I’m hoping we can piece the remains of the new shooting house back together, and get a couple of new stands set up over the new food plots.

Angus is still a yute, I’d like to see him bag something early in Yute Season

Moose is probably due for a serious buck. He tagged out last season with a spike. Even he was a tad disappointed. He’ll probably also take a doe during early muzzleloader.

I have a guest coming for rifle season. He’s out of work and wants to pad his freezer. He’s going to be of the brown-and-down persuasion. First off, I hope he makes it. He could really benefit from not only the meat, but also time off from his troubles. He seems tentative. You know the story from there.

Then you come to me. I got my medical waiver signed. I could conceivably be out with my new crossbow in the first week of September. I’ll probably wait until October. There will be 4 weekends between October 1 and the start of rifle season where it might make sense to hunt with the new toy. Honestly, I have to admit to not being particularly warm to this contraption. The problem that it solves is that I have these weekends just before rifle season, where I will be in the peak of the rut and nothing to hold.

The last few years I hunted with a compound bow, I was starting to hold back. I even let some shootable bucks pass simply because I did not want to go into Opening Day of Modern Weapons without a buck tag. Most years that was not a problem; a week or two later I would have the same buck or something better under my stand. This year, it may be different. The rut is due to peak in the week before the Opener. Nov 7-8 is due to be prime for the bowhunters.

For all my machinations throughout the year to make my place a deer paradise, it’s really just still a crapshoot as to whether the next Big One shows up. We kept a big buck on the place for two seasons, but then he wandered off and never came back without anyone getting a shot. We’re nearly due for another monster. We’re certainly ready. Short of tying one out to a stake, I have done all I can to make one available. A lot of what happens now is praying and waiting.

If you’d seen my list five years ago, it would have been filled with new loadings for rifles and experimentations with new calibers. This year, I replenished what was needed, I will probably load more of the same, and let things ride for another year. The drive to seek the ultimate deer rifle, the ultimate deer cartridge and the ultimate deer load has ended.

If I have a goal, it is probably to just be out in the middle of it as much as possible. Last year was just about right. I was able to pick and choose which days I hunted and did not have to put up with the worst of the weather. I filled all my tags without any serious regrets, and we all walked out safe and happy.

One minor goal: I still have not taken anything with any of my cast bullets. I decided a while back to put the powerbelts behind me and start casting my own. Moose and I both have Lee R.E.A.L. molds for our smoke poles. Moose nailed a doe with his last year. I saw a whole lot of spikes and forkers and held off. I’ve had similar luck during early ML since 2004. The problem is that usually the freezer is full before I get back to my Hawken. I really truly enjoy hunting with it– of all my rifles, this one feels the best.

So here I sit: I try and hunt squirrel with the kids a few weekends in September, that eats up time. Usually first weekend in October is just window shopping. I have to chaperone Angus in Yute season, and again I”m back window shopping with the Hawken the next weekend. I try to get out and enjoy Fall Turkey. There goes a weekend. Two weekends of half-hearted hunting with the crossbow and then the Opener (!). By the time I’ve worked through all the centerfire rifles I want to take out, the freezer is full. I try to save a tag for a day out stalking with the slug gun, and maybe another with the Hawken and then its Thanksgiving and the bad weather hits and there’s venison everywhere and. . .

. . . so many guns, so many deer, so little time.

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