This season was technically my second season deer hunting, and this is my anticlimactic story.
My first time deer hunting was about 3 years ago. I bought a rifle at a gun show and decided to try my hand. I went out to some public land in NE MO, and I sat with my brother-in-law, who is an experienced deer hunter from Wisconsin. We were sitting inside a treeline and a doe ran up on the near side of a small hill. It must have been no more than 50 yards away from us, and we watched. I waited for my brother-in-law's signal, as I was brand new and thought I needed a bit of coaching. After a couple of minutes the doe sprang away and over the hill. I watched in horror as the deer disappeared, and I turned to him saying, "What was that?! I was waiting for your go ahead!" He goes, "Oh, you wanted to shoot that? I thought we were only hunting bucks." He was a seasoned hunter and therefore was only interested in bucks. I, on the other hand, was looking to shoot any decent deer in general, as it would be my first. That day still haunts me.
Fast forward to this season. I spent a significant amount of time preparing my strategy and equipment this time around. I found a place in SE MO, where I now live, and I prepared for opening day. The first weekend, my gf and I went out and sat and didn't see anything all weekend. That was a bit disappointing. The next weekend I went out Saturday morning with a coworker, and he took me to a spot he likes. He walked me out to a clearing about an hour before sunrise, and we saw the eyes of probably 5 or 6 deer glowing back at us from 30 yards or less. I parked my chair in that spot and he walked on a ways in another direction. I was so excited after seeing so many deer in one spot. Unfortunately, by the time there was enough light to see anything, they were all gone. I waited hours and never saw another one pass by. My coworker said that there had been a huge doe headed my way from his vantage point, but a car drove in while we were sitting and shined its lights on the doe for what seemed like ages and scared it away. That's disappointing.
The next day I took my gf out, and we didn't see anything moving. Since the area was empty of any other hunters, we decided to take a stealthy walk through the woods. Being new to hunting, I'm not a great tracker, but my gf seems to have a knack for it. She can spot those deer tracks pretty consistently. We followed some tracks and found some possible bedding areas, but we never did get as far into the woods as I would've liked. Nevertheless, as I was following behind her, she suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. She explained that she saw a huge doe, but it took off when it saw her. I knew there was likely no chance of finding it again, but she wanted to try. So we took off and stalked through the forest for about an hour, seeing nothing. Eventually we decided to call it a day and our season ended without a kill. Again, fairly disappointing, but I'm not gonna let it stop me.
I've purchased a bow and will be practicing with it as much as possible. I will also get out and try some squirrel hunting and probably turkey. I'm going to try to learn as much as I can in the next year to be ready for those pesky whitetails next season.
My first time deer hunting was about 3 years ago. I bought a rifle at a gun show and decided to try my hand. I went out to some public land in NE MO, and I sat with my brother-in-law, who is an experienced deer hunter from Wisconsin. We were sitting inside a treeline and a doe ran up on the near side of a small hill. It must have been no more than 50 yards away from us, and we watched. I waited for my brother-in-law's signal, as I was brand new and thought I needed a bit of coaching. After a couple of minutes the doe sprang away and over the hill. I watched in horror as the deer disappeared, and I turned to him saying, "What was that?! I was waiting for your go ahead!" He goes, "Oh, you wanted to shoot that? I thought we were only hunting bucks." He was a seasoned hunter and therefore was only interested in bucks. I, on the other hand, was looking to shoot any decent deer in general, as it would be my first. That day still haunts me.
Fast forward to this season. I spent a significant amount of time preparing my strategy and equipment this time around. I found a place in SE MO, where I now live, and I prepared for opening day. The first weekend, my gf and I went out and sat and didn't see anything all weekend. That was a bit disappointing. The next weekend I went out Saturday morning with a coworker, and he took me to a spot he likes. He walked me out to a clearing about an hour before sunrise, and we saw the eyes of probably 5 or 6 deer glowing back at us from 30 yards or less. I parked my chair in that spot and he walked on a ways in another direction. I was so excited after seeing so many deer in one spot. Unfortunately, by the time there was enough light to see anything, they were all gone. I waited hours and never saw another one pass by. My coworker said that there had been a huge doe headed my way from his vantage point, but a car drove in while we were sitting and shined its lights on the doe for what seemed like ages and scared it away. That's disappointing.
The next day I took my gf out, and we didn't see anything moving. Since the area was empty of any other hunters, we decided to take a stealthy walk through the woods. Being new to hunting, I'm not a great tracker, but my gf seems to have a knack for it. She can spot those deer tracks pretty consistently. We followed some tracks and found some possible bedding areas, but we never did get as far into the woods as I would've liked. Nevertheless, as I was following behind her, she suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. She explained that she saw a huge doe, but it took off when it saw her. I knew there was likely no chance of finding it again, but she wanted to try. So we took off and stalked through the forest for about an hour, seeing nothing. Eventually we decided to call it a day and our season ended without a kill. Again, fairly disappointing, but I'm not gonna let it stop me.
I've purchased a bow and will be practicing with it as much as possible. I will also get out and try some squirrel hunting and probably turkey. I'm going to try to learn as much as I can in the next year to be ready for those pesky whitetails next season.