Thanksgiving Weekend Deer Hunt

On Thanksgiving Day, after we had our Thanksgiving festivities with my family at my sister's house, my dad and I drove out to the deer lease to spend a couple days bowhunting. My uncle Rusty and my cousin Shane were there, as well as my friend Lee and his son Sean. We got there late Thursday evening and stopped by and got the memory card out of my trail camera on the way to the bunkhouse. I wanted to see what kind of activity there was around this particular stand location to see if it would be a good spot to hunt the next morning. When I got to the camera, it was once again laying on the ground - the result of some curious livestock. Fortunately it had taken about four days worth of pictures before it got knocked off the tree and the pictures revealed some decent deer movement.



With all of the doe activity during the day, I was hopeful that I would be offered a shot at a doe to get some meat for the freezer. On Friday morning I saw three doe right at first light, but they never got within 70 yards. Friday evening I didn't see anything.

Saturday morning I watched a spike buck feed for about half an hour then I looked to my left and saw a doe behind some trees at about 25 yards. I reached for my bow to take the shot, but then I saw that she had a very small fawn with her trailing along at her feet. This fawn must have been born very late in the summer because it was still very small - probably still nursing. I couldn't bring myself to shoot her with that little fawn still with her. I put my bow back on the bow holder and just watched them walk away.

On Saturday evening I once again almost had a shot at a doe. Four of them came by my stand, this time to my right in the heavy cover. They never presented a shot. By the time they were in a clearing they weren't in bow range anymore. So I still haven't gotten a deer yet this year.

Shane was able to take a picture of a really nice 8-point from his stand on Saturday morning. If this deer makes it through the season, he will be a dandy next year!

Last weekend, while I was in Iowa, Shane made a perfect 60-yard shot to harvest his first deer, a really nice doe.

This weekend, Rusty followed suit and brought down his first deer, also a nice mature doe.

Good job fellas, congratulations to you both.

That brings the total number of deer harvested on our hunting grounds this year to four, all antlerless. I think we can probably still harvest three or four more doe this year to get the buck/doe ratio closer to where it needs to be.

I really like my new stand location and it seems very promising. I hope to take a doe with my bow before the season ends.