A Wild Opening Weekend
This past weekend was the opening weekend for fall turkey and archery deer seasons. My good friend Mark was the only one of the three of us in our group to shoot a deer, taking a spike buck from a stand I’d hung for him just the week prior. This is the 2nd season in a row now he’s dropped a deer on opening day from a stand I’ve hung for him.
Mark’s father had a 4 point buck sneak up on him, but the buck heard his arrow rub against his wisker biscket (an arrow holder) as he drew & bolted before he could shoot.
Deer-wise, I only saw the tail end of a 2nd spike buck that followed the one Mark shot in. However, while I was waiting for it to walk my way, a coyote ran directly at my stand. It took me by surprise & since it was moving, I had to react fast to be able to get my bow up. In doing so, I drew it’s attention & it took off. As this was the first time I’d seen a coyote in the woods while hunting, much less had a shot at one, I was really bummed out about not having been able to get a shot off & thought to myself “I’ll never get a chance like that again…” - yet two minutes later, another coyote came running towards my stand!! This one came from a slightly different spot, allowing me to spot him earlier & ready myself to shoot. I was able to get to full draw, but as I was lowering the bow to the right angle, I accidentally bumped the release with my finger and sent the arrow four feet over the head of the coyote, who heard it hit the tree and fled. I don’t know how I managed to hit the release - it would have been a 5 yard shot too!
Sunday I went out alone. Early on, I heard the distinctive, very deliberate sound of a deer walking, but it sounded like it was coming from my left and my right (and it was…). Around 60 yards away, I picked up on a big doe coming across the path my stand was hanging on. As it went behind trees, I stood up & lifted my bow. It continued down hill about 50 yards across the path, but stopped & looked around. And that’s when I saw the other two deer, 25 yards ahead of me, who were also stopped. The two sets of deer spooked each other and all three ran off, never even presenting me a shot.
Monday was a long day of outdoors for me - I woke at 5, hit the woods by 7, hunted until 11, fished from 1-3:30, returned to hunt the evening again & arrived back home at 7. Neither myself or Mark’s father spotted a single deer. While fishing, the first falls I came to was loaded with ~30 steelhead, but there already a guy fly fishing it & so I was forced to head upstream. I saw a couple steelhead along the way, but after having seen the first hole filled with them, expected more. I missed a steelhead a couple miles upstream where I’d caught one the week previous, but was not able to hook any others, regardless of the fly tried. On the way back to the woods after fishing, I saw yet another coyote. This one was large & sitting up on it’s rear legs in the middle of a field. I pulled the truck over & checked it out with the binoculars - I hope another one comes by me!