Deer Hunting 2010

Opening Day
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.

Dimitri's first buck.

We heard a lot of shooting - much more than any other recent year any of us can remember - and saw a lot of deer. Around 9am Curt shot at a group that came into the woods. Soon enough the group made it to the other end of the property and Dimitri took a few shots at them as they crossing to the empty corn field and then proceeded to run, unharmed, to the other end of the field. I saw, in two separate occasions, does in the corn field.

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.

More deer hunting opportunities...

It's the days after Christmas... I had a great time this year. We are a very fortunate family and we try not to forget that. We are all together, healthy (small set-backs with the kids having some little problems here and there do not count :)), our parents and immediate family doing also well, and no need to worry about having food at the table; it is there.

Having said that, my son, Costas, had what turned out to be a 24-hour flu over Christmas. It started on the way back from church on Christmas Eve - he did fine at church, no problems at all - and the poor guy spent Christmas Eve night emptying his stomach every half hour at first, then every hour, every 2 hours at the end. I think at the end there he got too tired and just fell asleep in our bed. On Christmas day the excitement of gifts kept him mainly awake, but he was tired and beat. He got better during the day - no fluids leaving is body - and on the next day he was good as new!

After Costas my wife, Margie, got hit a bit from the same bug probably. She took it standing up. We went furniture shopping and this cured everything :)

And today, it was my daughter's turn. Poor Sophia got up with a slight fever and upset stomach. She is tired and laying down on the couch next to me as I am writing this. She is drinking alright, but no food. She is a trooper. She did not want the TV on, so while she is taking a nap, I am surfing the Internet and writing this entry...

After all this story, I am getting to the part about deer hunting. As I am checking the WI DNR web site, I am looking at the white-tail deer hunting season this year. I knew that there is an extended period for earn-a-buck that started on Dec. 24. However, I was under the impression that the period was to end on Dec. 31. I wanted to go today, but between my sick Sophia and a weird warm-up that ended up with rain and melting snow (it reached 48 degrees out today) it was not the time to be in the woods for me. I had given up on getting a deer this year, but I noticed that the end of the bonus season is not Dec. 31, but Jan 4. This is the Sunday after the first of the year! As I am having Jan. 2 off work, there might be a chance for me on the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th of January to get out there and try once more before this season is over!

Good news!

Now I just hope that my little girl is going to be way better tomorrow.

Deer Hunting 2008

Spiros and Dimitris joined me again this year.

Curt got a nice buck at the closing time of the opening Saturday.

We retrieved the buck the next morning.

I saw a big buck around 11am on opening Sunday morning, but did not get the chance to shoot. It may come back... one day...

Turkey Hunting - Fall 2008

This year I ended up with a turkey permit for the fall hunt. This is a good treat since I did not get one of these last year. I always prefer the fall hunt to the spring hunt; it's longer, you are not limited to only toms, and the weather is usually better (nice crisp fall mornings as opposed to possible rain and maybe ticks!)

So, I tried my luck for the first time on Saturday, September 20, one week after the opening day. I was all set up by 6:45am; the morning was gorgeous and not too hot at this point in time. It got a bit hotter later, though. I spent about 2 hours waiting in my little camouflage tent but nothing showed up. I was also not able to hear any turkey noises that morning.

After the still wait, before I packed up the tent and the gear, I walked at the edge of the property and looked down at the neighbor's corn field where very often turkeys feed. Sure enough, there were 50 or more of them down there... unfortunately for me too far away and in an area inaccessible to me.

Oh well, that's the name of the game; you cannot always succeed! On the other hand this gives mo more opportunities to go out and try again. The plan is to try this coming weekend again.

Never Give up... Deer Hunting 2007 (continued)

Went out again on the morning of the closing Sunday and stayed in the woods.

At around 8:15am two does came in the woods and I shot at the bigger of the two with a straight shot in front of the stand. Took two shots, one as the deer was running away. The deer was hit, I found blood, but lost track of it in the pod.

Called Curt, who came over, sent me on the tree-line stand and started following the deer tracks in the field. He must have spooked the deer which came my way. I finished it up with one shot; it was the injured deer. It turned out to be a big doe. Kids came over to see and took pictures.

Deer Hunting 2007

No deer this year for me on opening weekend.

I saw two does on opening Saturday (11/17) from the tree-line stand. They did not offer a good shot. I saw another deer late in the day, very close to closing time from the center woods stand.

I also saw three small does on Sunday (11/18) from the center woods stand. I took shots at them but missed. I found a big pile of white hair, bit no blood.

Spiros and Dimitris were hunting with us this opening weekend. They shot a pair of does (67 and 64 pounds field-dressed) from the quad-pod around 7:30am on opening Sunday (11/18.) These were the first deer ever for Spiro; we were all very excited.

Hunters had lunch and brunch at our house in Verona for both days. Saturday the weather was OK in the morning, then it started drizzling around 10:30am and did not stop till around 2pm. Sunday morning was great; sunshine and 36 degrees. It turned cloudy in the afternoon. I did not go back after the brunch.

Links to all pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/thanos.tsiolis/Hunting2007?authkey=a1xUBmSHUpM