What did I learn?

Well, the freezer is full. The rifles are about ready to be sent back to the secret underground storage facility.

What did I learn?

SODIUM BICARBONATE

Well, for starters, I decided to push my baking soda regimen as far as I dared. The results?

1) The second rinse in the washer with sodium bicarb is a waste. I stopped doing it this year and had no ill effects.

2) I started locking up my used hunting clothes in a plastic bin with a sprinkle of sodium bicarb between hunts. I was able to get a minimum of two wearings out of some stuff and 4 out of the outermost layers. In the past, I would wear stuff for a single half-day and then do a complete change.

All told, I had one sincere bust this year that I could attribute to scent. The deer came in directly downwind of me. The rest of the times the deer caught me when I was shifting position on the stand.

CAMO

I didn’t push this the way I wanted to. I had hoped to hunt a good part of the season in brown Carharts and hunter orange and see if I could detect a difference. It got colder quicker this year and all my suitable outer gear is still camo.

Poncho vs. Vest
I got to test using a hunter orange poncho versus a vest. I’m certain I had more busts this year when wearing a vest than when I wore a poncho. A poncho is easier to put on. It breaks up your form a lot better. In fact, I think a hunter orange vest may accentuate that whole head-torso-arms gestalt and make it easier for deer to see you. All my sight-related busts this year happened when I was wearing a vest. In a poncho, there were times when I had deer close-in. I know they saw me, but they just didn’t seem to care.

Rifles and Such:

This wasn’t such a big year for pushing the envelope in firearms. I was not out to try any new loads. One thing I can tell you is that our collective experience with various 30-something rifles was uniformly good. We shot a variety 30-06 and 308 Win rifles with 150, 165, and 180 grain bullets– all put the deer down. I also managed a 150 yard shot with the 35 Whelen and 200 grainers. Of all the shots taken, I had one buck that walked off seemingly un-fazed. However, he stopped before attempting to clear a fence and I got another one into him. The necropsy could not turn up a good reason. Both lungs were involved with both shots. The moral still seems to be this: You can’t always count on a deer to fall over in his tracks.

TRACKING

I realized I am a really lousy tracker. That deer I just mentioned– the one that walked off– I had myself all in a swizzle over that one. I missed seeing him on my first pass at the fenceline, and wandered about for a half-hour looking for sign. I even latched onto a bloodless trail of disturbed leaves and was following that for a while before giving up in despair. Then I found the buck, dead as could be, with his antlers wrapped in the barbed wire. I just had not gone far enough up the fenceline on my first pass– missed him by 10 feet in some tall grass. The lesson here is two-fold:

1) Be ready for that second shot
2) Mark where your buck leaves the vicinity closely. I was one tuft of grass off.

THE REST

I am not going to complain about my season. I did get at least a brief peek at THE BIG ONE, even if I didn’t get a shot. I suppose if I had a fancy new inline front-stuffer, I might have tried a shot at him, but it was just too far and he was there such a short time and I just did not feel right even taking the Hawken down off its peg. I had a chance to learn again: sometimes that’s all you get in a season.

However, I had a lot more. After all the years of working up to it, Angus finally got his first buck, and it was a nice one. Moose got his. Then we come to SuperCore. First off, I have to say that the emotional highlight of the year for me was sitting in my stand and listening on the radio to Moose and Supercore negotiate getting a doe out of Dead Skunk Hollow and out to the processor. For the first time for both of them, they handled all the tricky logistics without me. It saved for me the chance to watch a very nice buck come up and rub a cedar before moving on in search of doe.

Lastly, SuperCore has been at this for only 2 years. He was blessed with the #2 all-time camp record; his first antlered buck will probably go 140 net or better. Me? I couldn’t be happier. My three students all graduating in one way or the other was really gratifying.

For those of y’all still out hunting: Good luck! Stay warm.

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