Finally!!!

Hooray for me!! I finally have something to write about!!

To set the stage a bit, I am a hunter. Given the opportunity, I'll hunt anything with four feet, fur or feathers. I love to be in the outdoors as much as I can. I'll use hunting as an excuse to just go sit in a tree or blind with a gun & camera and just think. Or clear my mind from a week's worth of stress. Or just sit and do nothing. It is MY time. But more on this later. (Hey, I just got material for another post. Go me!) On to the business of the day. Well, technically it was yesterday but this is my blog and chronology isn't THAT important. This is only my 2nd real post so it's not like you'll get confused as to the order of things.

I woke up on Saturday at 4:45AM as is the norm when I'm going hunting. I got dressed and headed to the woods, in hopes of at least seeing, if not harvesting, a whitetail deer. I've taken one already this season on opening morning and have just been content to photograph the rest of the deer that I have seen while hunting (More material for yet another post--I'm catching on). I have a buddy that makes excellent deer jerky and he had asked me a couple of weeks ago to shoot one for him because he was out of meat and out of jerky so I told him I would get him one the next chance I had. Well, he must have jinxed me because I went from seeing deer every time I went to the woods to seeing none at all. I haven't seen a deer from the stand in the last 4 or 5 outings. I do have several pictures taken with a trail camera of various deer, including a very nice buck that I hope to be able to arrange a meeting with soon. But those will be on another post later on. Now back to my original story... I got to the woods about 6AM or so and went through my usual ritual of donning my ScentBlocker suit to help prevent the deer from smelling me, checking my pack(s) to make sure nothing essential was left in the truck, etc. I then walked about a half-mile to my stand. The stand I had chosen to hunt from was about 30 feet up in a big oak tree, positioned along the edge of a big stand of timber and looking out across a cutover. For those of you who don't know what a cutover is, it's a tract of land that the timber has been cut and, if left unnattended, it will grow back as a thick, brushy haven for game of all species. I'll show you a picture of it to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about:


That little red circle is where my stand is.
Here's another view of the same place only this is taken from the treestand so you kinda have a bit of an idea of what it looks like to be hanging off the side of a tree 30 feet off the ground.

The deer, rabbits, quail and a whole menagerie of other animals love to hang out in these cutovers. Anyway, I had just climbed into my stand and fastened my safety harness to the tree when a deer walked right up behind me in the dark, circled my stand and started making its way along the edge of the cutover. It was a full moon so I could make it out in the moonlight but could only tell that it was a full grown deer. It stopped right beside that little piece of pink flagging tape you see in the bottom of the second picture, which is only about 7 or 8 yards from the tree I'm sitting in. (The tape marks the location of the stand in case we invite a friend to hunt that doesn't know where it is. He/She would be able to follow a trail to the clearing, look for the tape and thus find the stand with ease.) For those who don't know this already, a deer has a remarkable sense of smell. Scientists believe that a deer can smell, distinguish and recognize 8 different aromas simultaneously. This deer smelled my tracks where I had just walked and came to full attention. He sniffed the ground and raised his head several times, testing the wind. But today was his unlucky day as the wind was blowing my scent away from him. But the scent on the ground was enough to make him nervous so he started back the way he came. Taking advantage of his moving away and hopefully not seeing my movements, I reached for my rifle that was still hanging on the ladder behind me. I'm blaming it on the awkward position I was in by not being able to turn fully around to get the gun, but for whatever reason, I bumped the gun on the metal ladder. BLANG!!! In the early morning stillness, it sounded like someone had thrown a cast iron skillet into the street. From a 2nd story window. DOH!!! Did I mention that deer have excellent hearing as well? He bolted to run but stopped just inside the woodline. I just knew that I had blown it before it ever got started good. But to err on the safe side, I sat still and quiet for about 10 minutes, hoping that he would come back. Praying that he would come back. And come back he did. By this time, the sky had lightened with the coming sunrise and I could see that it was a buck. And a nice buck at that. He eased back up the trail and started back on his original path, but he was moving much more cautiously than before. I raised my rifle and settled the sights on his shoulder, following his every step and waiting for a clear opening through the brush. When he stepped clear of the bushes and treetops, I once again shattered the morning calm. Only this time it was on purpose and a helluva lot louder. BOOM!! The deer dropped where he was standing, gave a few post-mortem kicks and all was quiet and still yet again. I gathered my composure, and for the first time actually sat down on the seat of the stand. I waited about 30 or 40 minutes to see if another deer may happen along but I didn't really expect any nor did I care. I had what I was after. I climbed down and walked over to claim my trophy. Here's a picture taken about 10 minutes after I got out of the tree. I used my collapsible tripod and timer to take it.
I think it turned out pretty well except for the sun rising over the hill and creating the "less than perfect" lighting. But I'm still proud of the picture. And the deer.

I find it most gratifying to pursue such a wily animal on his own turf and terms. And the taking of the animal is just the climax to a truly great experience for me. As I said at the beginning of this post, I love the outdooors and seize every chance I can to get to spend time on "God's front porch", as I have heard it called before. I'll post some pictures later that will show you why I like the phrase, "Nature is Earth's landlord. We're just passing through. It's best we make the most of the visit".

And if you're one of those anti-gun, anti-hunting PETA fanatics...get the hell off my blog!! Because, around here...we hunt... and we shoot... and if we're lucky enough, we kill something. So go close down a puppy farm or something while I go check the grill.