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.