Deer Hunting 2024 - Sagitarii

Deer hunting update.....

The process for permits in Wisconsin is a little complicated.  What deer you can shoot, where and when varies a great deal.  As mentioned in my first hunting update, permits to hunt in the immediate vicinity of our cabin were in short supply this year.  So when I went into the online lottery system it was with minimal expectations.

But....you are assigned a spot in the queue to wait for your chance to sign up for tags.  This is random, and I got the lowest number any of us have ever had.  Great!  It was only a few minutes before the queue shortened.  I was number 1000.  Then 500.  But at about number 400 something happened.  The power went off in our house.

This knocked out the modem, and kicked me out of the queue.  When I logged back on with my phone I was at number 20,000, and the preferred tags were out of reach.

Evidently a guy who built a compost bin for us in the spring had hammered the corner posts down into the ground without worrying about where power lines were.  I don't know why it took so long to finally fry, but I guess it is just as well that we were not out of town for a week.

So, deer hunting will be different this year.

I have options, the one of which is bow hunting down where the Homestead is being built.  Lots of deer there.

But for assorted reasons, gun hunting is less appealing there.  So it is time to learn how to use a crossbow.

Last time I was down my son and I took turns practicing.  A ladder makes a decent approximation of firing from a tree stand with a rest.  House is coming along nicely btw.

So far I seem to be quite consistent at the ranges we'll be needing.

We also spent time putting up a tree stand that covers some promising spots.  And did a bit of brush clearing to get roughly 40 yards of clear shooting.  Later that day the trail cam we set out started to send us encouraging data.......

Sagitarii btw were archers in the Roman Army.  They used standard bows.  Something equivalent to a crossbow was known by the Romans but it was much bigger and designed to be deployed on the ramparts of forts.  I may look into getting one, but don't think I can haul it up into a tree.