Gun Season Nov. 20-21, 2010

Eight of us were in attendance at the Warner Farm & Campgrounds for the start of the 2010 gun season; Don, Shorty, Patrick (Shorty's son) Pete, Alicia, Andrew, Cameron & myself. We hunted all day Saturday and Sunday morning until 11 a.m.., Don, Shorty & Patrick stayed to keep hunting into the week after we packed up for home. I didn't do a good job of getting pictures this hunt, but here is what I did get.

All in all we harvested five deer through Sunday morning. Here they are, all snug and keeping each other warm for the ride to get registered...

and another angle of the same...

and this picture shows who took which deer...

Saturday the weather was in the mid-thirties, but dry and the sun teased us on & off. Cameron figured the best way to keep warm was to move so he left the 'lower-bowl' stand for the 'hillside-ledge' around 7:30 a.m., great exercise...

Here is "Bump", the antlerless buck which I took on Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m., I named him Bump because I thought he was a she. But when I flipped her over to start dressing, she was most definitely a he. All he had for antlers were tiny bumps covered by scalp hair. Bump was taken from the tower stand formerly as the semi-safe tower-stand which had been built by Thurmon. It has been renamed the 'Staiway to Heaven' since its stairs remind me of an insane USMC confidence course obstacle.

Bump and a buddy crossed the fence line to the west which runs north. Bump & buddy were preceded by another pair of doe (I think) only 4-5 minutes prior. They too came along this line heading northward. Cameron & I each took a shot at the first pair from a range of appx 175 yards and missed. They moved on to the north to live on for at least a few more moments and perhaps for years to come. When Bump & buddy came through they were moving through the cold air fast so 175 yards shots weren't considered. But luck was in the air too and it turned them turn at the small creek which cuts across the land east & west and sent them right at me. Still they were moving so fast I couldn't get either in the scope long enough to shoot before the hopped the fence and veered north-east towards the lower-bowl and the top-40 beyind that where Alicia awaited. Frustrated they weren't cooperating I remembered a tip Pete shared; whistle. So I did, loud! And they stopped in their tracks 60 yards north-east of me just to the west of the fence line before the lower-bowl. Three seconds later Bump was on the ground and he never got back up.

After I shot & dressed Bump I went on up to check on Alicia as she was on her own on the top-40 in the same box stand which she took her first deer in 2008. This is how I found her when I arrived...

She was sleeping in a big way. Two serious shakes of her boot were needed to get her to awaken and rejoin the hunt. She saw Bump's buddy come darting into the field behind her about a half hour earlier without the opportunity for a shot. She would shoot at a deer around noon to no avail.

Her brief nap aside Alicia hung in there and stayed in this box for over 10 hours. And she was rewarded for her perseverance with an antlerless buck that passed 40 yards to her north with about 30 minutes to go before the days end was to end. One shot and 20 yards of stumbling later he was down for good. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of her antlerless buck. The darkness was drawing on us quick and we needed to get him dressed. We also needed to determine how to tag him as he did have antlers. One of his spikes was very close to 3 inches. In the end we estimated is at 2.99999 inches and tagged it antlerless. Thus Pete & Family scored an Earn-a-Buck sticker!

All of the deer were taken on Saturday. Patrick took his in the morning and I believe Don & Shorty took theirs in the late afternoon. It was a good day, the best in my short three year experience in the sport.

Sunday the temperatures were warmer but the weather was not friendlier. The morning started perfect weather wise. But not perfect deer wise, as there were none. Shorty & Patrick chose not to go out, so Pete went to Shorty's box overlooking the north-eastern field, Don went to his usual stand deep into the forest, Andrew went up to the top-40 to sit in Alicia's box, Cameron went back to the lower-bowl before moving to the hillside-ledge before moving through the forest to the tree-stand in the south-western corner of the top-40 (Cam likes to move around), Alicia went to the Taj-Mahal, and I went to sit in Pete's box stand...

Waiting soon gave way to watching the fog roll in and the visibility decrease across the Warner's southern field. The visibility dropped from 400 to 200 yards in about 30 minutes...

We packed it in by 11:00 a.m., thanked Don & Shorty for their hospitality and were on our way home by noon. Which of course means Cameron found time to take a nap...

A good time had by all whether they took a deer or not. We look forward to the next opportunity to load up and harvest some meat for the table.