passing the place where I spotted them, I came upon two deer standing in an opening. Although the first one jumped into the timber, the other one stood for a few seconds before trotting off. It was a really good buck, but I couldn’t tell for certain how many points it had on its rack. It had a big body and a high rack. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see it again, but it was kind of cool to see on my walk back to the truck.

I plan on going out in the morning, but the weather forecast doesn’t look conducive to hunting. I’ll see what happens.

Well,

I began another season today when I headed into the woods to check things out. It’s September 29, and I headed to one of my favorite places to see if the oak trees had dropped any nuts. When I got to the flat, I spotted a couple of nice rubs in the area, and a little of excitement found its way into my body.

The last few years, I have cut back on the use of cameras, but I’m going to put a few in this place just to see what’s around. Last year, I found a couple of really good rubs at the end of the season, and I’d like to see if that buck is in the area and feeding on the acorns. I might not get any pictures of him, but I’m going to give it a whirl.

I found a good place to put my tree stand and latched it to the bottom of the tree. I’ll come back in the morning and see what happens. It felt great to be in the woods tonight. Now, the journey into the new season has begun. The photo is of my buddy Doug, and he’s in the area that I found myself in this evening.

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