Hunting Weekend #3

 Unfortunately, my boys and I were all skunked while deer hunting this year. All we can do now is hope for better luck – and warmer weather! – next year.

By Allan Olson

I really enjoy hunting with my family, but I really didn’t want to make the trek north again this weekend. I really wanted my dad and my brother to knock some deer down so I wouldn’t have to head for the woods once again. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and my brothers all had other stuff going on this weekend with work and family, so me and the boys headed off for the woods one more time.

The real story is what happened on Sunday,; the rest of the weekend was largely a dud. On Sunday morning Marcus and I took our normal stand, one that he could shoot from with his vertical restraints, should the occasion arise again. So on a fine Sunday morning, we were patiently (or perhaps impatiently, since we weren’t planning to hunt the full day) waiting on stand. The last two weekends we had headed home after dark and faced less than perfect road conditions for at least part of the journey, and I decided that was not going to be the story this time.

Anyway, back on the stand that morning, we heard a couple shots ring out just before 7:30 a.m., I was pretty sure it was my uncle, who was in the stand behind the woods where Marcus and I were sitting. Sure enough, about five minutes later, five deer came bolting out of the woods on a dead run and headed straight for another patch of woods across the field. I got one shot off at them, but they didn’t even slow down. I figured they had booked straight on through that woods to the creek bottom.

I called my dad, who earlier had said he planned to walk through one patch of woods before to heading to church. After our conversation, he changed which woods he was going to walk through. At about 8 a.m. he headed into the woods that those deer went into, even though both of us expected nothing to come of it. 

To our surprise, four deer came out. I thought strongly about flinging some lead in their direction, but I was hoping they would go to Nikolai, who was in a stand on a nearby field. Alas, that didn’t happen; he could see them, but only as shapes through the brush as they ran further down another field adjacent to the one he was on.

I met up with my dad, and we decided to walk through the woods again, since five deer went in and only four came out. Who knows, maybe I did hit one with my lone shot. Apparently that was not the case, either. So, after that effort, I got Marcus from the stand and we went to check on my uncle, who carries no form of electronic communication on his person. He informed us that he shot at a buck and it didn’t appear too move fast afterwards, so he was hoping it was down.

I went back to the stand I had vacated because he was going to see if he could find it. Either I was mistaken as to the length of time it would take him or we miscommunicated on the time that he was going to walk through, because it seemed like an eternity. In actuality, it was over an hour past the time I expected him to be out before I saw him. In the interim, Nik had been to two different stands and then ventured out to see what was going on. We sat and waited for my uncle to come out to report on his success or lack thereof, which it turned out to be. 

While we were sitting there waiting, Nik said, “Dad, there’s a deer!” 

I tossed my phone down, forgetting about my latest message report to the hunters who weren’t present, and grabbed my rifle as the deer started heading in the same direction the others had earlier, and at a clip just as fast as the others. That one was followed by another, right on its heels. That one paused for a second, and the only thing I can think is that I rushed the shot, because that one I should have had. Regardless, between the two deer bolting across the field, the two of us emptied our clips. The second deer had slowed again just a titch as it was going to turn into the woods, and I raised up for one more shot. I squeezed the trigger and saw the shot hit… the ground right in front of it! So close, I thought, as I watched the deer flag its way towards the creek bottom, into the abyss of the unknown woods.

While Nikolai and I sat there waiting, he spotted two more deer. They started to come out to the field, but then turned tail and ducked back into the woods, leaving us with no shooting opportunity. I sent Nikolai back to the road to stage, and he walked through the woods to see if he could kick them out, but they must have found a safer exit because we never saw them.

It was one more weekend without any whitetails tagged, so I guess we could have stayed at home, but that would not have been nearly as much fun. I am still glad we went. Our venison supply will be a little low this year, but that’s the nature of hunting. I guess we will just have to try to do better next year.

This weekend, I’m going hunting again, and I’m pretty darn sure my success rate will be much higher. At least some, if not all, of the kids and I will be in the woods on Saturday for a different kind of hunt – geocaching, of course!

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.