Bow Hunting = Playing Blackjack
My theory goes like this: Bow hunting and playing Blackjack at the casinos is kind of the same. Both involve traveling to a place with the lure that you will win big. You then sit around for hours staring in one place and concentrating intently as if that will help you succeed. The whole time you are there you trick yourself into thinking that the next moment will produce the payout.
When the perfect opportunity comes up right in front of you, your lack of experience makes you panic and a wrong move is made. You are left with nothing, but lost money, time and stories of how close you were. What you do get is a sore butt.
But will I return to my chair hoping beyond hope that tonight will be the night?…or course.
Here are a couple of pictures of my view from 20 feet in the air and a little doe that I let walk around me for an hour one night. Why she couldn’t smell or hear me and all the bigger ones do, is baffling to me.
Deer Processing
The crew of hunters on the property I was on for the week harvested six deer total (yes the new guy got two of them). On the Monday after the season several of us gathered to process the meat. This was great learning experience to see (and touch) the creation that God has made for us. The buck I got on Thanksgiving was huge and made up the majority of the meat for ground venison. We got chops, round steaks, and tenderloin for everyone as well as over 180 pounds of misc pieces we use for ground.
We also brought a tenderloin offering over to the neighbors that were really noisy on Thanksgiving day and probable the reason the big buck came wondering my way. The cool thing about this part of the season is that you learn so much the animal. For instance we learned that if I would have shot a couple inches lower the buck would probable still be alive (see picture with the arrow. We did a little CSI Rhinelander to show the trajectory of the bullet. When cutting out the tenderloin back strap we also learned that the buck was shot by an arrow the previous year and the tip stopped right at the back bone.
The Deer Hunt
This is the update of my hunting adventures. I spent around 30 hours in my deer stand for this season and had a great time being quiet and looking out the window. I had a package of tea candles to keep me warm and learned the fine art of wax consolidation to keep the wicks burning longer. Overall I harvested my first two deer of my life. A nice size doe on Monday and fairly large buck on Thanksgiving afternoon. What a great experience!
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The Shack
The hunting stand is a very important part of the hunting season and I got set up with a very nice one. Because of proprietary purposes I am not allowed to show you everything or the exact location. But here is a glimpse of where I was for a week. I was on a hill about five feet in the air, had window on all sides and roof over my head. The hardest part was keeping the window from fogging up and keeping the swivel chair from squeaking.
