We had one of the most successful deer openers ever at the Conner Gaming Farm (aka Mom & Dad’s house). We filled out in 3 hunts, and got inside just in time for the Vikings game.
<-That’s mine!
My parents have 80 acres that we can pretty much cover with 5 guys. I was in my stand for about an hour Saturday morning when I heard a shot, close enough to hear the deer when it went down. Brent got an 8 pointer. We all met inside at about 10:00 AM, and everyone saw deer. Brian had 8 around his stand, Dad saw a few, and I had one bed down not to far from my stand. None were really worth shooting at other than Brent’s 8 point, but we had saw enough to fill out then if we really wanted to.
We had plenty of doe permits, and even a few management tags if we wanted, but we still have venison left from last year, so we were planning on being picky. I have only shot doe’s so I was holding out for something with horns.
Saturday afternoon we went out and sat in our stands again. We weren’t going to make any drives opening day. I wasn’t in my stand for 2 minutes when I heard 3 quick shots blasting to the north of me. Chad had just bagged a spike we would later find out. Two minutes after he shot, I hear what sounded like a stampede of deer coming my way. One by one the 4 bounced around a corner and darted through the swamp. They were running full tilt, but I did see horns on the third one – spike, maybe a fork. They were at about 70 yards when I took aim. I shot twice and missed. The woods were quite thick where I was shooting, but I took the two shots anyway – I must have hit the trees between me and them. I was actually hanging over the side of my stand on the second shot to get an angle at it’s ass, it would have been a damn lucky shot if I would have hit anything. At fifteen minutes to dark, I pulled out of my stand to check for blood, just in case, but I didn’t find a drop. I was going to head in and wait in the field by my parents house and hope some of the other guys kick some into me. Just as I stepped back into the yard I heard 3 shots to the south west. I figured it was Brian.
Sure enough, every one came in and I was the only one who missed. Chad got a spike, and brian got a 5 pointer. I was stuck with track soup. We were down to my tag left after the first day – sweet. The rain held out until we were on our way into the house – also sweet.
So, we slept in on sunday and planned a drive though the deep swamp. The drive kicked up a nice doe, and an 8 pointer. Brian took a shot at the 8 point, but missed. It then came darting over to me, about 45 yards away. I took two shots while it was on the run, and missed (yes again). To my defense, I’ve never really hunted with a scope before. Every deer I’ve ever killed was with iron sites, and my scope was just a cheep single power scope with a narrow view – well there’s that and the fact that my heart was nearly beating out of my chest. Just after my second shot the 8 pointer hit the breaks and was standing broad side to me. I dropped it there, strait through the heart. It had a damn nice rack if I do say so myself – at least for our neck of the woods.
As we were heading inside after gutting and hanging the deer it just started to sprinkle. We made it inside with enough time to eat lunch and see the Vikings game.
It couldn’t have been a more perfect hunt, easy, but perfect. We pulled more antlers off our land in a single weekend (in three hunts) than we have an any other season we can remember. Fun.
