"Deer hunting a favorite amongst sportsmen"
Deer hunting a favorite amongst sportsmen Published 10.20.10 CLT Hunting Guide
By Allan Olson
Every deer hunting party has its own quirks and adventures along with tall tales, embellished stories all with some truth weaved in. My hunting party is no different. I’m afraid that if I took the time to write all our tales and then embellish them some more and then edit them to reflect me more “accurately” it would take too much time and room.
I could be considered by some a privileged hunter, all the property I hunt on is private land consisting of over 300 acres owned by dad the seasoned most veteran hunter of our group. The land is intermixed with woods and fields along with some adjacent state land that we occasionally trek through.
To say that it is free of faults and the acreage is always accessible is not the case. During a review of our permanent stands earlier this month we discovered that one of the favorite stands (Old Faithful as its nicknamed) is going to require a good set of boots to access it this year. The area is set underneath a powerline amongst cat tails and a tamarack swamp and with the large quantity of rain over the course of the summer the ground is well saturated. The stand is aptly named as many hunters (except me) have shot at least one deer from that stand during most seasons.
Our hunting party of seven with the occasional additional one or two members has nearly 30 stands to choose from and every morning and evening and occasionally afternoon we always discuss who is going to occupy what stand. While the number of hunters has been pretty consistent for the last several years the number of stands keeps increasing. Why we keep building new stands every year is really not certain but I do know that we built two new ones so far this year and we’re hoping they will be in the “right” spot for us. It seems like every year during deer season we see a new spot that we should have a stand. Some of these reasons could be due to a growth of trees and shrubs in the area or a clearing or in many cases because we want one in that spot no explaining necessary.
The hunting fever doesn’t hit everyone but us younger hunters are hoping that some if not all of our children will appreciate the fun of hunting.
As we went out to work on deer stands this month my oldest daughter age-four, saw me getting a gun from the gun cabinet and promptly said “I wanna’ a gun, I wanna’ shoot a deer.” In laughter I explained to her that daddy might get in trouble if we shot a deer know but we could try to shoot a bird. Thankfully she didn’t grill me on why I shot a deer already this year after I hit it with my van.
If I could make a few simple requests for the weather this year, I don’t enjoy hunting in -10 to -20 below the donut so could it stay in the 20’s above this year that would be great. I really would also appreciate it if it didn’t rain either because that makes it less enjoyable. Snow is okay but either snow enough so I have to hunt longer because the roads aren’t plowed or just enough so I can spot a few drops of blood if my aim isn’t true.
For all those deer out there who feel that their racks are just getting too big and you’re tired of carrying them on your head all proud like, please feel free to stand in front of my sights and I will be happy to accommodate your death wish, as long as my aim is true it will be quick and virtually painless.
I wish everyone a happy, successful and most importantly a safe hunting season. Please be considerate and obey the laws and be respectful of other hunters and their rights.
Thanks for reading and I invite you to share your photo’s and comments with so send us a pic or drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net.
By Allan Olson
Every deer hunting party has its own quirks and adventures along with tall tales, embellished stories all with some truth weaved in. My hunting party is no different. I’m afraid that if I took the time to write all our tales and then embellish them some more and then edit them to reflect me more “accurately” it would take too much time and room.
I could be considered by some a privileged hunter, all the property I hunt on is private land consisting of over 300 acres owned by dad the seasoned most veteran hunter of our group. The land is intermixed with woods and fields along with some adjacent state land that we occasionally trek through.
To say that it is free of faults and the acreage is always accessible is not the case. During a review of our permanent stands earlier this month we discovered that one of the favorite stands (Old Faithful as its nicknamed) is going to require a good set of boots to access it this year. The area is set underneath a powerline amongst cat tails and a tamarack swamp and with the large quantity of rain over the course of the summer the ground is well saturated. The stand is aptly named as many hunters (except me) have shot at least one deer from that stand during most seasons.
Our hunting party of seven with the occasional additional one or two members has nearly 30 stands to choose from and every morning and evening and occasionally afternoon we always discuss who is going to occupy what stand. While the number of hunters has been pretty consistent for the last several years the number of stands keeps increasing. Why we keep building new stands every year is really not certain but I do know that we built two new ones so far this year and we’re hoping they will be in the “right” spot for us. It seems like every year during deer season we see a new spot that we should have a stand. Some of these reasons could be due to a growth of trees and shrubs in the area or a clearing or in many cases because we want one in that spot no explaining necessary.
The hunting fever doesn’t hit everyone but us younger hunters are hoping that some if not all of our children will appreciate the fun of hunting.
As we went out to work on deer stands this month my oldest daughter age-four, saw me getting a gun from the gun cabinet and promptly said “I wanna’ a gun, I wanna’ shoot a deer.” In laughter I explained to her that daddy might get in trouble if we shot a deer know but we could try to shoot a bird. Thankfully she didn’t grill me on why I shot a deer already this year after I hit it with my van.
If I could make a few simple requests for the weather this year, I don’t enjoy hunting in -10 to -20 below the donut so could it stay in the 20’s above this year that would be great. I really would also appreciate it if it didn’t rain either because that makes it less enjoyable. Snow is okay but either snow enough so I have to hunt longer because the roads aren’t plowed or just enough so I can spot a few drops of blood if my aim isn’t true.
For all those deer out there who feel that their racks are just getting too big and you’re tired of carrying them on your head all proud like, please feel free to stand in front of my sights and I will be happy to accommodate your death wish, as long as my aim is true it will be quick and virtually painless.
I wish everyone a happy, successful and most importantly a safe hunting season. Please be considerate and obey the laws and be respectful of other hunters and their rights.
Thanks for reading and I invite you to share your photo’s and comments with so send us a pic or drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net.
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