Pulled Out Early

We decided to pull out after the Sunday morning hunt. This was after originally planning to hunt up until the rain hit on Tuesday. SuperCore had a doe. Moose had his monster that’s filling the freezer and then some. That left Angus and I eating tag soup, and there was no sign of deer and no sign it was going to change.

I am not worried. This happens maybe once a decade. Our deer are ruled by the oak mast. When it is good, they will be chowing down on acorns and we hardly see them. This year, the crop was not as high volume as the previous three years, but it dropped late due to the warm weather we have had . The bottom line is that we see very few deer out and about.

I think there is an additional factor that needs to be mentioned. You have heard me talk about the “Orange Army,” and how the locals always did us the favor of acting as beaters, driving the deer onto our property. Yeah, it’s funny, but it has been a real thing. My guess is that our property has held as many as three times its normal amount of deer from Opening Morning onward simply because of the insane amount of hunting pressure exerted by the neighbors.

That has all changed. I have had a change of neighbors over the past five years or so, and I hear far less ATV traffic coming from the ridges around the property. Our 200 acres is not as much of a sanctuary anymore. The days of hearing the ATVs crank up and roar through the woods at 0630, fifteen minutes before the Rifle Opener are probably over.

The plan is for the Shamanic Dream Team to reconvene after Thanksgiving dinner has settled and hunt Friday Afternoon until the end of season on Sunday.

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