Tag Soup
I look back now on that nice 10-pointer I had standing broadside to me in October and I have to wonder.  If I knew I would be sitting here today with no tags filled at the end of season, would I have shot?  Was there something more I could have done during season? Did I mess up somewhere along the way? Normally, I would not be all that worried. I have had bum years before.
If I had really thought about this season, I would have seen it bore a close resemblance to 2002. Yes, we had a few acorns in 2002. We had a few in 2012. However, the rest of the forage was pretty well dissipated going into season, and there were very few deer up on top of our ridge. Where did they go? I talked to a neighbor on Saturday. He said the bottoms, with all their row crops, were crawling with deer this year. He has properties in several locales around the area. I’m stuck to just one. He tried supplementing with extra corn over on his place next to mine, but there were no deer around to feed; the piles went untouched. I could say that as a general rule not to expect much out of drought years. However, I have had summer droughts where deer number seemed unaffected.
Counting the shots each day really told it all. Opening weekend in our area the shot count was half of what we normally experience. From that point on, it was negligible. This year, hunting mid-week would have been a good idea. Wednesday and Thursday of Opening Week brought in a lot of deer. The rut peaked in most areas of the county about that time.
For all my grousing, I have to admit that this may end up being a really good year for the county, the region, and the state overall. It may not be a record harvest, but it will be one of the better ones. I think the drought did play a part in this, and as I look back to the dry years I can remember, they show spikes in deer harvests. I think the dry weather concentrates the deer. The sad thing for me is that they just don’t concentrate on my place. Oh well.
I was able to get out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday evening I took a shot at the middle of three doe. It was very close to the end of legal hunting. It was at the extreme edge of my visible range. I had already started to close up the blind for the night, and I had put the chair up. I knelt to take the shot, and just as I was about to pull the trigger, a small tear in my left ankle I had been nursing since October decided to revolt. Ouch! Bang!  H4895 is not known for its muzzle flash, but it took a while for my eyesight to return. When it did. All I saw where deer fleeing.  I scoured that end of the property with a flashlight an then came back the next morning. Nothing.
Saturday afternoon, I had a nice fat doe bedded at the base of the stand at Virginia. She took off, and that was all I saw the rest of the afternoon. Sunday? Lorelei stopped out to visit me at Campground, but I was at Midway. I was able to watch her in the binos. She made it through season. That was a relief.   I had the rifle up at one point and was watching her in the scope, but. . . no. I did not take the safety off.
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I enjoy your posts. You write well. Here in South Carolina we had a bumper crop of acorns. I guess they did not have to move much for found . It has been a warm clear bright and sunny dry fall. I think this may make them move at night more than during the day I have only seen 3 deer since October. I am hunting public land and I also count shots . Not too many this year. They say the coyotes have been taking out alot of the young deer so future years are going to be hit hard. Like your phiolosphy of hunting hope to learn more as I continue to follow your exploits
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