Deer Season Wrap Up

As you might infer from this photo, I did not get a deer this season.

But not from lack of effort.  I was out morning, evening and sometimes mid day.  I sat in tree stands and in my trusty lawn chair.  Heck, when it just got too difficult to figure out where the deer might be coming from I sometimes just sat on a stump and glared in all directions.

Seven days of the nine day regular season and 2.5 of the four day second chance season.  And although I saw approximately 30, I had exactly two deer that were in almost reasonable position for a shot.  Almost.

It seemed an odd year for hunting.  Anecdotally others working our area were also seeing fewer deer.  And the weather was all the way from 8 degrees F with biting wind....to mid 40's with bugs flying around.

Towards the end there was a thick blanket of snow.  Snow is nice.  It lets me walk quietly and helps me see the deer.  It also is exhausting stuff to walk in.  I got sweaty and tired.  The deer were smarter, they spent a lot of time just bedded down.

Deer it seems are exactly as smart as they think they have to be.  Somehow they just know when they are on private land where I can't shoot them.  Heck, a couple of them I maybe could have dispatched with a well flung brick.  But when they decide to use their superb vision, hearing and sense of smell...man, they can detect you at ridiculous ranges and appear to remember from one day to the next that spot where something did not seem quite right.

You win some you lose some.  When up against a worthy opponent the response to the latter is to figuratively reach out and shake their hoofy little front paw while saying:  "Well played.  I look forward to a rematch."

And it is not all about the hunt.  Deer Camp at various times had the kids, the grand kids, a couple of friends, a couple of dogs.  Relatively little in the way of beer and such, we were mostly too tired.  But lots of good eats courtesy of my wife.  In particular I enjoyed some chili she made with that synthetic Impossiburger stuff.  Tastes good.

I guess I should get used to it.