Hunting...What Drives You?

On the brink of a new dawn, we rethink our preparations, the outcomes, the what ifs, and the big bucks that dance around in our heads. With just over three weeks before arrows can soar and fur can fly, now is the time to hold the line. Practice makes perfect, perfect in a deer hunting world doesn't happen very often though. Deer hunters have to be adaptive, mentally focused, persistent, and forever aware of their surroundings. What starts as a physical game will eventually turn into a mind battle with a mature whitetail.

So why to hunters engage into a challenge like this...? It's not like we really take deer as an enemy and find ourselves running up the steps of the art museum Rocky style. Or finding a local butchery to beat up on  hanging sides of beef. The outdoors offer so much more than perfecting laid concrete steps. When you step into the woods, every step we take is different and the path to the top is forever changing. Watching the forest wake up in the morning and then slowly doze off to sleep in the evening. My local hunting spot does it like a train schedule.

The woods are deathly quiet, pitch dark. With the low hanging canopy of the juniper trees, star light is completely masked out. Only with a full moon overhead is my pathway pre-lit reminding you of movie theatre aisles. Each step taken slowly with the up most care as to not make a noise. Your minds spins in hopes of not cracking a freshly dropped branch. In such a case though, we take advantage of the action. Having your grunt tube at ready and quickly disguising yourself as a deer. A few soft, short grunts and then scratching your feet as if you were making a scrape. After a minute or so the trip continues into the darkness.

The arrival to 'spot' may warrant climbing a tree, slithering into a ground blind, or just sitting down on the forest floor. We lay back and wait for the show to begin. Mine starts with eastern slope becoming back lit with a glow from the rising sun. The first early movements of deer trickling back to their beds for the morning slowly begins. With light still on low, they tip toe through the almost silent vegetation and soft soils. Many of times, they have crept past me, only to find out later on my trail camera as proof.

Next come the squirrels. Down the trees, reporting to their work locations to find food and burying it. Then dig up previously found food and move to bury it once again. Then the crows crack the cool morning air with calls back and forth to one another. At this point, the feature presentation is about to arrive. The pones travel down hill after grazing on Mr McCann's grass and ornamental flowers all night. Then into the juniper forest, halfway to their bedding area with gazing eyes. Just a bit further to their cozy meadow deep in the ravine. With sleep on their mind, they have their nose on high alert.

The antlered kings may have half opened eyes, and ears that have listened to every sound in the night air but their nose never lies. That full belly can almost be laid to rest as they step across my view plane. As mentioned before, the pones or younger deer lead the way with mature doe closely behind. Then, providing the coast is clear, the mature antlered giants arrive. Sleep deprived both the hunter and the deer, the final chess match begins. Will the antlered giant cross my pathway, will he catch a smell of my morning bacon sandwich on my breath, or will he mosey around as if we were never there?

Well this is a perfect morning so far, having the antlers just show up within view is a start. Or to even have fur walk in our direction builds up our blood pressure to near boiling. The excitement fills the air, if only it covered our scent at the same time. Hopefully we have done our homework on this king of the chess game, scouting from afar, scent control in place, wind played in your favor, and your weapon shooting straight and true.

What seems like minutes and hours, ticks passed in only seconds. The crack of the air when the gun shoots or the arrow leaves your bow. Did my shot hit home?...or will the game of shadows continue. The wonder that quickly fills our minds and can flood out a perfect shoot into doubt. Will a painted red carpet be laid out for a prize at the end, we can only hope. Hunting drives us so hard to just lay our hands on our harvest. To some this is our proof of success, but we know it doesn't take antlers on a wall to do so.