What I do to kill time

There was a discussion raging over at kentuckyhunters.net over what was legit when it came to killing time on the stand. Some guys read, some guys putzed with the GPS. One guy plays games on his cell phone.

I read when I’m expecting a long wait on the stand. I read about a page and then put the book down and scan the woods. Reading can keep you very still. It’s especially helpful for energetic kids. It gives them something to do besides fidget. I’m currently going through Teddy Roosevelt’s memoir of hunting in the badlands. Normally I’d have dusted it off in a sitting, but I’ve had it on two hunts, and I’m only about 60 pages into it– that may give you a rough idea of my hunt/read ratio. It’s kind of interesting, less than I thought it would be. One thing is for sure, he had nothing but contempt for stand hunting for whitetail deer. Oh well, Teddy ain’t coming to my farm anytime soon, and if he does I’ll tell him to get lost. As the light faded on my last afternoon of rifle season, he was going on about taking 20 shots to kill one blacktail doe after plugging her in the arse with the first shot. Gee, Teddy! You might want to check the sights on that pea shooter when you get back to camp.

The other thing I like to do in some circumstances is sleep. I used to do more of it earlier in my hunting career than now. Yes, I’ve come to as the safety harness went taught with nothing but air below my toes. That’s always invigorating. I would get up in my stand way before first light and then nap until legal hunting time. Now that I’m married and have children, I’ve got more to live for, and I’ve given up the practice.

I also used to have this spot where I hunted on the ground. In the Fall, the creek would run dry, and I could go out in the afternoon, and fall asleep underneath a cut bank. At sundown, the deer would come out into this little penninsula of trees that the stream ran through and hold until dark before heading into the neighboring corn. I’d sleep until the sound of hooves on the leaves would wake me.

I drove past that spot just the other day. It has all been swallowed up by Mason, OH and the burgeoning I-71 Fields-Ertel Exit. The fenceline I used to follow to this spot is now the back property line of some $250K+ homes. The cornfield is now a huge church parking lot, and the new middle school is just across the road. Oh well.

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