21 october 2007 - opening day-


our opening day was a typical chaotic mess; i am strongly considering the possibility that i should never go out on opening day. actually, i didn't really go out because i'm in the middle of a nasty upper respiratory thing, and spent most of the day, coughing, sneezing, gurgling and going for short walks on the creek bottom and bluffs with my 5-yr old (who is actually very perceptive when it comes to reading terrain and deer sign. i have a feeling that he is going to be good at this when he gets older) rather than actually doing any serious scouting or stalking. plus we were short on funds (too much month at the end of the money, etc.) and i bought deer tags for my two older kids rather than myself; my third boy will be getting his this week, as will i. on top of that the landowners where we usually hunt asked if we could wait a week or so for various reasons; this is no problem, because thanks to block management as well as state and federal land, there literally thousands of acres of prime country to hunt. so we switched our plans the night before and went north of chinook rather than south to a very promising area where i hunted in my teens and took several of my first deer. i'll post a map when i can. anyway....

got out much too late (9am), due to the usual kid scramble and lack of preparation the night before. they got up a little late and found me waiting for them (i'd been up sice 6), and even then we could ahve probably left about 745 or so, BUT.....

the night before, i had my checklist, and i had my stuff ready, even though iw asn't going to be hunting. the kids thought they had their stuff, but didn't take the time to make sure. one actually lost his tag for a while and the other couldn't find his glasses. the only kid who was ready on time was the 5-year old. after this, they're (hopefully) learning to get prepared and DOUBLE CHECK to make sure everything is in order.

so we gassed up (something i should have done the night before, admittedly), filled the thermoses with french vanilla and cinnamon cappucino (why not?) and headed out....

we were hunting on a nice big chunk of BMA land which is very good as far as "deer habitat" goes, but was unfortunately quite crowded because of opening day. there were four other pickups in the "park here-walk in area, so we headed to the north end of the section where as far as we could tell no one else was for quite a distance around us, but we were near the corner of the land and could only hunt in about two (and a half) directions. the land has a very nice, wide creek bottom and bluffs, so there is a good mix of whitetails and mulies. we saw several nice pronghorns that literally stood there at about a hundred yards, eating breakfast and begging to be shot, but no antelope tags this year.

as i said, i was out of the picture, so my youngest and i walked around in an area that they weren't hunting, looking for sign and taking in the sights and the fresh air. the two boys worked their way down the bluffs toward the creek bottom and followed it to "the house" about a mile away. as they were just getting started and we split up, the boys had a good chance at a DAMN nice mulie buck, but he was running and also in line with some other hunters about half a mile away, who had flushed him toward us by shooting at him from way too far away. he took off down a small draw that led to the creek bottom, and the older boys went stalking after him sicne he was headed the same direction they planned to go.

meanwhile, my youngest and i watched quite a few other does feeding on a far-off hillside beyond the creekbottom, but they were eventually spooked by the buck or by the older boys stalking toward them, and took off across the bench lands. i think that a successful stalk could have succeeded, but as it was, the boys were more intent on tracking the buck, who eventually crossed the creek and ran up to join his girls.the six of them were last seen a mile or so away, feeding and gradually heading northwest onto other property and safety. when i saw the boys were well on their way down the creek bottom, roger and i drove back to the house, parked, and walked out toward the creek bottom a bit from there, just looking around and in the hopes that we might flush something toward the other boys. when we eventually met up with them, they reported no sightings leading us to believe that the area had been well picked-over before and the game chased out. we checked around some other areas, but things just seemed too busy to me, even in areas that didn't have any other hunters.

about 230 pm, we left and headed back to town in order to take some pressure off; the country north of chinook is quite big, but i am used to hunting where there is NO ONE ELSE, and after having another hunting party shooting toward us at that first buck, i'd had enough for a while. as far as i know, none of the other hunters got anything that morning, although i suppose it is technically possible. none of the trucks driving back to town or lingering anywhere had any deer, although one did have a small pronghorn buck.

