Weekend 2

After not being successful during weekend 1 of rifle season I looked forward to weekend 2 all week. I did not hunt on Saturday morning and I do not think that was a bad thing. There had been a lot of deer movement during the evening all week and my father was lucky enough to harvest a nice size doe and a small doe just before dark in the middle of the week. He called me on Thursday and explained to me that he was getting off of his stand Wednesday night (which was the stand I sat in last weekend) and started walking towards his truck when he noticed something standing in a hay field. He looked through his binoculars and sure enough he spotted a nice doe. So he lifted his gun and looked for the deer through his scope. He spotted her and figured she was a couple hundred yards away and decided he had was going to go for the kill. He put the crosshairs on her vitals, took a deep breath, let it out and squeezed the trigger. She was dead. Another doe came out after that and he figured it was the does fawn, he shot her too. After he told me about this I got really excited. There was a chance I would see deer in my second weekend of rifle season.

I did not go out Saturday morning but I went out Saturday night. I decided to try out our ground blind that was setup on the edge of a woods, right next to a chopped corn field. My dad had shot a nice doe with his bow about a month prior out of the blind and the deer had come out near the blind at night on a few different occasions. But, tonight was not one of those nights. I was lucky enough to have a hen pheasant come within 3 yards of the blind and she was fun to watch as she chomped on corn. But that was all the action for that night.

Sunday was going to be a new day and my last chance this year with my rifle. I decided to skip church to stay out longer that morning because it was the last day and I had not filled my tag. I walked to my stand well before sunlight and I was warm and cozy in my hunting clothes once I got settled in my stand. I grew up without a heater in my stand. Just a wide open stand that blended in with the surroundings and thats how it will stay till I'm old. You learn to dress for the weather here in Minnesota. The sun came up and shined brightly. It was a beautiful November morning but, could have been more beautiful if the deer were traveling through my area of hunting land! I got down off my stand after a long morning hunt and went in for breakfast. Then I took a long nap to be rested for the evening fanally. I went out at about 3:15pm and knew this was my last chance, I had to make it count. As time went by nothing came and I began to get disappointed. I had worked so hard for two weekends to see nothing. It wasn't fair. I had stayed patient every day till now. The sun went down and it was getting dark. I counted the minutes till season would be closed. When out of the corner of my eye I seen something move. I slowly turned my head and squinted my eyes to see what had caught my attention. It was a deer! Finally! It was eating off the soon to be frozen grass and had no clue I was there. I had put out some Primetime Natural Doe Urine before I got into my stand that night and the wind was pointed directly at the deer. It was pretty dark and I could not tell what it was though. The deer brought its head up and pointed its nose in the air and then back down to eat more grass. I slowly moved my gun in the direction of the deer and tried to find it through my scope. I could not find it! I turned the power down on the scope and finally found the deer and turned the power back up. It was in my crosshairs now and I was ready. My father taught me years back what to do next and I did it perfectly. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly and squeeze the trigger. The shot went off and I kept looking through my scope. The deer was still standing! I quickly lined the crosshairs back on the deer and shot again. It was down! I waited for about 30 seconds and unloaded my gun. I got out of the stand and found the deer. It was a buck, my first to be exact and he was an old 6 pointer. His brown coat was speckled with grey and he had a nice size body. He is not a monster by any means but he is my first buck and I am happy to finish the rifle season successfully.