2013 will go down as the most challenging season of my hunting career. Low deer numbers, due to a pathetic attempt for a management plan for the whitetail deer herd from our out of touch buddy's in the Wisconsin DNR for the last 10-15 years is starting to take its toll. I am pretty sure my two year old nephew could make more intelligent herd control decisions than these boneheads. Let's introduce wolves and not control their numbers, lets allow the brainless, toothless, hillbilly hunters in Wisconsin to shoot an unlimited amount of does with guns and give them extra long seasons to do it; great! I really wish my fellow hunters could have a little more vision for the future than some of them seem to, but I digress. Jesse is attending college 3 hours from home and we knew there would not be much time for him to hunt, we chose the last weekend in October and first weekend in November as the times we would get together and bowhunt hard. The first weekend was a little slow, the weather was not good and we had some newer hunters on the property that were just getting their feet wet in bowhunting that put quite a bit of early season pressure on our stands, causing the deer to stear clear of our past hot spots some. I knew we had to find some fresh stand sites to hunt to have any hope, so the first weekend the only productive thing we did was mainly hang two new stands. We were very excited about the new stands and the first day back up for the second weekend I put Jesse in what I figured would be the hotspot, the morning started out with a little more deer activity, but it slowed around mid morning. At 11:15 am I pulled my phone out to text Jesse and see if he was having better luck than me. 15 minutes and no response from him, then I felt a buzz in my pocket; Jesse's text " I just shot one" I almost jumped out of my stand I was so excited for him. It was my main priority to get him a buck, I had a little more time to hunt than him and I have taken more bucks, I was just hoping the deer would cooperate with him in his short window to hunt. I called Jesse and quickly got the story, apparently about 11am he was stretching his arms and knocked his bow off the hanger 18 feet to the ground, ha! He climbed down picked it up and got back in the stand and within ten minutes had a nice buck cruising down the ridge from him, he let out a grunt and the buck came charging in to 7 yards! Apparently the fall didn't affect his bow's accuracy at all because he stoned this deer, it went maybe 50 yards before crashing, thats getting to be the usual for Jesse, I hope I don't jinx him, but as I have stated before he is really a crackshot during clutch times while bowhunting and thats what makes a great hunter, controlling the buckfever when it matters most. Jesse expressed some frustration this fall while in Nevada, that he doesn't have the size of trophy's on his wall yet that he would prefer, I tried reminding him that he is doing pretty well for a 19 year old and the trophy's will come. I went out that evening in the other new stand we hung the week before and grunted in a beautiful 8pt about the size of Jesse's buck here to within 10 yards. I regret now not taking that deer and doubling up with Jesse, that would have made the day even more special. Also, that was really the last nice deer I saw the rest of the season from my stand as I stated before it got extremely slow and I learned the value of having fresh stand sites once the rut comes around, unfortunately other hunters actions are not something within my control. There is always hope that next season will be even better, but with hunting pressure up and the WI DNR wildlife bioligists intelligence down, my hope is pretty weak. Nonetheless, the time spent in our deer camp in Richland Center away from it all will be just as enjoyable regardless, the companionship of hunting is hard to replace or explain to someone who has never experienced it.
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