Several years ago was going to be the best deer hunting season of all time.
The main reason was that my oldest son (then 14) and my youngest son, who had just
turned 11, were both coming. The oldest
son was going to be in his deer stand by himself for the first time; for the
youngest, it was to be his first trip to our deer woods.
The season always begins with scouting the land
earlier in the fall. We hunt state owned land that is open to the public in
North Central Minnesota. It is a very densely planted pine forest. Over the years
we have hunted the same 200 acre section of the land. We pretty much stay in
“our” section and other hunters would stay in “theirs;” things usually turned
out just fine. Some of the land around us was owned by a paper company and every
few years the paper company would come in clear cut about 100 acres. It never
bothered us since we were in the state owned land. Since we hunted these woods
for so many years we had a really good idea of where and when to be to see deer.
We always put the new or youngest hunters in the highest opportunity locations.
Opportunity didn’t always equate to harvesting a deer, but just seeing one in
the wild was a sweet adrenaline rush. A
positive first outing can fuel a passion for life.
The drive up to the deer woods in early fall is
full of stories from previous years. My youngest was already getting a good
sense of what to expect, advice on what and what not to do, and when to do it.
As we turned off the county road and started heading down the gravel road to
“our” woods something was different. It was too bright; usually it’s darker
because of all the trees. As we drove further a sickening feeling started to
take over me. This is wrong! I thought were we on the wrong road; there were no
trees…anywhere! I couldn’t believe it. This was supposed to be the best deer
hunting season of all time. How was that going to be possible with no tees? We
aimlessly wandered around and eventually found an area that had enough trees
left for us to hunt. The ride home was long and quiet. I thought, why bother;
there are no trees so there won’t be any deer. Certainly, the deer aren’t going
to just stand in the middle of a clear cut area and wait for us to shoot them.
As an admirer of trees, this is a sickening sight for sure |
Deer hunting weekend had finally arrived. It was the tradition
of the weekend that kept me motivated. We arrived to the “woods” Friday and saw
that even more clear cutting had been done. That sickening feeling was back.
Fortunately, the area we planned to hunt still had some trees; however I just knew
we weren’t going to see any deer.
The alarm screamed at 3:30am the next morning. That
sickening feeling was still with me, but I did my best to stay upbeat. We
arrived at the woods and got our guns and gear ready. I gave my oldest some
final safety tips and we went our separate ways. Shortly after that my youngest
and I were settled into our tree stand and were waiting for sunrise. The area
got light pretty quick since there weren’t many trees to absorb the light. Not
long after sunrise I heard something behind us…it was a deer! It cautiously
walked in our direction and worked its way in front of us. My son was
struggling to get a clear shot at the deer and eventually said, “Dad, you
better shoot it.” I did, and felt relieved that we would at least get one deer
for the weekend. While cleaning the deer, another gun shot rang out from the
direction of my oldest. We use radios to keep tabs on each other and since I
hadn’t heard from anybody, I gave the radio to my youngest and continued to
clean the deer. My youngest said, “Dad, the radio volume was turned down” and
then said his brother shot a monster buck and needs help with it. I heard him
say, “it’s a ten pointer; no, a twelve, it may even be a thirteen.” When we got
close to where he was we could see the massive rack. It was a thirteen point
buck - a beast; the biggest even shot in our area!
Our hunting party shot four deer by 9am that first morning.
In years past, we’d be lucky to see four deer. I gave my youngest the option to
hunt or not hunt the next morning; he wanted to hunt. Sure enough, at sunrise
the next morning a young buck came walking by and he made a great shot. It was
a true blessing for me to witness his excitement. Turns
out, it was the best deer hunting season of all time!
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.