For the first hunt of the season, it was 48o and raining.  

There is no such thing as bad weather if you are wearing the right stuff.   When talking about a heavy coat or light jacket, we usually aren’t talking about the actual weight of the garment.  My hunting jacket has some heft.  Wearing it almost feels like armor.  It has a tough Gore-Tex shell with a thick liner.  Gun season is after Thanksgiving, so it’s a winter jacket.  I thought it would be overkill for today, but with the rain, it kept me toasty.

For me, the first hunt is always a proof-of-concept test.  Hoping I packed the right equipment, everything works and there are deer in the vicinity.  I really want to see some deer, but don’t need to shoot one on the first outting.

That’s how it worked out. 

When I parked and started kitting up, I heard rustling in the woods.  Could be just the wind in the few leaves that remained, but it sounded like something was moving.  After a couple of minutes, the deer feeder activated.  It sounded like one of those New Year’s Eve noise makers.  The rattling is obnoxious, but it’s a dinner bell for the deer.  It didn’t take long for a big doe to pop out of the woods.

That feeder is set up more for gun season, so I was too far away to take a shot.

I quietly made my way to the deer stand where I took the photo, hoping the doe would wander by.  No luck on that one, but 20 minutes later, a buck came walking along the yard.  The buck didn’t have a nice rack, but was big with plenty of muscle.  Kind of like some of those top-tier female athletes. 

That buck walked right passed, but remained on the lawn, about 5 yards from the tree line.  It didn’t come in close enough to take a shot.

Ten minutes after that, two middling does came along the tree line following the buck.  Still, not a good shot with a crossbow.  Had they come in, they might not have been worth bagging.  It takes just as much time and money to gut and process a little deer, but the yield is much less.  A big deer tends to be smarter and more cautious, and is tougher to hump out of the woods.  The prudent hunter waits for the right shot on a good-sized deer.

After waiting an hour, but not getting any more traffic, I hiked the property.  Two deer were flushed out of deep brush.  It was mid-morning and raining pretty hard, so the deer were hunkering down.  The deer saw me before I saw them, so they bolted with no chance for tracking or shooting.

I don’t need to lug a carcass out of the woods for it to be a great hunt.  Next time, I need to get an earlier start and bring some buck jam or scent to lure them into range.