we drove back out to the original area toward sundown and saw quite a few deer out feeding, including some nice bucks on land that we had no permission to hunt on. when we got to the same place we had parked that morning, it was close to sundown and we knew that there was a good chance of finding deer, but the approaching dark made this good opportunity limited. the two boys headed down the way they had gone that morning, while roger and i walked around in another direction in order to possibly flush something toward them. about 7 minutes alter, we heard a shot.

my oldest son took a shot at a very nice doe in the last few minutes of legal shooting light. she was part of a group of does that was slowly crossing the creek in the same area we were earlier hunting, and none of them were spooked or even had a care in the world. he took his time and aimed where he was supposed to, but in my opinion probably should have tried to stalk closer. the shot was at a distance of about 150 yards and he was using an unfamiliar rifle. i think he missed, he is pretty sure he missed, but he acknowledged that he might have hit hit as the crosshairs were dead on and he heard "the thump." she stood there for a while as he crept closer then took a follow up shot literally in the last minute or two of legal light. that one DID miss (went over her back) and she bounded away, apparently healthy.

the two older boys tried to follow-up and look for blood or hair, but couldn't find any and it was getting much too dark. i had the flashlight, but was several hundred yards away. when we met up, we talked everything over and decided that even though he PROBABLY missed, it will be good to double check on monday after school. he, my 2nd son, my dad and my uncle (who is visiting from north dakota) are going to head out there after school today and look around the area. it's most likely that he missed, but it never hurts to make sure.

so ended another opening day, littered with couldas, shouldas and wouldas. i shoulda made sure they had EVERYTHING the night before. we coulda gone back out a half-hour eariler in the afternoon. if joe woulda used the rifle he was accustomed to, he probably woulda hit the first shot.....

it's damn good country though. i'll work lunch hours and leave early from work on friday, that will give us half of friday and all of the weekend to work that place over without the crowds. it really is damn good deer country and i am confident that it will produce good deer, as i hunted it quite a bit when i was younger and saw many fine bucks, both whitetail and mulie. also, the land that we normally hunt will be open as well, so we have many good options.

It is very nice indeed for a father to hunt with children. In fact, it seems to give even more satisfaction then successfully hunting by yourself.

Congratulations to your boys and the nice environment you can hunt.

thanks, DUK - i agree that usually the time with the kids is better than the hunt itself; it seems to be the only time my teenagers act like they want to be my sons again!

as for the two younger boys, it's a good feeling of satisfaction to raise them in such a tradition, even at such a young age. my wife has a hard time understanding the importance, but i will give her credit in that she supports it.

I have thanks God an understanding wife, she even supports me tasking the kids hunting and fishing. She knows it's a healthy environment for all of us and likes to have venison on teh table.

What more could I ask for? Of course I do try never to overdraw on my credit, one price I have to pay is the "no antlers except in the basement" rule.

tas..

Saw a bumper sticker last weekend, "Hunt with your children, not for them". Seemed a nice thought.

As to the teenagers, you will be amazed at how much cooler you are when they hit about 22. Been through it twice, hang in there.

Lee

tas that is fantastic glad you took the time.hope you get to feeling better.
you are not the only one that suffers from the opening day curse nothing seems to go right first day of rifle season.

thanks for the replies so far, guys - here's an update.

when i got home from work last night, my two oldest boys were home from checking up on that shot made in the last minutes of opening day. we were all pretty sure that he had missed, but it never hurts to double-check in better light.

they went to the spot where the doe was standing and looked around, after finding no evidence of blood or hair, and searching around and finding nothing else, joe (my oldest boy) decided that he was pretty confident that he did miss with both shots. he didn't like the idea of missing, but he said he'd rather miss than have a wounded deer suffering. he's usually a pretty good shot, but decided that a little more time at the range this coming year would be a good idea.

here's a map/satellite photo of where we were on opening day: