December 2007 page 3 Updates

6 December

Traveling Deer Hunters

We traveled from our home state of Massachusetts for a 4 day bow hunt in late October. We had originally reserved a different piece of property [location deleted], but after a day and a half of hunting there we decided to move to another lease that we felt would be more conducive to bow hunting. After a phone call to your office, it was suggested we try [location deleted]. We arrived at this property in the mid afternoon and quickly set 2 stands to observe the afternoon deer movement. The following morning found ourselves in the same stands. Around 9:00 am Joe decided to do a rattle sequence with the hope of getting things moving. A short time after he finished he looked over his left shoulder and about 5 yards away was this beautiful 9 point with his ears laid back looking for a fight.

Unable to move all Joe could do was watch the buck do a semi circle around his stand and finally walk off into a thicket. After the buck went out of sight Joe decided to give it one last try and lightly rattled and worked his grunt call. This time he was ready when the buck came back and presented him with a 25 yard broadside shot. Joe’s Black Widow recurve did the rest. While Joe was waiting for me to finish my morning hunt he met the landowner who provided invaluable help for us in getting the deer out and provided a place where we could process the deer.

For the evening hunt I moved my stand to the edge of a soybean field that looked promising. It wasn’t until the last hour of light that things started to get exciting. I had several small bucks come by earlier. With about 5 min of shooting light left I could hear a grunt coming from the thicket behind me. There were 2 bucks coming and the first one looked like a shooter. As he came to my shooting lane I moved slightly to get into position to take the shot. He spotted me in my stand and froze. The deer then jumped and ran to the edge of the bean field then stopped. Because he was now in the field I could see him much better with the light and felt confidant taking the 30 yard shot.
After the shot the deer ran about 100 yards into the bean field and fell over. Joe arrived at my stand about 3 min later and I motioned to him where the deer went down. He walked out into the bean field (uncut) and couldn’t find the deer. I told him it has to be right there just keep looking. Meanwhile I was getting out of my stand and told him I would be right there to help. By the time I got out of my stand and to the spot where I thought the deer should have been the sun had fully gone down. To make this long story a little shorter all I will say it took us about one and one half hours to find that deer. The deer didn’t move after he fell. The problem was a 150 acre uncut soybean field is like the ocean, it all looks the same, especially under a full moon. It wasn’t until I got the bright idea of maybe we should try to follow the blood trail that we finally found the deer.

We were still in a bit of a predicament because now we have this deer down, it is 8:30pm, we are in the middle of a bean field and we have to be in Kansas City for our flight home at 8:00am. Joe suggested he head back to the landowner's home because the landowner has told us that he would be out that evening but if we needed his truck he would leave the keys in it for us to use (ya gotta love the people from the midwest). I stayed behind to field dress the deer. After finishing with my deer I sat down to reflect on all that had happened on this short trip. The scene I will never forget was when I was sitting on my beautiful 9 point deer, in the middle of a 150 acre soybean field, with a full moon rising in front of me and coyotes howling all around. When people ask me why I hunt I usually just shrug my shoulders and walk away. How do you explain moments like that.

Enclosed are some photos of our deer. Unfortunately I was not able to get a well composed photo of my deer due to the fact that we had to leave that evening.

Thanks again for what you do. Where else can 2 easterners walk onto a piece of new land with treestands on our backs and walk out with two nine point trophies.

Sincerely, [name deleted]

Thank you guys for the very detailed hunt account, made for an interesting read. Especially the part about reflecting on that special satisfaction that is gained.

Quail

Jerry's new dog Annie's first wild quail.

Quail hunting is by far the most difficult hunt we offer just due to the walking required to develop knowledge of where the coveys are located. Part of the consequence of a self guided hunter organization. That consequence defined further is in that for every 1,000 acres of quail habitat, the coveys generally occupy a 5 square acre area. To find the several coveys or those several 5 acre localities for each 1,000 acres of land takes the willingness to walk all of the acreage. The benefit of quail hunting within a self guided hunter organization as opposed to a knock-on-door or public lands hunter is that the self guided hunter does not shoot out a covey as he is there for reasons other than the birds alone. That self guided quail hunter husbands his known coveys to insure good hunts to come. The public lands hunter shoots every quail he can as he knows that if he does not the next free land hunter will.

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