Monday, October 30, 2006
Going out On A Bow-Hunting Limb
Predicting things means different things to different people. To me, making a prediction about deer hunting is fraught with potential error.
It’s just too easy to make a mistake. Make one prediction about what deer will do, or when the best deer hunting will be found, and you leave yourself wide open for a mistake. Well, folks, I’m about to crawl out on a deer-hunting limb and make a prediction.
Hopefully, no one will be sawing on the limb behind me. My prediction is that Nov. 14 will be the best day of the bow hunting season.
That’s right, the day before the firearm season opens. For more years that I care to remember, hunting the evening of Nov. 14 has been the best time for good bucks for me.
Why, one might ask? I’m not sure, but for many years it has been my best bow-hunting day of the season.
The bucks seem to be on the prowl, moving from place to place, and some of it may be caused by hunters moving around checking out their hotspot for the firearm opener. I know that human traffic in the woods takes on a special meaning for most firearm hunters as they check out their hunting blind.
That added traffic can obviously work two ways. It can cause deer to move more or it can cause them to bed down early.
I just know that over the years some of my finest buck hunting, especially for trophy bucks, often occurs on this evening. The deer seem to move exceptionally well, and with most of the rut behind us, only the larger bucks are still looking for estrus does.
Stands that have been stale and flat for the past week or so seem to show an increase in deer movement. Both bucks and does seem more active, and such deer movements translates into an increased number of deer sightings and that usually leads to more bow shots.
I well remember a foggy Nov. 14 about 15 years ago, and I was sitting in a ground blind near an alder run close to an open winter wheat field. The bucks were moving that night, and grunting deer seemed to have surrounded me.
I’d hear a buck grunting nearby, and strain my eyes to spot the animal, and it was obviously chasing a doe around the winter wheat. Once I caught the glimpse of a buck as the fog disappeared for a second, but the pea-soup closed in around me as I began drawing my bow.
The buck disappeared in the milky fog, and then a buck would give off a tending grunt as he coursed that doe in circles. Car lights going by on the highway gave off an eerie glow through the fog, and still those bucks kept chasing the does.
There were at least four bucks, based on the sound of their grunts, that were moving through my area. Only the one buck had been visible, and just before the end of shooting time arrived, the fog lifted slightly and each buck could be seen. The last one that ran past me stopped for an instant, and it was just enough time to draw, aim and shoot.
There are countless other stories I could tell about Nov. 14 deer hunts, but why belabor the point? It’s an evening to look forward to, and it is still 15 days away. It gives hunters adequate time to plan for it.
This may or may not tempt a bow hunter to be afield on the last day of the early archery season, but if nothing else, it might offer some hunters that little something extra that is needed to drag themselves away from packing their gear for the firearm opener.
I know where I’ll be. There is a stand I’ve used often on Nov. 14, and I’ll be in it early this year. It’s been very productive in the past.—The Whitetail Wizard