The First Hunt (October 1, 2017)
Before I get into the details of my first ever bowhunt, I want to fill you in on a few more details surrounding my hunting situation.
If you read “A Fresh Start,” you know that my family recently purchased a plot of land in northwest Wisconsin. The only problem is that the land is about a two-hour drive from where I currently live, which makes it hard to scout the property, see where deer move and hunt in general. I did some scouting this spring while turkey hunting and a bit throughout the summer, but I still have a ton to learn about the property.
At the moment, we have three trail cameras set up, but they only cover a small portion of the property and do not sit too deep in the woods as they were set up to take inventory at easy to access places. With the amount of deer we had working between the three cameras, those spots were the ones I was most comfortable hunting, at least for the early portion of the bowhunting season. Over the summer and early portion of September, we had numerous photos of does with fawns and a few mature buck sightings.
After taking the morning to get reacquainted with my bow, I set out on my first ever bowhunt.
The short, 15-minute drive seemed to take an eternity. I actually think I was more nervous than the first time I actually took a gun out to the woods to try and harvest a deer.
I arrived at the land at 4 p.m. and decided to sit on an old ATV trail that runs directly through the middle of the property. It’s a spot one of the trail cameras sits over and a spot one of the nice bucks had shown up on during daylight hours a few different occasions just a few days before my hunt.
(My view for my Oct. 1 bowhunt)
I set up a few feet behind the trail camera, sitting on a bucket with a swivel seat. No, I do not use a treestand and don’t plan to this season. With the lack of knowledge of the property, I’d rather be able to easily bounce from spot to spot and scout new areas.
The wind wasn’t perfect coming from the southeast (really it’s about the exact opposite of perfect), but the spot also sets up right in front of a small ridge that keeps the area out of the wind. Also, only being able to hunt a few days every few weeks, I wanted to take every opportunity I could to see deer, and this was a spot I thought to be the best during legal shooting time.
The night featured an assortment of weather with plenty of wind and a few rain showers. Despite the various changes in weather, the temperature hung around 60 degrees for nearly my entire three-hour sit.
The night ended with me not spotting a deer, but the story does not end there. A day later, I checked all three of our trail cameras and sure enough, at the same time I was hunting over the one trail camera, a group of does were feet in front of another trail camera just 100 or so yards to my west. While the photos were disappointing to see, I was also happy to see the deer unphased by my presence - my scent was blowing directly to them.
Anyways, despite the lack of a deer sighting, just being out in the woods in early October was a thrilling thought. Anytime I get out in the woods to pursue an animal is an enjoyable time for me, and I know bowhunting will provide me plenty of time in the woods in the coming months and years.
Check back frequently this fall as I will continue to keep an archive of every hunt I embark upon.
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