Monday, November 25, 2013

Hunting: A first hunt

For those that know me, I am all about learning; Specifically, I have an obsession with learning how to do things and why. In some ways, I am a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. With a few exceptions, I learn just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be dangerous to others. For years, I have wanted to become proficient at archery. More accurately, I wanted to become proficient at archery so that I could become proficient at hunting. I am a bit of a traditionalist, so ideally, I would like a nice wooden longbow. The biggest problem is that wooden longbows are usually expensive, custom made jobs where you pay an amateur to mid-level bowyer to eventually make you a bow to his specifications. I could learn to make one myself (I actually have started that process) but it takes a lot of time to find the perfectly right piece of wood to make a nice American Flat Bow (the style I would make) and then a moderate amount of skill to not screw up that piece of wood. So, the alternative that I elected was to purchase a recurve bow from eBay. The particular bow I got is a laminated maple and fiberglass Bear Super Grizzly from the early 70s (I keep forgetting to look it up), so that will have to be traditional enough.

So, I practiced, took the hunter safety course, got my hunting license and permits, signed up for a lottery and then waited (impatiently) for my first session to start. Yesterday, it finally arrived. Unfortunately, it was a morning low of 22 with winds from 14-29 mph. More unfortunately, the wind climbed to 22-37 mph while I was out there. Even more unfortunately, in all my practice and planning, I neglected to plan for Winter to be cold. I don't get cold easily, so I figured long sleeves and fleece would be quiet and stealthy and plenty warm. In this case, 3 layers was not enough. I have never shivered so much in my entire life. To make matters worse, the wind was screaming so I couldn't see any deer movement because everything was in motion constantly. In addition, I couldn't hear any deer movement over the wind. The only thing I could hear was my insanely loud "stealth" finding every crunchy leaf and stick plus catching every briar on my pants. After 3 hours, I finally called it quits without seeing 1 single deer. I went back home and tried (unsuccessfully) to warm up. I decided to give it another try and went back out for a late afternoon hunt. Being more familiar with the area now, I moved to the spot I thought would be best. I sat and scanned for deer for a bit and saw nothing. I slowly stood up to move to one other area and then locked eyes on a deer bedded down 15 feet from me. It was much more reactive than I was because it bolted before I could even think of reacting.

All in all, it was a fun and informative experience. The best part is, I have 13 more days in this hunting session to try to bag a deer. If I fail, then I have another 2-week session in January. All I need is slightly better conditions and lots more luck (and skill) and I should have some meat in the freezer in no time.