Report from Deer Camp: Opener 2024

The short of it is that the Shamanic Dream Team came in from the field Saturday evening with two bucks making it to the poll.. Moose shot a 7 pointer at Lazy Boy. Supercore blasted a spike buck early Saturday afternoon. It started pouring rain, and no one had the urge to go out Sunday. Foxtrot Charlie showed up in time for dinner Sunday. He went out Monday and Tuesday and has so far scored nothing. I nailed a buck Tuesday AM at Midway and went back to town.

How it began

I had been down since Wednesday. I have spent most of the preceding weeks at the farm watching work progress. I went home last weekend and stayed in town to vote. Coming early gave me a good chance to get camp in order for the Saturday Opener. Friday started out as normal, but things began to fall apart in the afternoon. SuperCore called mid-afternoon to say he was down with stomach trouble. Angus has a sick cat and was going to drop it off at Moose’s for the weekend. Everyone was running late. I went out to the Thoughtful Spot and did my best to enjoy the Eve of the Opener alone. This started out as a treat. I had not had camp to myself since the first year. For years it had been a mad rush to get me and two kids ready after rushing down after work. However, quiet reflection only goes so far. I made it past sundown and got bored and took a nap.

SuperCore had been in charge of providing dinner. Angus volunteered to bring fried chicken, but all of our usual chicken joints were closed when he got over the bridge. We were close to being without dinner. I finally called Snappy Tomato Pizza in Falmouth and ordered one of the Beasts. SuperCore called late and said the intestinal distress had abated and he was on his way. We finally got our act together around 2200. I ate a couple of pieces of pizza and went to bed.

The Opener

Saturday was a bit warmer than usual, but otherwise, things were optimal. Legal hunting started and the action was extremely light; I heard about a quarter of the shots I would normally hear.

Moose and Mooselette took up position at Lazy Boy. I was at Campground. I had seen a couple of doe come close by stand, but I wanted to hold out for a buck. At about 0900, Moose shot a 7-point buck, having passed on a forker. While he was pulling the deer out, I saw 3 more doe. SuperCore had passed on a 6-pointer that came in too early to shoot. Angus had seen a forker.

I have mentioned eating at Bub’s. I was in at Bub’s a few nights earlier and had been talking to Mike, the owner. I’d known Mike for decades; he had run Salem Ridge Deer Processing and we had brought him several deer. I was bemoaning the fact that a lot of the smaller processors had gone out of business. He recommended Poe & McFadden who had recently started advertising. We took Moose’s buck over to them and we were quite impressed.

Bub’s was serving an all-day breakfast special, so we all drove over there in the afternoon and stoked up. We went back out on our return to camp. I went to Midway. SuperCore went back to Jagende Hutte. Angus went back to Blackberry. At 1600, SuperCore took a shot at what he thought was a doe. Upon closer examination, he had nailed a 5-inch spike buck. There went his buck tag for the year. Moose and Angus heard the shot and went out in the truck.

They retrieved the deer from the field and he and SuperCore rode to Poe & McFadden. Mooselette had decided to go deer watching at Hollywood. She saw nothing. I had a small forker roaming the field south of Midway. He wandered about for a half-hour or so, acting somewhat bewildered with his nose in the air. I think the rut was just too much for him to take.

At sundown +30, Moose picked us up in the truck and we came back to the house and enjoyed grilled NY Strip off the grill, dodging an occasional drizzle. The rain was due to hit at midnight. It did not let up until after sundown on Sunday. By then Angus, and Team Moose had left. Foxtrot Charlie showed up at dark and we went to Bub’s for dinner.

The First Week

By Monday AM, the rain had blown out and we had clear skies. Foxtrot Charlie went to Blackberry where he had some action with some does and a forker. I went back to Midway. I saw some does and a brief appearance by a buck. However, there was fog rolling across the Garden of Stone at that moment and I could not find him in my scope. By the time the fog lifted, he was gone. SuperCore found a spike buck at Jagende Hutte, and he had it up on the pole by the time I came in.

It was just down to Foxtrot Charlie and I. He went back to Jagende Hutte. I went back to Midway. FC saw a buck at the First Barn, but it would have been a long shot with iron sights. I saw nothing. We went to Bub’s to lick our wounds.

A Buck at Midway

Tuesday morning began clear and quite a bit cooler– 36F– the coldest temperature in November so far. I had gone back to Midway, convinced that my luck was due to change. Foxtrot Charlie finally got to go back to Hollywood. He had not hunted there since his monster buck last year. The wind had been blowing out of the WNW since the rain let up– right on your back at Hollywood. This AM it had shifted more to the North East.

Bundled up in Midway, with my heated vest turned down low, I was nice and toasty. I got somewhat dozy. I wasn’t drifting off, but I was kind of getting dreamy. At 0900 ET, I realized I had gone this far into season and not seen anything worth shooting. This was the second season in a row. I started to fret. Here I was, in the process of moving everything I owned down to this plot of ground and I was going to be stuck–

The south window at Midway overlooks The Garden of Stone. I can’t tell you how many deer I’ve shot out of that small patch of pasture. It had been empty up to this point, but a fairly decent buck with his nose to the ground came trotting out of the woods on the right and came across the Garden right about then. He was past the halfway point before I could get my rifle up. I grunted to make him stop.

He stopped.

The rifle is my TC Compass in 7mm-08. I have had it since 2020. I took a doe with it that year. Its performance was impressive, but I really wanted to see what it would do on buck. This was my fourth year trying. In the meanwhile, I’ve changed powders and now have rounds stacked with StaBall 6.5 and getting 200 fps more velocity. This was also the first shootable buck I’d seen in 2 years, and he was 75 yards out from the end of the muzzle. I would like to tell you how time slowed and our eyes met and–

Bang! Down. Right there. It was over before I could really feel it. The next moments, I was a complete ninny. I was calling it a 250-pounder and a monster rack and. . .

The truth is he went 150 lbs and had a nice 8-point rack. This had been the chocolate-racked buck that everyone had been seeing crossing the road about 3/4 mile north of the farm. I had run across him on the way in Wednesday. He ran for about a hundred yards paralleling my truck in the utility clearcut next to the road. Something had dislodged him from his favorite spot and moved down to Midway. When I finally saw the raand ck straight on, I realized it was probably the same one I had spotted in the fog.

Foxtrot Charlie followed me out to the processor and then we stopped in Lennoxburg for lunch before he went back to town. I had my buck tag filled, planned on taking a day to rest, and that meant my next day out was going to be Thursday which promised to be another all-day rain event. I opted to pack up and head back for a day or two. All the deer were ready. I took Moose’s buck back to camp and took SuperCore’s deer back with me and dropped them off. I think SuperCore is done for the year.

My Parka Died

The zipper on the parka of my Orange Clown Suit fell off. I still had snap closures, but I picked up these duds used over a decade ago. They had served the purpose of thumbing my nose at a pesky Anti-UV rep. I ordered a new parka from Cabela’s when I got back to camp and paid for it with Cabela’s Points. It’s a RedHead Silent Stalker Elite Parka. The box was waiting for me at home when I got back on Tuesday. I tried it on for fit and I’m impressed so far. I will give y’all a full review after season is over.