Our Alabama deer hunting season ended on 10 Feb. For me it ended on 26 Jan, because 27 Jan we headed out for our epic trip that wouldn't end before deer season did. I am going to talk a bit about sport hunting, so if you are squemish, you may want to stop here. Remember, this blog is mostly written to remind us about what has happened.
The season started 15 Oct. but travels and other conflicts meant I didn't get too serious about hunting until gun season started. It didn't REALLY start until Andrew started hunting around 18 Dec. He bought his license online, about 1100-1200. We went hunting and within about 15 min of getting on the stand, Andrew shot a bobcat to skin and tan. Just before dark, and less than 3 hours after starting his season, he killed a good doe. the next day, about 40 min before dark, I killed a nice 8-pt. The next day it rained all day, but the following day, Andy and I went down to Greene County to hunt with a friend on his great deer reserve. That afternoon Andrew shot his second doe, because the manager wanted us to help him reduce the number of deer. The next morning, Andrew killed deer number 3.
Well, that brought us to Christmas, with worship and celebrations...and more rain. I began to get a bit depressed with all the rain, clouds and gloom. One day in early Jan, Andrew killed a nice 8-point at about 250 yds--which is quite a long shot, if you don't know such things. We went back to Greene county where I killed my second deer, and Drew killed his fifth. Three of his deer were killed at OVER 200 yds. My longest deer in about 50 years of hunting was 180 yards.
Well, my season was going to end on Saturday, 26 Jan, as I said. I had hunted a few times since Andrew returned to Arizona, but I sure missed having a hunting buddy. I planned to get up early, hunt until 10 AM or so, and then connect w my buddy Jeff to take down two tree stands. I didn't sleep very well and thought about sleeping in--but this was my last chance to hunt, so I got up, dressed and walked out into 29 F. It was a calm morning and so we had heavy, heavy frost. No one else was hunting at the hunt club, so I had my pick of stands. It was a tough call, but I still had a climbing stand to retrieve near Lower Spain hunting stand. I was about 15 min late, but I told myself this wasn't a job, it was for fun. I got in the shooting house and got ready for business. It's a good thing, because in about 15 min, a single deer came into the green field in the far right corner--from the creek. I assumed, based on experience, it was a spike or button buck. When it made a couple of steps, I saw that it was a good deer. It was moving slowly, and stepped between two trees of about 6 and 10 inches in diameter. My target zone on the buck was framed by the tree trunks, and I got the scope to the right spot and squeezed off a shot. Fortunately, THANK YOU L^RD, he dropped in his tracks.
I hurried over, not sure how good he was. He was indeed a GOOD one! He had a 20-inch inside spread on his antlers, and sported 10 points, with the two brow tines broken off from fighting. His bases were 5 inches. Here he is:
The season started 15 Oct. but travels and other conflicts meant I didn't get too serious about hunting until gun season started. It didn't REALLY start until Andrew started hunting around 18 Dec. He bought his license online, about 1100-1200. We went hunting and within about 15 min of getting on the stand, Andrew shot a bobcat to skin and tan. Just before dark, and less than 3 hours after starting his season, he killed a good doe. the next day, about 40 min before dark, I killed a nice 8-pt. The next day it rained all day, but the following day, Andy and I went down to Greene County to hunt with a friend on his great deer reserve. That afternoon Andrew shot his second doe, because the manager wanted us to help him reduce the number of deer. The next morning, Andrew killed deer number 3.
Well, that brought us to Christmas, with worship and celebrations...and more rain. I began to get a bit depressed with all the rain, clouds and gloom. One day in early Jan, Andrew killed a nice 8-point at about 250 yds--which is quite a long shot, if you don't know such things. We went back to Greene county where I killed my second deer, and Drew killed his fifth. Three of his deer were killed at OVER 200 yds. My longest deer in about 50 years of hunting was 180 yards.
Well, my season was going to end on Saturday, 26 Jan, as I said. I had hunted a few times since Andrew returned to Arizona, but I sure missed having a hunting buddy. I planned to get up early, hunt until 10 AM or so, and then connect w my buddy Jeff to take down two tree stands. I didn't sleep very well and thought about sleeping in--but this was my last chance to hunt, so I got up, dressed and walked out into 29 F. It was a calm morning and so we had heavy, heavy frost. No one else was hunting at the hunt club, so I had my pick of stands. It was a tough call, but I still had a climbing stand to retrieve near Lower Spain hunting stand. I was about 15 min late, but I told myself this wasn't a job, it was for fun. I got in the shooting house and got ready for business. It's a good thing, because in about 15 min, a single deer came into the green field in the far right corner--from the creek. I assumed, based on experience, it was a spike or button buck. When it made a couple of steps, I saw that it was a good deer. It was moving slowly, and stepped between two trees of about 6 and 10 inches in diameter. My target zone on the buck was framed by the tree trunks, and I got the scope to the right spot and squeezed off a shot. Fortunately, THANK YOU L^RD, he dropped in his tracks.
I hurried over, not sure how good he was. He was indeed a GOOD one! He had a 20-inch inside spread on his antlers, and sported 10 points, with the two brow tines broken off from fighting. His bases were 5 inches. Here he is:
He's my second-best deer ever! Thanks be to G^d who blesses me beyond my imagination. Thank you L^rd for a good deer and for a GREAT season of hunting.
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