The firearm deer season started on Friday, November 15 1996. This was terrible for me because I had to weigh in at two o'clock for a wrestling meet at Muskegon the next day. Even though I had to drive all the way to Muskegon on Saturday morning, I could not stand the idea of not being able to sit out there in the field and just enjoy the outdoors on opening day. I was still determined not to
The third Saturday of November was one filled with conflicting emotions: excitement, fear, optimism, and nervousness. The screeching sound of the alarm at 4:00 a.m. initiated a sense of panic and thrill throughout me; it was the opening day of the gun deer hunting season. Within minutes, I was dressed from head to toe in bright, blaze orange that could be recognized from miles away. I reluctantly, yet willingly, climbed into the truck to head to the hunting land in Adams County, Wisconsin. My stomach felt like it was tied into knots. My mind was again flooded with conflicting emotions. I began to wonder: will I get a deer? Will I not get a deer? Will I get a buck?
When people talk about deer, they are commonly talking about the North American Whitetail. That is because they are so prevalent in this country. They can be found in every state in the US. The only place where you will not find any whitetails is in parts of Arizona and California. In most states the whitetail is very prevalent, especially in the northeast. They are one of the most hunted animals in this area, particularly in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Despite the amount they are hunted, both in and out of season, you can not drive more than a few miles out of the towns without seeing one that was hit by a car. The deer population in this area just keeps growing. It is unclear what
First, At about eleven o'clock I was riding around on my deer lease just listening to music and looking for deer. Also I was checking my game cameras. Next, I checked my deer camera and I thought I would make a circle and see if I could see any deer. So we are about halfway through making a circle and we start seeing some deer. Also, we saw a really big ten point, but it's about eleven thirty now and it's getting frigid .
It is 5:30am on opening morning of deer hunting season and my alarm explodes into a racket that would wake an army. I roll out of bed and rub the sleep from my eyes. I only slept six hours last night because my family and I were preparing for the hunt, getting the guns ready, laying out a clothes-man, everything. As I throw some pants on, the smell of fresh pancakes wakes me up. It is at this time I realize the season is upon us. Since January I have been waiting for this day to come, today begins the annual nine day season that brings our family together each November.
Van der Hoek D, Knapp AK, Briggs JM, and Bokdam J. 2002. White-tailed deer browsing on six shrub species of tallgrass prairie Great Plains Res 1:141.
As we were leaving at dusk to head back to camp after not seeing anything just up the valley from us we heard two shots and later found out that in the area we first started in that morning another person got a moose. The next day we went out at about the same time as the day before and went to a new spot. When we arrived there we walked for about an hour and then stopped because we thought we could hear something down the hill from us moving in the brush. Sure enough it was a moose but it was very hard to see and i couldn’t get a shot at it. We only got a glimpse of it for a few seconds and then it was gone. It is crazy how such a big animal can just disappear like it did without any sign. After that we kept going and the only other sign we saw that day was a shed from the year before that had been partially eaten by mice. We went home after that and the next couple of days were very much the same. Then it came to our final day of the hunt. We woke up very early that morning determined and excited to go to a spot we had to been to yet. We got to the new spot and hiked for about an hour before we came to a fresh trail where a moose had not passed through more than a few minutes before us. We most likely scared the animal as we were approaching the trail. We
This can take hours or even several attempts to see a deer, but for some reason it was my lucky day. We didn’t even have to wait for 20 minutes before we saw two bucks and a doe. My adrenaline has never shot up so fast in my entire life; it was like electricity flowing through me enhancing all my senses. I don’t remember blinking once because my eyes were open so wide taking in all this new excitement. I raised my gun slowly resting it on a shooting board that was in front of me, and looked down the scope to see the bucks a little closer. There was one off to my left about 150 yards away that was only a three pointer. As for the other one, it was a monster buck. I remember counting over 10 points on its rack and it was about 125 yards directly in front of me. I was shaking more than I ever had and I knew it was buck fever. The monster buck was walking across the far tree line headed to my right. It had stolen the doe from the little buck and was taking it to the thick woods out of sight. I was following it with my crosshairs as it walked so gingerly not having a clue on how it was being watched from afar. I had just started putting pressure on the trigger getting ready to take the shot when my scope went black. I looked up and I had let the buck get beyond my vision from the tree that was rooted in front of me. That’s when I knew it was too late and I was disappointed but only for a moment because I knew the small buck was still grazing in the field off to my
