This was my view, up the bluff, to the south, opening weekend of deer hunting. The lower story of buckthorn still had not lost its leaves, as there had been no hard freeze down in Red Wing yet.
The view to the north was more open, but that was due to our removing all of the underbrush years ago, and keeping it cleared.
The weather was uncomfortably warm, but the deer were moving. Problem was that they were not moving where the brush was cleared. Opening morning I caught glimpses of 16 deer. Following day I saw 11. One of the deer I saw opening day was a nice 8 pointer following a doe. All I ever saw of either was flashes of their heads through the buckthorn leaves. Never a clear shot. Second day a really large buck got caught in vines, chasing a doe high up in the ravine. Never had a shot on him either. No does wandered into the openings. It was a bit frustrating for me and the kids, to have so many deer wandering around, yet none where we could take them.
I went down second weekend to hunt Friday with Nell, but she and Phoebe stayed up much later than I did and was not rousable at 530 am. At 741 am this little single horned fork buck walked under her stand. He did not even flinch at the flash. I gave her a hard time about that. We had a basket 6 pointer come through too, but that would not have been quite the gimme shot this one was.
Those were the only two deer I saw all day, which was a bit frustrating. Over the week, they had a hard frost and most of the lower story of brush had lost its leaves. Seeing the deer would not have been a problem, if they had been moving around. Only explanation I could think of was that the super moon had given the deer enough light to move around all night, so there was little need to move around in the daylight.
The forth day was not much different, but just enough different that it worked out. Only one deer came through, high on the ridge south of me, but with the leaves down I could see him as he worked his way along a trail, was able to pick an opening, and we had one down.
Mark was hunting with us, on the lower part of the property. He helped me and the girls get him down off the ridge and through the heaviest of the brush, and most of the way, to the bottom of the bluff.
The last 150 yards to the bottom of the bluff are pretty clear of obstruction, and I managed that with the kids helping.
We hunted that evening, and the following morning, but those 3 bucks were all we saw.
Patti and Violet joined us Sunday afternoon to to help me butcher and pack the deer up for transport, and we were all home by about 930 last night. He was a good sized deer. We got about 100 pounds of meat off of him, and with the size of his neck and shoulders, there is going to be a lot of hamburger and sausage as well.
This is the season of plenty for all of us.
