Well the final wrap up of our deer hunting season is here. I chomped at the bit all week until Thursday morning when I headed up to camp again, Andrea had to work and Noah had already missed seven days of school so I was on my own Thursday and Friday when they would drive up Friday night to join me. It was slow going getting there as it snowed again overnight and the temperature plummeted to more than 20 below Celsius. I arrived at camp expecting it to be cold…I was not surprised to find it was like being in a flash freezer. It took a bit to get the wood stove going but once it was burning I unloaded to gear and got changed into my cold weather gear. I wanted to pull all my cameras as there was no more reason to have them out, they had become very ineffective lately. I have come to the conclusion that the deer changed their behavior about the time the time change occurred and the weather became much colder. The cold and lack of snow made figuring them out much harder as they were not using the same trails as they were in the warmer weather. The dusting of snow last weekend let us find some tracks and better understand what deer were still moving through the property and where they were going.
Using the time to pick up the cameras to check the fresh snow for sign I of course caused a deer to jump from its bed on the Ducks Unlimited property next door. The trail cameras produced exactly what I expected – nothing…but I found fresh sign where a big buck was entering the property coming back from the corn field to bed down on the DU property – it was using the ridge across our property through the thick stuff as were several does. I dropped off the cameras and gathered up some gear, time to move a tree stand and clear a couple of shooting lanes…three hours later I was done and moving out of there to let the noise settle down. I was not cold at all while I was working, the new Redhead XPS 4.0 long underwear from Bass Pro is too warm if you’re moving much at all, great for sitting though. I decided to go sit in Noah’s ground blind but nothing was shaking.
A long cold night, keeping the fire going and learning how severe the shortcomings in the camp are, but very reminiscent of a good many army nights…I was of course up and around early and ready to go. Friday morning was bound to be a good one, -33 C with a light breeze, the deer had to be moving right? I climbed into my tree stand that I had prepared Thursday afternoon, settled in and started looking around. It just felt like a morning to get a deer, which was unusual because morning movement on our property had been almost non-existent.
15 minutes after sitting down I caught movement coming up the ridge from the farm behind me, two does acting very skittish very making their way up the ridge but only moving a few steps and looking back over and over. Whatever was behind them had them very preoccupied as they were not looking for anything in front, one was very, very large, the other was a good size. Both came out to 30 yards perfect broadside, it took no urging for me to slide my savage 270 WSM to my shoulder and take up the slack on the accu trigger while the crosshair was sitting right behind the shoulder of the larger doe…I guess my need for venison was larger than my need for waiting to see if it was the big buck coming up the hill because the rifle recoiled into my shoulder at the barest urging of my trigger finger, driving a 130 grain Nosler ballistic silver tip into the “perfect location” behind the does shoulder. Both deer took off down the ridge but the one I shot only made about three jumps before sliding down the snow covered ridge for 50 feet and fetching up in a tree. The second doe circled around to stand 40 yards in front of the ground blind for several minutes, I actually had a perfect view of her front shoulder at the bottom of the ridge through my crosshair but only one tag means only shoot one deer…especially at -30 getting a deer cleaned and hauled out is a real chore.
Let the work begin, I had to go get the truck and go off-roading as I had told Andrea I did not need the key for her atv, better to drag a deer than drive a Polaris was maybe the thought somewhere in my sub conscious, little did my sub conscious know I was going to shoot a doe that would go about 200lbs on the hoof. It was no trouble to drive the truck to about 100 feet of where the deer went down, just a simple matter to drag her out after field dressing and throw her on the truck…YEAH RIGHT, what is simple at -30? I did though manage quite nicely and loaded her on the truck and drove to the hanging tree at the camp. Man it was nice down at the bottom of that ridge, up on top it was blowing about 20 mph and still -25…no trouble cooling the carcass down in those temperatures…in fact a real problem was going to be not having a frozen solid hunk of venison that was brutal to work with. I wanted to get it hung so I tied it off on both hind legs and pulled…nothing, I reached as high as I could and wrapped the ropes around my forearms and leaned back, hmm, this carcass was going to be fun, it only went about 2/3rds in the air before we balanced out. Well then I have a large truck so I tied off to the trailer hitch and drove away – that got the damn thing (yes by now it was becoming a damn thing) in the air so I could tie it off.
The hunting Gods were certainly were smiling on me that day as I was able to call Andrea from the warmth of camp (normally we would have to drive about a mile to get a signal) while enjoying a hot coffee. After a quick conference she was stopping at Canadian Tire on her way home to get a gambrel kit with two double pulley’s and I was heading home to hang the deer in our garage so that it would not become a fur covered iceberg. At home it was a simple matter to insert and eye bolt in a rafter, hang the pulleys and raise the deer as high as I wanted, easy with the right tools.
After enjoying a nice home cooked meal Andrea prepared while I was driving home, we all loaded back in the truck to head to camp for the last two days of deer season. Saturday morning brought more of the bitter cold, but the wind had shifted to go with it and we could not escape it, no matter the gear we had 90 minutes exposed to that weather was enough at a time. No deer were seen that day and we arose Sunday morning to the building literally be shaken from the wind. Trees were being tested and there was no way ti was safe to be in a tree stand. It seemed our hunting season was over for 2013.
We enjoyed a lazy morning and then packed up everything that was attractive and closed up camp until spring.
We learned that taking a deer in archery or muzzleloader season was a good idea: the deer thin out and become harder to pattern later in the year, waiting increased risk and even though we were seeing in excess of a dozen deer early in the year, by the end of the season we estimate there were three regularly using the property (the doe I shot was not one of the regulars).
At the end of the season we are very happy with the property and really enjoy the camp, we think we have a couple of ideas to improve it and will likely pursue those options rather than putting something else on another part of the property…those ideas and plans will be finalized in the spring.
I have enjoyed writing these articles and am considering creating a web blog to chronicle our adventures for the family and friends, no matter what some upcoming events include Andrea designing a 125 gallon reef aquarium, our ice fishing adventures and of course working on the house…
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