So, here we are, hunting season has now been in for just over a week. I skipped opening day on the 4th due to the warm weather and instead, took one of my buddies fishing. With predicted temps in the upper 70's, I may have skipped this second weekend as well, trading in my bow for a fishing pole. But with the a forecast of high winds and seas in the bay running up to 3 foot, I decided to Hunt. Besides, my new club; Lonesome Three Hunting and Fishing Club, had a scheduled working party during the middle of the day on Saturday.
The Plan: Set the alarm for 4am and get on the road by 5. Hunt my Headquarters Hunt Club property first thing in the morning until around 9:30 or 10am then drive over to the new club to meet some of the members and do some work. Then, for the evening hunt, I planned to hunt somewhere on the new property. Here's how it went:
I got up at 4am Saturday morning to my wife commenting in about the same fashion she does when I get up to go fishing, "You're nuts! Why do you do this to yourself? You never get to sleep in." And my typical response, "I know, I know, go back to sleep." It’s a good question, just not one I want to dwell on at 4 in the morning.
I quickly jumped in the shower and washed down with scent free soap and scent free shampoo, hurry up and get dressed, finish loading my gear into my truck and hit the road. 2 hours later, I pull into the club property just as the sun is coming up over the trees. On this morning, I decided to try a different location and set my climber up on a tree a few yards down wind of a very old White Oak tree that was heavy with acorns. This tree sits in between a field that's gone to fallow and a 1 year old cutover. I had high hopes for this location so up I went.
About an hour after climbing the tree, out comes a Squirrel. After he gets halfway up a tree about 5 yards from me, he freezes. What's that big-assed camouflaged glob in that tree over there? This little guy just couldn't figure out what I was or if I was a problem, but he was pretty sure I wasn't there last time he climbed that tree. A couple times, I thought he was going to jump on over to see for himself. He didn't. He did however, climb up and down the tree, stopping every once in a while to see if I had moved. One time he actually considered climbing up the tree I was in but changed his mind at the base of my tree. Back up he went on the tree across from me. This little guy kept me company for the better part of 2 hours barking and chirping at me before finally heading down and back to his den. Good thing for him I didn’t have a field point tipped arrow in my quiver since he is the only sign of fur bearing life I saw all morning.
At 10am I gave up, climbed down, packed up my gear and headed back to my truck, then down the road to the new club. When I arrived there were 3 other members hanging out on the porch and a kid mowing the grass on a riding mower. They had about a half dozen ducks hanging from the porch that they had shot during their morning hunt behind the club house. A little more productive than my morning ended up being. There were only 4 of the 12 members there on this day. They seemed to be a pretty good group of guys. I'm looking forward to the season.
Fast forward a few hours and we're coming up on 3pm. I had intended to hunt a location on the new property. Being new to the property, I solicited some suggestions. After a little conversation, it was decided that I was going to hunt a creek bottom between two cutovers on a property they refer to as "the Y-road” I head off with anticipation. 10 minutes later, I arrive at the Y-road property and parked my truck. After spraying down with scent eliminator and getting my gear together, I grabbed my bow and headed to the head of the wooded finger and creek-bottom. I had planned to work my way along the creek-bottom about 3 hundred yards in, find a small clearing and a climbable tree near a fruit bearing White Oak and hunt till dark. Not to happen! You know what they say about “best laid plans.” Yup, they often go awry. And so this one did.
After about 40 yards into my trek, I realized how thick this wooded creek-bottom was. What a pain. I pushed on another 50 yards or so. Now I'm dripping with sweat. Not good for a deer hunter. This was just way too thick. Where was I going to set up and still have a shot if a deer comes by? So I look outside the bottom area thinking maybe the walking would be a little easier at the edge of the cutover. Hell no! That was nothing but thickets and thorns. So about now I'm concerned my hunt is ruined. I give up and start making my way back to the road. After looking at my watch, I realize I have two options; pack up and get an early start on the 2 hour drive home or quickly drive to the more familiar acreage at the Headquarters club. I chose the later.
On the ride over I decide I'm going to hunt an oak ridge on the edge of our property again confident I'm going to see something large and brown. Might not see a deer in range but I was pretty sure I'd see a deer. And I did! Around 5pm the first of 3 deer sneaks on in and starts feeding on the White Oak Acorns on the ground. This guy was a bit on the small side but it was what we call a Cow-horn. For non-hunters, that's a deer with two horns sticking straight out the top of his head. Probably about 8 or 10 inches each.
Shortly afterwards, two more deer join the cow-horn feeding on the acorns; another cow-horn and a 3 pointer. This 3 pointer looked a lot like a 3-pointer I let walk last year about this time. Only now, his single horn is about 6 inches longer and curved in. These 3 bucks fed in and out of bow range from 5pm until the sun went down. I drew on two of them more than once but decided I'd rather get home at a decent hour than spend an hour waiting and another hour or more tracking. By then, I would have likely ended up spending the night. So for now, they are safe and only because I was tired and lazy. That won't be the case should I see any of them next Saturday.
