Early Spring

       There is nothing like after a long and cold winter, going out in the woods and breathing in the cool fresh spring air. Especially when turkey season opens up for the first time after seeming like winter was never going to let up its grip. Once I wake up when its still pitch black out rolling out of bead to get a nice hot cup of coffee and some jimmy deans breakfast its game on. As I go to mud room where my camos where place out on top of the freezer the night before, in order to get out before the turkey fly down from there roosts in the high in the trees. Rushing to get dressed I through on my pants, camo bibs, sweatshirt, camo coat, hat and mask, grab my back 12 gage with the 3 1/2 inch shells and make my way to the wood through the yard.

      Walking along to the hunting spot as I pass the horses feeding on grass through the barbwire fence into the at the time bean field its hard not to feel at peace out there with a slight wind and the owls hooting in the distance. Getting closer to the spot the quieter you want to get stepping carefully past the sticks and leave in the field trying to make little noise as possible. When coming down off the field I spot where I want to sit right on a hill side under two small pine trees overlooking a small corn field that lead into a ditch with a bunch of birch trees.

     
As the time passed the sun begins to break over the hill side behind me flooding the little valley the corn field was in with almost a bright orange light. Soon after that the turkeys start to gobble one after another there gobble just echoing though the valleys surrounding me. As the turkeys start to come down from there trees looking for the lost hen calling out. There is nothing quite like seeing them all strut out with there red, blue and brown colors shinning in the early morning sunlight. But as time goes on the sun gets higher and the turkeys return into woods silently only to gobble on occasion.

 

First Buck

This is a story of my first buck that I had ever shot, it was well deserved on my behalf due to all the time and patience that was put into bagging this deer. It happened about four yeas ago, I had already been hunting for a few years but but only managed to only see doe. Its not that I was or am a bad hunter, I would always continuously go out and scout around for the best place to sit, and I know where the deer like to feed and the paths they like to walk on, I was just mis fortunate. Opening day started out one of the worst I had ever had didn't see anything and on top of that it was warm so the deer probably wouldn't have been moving to much anyway. So I decided to change to a different place, a short time had passed when I had a doe walk on the path to the left of me and then go into the field behind me. I didn't shoot at it because I was tired of shooting and doe and i wanted to shoot a nice big buck, it was safe to say that I had buck fever big time. Not long after seeing the doe a nice eight pointer came from behind me on the path that the doe had walked on, i was intent on shooting him, but the only problem was that he was fifteen yard directly behind me. The way I saw it was that i had two choses roll on my stomach and pull a call of duty quick scope on it or let it walk the trail the doe did. I decided to let it walk on the trail but instead of walking down the path it was walking right to me, my heart was just a beating the adrenalin was a flowing, and then the wind changed on me and was blowing my sent right to the deer with in no time he went running the way he came from and that was that. I still hunted every second of day light that opening weekend, only a few members of our hunting group got a few deer during some drives we did.
I didn't hunt anymore until Thursday, Thanksgiving morning because of school. I went out the same time i always do but this time to a different spot this time looking over a picked corn field. It had been windy all morning I had sat there for a few hours and morning was turning into afternoon. I was thinking about packing it in for the day, but before I did that i wanted to take a walk in the valley bellow the corn field. So i walked along the top of the corn field till i got to the end of the field and proceed to walk down into the valley and do a one man drive up the valley towards the other end of the field. As i was about half way through the drive, three deer suddenly jump up and take of running and i can see antlers of another big eight pointer. As I raise my gun up thinking, man i got you now, i peer into my scope only to barely see anything. Since i had been sitting in the field, my Scope was zoomed in as far as it could go and i had for got to zoom it out. So i finally  found the buck in my scope and fire one shot only to miss right under the belly, and that was the end of that day another failure. I then went out Friday only to see a little six pointer that i could of shot but let walk by, because i wanted the big one.
So now there were only two day of hunting left and i was getting a little discouraged with my luck but still set on shooting a big buck. We went out Saturday morning to heavy fog, so visibility wasn't good at all and it was warm again so no one saw anything. The hunting group got together to do some drives since the deer were most likely laying down. We did that the rest of the day, the group of a few more doe and and the buck that came up behind me opening morning, but I still had all my tags and Saturday had come to a close leveeing just Sunday the last day of gun season left.
As I wok up Sunday morning tired and upset at my misfortunes that have occurred over the past week, I was pondering not evening going out at all that day, but my drive to get a buck got me out of bed even though I had zero confidence that i was going to get one or even see another. Sunday was just like Saturday warm and lots of fog the whole day. The morning was a bust, never seen anything so i went back to the cabin where the rest of the hunting party was at to get something to eat and watch the packer game. I had spent a few hours there the Packers were kicking but like always, so i deiced to go out one last time to hunt the last few hours. Everyone had there own options and reasons for why i should go to the spot they tell me, but i said know i know right were i want to go. That spot just so happened to be the same area were i was opening day. My plan was to sit on the fence line and look up the valley to the field in case they came that way again.
The only way to get to that spot was to go down a curvy four wheeler path, that once you got to the end you had a thirty yard clear walk to the fence line. So as i head out im in not that good of mood grumpy wanting to get out there fast but still be quiet and stealthy. I finally get out to my spot and clear some brush away from where i was going to sit, and just as im about to sit down something catches my eye so i look again. And then laying down ten to fifteen yards form me staring right at me is a nine pointer biggest deer i have seen that year yet. As it takes me a few moments to adjust to what im seeing i notice its on the the other side of the fence. I say to myself the hell with it and raised my gun, as i raised my gun the buck got up and proceed to run away. As that buck got up i said out loud not this time and fired, hitting it in the butt. It still was running so i vaulted the fence, pull up and shoot twice more hitting it in the chest and neck. I was ecstatic letting out some whoops and hollers, i couldn't believe with less then a couple of hours of the season left i had finally got my buck. My buck had a nineteen inch spread with both brow tines broken off, so it would of been a eleven pointer, and it had the biggest noise on a deer i have ever seen with two big scars running from his above his noise to his mouth. Justice has been finally been done I though as i exited the woods with trophy in tow.

Hi my name is Ryan and since some fall hunting seasons have opened up I figured I might as well do my blog on hunting. There are a few seasons that have opened up, but the main one that I like is deer. As of now the bow season is open till just before gun season starts, and then opens back up for as while. I also may talk about some small game because squirrel season has also opened up, and that's always a lot of fun.