Opening Weekend of Rifle Season for Deer- Part 1

Friday

Collin, Mason, and I arrived at my cabin right as the sun was going down.  We rushed to get a few things done with the last amount of light that we had but it didn't work.  It got dark on us quickly and we were left to complete our chores with flashlights and lanterns.  We stacked firewood, hooked up the generator and unloaded our gear.  We also had to run over to our hunting spot to check how muddy the dirt roads were, fix a blind that sustained some wind damage, and put a chair in the same blind.  While doing this, something happened that I have only read about in posts in Facebook groups.  

While walking back to the truck, I ran across what appeared to be a funny looking corn stalk.  I quickly realized that we were in a bean field so I took a step back and analyzed the object a little bit more with my headlamp.  To my utter amazement and shock, it was a shed antler!  On top of that, it is one of the oddest sheds I have ever seen.  I couldn't believe that I found a shed, in a field that had been harvested AND planted this fall, and in the dark no less.  The chances of pulling this off are slim but it just goes to show that unexpected things often occur when you are in the outdoors.

After heading back to the cabin, we appreciated the fact that the wood burning stove had warmed the cabin up to almost 70 degrees.  We organized equipment for Saturday's hunt and went to sleep early.

Saturday

Sometime in the early hours of Saturday, the needs to use urinate and restart the fire arrived.  I stepped out of the cabin to relieve myself when I noticed wind.  It wasn't a lot of wind, but it was more than usual.  Most nights at the farm are calm.  Windy nights are typically precursors to windy days.  That's bad for deer hunting because it restricts deer movement.  This was an ominous sign of things to come.  I also noticed that the temperature had dropped even more.  By the time we woke up at 4:30, the wind was blowing between 5-10 miles per hour and the temperature was about 18 degrees.  Corey arrived a little after 5, we arrived at our hunting location at about 5:30, and we were all in our positions at 6.

It was cloudy and cold.  The wind cut through our gloves and our fingers were the first things to get cold.  Collin, Mason, and I had particularly cold hands because out Hot Hands packets had expired.  I didn't know that they could expire.  I know that now.  I will not make this mistake again.

To make a long story short, we didn't see many deer.  Corey saw one coyote and Collin didn't see anything.  I mean nothing.  Mason and I saw three does with a buck.  I couldn't tell if it had four points on one side (maybe missing brow tines) so we had to pass on them.  We also had a small 8 point buck step out of the timber, right beside our blind at about 15 yards.  At that exact moment, Mason was already opening his pack that he brought to get out some candy.  Of course the pack had to close with Velcro.  The buck was not a fan of the sound and ran off.  We got a pretty good laugh out of it because I didn't want to shoot him.   We then saw a flock of 13 hen turkeys.  That was cool to see and I'm glad that we still have a population of birds on the farm.  I still don't have a handle on how many birds we have, but I'm going to work on that.

The overall theme for the morning was COLD.  Mason and I were extremely cold but it was nothing compared to what Collin felt.  His gloves were too thin and he was on top of a hill getting pummeled by the wind.  Corey was actually pretty comfortable in his spot.  He had a wind block but wasn't see much activity.  Unfortunately for him, Mason, Collin, and I decided that couldn't take it any more and we decided to call it quits around 9.  We had also only heard 5 shots which I took as an indicator that there deer just weren't moving.  This was also the coldest that I have been in recent memory.  I know Collin and Mason were brutally cold as well.  They warmed up when they took showers that evening.  I warmed up at about 9 PM I think.  Corey said he wasn't that bad.  He's either crazy or tough...and I'll go with tough.

We saw that the wind was going to steadily increase during the day.  I made the decision to call it quits for the day and to come back on Sunday morning.  I regretted this decision later because it might have been better to at least give the evening hunt a shot.  Everyone reassured me that they were fine with it which made me feel a little better.  Our optimism for Sunday morning was high due to the forecast showing significantly less wind.  As luck would have it, Sunday was a MUCH better day and I will bring you that story tomorrow!

This is actually a spooky picture of the moonrise on Friday night.