A Great Weekend Hunting... (3 weeks later)


That's a little misleading... I had a great weekend hunting. I didn't kill anything but time, but I still had a great weekend. We got a little later start than we had hoped for, but we were still at the ranch Friday evening around 6:15. We put Sweetie the Chihuahua in the house, then we went for a little drive around the ranch to see what deer we could find. We saw several deer, including 2 really big bucks. Thinks were looking good. After unloading the truck, we headed to Gatesville for a little dinner and a few last-minute grocery items.



Saturday morning, daylight was around 7:15 (pre-time change). I got up, went through my scent elimination routine, and was on the stand by 6:30. First, about the scent control and why I bother. My preferred morning deer stand is a ground stand on the side of a hill. The deer tend to come pretty close to me, so scent elimination is really important on this stand. Due to thermal currents, you almost can't hunt this stand in the afternoons because the cooling currents travelling down the hill carry what little scent you have down the hill. I'd rather not spook the deer, so I don't hunt this stand in the afternoons.

A little bit about the scent elimination steps I went through opening weekend... Shelly thought I was nuts, my bro-in-law was a little disturbed and he's glad he wasn't there. Before going, I washed my hunting clothes in scent killer soap. I got up early in the morning, got out my clothes, and hung them all on the clothesline outside (outer clothes and underclothes). I also put my boots and hat outside after spraying with with scent killer spray. Next, I took a shower with scent eliminator soap, then got dressed outside (went streaking to get out there) so I wouldn't have to take my clothes back through the house. Yes, a little extreme, but necessary when hunting a ground stand...as I would find out later.

On the stand, a doe and a yearling were moving at first light. They fed for 48 minutes, as close as 30 yards from me. A little while after they left, a young 6 point buck came through. About 30 minutes later, I was sending a text message to my Dad when I heard a noise to my left. There was a deer standing literally 3 feet from me to my left. I had the left side window on the stand closed all but a small crack because there is really nothing that way but a cedar thicket, and I'm concealed a little better in the stand with only the front window open. And the deer stood there for what seemed like an eternity. It was that same 6 pointer from earlier. Man, what a rush to have a deer that close to me and have no idea I was there.