MN Archery Season Opener - Part 2

My Saturday morning cell phone alarm woke me up to 52 degree temperatures, a breakfast bar, banana, and some orange juice. I am a big advocate of scent free and was still "struggling" with the fact I could not shower before heading out into the woods. What I did have though was 3 year old Hunter Specialties Body and Hair Scent elimination lotion. I used this liberally and with the use of Primos Silver spray I was all set to head to the tree stand. The night before Shawn and I discussed how the location of the camp site and our presence may impact the deer movement. After walking only 80 yards from the campsite I kicked up a deer, which was heavy on the hoof and it did not know exactly what I was as it was very dark and it did not run away. It trotted 40-50 yards, stopped, and then slowly walked in front of me. I was already 15 minutes later than I wanted to be, so I kept my light just dim enough to see the ground and kept moving hoping this would let the deer think it went undetected.

When I reached my stand I quietly ascended the 17 feet to my hang on stand, hooked my hunter safety systems harness to the tree, pulled my bow up, hung it in the tree in front of me, and setup my camcorder. Now it was time for one of God's gifts, the beautiful awakening of the woods as squirrels and birds come to life and make the woods come alive. After an hour in the stand, the sun rose above the horizon and peeked through the tree tops. These two events made waking up at 5 am all worth it. If you have never experience what I have just described, you need to make it a "todo" for this year. Even if you don't hunt or fish, make a camping trip into a public park or state forest and experience the morning orchestra of the woods, there is little in life that compares.

Saturday morning and evening was uneventful for whitetail deer, but I wish I had my .22 rifle as the grey squirrels seemed to be everywhere taking full advantage of the plentiful acorn crop this year. In fact Saturday evening, one squirrel climbed down the tree in front of me and stopped abruptly at 4 feet from my head. If I had only turned the camera on...as I reached to turn it on, it spooked and ran back up the tree.

Sunday morning, much like Saturday morning came too quick and early, leaving both Shawn and I a little tired. But we were determined to make our last hunt for the weekend eventful. This morning I did not hear a deer on the way to my stand; however, Shawn surprised a singleton deer out of its bed 25 yards from his tree stand. As hard as he tried to not spook it, he was unsuccessful. As the morning went on, after the sun rose I was slightly disappointed in not seeing anything yet. Trail camera footage suggested I would see something on one of the mornings. I made a small plea to God to just allow me to see one deer and wouldn't you know it, 10 minutes later here came an early fawn all by itself. Unfortunately she surprised me by sneaking up on me and getting within 20 yards of me before I saw her. This meant I was unable to get my camcorder turned on and focused on her, so I sat back and took in the sights of watching her and her behavior. She did not behave like an ignorant fawn, yet couldn't have been more than 65 pounds. She was traveling the runway from the south and when she hit my shooting lane she turned toward my stand and literally brushed up against my tree as she fed on the undergrowth of the lowland pocket I was nestled in. After 10 minutes she was out of sight and I could no longer hear her. First thought was, maybe I will see more action this morning, and second thought was maybe that was the extent of my weekend hunt.

Twenty minutes later I heard a fawn bleat coming from where she left me and I heard running back and forth on the hardwood ridge, just out of sight. There is a significant coyote population and I thought maybe that fawn was being chased, so I quickly turned on my camcorder and got ready to possibly save her from the coyote. Soon the animals making the racket started moving on the runway in front of me and much to my pleasure the first animal I saw was a nice doe. She was followed by 2 fawns, then another doe and fawn, then another nice doe and finally that singleton fawn. The fawns were spreading out and playing, but the does were traveling on the runway no more than 6 yards from the base of my tree. I looked up at my camera and realized the does were barely in the picture, so I slowly reached up and aimed the camera down to capture all the deer activity. I then realized I needed to get my bow up and draw as the last doe was about to cross my shooting lane and the camera footage. I slowly drew back, waited for the doe to clear the trees, and released the arrow. Perfect shot behind the front shoulder and I watched her run off and listened for any noise which would indicate the success of my hunt. I heard a number of "crashes" and determined she was down. At that point the adrenaline kicked in and I felt my body doing a little shaking. What a feeling, it is the same feeling every hunter says, the day it stops is the day they stop hunting. In my unit I can take a doe or a buck with my archery tag and I purchased an additional bonus tag for an antlerless deer. So I waited 30 minutes for possibly more deer activity and to ensure the doe had time to settle down.

I lowered my bow to the ground and slowly climbed down out of the tree. I recovered my arrow and slowly followed the blood trail. The doe made a number of zig zags and at one point a deer kicked up from a bed and took off running. My first thought was "crap I didn't have a good of a shot as I thought, then I saw the deer and it was that singleton doe fawn again. I continued on the track and came up to the doe next to a large tree. At this time, I said my thanks to God for the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and to allow me to have a successful and safe hunt. She was a beautiful deer which dressed out around 125 lbs. It was only 8:15 when I got back to camp, so I waited until Shawn was done hunting so we could go recover the doe, pack up camp, and head home.

The rest of the evening was spent processing the deer. I used my grinder to coarse grind the sausage and hamburger meat for January meat processing with UNJ staff member Dan Block. I used my food saver to seal the two roasts (3.5 lbs each), the steaks, and the ground meat. Fresh venison on the grill was the immediate reward for all my efforts. What a way to start the Minnesota Archery season, and what a nice doe to be the first deer taken on my property. I have 15 more weeks of archery hunting to hopefully get the opportunity for a good buck.