It is a breezy Monday afternoon in early October. As I read Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls as an assignment for Ms. Hindman’s class, I slowly look up from the book to check my surroundings. I look to the north, east, and west and see no activity. As I turn my head at a snail-like speed to look south I notice movement. This is it, the reason I go hunting. No, not killing just to kill; I hunt for many reasons but that is definitely not one of them. I gently kick my dad who is lying on the floor of the enclosed stand. He slowly wakes up and cautiously gets into his chair. We see two young deer in a shooting lane about 100 yards south, just at the edge of the woods. Within twenty minutes there are two more in the field. We watch them
In the journal article “White-Tailed Deer as Keystone Species within Forest Habitats of Virginia” the authors, William J. McShea and John H. Rappole, go in-depth to how white-tailed Deer affect the abundance and distribution of vertebrate species in Virginia. The authors hypothesized that White-Tailed Deer influence the arrangement of winged creatures and warm blooded animals indirectly through changing of the natural surroundings and specifically through the utilization of shared nourishment sorts. The authors tested this hypothesis by testing four different areas in Virginia within the Shenandoah National Park, the National Zoo's Conservation and the Research Center in Front Royal. In these areas, a collector, which had a mast collector,
The deer hunt tests your patience and in my case- accuracy. One day my brother told me to come up to him on the property. When I arrived there I caught my breath and calmed down to be able to take my best shot. After that we then situated our selves for the shot. It was a long 150 yard shot. I held my aim and didn’t even breath to be able to take the perfect shot. Once I shot, the deer all of the sudden trotted away. I had missed! However, I took three more shots, right after the third shot the deer dropped dead instantly.
In another hour, it’s clear I’ve got to find a place to camp. Earlier today I thought we were going to go on a simple hunt. My dad and I were out in the woods walking to our deer stand. We don’t take much when we hunt, just guns, food, and water. Dad was giving me a lot of advice on what to do if you end up by yourself in the middle of the woods. It was weird because I thought I knew everything about the woods. We finally found our favorite hunting spot with our deer stands. We got up in our stand, and Dad said he forgot his bear spray in the truck. You always need bear spray when hunting in Alaska. He told me to stay put and wait for him to come back. That is where it all went wrong. After an hour, I started to get worried. Then
The amount of hours spent hunting and the actual time of day have a major effect on seeing trophy deer. The old saying that “you can’t see a deer when you’re not hunting” is exactly true. Successful hunters who continually harvest large whitetails all spend countless hours scouting, planning, and hunting throughout the season. The best hours for hunting are typically the hours closest to sunrise and sunset. Deer often travel during this period to and from food and bedding areas. During rut many successful hunters spend all day in the field.
Hunting in many places, especially Wisconsin, is a tradition to most families. And most anybody you ask can recall their first kill, as it is something you will never forget. Mine was in the October of 2013, it was my first time going hunting and I was ecstatic.
As the morning wore on I began to get anxious and fidgety feeling that no deer were going to come. As I was contemplating whether to leave my stand in the field, I recognized two deer grazing peacefully in the middle of the field. I quickly pulled up and looked through my scope and saw nothing but green fuzz. I was so nervous that I had forgotten to readjust the focus on my scope. As I did, the deer saw me move and began to trot away from me and into the protection of the forest. I managed to get my scope in focus in time to see that there was a buck and a doe. My chance had finally come. I was going to get my first Vermont buck. I immediately stood up from my stand and jogged over to where they had entered the woods. Once in the woods, I evaluated the surroundings and had a good