Last night as I went to bed I was a bit bummed that my deer season is already over. I live for the last few days of October and of course late buck in November, but when hunting public land you can’t pass up many legal animals.
I wondered how long it had been since I last killed a deer on opening day and the only one that stuck out was my first deer over 30 seasons ago in 1979. I am sure that somewhere along the way I killed one or two more on the opener, but none stick out like the first.
Like many firsts, I remember nearly every single detail including where we ate that morning, whom we hunted with and what the deer looked like as it ran towards us. I remember the happiness of being in the woods with my father and shooting a buck. I also remember feeling the sadness of death as I watched my father gut that deer.
This year’s opener was the first in the past few seasons that we spent together and if you read the story
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,36313.0.html you will realize that it didn’t start out too well. But we made due and the memories will last a lifetime.
This season the sadness was that I ended my season so soon but the happiness of watching my father and brother hike down to help me washed the sadness away. It is always special to spend time in the woods with family and the memories of them helping me (and just being there) will always stay with me.
My father is a self-made big game hunter. My grandfather was a fisherman and small game hunter so my father did not grow up hunting big game. For many years I took for granted the tools and knowledge that my father learned and consciously as well as subconsciously passed on to me.
Some of the tools and knowledge include hunter behavior, deer behavior, and weather patterns. All three of those came into play this year to make this opening day a success.
While this year’s deer is a small one and my season is over, I am happy that I was able to use the lessons from my father to outsmart the other hunters and the buck. And most important of all I am happy to have spent it with my family and especially my father.
That first buck in 1979 was a 3x with one side shot off and this years was a 3x2 plus and eye guard on the 2x side. Both bucks were killed in Capitol Forest between Olympia and Gate, WA.
1979
2009
