Saturday, October 4, 2008

Day 1: A Great Success in the Deer Woods

The 2008-2009 hunting season is officially under way. It is honestly hard to believe that it is already here, but hey, I’m not complaining! With the most wonderful time of year upon us, I’d like to tell you how opening day went. Unfortunately neither Dad nor Damin could accompany me today as Dad had to work and Damin was stuck at school. However, I would have to say that I had pretty successful opening day.

For my morning hunt I was perched up high in a Gorilla Ladder Stand (Mossy Oak Break Up) overlooking a transition area loaded with White Oaks that was surrounded by prime time bedding cover, it is this location that I will spend the majority of my time when hunting Lefty. Sadly though, Lefty left us hanging this morning as we had no sighting of him. We did however see 5 does, a button buck that fed right under (and I mean RIGHT under) the stand and a decent looking 1.5 year old buck. I couldn’t get a good luck at the 1.5, but he seemed to be well on his way to becoming a shooter. We also had 2 jakes and an old tom wonder by the stand too. I had a little fun with them emitting some self-voiced turkey clucks and it seemed to garner their attention and curiosity for a bit, until they finally waddled on out of sight. I also was able to call in a young doe as well. Her fawn, the aforementioned button buck was running around all over the place, buckin' and kickin' and havin' a good ole time. Mom, on the other hand didn't think it was quite as funny as she began bleating over and over again trying to locate her little man. Seeing this as an opportunity to practice I whipped out my grunt call and emulated a couple fawn bleats. Next thing I know I have momma doe 25 yards from my stand! What a rush in its own right! Despite the lack of movement I was blessed with an absolutely gorgeous morning. The temperature was a cool 45 when I left the camp at 5:45 and it remained cool the majority of the morning. I’m also grateful for star-gazing I was fortunate enough to do. I got in my stand and settled down at 6 sharp leaving me 45 minutes to stare and wonder how beautifully the Lord can remind of us His presence, awesome!

After a mom-made-sandwich, a nap, a little college football and a scent free shower I headed back in the bush! I was again hunting a transition zone between bedding areas and was expecting quite a bit of doe movement and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact on my way back to camp there were already 4-5 does in the area I was hunting! This forced me take an alternate route (a LONG and hot alternate route) that would lead me into my ground blind through the back door so to speak. Fortunately I made it in undetected. Still the temperature had warmed up to the lower 70s and it made for quite a warm walk, needless to say my Scent-Lok Base Slayers were put the to the test. And boy did they pass along with my other religious scent control methods. In fact all but two of the 11 deer I saw came from down wind of me and not a one got a whiff that I know of. From around 4 to 6 I had 10 does and a very impressive 2.5 year old six point feeding heavily on the sweet nuts (acorns). Then around 6 or so, this family of whitetails decided it was time to pack up camp and leave as they headed to the south side of the property to bed down. Needless to say, I’ll be hunting this location soon! Now, do not let the number of points on this young buck fool you, this is guy is a handsome buck. We got trail cam photos, video footage and several encounters of him last year as a 1.5 and we knew he had great potential and he didn’t disappoint. He is tall with sharp, crab claw forks and decent mass for a 2.5, worthy of a nickname. Still as impressive as he is, he’s going to be an absolute mack-daddy next year. Let him go so he can grow!

While I didn’t harvest a deer today, I would have to say it was a very successful day. We learned a lot about the deer’s patterns and tendencies, especially in the afternoon, and we were blessed with a beautiful morning as well. We’ve got a long season ahead so stick with us for stories, photos and hopefully some uploaded video footage. God bless and happy huntin’ everybody.

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