One of my many hobbies is hunting. I have, in the past, enjoyed going out in the woods stalking around in the brush, tracking down large game animals to put meat into the freezer. The amount of fun derived from this has waned over the years and greatly depends upon which large game animal I am hunting and how many other people are hunting the same animal.
Deer season tends to be the season that the fun has pretty much drained completely out and the deer to human ratio in the woods is about 20 to 1 the wrong way. So, I only bought a tag to make sure that I did not see any deer, let alone the gawkers that stand there and ask to be shot! For the last several years, for me, having a deer tag and going out hunting has been like animal repellent. I had rarely seen any deer at all during the hunting seasons of the past. That is even with seeing deer everyday for months leading up to opening day. Then once deer season opens, they seem to vanish into thin air. This has only convinced me that my theories about Gawkers may be true. (If you have not read my blog about Gawkers, click here and read about my gawker and runner theory.) I figure that if I actually did not buy a tag then all the deer will be standing out in front of me holding their hooves up to their forehead in the shape of an L, knowing that I cannot shoot them. So this year I bought a buck tag and a doe tag just to ensure the deer were not making fun of me. (At least out where I could see them.) For the most part this deer season went as my pessimistic vision told me it would. The season started some Saturday back in October. I think I remembered to take my gun with me by the first Monday of the season and remembered to get the bullets by the first Thursday. It did not matter because I did not see a single animal, just as planned. (I did not look very hard.) I did see plenty of other hunters. In fact, I was in fear for my life a couple times at work when I had to go out into a plantation to check on some baby trees and discovered I was surrounded by about 14 people with guns, all sitting in the a car or truck vigilantly watching the plantation for that elusive buck to walk out and commit suicide in front of them all. I made sure to wear some brightly colored clothing that most deer are too embarrassed to be seen in and did my best to not look like a deer. I am pretty sure I heard some deer in the brush talking a laughing amongst each other about how silly all those 2 legged creatures in their cars look. Thankfully, I made it out without any new ventilation holes in my body.
Then, the 3rd week of the season, it took a strange turn. While out in the woods, with rifle, bullets, and valid tag in my possession, I had some deer run out in front of me and stand there Gawking! I almost was not sure what to do. But then there was a loud boom and the deer jumped out in front of my bullet and crashed to the ground. So, I filled my doe tag this year and have a little meat in the freezer!
But the season was not over! One would think that this sudden success would give me a more optomistic attitude for filling my other tag, but, it didn't. I did not put in anymore effort to fill the second tag than I did the first.
Well, last Friday was the last day of the season. I once again found myself out in the woods taking care of baby trees. This particular day, I had to walk about 0.25 miles through some prime Gawker habitat to get to the plantation of baby trees. So, I actually took my rifle with me. Then, just a few hundred feet down the trail I found this:
Deer season tends to be the season that the fun has pretty much drained completely out and the deer to human ratio in the woods is about 20 to 1 the wrong way. So, I only bought a tag to make sure that I did not see any deer, let alone the gawkers that stand there and ask to be shot! For the last several years, for me, having a deer tag and going out hunting has been like animal repellent. I had rarely seen any deer at all during the hunting seasons of the past. That is even with seeing deer everyday for months leading up to opening day. Then once deer season opens, they seem to vanish into thin air. This has only convinced me that my theories about Gawkers may be true. (If you have not read my blog about Gawkers, click here and read about my gawker and runner theory.) I figure that if I actually did not buy a tag then all the deer will be standing out in front of me holding their hooves up to their forehead in the shape of an L, knowing that I cannot shoot them. So this year I bought a buck tag and a doe tag just to ensure the deer were not making fun of me. (At least out where I could see them.) For the most part this deer season went as my pessimistic vision told me it would. The season started some Saturday back in October. I think I remembered to take my gun with me by the first Monday of the season and remembered to get the bullets by the first Thursday. It did not matter because I did not see a single animal, just as planned. (I did not look very hard.) I did see plenty of other hunters. In fact, I was in fear for my life a couple times at work when I had to go out into a plantation to check on some baby trees and discovered I was surrounded by about 14 people with guns, all sitting in the a car or truck vigilantly watching the plantation for that elusive buck to walk out and commit suicide in front of them all. I made sure to wear some brightly colored clothing that most deer are too embarrassed to be seen in and did my best to not look like a deer. I am pretty sure I heard some deer in the brush talking a laughing amongst each other about how silly all those 2 legged creatures in their cars look. Thankfully, I made it out without any new ventilation holes in my body.
Then, the 3rd week of the season, it took a strange turn. While out in the woods, with rifle, bullets, and valid tag in my possession, I had some deer run out in front of me and stand there Gawking! I almost was not sure what to do. But then there was a loud boom and the deer jumped out in front of my bullet and crashed to the ground. So, I filled my doe tag this year and have a little meat in the freezer!
But the season was not over! One would think that this sudden success would give me a more optomistic attitude for filling my other tag, but, it didn't. I did not put in anymore effort to fill the second tag than I did the first.
Well, last Friday was the last day of the season. I once again found myself out in the woods taking care of baby trees. This particular day, I had to walk about 0.25 miles through some prime Gawker habitat to get to the plantation of baby trees. So, I actually took my rifle with me. Then, just a few hundred feet down the trail I found this:
That would be a buck track. A pretty fresh buck track. If I didn't know better, I would have gotten all excited and thought I had a chance to find him and add him to my meat collection in the freezer. But, as expected, this is all I saw of him. I am sure he was a nice size buck. His print was pretty big. Here it is next to my boot:
Hmmm, maybe next year!
Yeah right. I will just buy my deer repellent again and be done with it.
Now I am just waiting for elk season to start.
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