Deer drought

The first week of deer gun season in Ohio was the worst since I’ve been here:

• The weather was way too warm
• We hadn’t yet had a hard freeze
• I hunted every day of the week (usually morning and night) and saw SEVEN deer for the entire week…none of which were in a position which offered a shot. As an illustration, last year I had about 14 deer around my stand at first light on opening day. Earlier this fall, we counted 17 deer standing in our big hay field – no idea where they’re hanging out now…though judging by the innumerable tracks on our place, they’re still here. Maybe they’ve discovered invisibility?

All I’ve gotta say is THANK GOD there was an additional weekend of deer gun season added to the traditional weeklong season this year – Dec. 16-17. I’ve only got one deer in the freezer from this season, and that’s not going to last my kids very long. A lot of the deer I passed up earlier in the year would be looking pretty good in my larder today.

I’m not alone: Cousin Bentley, who usually has a couple archery-harvested deer to his credit by this time, has been shut out.

*****

On the plus side for this year: my son showed some real interest in hunting, putting in quite a few hours in the woods and providing some comic moments.

Cousin Bentley: “What was that noise? It sounded like someone in a tree stand fell out of the tree!?!”

Son and Heir: “Yeah, my hat fell off and when I was trying to fish it back up to the treestand with a bungee cord (he was only about 10 feet off the ground), the bottom half of the treestand kept falling. I got it, though.”

*****

My son was using a12 gauge H&R Ultra Slugger with a Simmons Whitetail Expedition scope this year. These things are like toting around an iron pry bar in the woods…for the barrel, they use a 10 gauge blank and drill it out for the rifled 12 gauge barrel. It’s pretty accurate, but that accuracy comes with a heavy price – the gun weighs in at about 11 pounds. Son’s plan when he ran out of 12 gauge sabots? Drop the gun on the deer from his stand.

I think it would have worked.