Material and Meal Collection

When the temperatures begin to cool and the leaves start to change, my time outside becomes conflicted.  I have to find a balance between fishing and bow hunting, which in recent years has amounted to less hunting and more fishing.  Last season in Ohio was arguably my worst as an archery hunter.  I narrowly avoided going deer-less, tagging a doe with my bow on the final morning of Ohio's archery season.  I decided this year was going to be different.  I had gained a lot of knowledge on the new property I hunted last year that I felt was going to get me some action earlier this season.  Deer hunting is a two-for-one deal for me: I get the meat for the freezer and fly tying materials.  I have not had to buy white bucktail in years.  Saturday afternoon was my first stand sit of the year, and I never sat at all.  My ritual begins with smoking my clothes and gear with my Scent Smoker.

I got to the property plenty early, or so I thought.  I was in the stand slightly before 4PM, and as I was screwing my bow hanger into the tree, spotted two does in the bottom below me.  They had either heard me getting in or heard me getting my hanger started in the tree, either way, they walked off away from me.

I barely had my bow pulled up and hung up when I heard deer coming into the woods from the field behind me...the same field where I had my Jeep parked not 100 yards from the stand.  With my back to them, I had to wait until they were practically under me before I could grab my bow.  The three does fed under an oak tree 15 yards from my tree for a couple of minutes, then the big doe worked her way back up the bank parallel with my tree.  At 12 yards, I let fly and instantly knew the deer was dead on her feet.  I had not been in the stand 10 minutes!

My stand site is on the edge of a pretty steep little ravine with a dry creek bed at the bottom.  Of course, the deer I shot had to end up down there.  She stood for a few seconds on the edge of the bank before staggering and rolling all the way to the bottom.  The great news was the deer was down quickly and effectively, and the freezer would be stocked. The bad news was the work that was about to begin.

Even though it felt like hours, I was able to get the deer drug out to the Jeep up and out of the ravine in fairly short order.  I made a second trip to retrieve my gear and was home far earlier than expected.  I was disappointed with the coat on this deer, the body hair was pretty much unusable for me.  The hair was extremely short and fine, the shortest body hair I have ever seen on a deer kill of mine.  I was able to save the tail, and that is drying out via Borax now.  After enduring what I did the previous season, it feels great to have the pressure off for this year so quickly.  Now I can focus on tracking down a buck and will probably spend the next few weeks fishing until the rut activity starts to heat up.