The weather on opening Saturday was great; sunshine and perfect temperature - not too hot and not too cold. Rocky, Curt, Spiros, Dimitri, and I were there. Rocky and Curt covered the woods, I was on the corner stand, Dimitri on the quad-pod and Spiro on the other tree-line stand closer to Old Stage Rd.
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| Dimitri's first buck. |
The 5-pointer in the picture came into the property from Old Stage Rd., Spiro shot at it first, but it was Dimitri who took it down with one heart shot as it was galloping on the path in front of the quad-pod. It was a difficult shot, but he made it. This was the second deer for Dimitri and his first buck. We were all thrilled for him.
I was on my stand and on the phone telling Margie what happened when a doe and a buck ran right under my stand... too late to pick up the gun and attempt a shot. Margie heard me yelling at the deer to stop...
Later in the day, while Spiro and Dimitri were field-dressing their deer, two does came their way. The deer heard them talking and turned my way. I had them in my scope, behind brush, when they decided to change course and head away from me. I took two shots, just in case, but missed.
So, opening day ended with a lot of sightings, several shots, and one deer down. It's funny to tally the shots and successes on opening day:
| Hunter | Shots taken | Deer killed |
|---|---|---|
| Rocky | 1 | 0 |
| Spiros | 1 | 0 |
| Thanos | 2 | 0 |
| Curt | 3 | 0 |
| Dimitri | 7 | 1 |
Opening Sunday
What difference one day can make...
The weather on Sunday was way bad... It was not as cold as on Saturday, but it was foggy with a light rain coming constantly down. We were on our stands (same setup) on time, but heard a lot fewer shots and saw nothing.
Spiros and Dimitri were to leave around 11am and at 10am we were ready to get down of our stands, take the deer in for registration and processing and send them on their way. Just before the time to get down Rocky shot at a pair of does in the woods. He radioed me that one was hit and be ready to see them. Sure enough after about 5 minutes, I saw a doe - clearly not wounded - coming my way. There was still a lot of brush between me and the doe but I had a better shot this time. I took it and the doe was hit. It went 20 yards towards the neighbor's land and stopped. It was hidden behind some thick brush now and I could not tell if it was standing or lying down; I could hear it breathing very heavily, though. After waiting for a while, I got down from the stand and went after it. The doe was standing and took off. Rocky joint me, we followed the blood trail and saw that it crossed a neighboring corn field and disappeared in the woods in someone's else's land. We stopped the pursue.
We went back and looked for the doe Rocky had shot. We found the blood trail again, followed it and discovered that it took a different path than the one we originally thought. At a sharp turn of the trail we literary ran into the sitting doe. It took off and the blood trail was lost...
Second day had a lot of excitement as well, but we are still with no deer for 2010...
We will be going out again towards the end of the Thanksgiving week hoping for more opportunities.
The Week After...
The first time I was able to go back hunting during the week after the opening weekend was on Saturday morning. My neighbor, Tim, came along. The weather was good for hunting, but cold for us... We stayed on our stands from opening time (6:38am) until about 11:30am. Unfortunately, we saw nothing.
Rocky managed to get a doe on Friday. He stopped by on Saturday and helped us walk around in the property to scare some deer, but there was nothing there...
Oh well, we tried. Next time we go out for deer is probably in two weeks: December 9-12 - special antlerless only deer hunt.
