Today was the first day of gun season in Indiana. Unfortunately for me it was also the first day I was able to scout. I went out mid day and was able to easily see where the deer were running. We have a few inches of snow cover and it made tracking very easy. Temperatures for the coming week will be between 35 and 17. No strong winds are expected. Light snow on Wednesday will make up for the melt off and keep the light snow cover in place. Some sun is expected throughout the week.
Deer hunters pray for this kind of weather and seldom get it. I am going to take full advantage. This goes against everything I have been doing for the last seven years when there was always a reason not to go deer hunting. Someone always needed help with something or other and I was always there for them.
This year I decided they could all kiss my lilly white posterior. I went out this evening and never saw a deer. What I did see was a squirrel running up and down a tree for about five minutes, a sparrow landing six feet from me and playing with and eating the seeds from a chamomile plant, a rabbit foraging about fifteen yards away and , finally another rabbit that came so close to me, I could have clubbed it with the end of my shotgun. I did this wearing a ghillie parka while sitting on the bottom of a five gallon bucket in a field behind a downed tree. I was invisible and non-scented. None of these creatures had a chance against me. I didn't kill any of them because I was looking for a deer. But I could have and it was so cool.
I love to hunt. The killing part is just something you have to do to make the hunt come to fruition. I don't enjoy it. I just do it. The food is good afterwards too. But the hunt whether sitting in position or stalking is intense and challenging and worth every second. I have fallen asleep in position only to be awakened by a slight noise that alerted me to game approaching my stand or blind or a tree I was leaning against. I love this game. Killing isn't really the point. I have eschewed killing deer I have walked up on because I thought it was so cool that I was able to do it.
I once didn't shoot a squirrel because I watched him enjoy a sunset while he was eating the food he had gathered in his cheeks. I figured if he could enjoy the sunset the way I did, he deserved to live another day. I didn't shoot a Whitetail Doe once because it looked so serene eating frost sweetened chokecherries only twenty yards away from me while I had a Browning compound bow at full draw aimed at her heart. I just backed off the bow and walked slowly out of the woods away from her.
I do love to hunt and I have killed just about everything that walks, crawls, flies, swims, or slithers at one time or another. I'm not a saint but I respect life. And sometimes, if I'm not hungry, I just let it go.
Deer hunters pray for this kind of weather and seldom get it. I am going to take full advantage. This goes against everything I have been doing for the last seven years when there was always a reason not to go deer hunting. Someone always needed help with something or other and I was always there for them.
This year I decided they could all kiss my lilly white posterior. I went out this evening and never saw a deer. What I did see was a squirrel running up and down a tree for about five minutes, a sparrow landing six feet from me and playing with and eating the seeds from a chamomile plant, a rabbit foraging about fifteen yards away and , finally another rabbit that came so close to me, I could have clubbed it with the end of my shotgun. I did this wearing a ghillie parka while sitting on the bottom of a five gallon bucket in a field behind a downed tree. I was invisible and non-scented. None of these creatures had a chance against me. I didn't kill any of them because I was looking for a deer. But I could have and it was so cool.
I love to hunt. The killing part is just something you have to do to make the hunt come to fruition. I don't enjoy it. I just do it. The food is good afterwards too. But the hunt whether sitting in position or stalking is intense and challenging and worth every second. I have fallen asleep in position only to be awakened by a slight noise that alerted me to game approaching my stand or blind or a tree I was leaning against. I love this game. Killing isn't really the point. I have eschewed killing deer I have walked up on because I thought it was so cool that I was able to do it.
I once didn't shoot a squirrel because I watched him enjoy a sunset while he was eating the food he had gathered in his cheeks. I figured if he could enjoy the sunset the way I did, he deserved to live another day. I didn't shoot a Whitetail Doe once because it looked so serene eating frost sweetened chokecherries only twenty yards away from me while I had a Browning compound bow at full draw aimed at her heart. I just backed off the bow and walked slowly out of the woods away from her.
I do love to hunt and I have killed just about everything that walks, crawls, flies, swims, or slithers at one time or another. I'm not a saint but I respect life. And sometimes, if I'm not hungry, I just let it go.