I love spending time in the fall and winter woods hunting deer and venison, when properly handled in the field and prepared for the table, is one of my favorite meats. This season has been a “different” one for me.
I enjoy hunting when it’s cooler for several reasons. There is no mad rush to ice the meat when it is chilly, it’s really better to allow venison to age a few days when temperatures allow.
During warm weather, it’s necessary either take the venison to a processor with a walk in cooler immediately - which is not always possible - or quarter the animal and place it on ice soon after harvest.
I kept procrastinating on my bow hunts because of an over abundance of mosquitoes and temperatures more suited to sunbathing on the beach in July, it was well into November before I seriously began hunting deer and most of my time afield was spent hunting, not harvesting.
Oh, I passed on some nice bucks but they were not fully mature and through the years I’ve taken lots of bucks and some heavy antlered ones. Through my many years of deer hunting, I’ve become very picky when it comes to hanging a buck on the meat pole. My primary criteria is age, I want to shoot a fully mature animal, and the size of the rack is not a hindrance to the one I release the arrow or pull the trigger on.
I actually favor hunting old bucks with racks that most hunters would pass. When it comes to shooting doe I often opt for the younger animal rather than the older does which is contrary to most hunters that target the bigger doe that pack the most venison. I was raised in an era when the mere thought of killing female deer was tabu with many hunters but decades ago, the boys with the sheep’s skins on the wall proved that it’s necessary to keep deer numbers in balance with the habitat and that equates to removing surplus doe.
When possible I target younger doe and leave the older mature animals as brood stock. I figure that they have been around long enough to become proficient at raising fawns so why not let them continue a few more years.
With last year’s venison supply depleted in the freezer and an appetite for chicken fried backstrap and venison fajitas, last week’s colder weather was all that I needed to inspire me to devote the time in the woods to accomplish my goal.
I’m fortunate to have some very good deer hunting close to home and my trail camera had captured the image of what appeared to be a couple of very nice bucks, one of them near a feeder where I had set up one of the new see-through pop-up ground blinds. I’ve had great luck hunting from the ground and now in my mid-seventies, I feel more comfortable setting on a hunting stool ground level than perched 15 feet up in a tree. My goal is to still be hunting deer a decade from now and I think my odds will be much better if I stay “grounded!"
The feeder near the ground blind is set to throw corn at precisely 5 pm. I arrived about four and got settled in with my 51 caliber Tex Rex air rifle topped with an ATN X-Sight digital scope. My farthest shot would be 40 yards in the heavy cover and the rifle is quite capable of taking deer at least twice that far. The cool thing about using a digital scope is being able to film quality video in color.
At precisely 4:55 I caught movement in very heavy cover off my left. At first I though it might be a bobcat or even raccoon. I was just getting quick glimpses.
I soon saw an impressive set of antlers appear as a very nice buck moved from behind a big oak. I clicked the record button on the scope and began filming. The buck was cautiously making his way to the feeder, in true nature of an older buck, he was in no hurry, a step or two then a pause to test the wind. I totally forgot the feeder was set to throw corn at 5. You guessed it! Just as the deer walked close to the feeder it went off and the buck disappeared in an instant in the direction from which he came. I later discovered the scope had captured the entire scene in vivid color!
It's not uncommon for a deer to return to a feeding area after being spooked, I’m sure the buck had heard a game feeder motor distributing corn many times. I settled back to see what the next hour of legal shooting light might hold. Then, with 10 minutes of legal shooting time left I again caught a glimpse of a deer with antlers on the offside side of the little clearing I was hunting. I thought it was the same buck, a mature 10 pointer and one I wanted to take.
Again, I activated the video camera on in the scope and nudged the rifle’s safety off. The shot was good and I watched the buck disappear down the well-used game trail that it came in on. The shot was at a mere 27 yards, more like bow range than rifle. I was positive the shot was good and that I’d find my Christmas venison a few yards down the trail. Darkness was about to fall and I gambled and immediately followed the trail to the buck. It’s always best to wait a few minutes after the shot but I guessed right and made an easy recovery.
If you were like me and did your serious deer hunting late in the season, have heart we still have a few days of the regular season left and then there’s muzzleloader season. I have my CVA 50 caliber Optima muzzleloader cleaned and ready! My goal is to put a couple more deer in the freezer. Waiting this late to do my serious deer hunting, I shouldn’t have to worry much about keeping the meat chilled and that’s a big plus to hunting late season deer!
Check out Luke’s airgun hunt on YouTube or Carbon TV by searching ”A Sportsmans Life “ and open the current show. Email Luke through his website www.catfishradio.org
