The heat finally broke. It was 35 degrees when we turned the truck off on the way into the woods this mornings. Unfortunately, my day didn’t go as planned. When I climbed into the stand an hour before daylight, I got settled in and felt good about it until I saw two headlamps coming toward me from the private land on the other side of the creek. I flashed my light at them a couple of times before one of them cut off to the left, but the other one continued right toward me.
Amazingly, he latched his stand on a tree about 20 yards from me and climbed in. Since it’s public land, I sat there and swore under my breath. If someone flashed a light at me, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t set up in a tree right next to him.
Fifteen minutes before daylight the hunter started smashing antlers together, grunting and bleating. From daylight until 11 o’clock there was never a five-minute period when an exorbitant amount of noise was being made. As the minutes faded into hours, I began getting extremely frustrated. Finally, I coughed really loud. The hunter stopped for a few seconds but started right back at it a few minutes later. That put me over the top and I yelled, “Will you shut the hell up!”
With that, the hunter climbed out of the tree and sulked along the creek toward the place he came from earlier in the morning. Relieved, I leaned against the tree and took a deep breath.
About 25 minutes later, I began seeing deer. When it was all done, I saw eight bucks but none of them were shooters. I counted 12 different deer that I saw that the hunter scared away when he was making all the noise throughout the morning. He couldn’t see any of them from where he was located. Here’s one of the bucks I saw. I’m not feeling all that confident, but I know the worst season can become the best in the blink of an eye.
