A new hunting buddy


My youngest son Marcus joined me in the deer stand for the first time this year. Unfortunately for us, a good opportunity to take a deer never presented itself.


By Allan Olson
It’s been a few years since I had a new hunting partner. Nikolai is on his fifth season now, and his second year of hunting alone. I have to admit it was really nice last year not having to share my stand. While I usually stayed in the same vicinity as Nik, I enjoyed having a nice peaceful stand all to myself while on the hunt for the mighty whitetail.
This weekend, Marcus took to the woods with me for the first time, and I was a little concerned about bringing him out, given his inclination for talking, but I have to say he did pretty well. While he did get a little chatty at times, he kept his tone pretty low, and when he didn’t, a gentle reminder was all it took to get him to tone it down a tad. As usual, the hardest thing was to get him out of bed, particularly on the first morning. I had to send his big brother to his room at my parents to roust him, “Nicely…” I said. He did, and soon Marcus joined us at the table for a hearty hunter’s breakfast before heading out to the stand.
On Saturday morning we sat for about three hours before heading in to warm up and grab a snack. Then we went out to another stand, still hoping for a shot at something that morning. We stayed out for about two more hours, and then it was time for a trip into town for a pretty special occasion. The boys and I joined a bunch of my wife’s family members at a gathering for a birthday party for her grandpa – he turned all of 99 years young earlier this month, and we got to share in honoring that special occasion, at least for a little bit. The small venue was packed and very warm, especially for the few hunters that came dressed more for outdoors than indoors, so we didn’t stick around too long.
A nice mess of fresh fish (given to us last week) was fried up and enjoyed by all.

We headed back to my parents’ place, where the boys found themselves some more food before everyone headed out for the evening post. We were still hoping to get some shooting, but once again luck was not on our side.
It was early to bed that evening, at least for most of the hunters. I’m not sure what time the youngsters hit the sack, but I figured they are at hunting camp, not going to school, so if they wanted to stay up a little bit later they could – but nobody gets to sleep in!
Ironically, on Saturday Marcus was talking about how beautiful it was to be out in the stand and how he didn’t understand how any hunters could fall asleep in their stands. I laughed and said, “Just wait.” 
We got up at 4 a.m. on Sunday and he spent much of the morning sleeping on stand. I woke him when I saw a small doe come out, but it didn’t stick around and present itself as a target, and neither did its fawn a few moments later. It was still pretty early at that time, so we were hoping that one of them would come back out, but they didn’t, and the morning hunt left our crew empty-handed again. 
That afternoon, we went to a different property and one of my brothers stirred around in the woods hoping to possibly chase something out to us, but again, no luck. We headed back to base camp for some lunch and a break before one more stab at the evening post.
Sunday evening’s results were the same as the rest of the day, which was quite a contrast for the previous year, when we had five deer hanging in the barn by the end of day two. This year – nothing. Hopefully, our luck will improve, because I sure do want some venison again this year.
One highlight of the week, in addition to hunting with my youngest son and family, was a gift of fresh fish from someone in town. We fried it up during the week and it was sure mighty delicious.

Our plans for this weekend are more hunting. That is, of course, unless the whitetails start coming out in flocks and my dad and brother mow them down. The odds of that are slim, so rest assured that we will be spending some time in the stand. Hopefully there we will at least have a couple hanging before we get there. If not, I’m guessing it will be a long season.

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