This is my first season climbing up in a deer stand with my new Mathews Mission Craze bow. Every Saturday morning and one Sunday morning since bow season started, I have gone with hubby to my brother’s fifteen acres to climb up in separate deer stands early in the morning and wait for deer to come out. Amazingly, we have seen several bucks and does in that small fifteen acre space! One morning I observed a deer emerge from his bedding area, pause, and then trot up a hill. It was still too dark to see if it had antlers or not. In my county we can’t shoot one unless it has a twelve-inch spread or is a spike or doe during archery season. One morning my husband saw a buck and several does, but he was either walking through the woods unprepared to take a shot, or the deer spotted him and bolted before he could take aim.
Hunting is so much more than the shot. It is so peaceful in the woods waiting for the sun to come up. I relish sitting peacefully in the dark, sipping on hot coffee, watching light gradually take over the forest. Nothing taken yet with my bow, and gun season opens this Saturday. Watch out, deer! The boomsticks are coming out!
April Coker, Author 