So that's it. My first ever hunting report. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Maybe next week I'll have a story that involves tracking, dragging, field dressing and processing some Venison.
Until then, thanks for reading.
The Plan: Set the alarm for 4am and get on the road by 5. Hunt my Headquarters Hunt Club property first thing in the morning until around 9:30 or 10am then drive over to the new club to meet some of the members and do some work. Then, for the evening hunt, I planned to hunt somewhere on the new property. Here's how it went:
I got up at 4am Saturday morning to my wife commenting in about the same fashion she does when I get up to go fishing, "You're nuts! Why do you do this to yourself? You never get to sleep in." And my typical response, "I know, I know, go back to sleep." It’s a good question, just not one I want to dwell on at 4 in the morning.
I quickly jumped in the shower and washed down with scent free soap and scent free shampoo, hurry up and get dressed, finish loading my gear into my truck and hit the road. 2 hours later, I pull into the club property just as the sun is coming up over the trees. On this morning, I decided to try a different location and set my climber up on a tree a few yards down wind of a very old White Oak tree that was heavy with acorns. This tree sits in between a field that's gone to fallow and a 1 year old cutover. I had high hopes for this location so up I went.
About an hour after climbing the tree, out comes a Squirrel. After he gets halfway up a tree about 5 yards from me, he freezes. What's that big-assed camouflaged glob in that tree over there? This little guy just couldn't figure out what I was or if I was a problem, but he was pretty sure I wasn't there last time he climbed that tree. A couple times, I thought he was going to jump on over to see for himself. He didn't. He did however, climb up and down the tree, stopping every once in a while to see if I had moved. One time he actually considered climbing up the tree I was in but changed his mind at the base of my tree. Back up he went on the tree across from me. This little guy kept me company for the better part of 2 hours barking and chirping at me before finally heading down and back to his den. Good thing for him I didn’t have a field point tipped arrow in my quiver since he is the only sign of fur bearing life I saw all morning.
At 10am I gave up, climbed down, packed up my gear and headed back to my truck, then down the road to the new club. When I arrived there were 3 other members hanging out on the porch and a kid mowing the grass on a riding mower. They had about a half dozen ducks hanging from the porch that they had shot during their morning hunt behind the club house. A little more productive than my morning ended up being. There were only 4 of the 12 members there on this day. They seemed to be a pretty good group of guys. I'm looking forward to the season.
Fast forward a few hours and we're coming up on 3pm. I had intended to hunt a location on the new property. Being new to the property, I solicited some suggestions. After a little conversation, it was decided that I was going to hunt a creek bottom between two cutovers on a property they refer to as "the Y-road” I head off with anticipation. 10 minutes later, I arrive at the Y-road property and parked my truck. After spraying down with scent eliminator and getting my gear together, I grabbed my bow and headed to the head of the wooded finger and creek-bottom. I had planned to work my way along the creek-bottom about 3 hundred yards in, find a small clearing and a climbable tree near a fruit bearing White Oak and hunt till dark. Not to happen! You know what they say about “best laid plans.” Yup, they often go awry. And so this one did.
After about 40 yards into my trek, I realized how thick this wooded creek-bottom was. What a pain. I pushed on another 50 yards or so. Now I'm dripping with sweat. Not good for a deer hunter. This was just way too thick. Where was I going to set up and still have a shot if a deer comes by? So I look outside the bottom area thinking maybe the walking would be a little easier at the edge of the cutover. Hell no! That was nothing but thickets and thorns. So about now I'm concerned my hunt is ruined. I give up and start making my way back to the road. After looking at my watch, I realize I have two options; pack up and get an early start on the 2 hour drive home or quickly drive to the more familiar acreage at the Headquarters club. I chose the later.
On the ride over I decide I'm going to hunt an oak ridge on the edge of our property again confident I'm going to see something large and brown. Might not see a deer in range but I was pretty sure I'd see a deer. And I did! Around 5pm the first of 3 deer sneaks on in and starts feeding on the White Oak Acorns on the ground. This guy was a bit on the small side but it was what we call a Cow-horn. For non-hunters, that's a deer with two horns sticking straight out the top of his head. Probably about 8 or 10 inches each.
Shortly afterwards, two more deer join the cow-horn feeding on the acorns; another cow-horn and a 3 pointer. This 3 pointer looked a lot like a 3-pointer I let walk last year about this time. Only now, his single horn is about 6 inches longer and curved in. These 3 bucks fed in and out of bow range from 5pm until the sun went down. I drew on two of them more than once but decided I'd rather get home at a decent hour than spend an hour waiting and another hour or more tracking. By then, I would have likely ended up spending the night. So for now, they are safe and only because I was tired and lazy. That won't be the case should I see any of them next Saturday.
So that's it. My first ever hunting report. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Maybe next week I'll have a story that involves tracking, dragging, field dressing and processing some Venison.
Until then, thanks for reading.
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