Saturday, November 26, 2016

I sweat like crazy on my walk into the woods this morning. I wore some of my old long underwear, and it seemed like I had a heater body suit on. The sweat poured down my forehead and along my cheekbone. It reminded me of exerting myself in the summer heat.

When I arrived to where I wanted to sit, I saw a few people tracks from the previous day. It was a little miserable, too. The sky spewed a combination of snow and rain, which didn’t take long to accumulate on my clothes, drenching me to the bone.

I toughed it out and waited for it to let up. Finally, in the mid-morning, it let up and turned into a much better day. I decided to spend the rest of the day still-hunting. Right before I packed up and began my journey, a doe and fawn came past me. Knowing bucks have been searching for any last does that are left to be bred, I decided to stay put for another 45 minutes. When nothing followed, I headed in another direction.

After an hour of sneaking and peeking over knobs and along ridges, I stopped to rest next to a familiar tree. It was a tree that I have become accustomed to over the years. It’s just a place I visit when I’m in the area.

Standing motionless and taking in the sights, I spotted a deer’s body. I could see antlers sticking out from behind the tree, but I couldn’t tell if it was a shooter buck. I leveled the gun on the tree and put the crosshairs behind the front shoulder. I could have easily squeezed the shot off, but I decided to wait to identify the buck.

When his entire head became visible, I could see that it was a nice 6-pointer. It wasn’t nearly as large as the buck that Brian had killed, but it was still a nice deer. I grabbed my video camera in my pocket and filmed for few minutes. It was nice to know that I could have easily taken this buck if I chose to do so.

Fortunately, I no longer feel the need to shoot a deer to feel good about my season. I’d rather pass up some of them to see what I can learn in the process. It’s never too late to continue learning.

I’ll never be able to figure out why so many people in New York feel the need to shoot as many deer as they can in a season and not obey the game laws. It seems to be all about numbers. People like to brag about how many bucks they shoot in a year. When I squeeze the trigger or release an arrow, I make sure it’s a deer that excites me. It’s a deer that makes me want to end my season. It’s really too bad that other people don’t feel the same.

When I was younger, I probably did a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have done, but I quickly learned and redirected the ship into the right harbor. That’s one reason I like hunting in the Midwest. Most of the hunters I’ve met out there target one deer and won’t settle for anything less (or more) than that one particular buck.

I could feel that I was getting close again. I’m just hoping that the buck I could have killed wasn’t the one that was bringing the feeling. I’d like to get a look at a good one. I’ve put my time in this year and a lot of work, too.

Heres’ the video I took when the 6-pointer walked right to me.

 

2 Responses to “Saturday, November 26, 2016”

  1. Mike Homan says:

    Kool video!

  2. admin says:

    Mike,
    I thought it was going to be a good one when I first saw him.

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