Opening weekend 2014

Opening AM selfie

Another fun opening weekend of a deer hunting with my family and friends.  Opening morning had me up at 4:30 AM and cooking breakfast for Jessica and Hannah.  It was a cold moonlit morning as we hiked to our stands in Bloomfield by 5:45.  Hannah and Jessica sat together in a two person stand and I on a 5 gallon bucket just 50 yards away. 

Jessica Age 16

It was 21 degrees with a stiff wsw wind making it very chilly.  A small 8 point walked ten yards in front of me directly into the wind and never saw me.  He headed towards the girls but not shots were fired.  Hannah headed to the truck with a sore foot at 8:30 and I headed up to join Jessica.  We saw two more bucks and probably 20 does. 

Jess 8 Pt

All morning we heard about the saga on the Suor property where a young Thayer boy shot a buck in front of Dave, then while approaching the young man he took a shot at another buck on the Suor property.  The kid had no orange on, no license, no parent with him, trespassing, and shooting into a property where he did not know where his bullet was heading.  The boy should have been with his father hunting, not being left to his own.  This is the sort of thing that gives the sport a bad name. 

JP 7 pt

At noon we all met at the Cottage Hotel for Cottage burgers that were very delicious. Afterwards Dave, Jessica, and I headed to the Suor property on the Bad Boy.  Jessica and I jumped 3 bucks that were already under our stand.  One was a nice buck.  At 4:10 we heard a lot of thrashing in the woods so I had Jessica get up and get ready.  I whispered to her "Is is a buck?" and she replied, "Sorta.  It is an orange buck".  A hunter was climbing his tree stand 60 yards from us.  He not only ruined our hunt, but he ruined his by crashing through the woods so late. 

Day #2

At dusk shots rang out.  Dave shot a ten point, Scott shot an eight point, and Jim a doe.  For the following two hours we field cleaned deer and hung them.  JP has a group of coyotes that he had to chase away from Scott's deer.  They approached in the dark and he almost had to shoot them.

The following day Jessica and I went back to the Bloomfield Hedges property.  We sat in the two person stand and at 3:45 a buck walked down the ridge immediately south of us.  Jessica was very patient and waited for the perfect shot.  With her single shot 20 gauge she shot 80 yards, the buck immediately jumped and crashed into the woods.  We waited 30 minutes and found the buck about 50 yards from where she hit him.  It was a perfect shot and a real nice buck.  I was very proud of her as this is the second shot she has ever fired and is also the second buck she has taken.  Last year a 9 point and this year an 8 point.

Dave's Ten Point

Proud Hunter

One aspect of my hunting strategy that has been excellent for me is hunting parallel to the prevailing wind.  I long ago gave up on scent control.  I think most of the scent control stuff is a gimmick.  I identify the trends of deer patterns and I set up parallell to the prevailing wind.  Every year the bucks we shoot are walking directly into the wind and by being parallel with them our scent is not a problem. Jessica's buck was classic in that he was nose into the wind and walking ever so slowly.