9-24-11
I had some decisions to make for opening weekend. Should I hunt at a new piece of property in Salem, should I hunt with my brother and cousin's husband or should I stay home. Well the weather as you all know shaped up to be very nice for opening morning on the 24th. My brother talked me in to going back home (about an hour away from where I live now) to Harrison Cty where we grew up and he still lives. I decided that would be the best, spend some time with my brother and hunt with him and my cousin's husband. My bro is going in for hip surgery mid October and then will be spending the winter recovering in Florida (since the last 2 hip surgeries didn't go well).
Well Friday evening I went down home, met up with my bro and Miles at the camper. We were all excited about going hunting the next morning but none of us had scouted as much as we'd like to have. Stands were in place, a few cameras up and thats about all the prep we had in! Hit the sack around 10:45pm and sweet dreams. I got in my stand Saturday morning about 6:40am, still dark and ready to go. The sound of the woods quickly came alive and I was in the zone! Around 8:00 am I heard some rustling behind me and did took a sharp look back to see 3 doe about 35 yards behind me. Immediately my heart started racing...that's right, over a few does!! I wasn't even sure if I was going to get to shoot at one but I was pumped to see the first deer from my stand for the season! Unfortunately one looked right at me, didn't get spooked really but kinda mozied off the direction that was away from me. Maybe 20 minutes later I had a couple more does follow the same path. This time I pulled back because it looked like they may come my way. Well... I was wrong but at least I got to pull back my compound on one! About 9am I got a text message saying Miles had shot a doe so my bro and I got out of the stand and went to help Miles. Miles was elated because it was his first doe ever and his first with his compound bow!! We talked about the shot and then started tracking. Blood trail was not real heavy but enough that we were able to track it and teach Miles a little about tracking, in the pines to make it even more interesting! We found his deer about 170 yards away almost by the road, bonus ,makes for a short carry to the truck. We showed him how to field dress the deer and let him do it mostly on his own, he did an awesome job! We took a look and he had a nice lung shot but came out a little far back on the other side.
Saturday night I had a pig roast to attend for one of my friends, the family and I went to that. Our gift to him was a Belgian Triple that we had brewed for the event and man did we enjoy that