The First Week of Rifle Season: Part 2

After what started as a slow, wet morning, opening day turned out to be a pretty interesting day. Then again, any day hunting is better than sitting on the couch. Once I got the deer checked in and hung, I pulled up the forecast to find out that Tuesday was going to be nothing but rain. A quick call to my uncle Rick to make sure he was still going to come up and make sure of the meeting time and I was off to dry out my gear and repack for the next day.

Tuesday - 11/22 - BSing with Rick

Rick and his blind

After taking a deer on the first day and adding more meat to the freezer there was little to no pressure. At least that's what I was telling myself considering the day was looking to be a totally wash out. It started out the same way as Monday, the fog was heavy and didn't lift until nearly 9:00 AM. I had radioed Rick and told him if I hadn't seen any deer and the rain didn't let up I was going to take a hike around the property in the hopes of pushing some deer his way. As 11:00 AM rolled around, the only thing in my sight line were a few gray squirrels and rain drops. At this point I knew that there wasn't much point of sitting on stand as I knew no one else was out, due to the lack of shots and text messages, to push the deer around, so I thought the best chance Rick or I had at seeing a deer was if I bumped one up. I proceeded to hike around Foggy Mountain, until I met up with Rick at his lean-to ground blind. The only thing I managed to see was a pair of Grouse that have taken to Foggy Mountain the past year. On a day like today, Rick had the best idea. He was held up under his homemade lean-to blind that was big enough for the two of use to comfortable sit in and stay dry. So what else is left to do on a wash out day like this other than have a nice hot lunch, he has everything in this blind, sometimes those old-timers still have a few tricks up their sleeves that we've never even thought of. As we sat there and waited for our lunch, we BS'ed about everything from the early days that Rick hunted this property to the current state of Foggy Mountain and the hopes for its future. Then after we ate, he talked about his hunting trips out west and even still had a few pictures on his camera that he showed me. All in all, this had to be one of my favorite days hunting even without seeing a deer.

Wednesday - 11/23 - Butchering

This was another rainy day that I used as day to catch up with everyone that'd had been hunting this week and hadn't been able to talk to. I also finished butchering my deer and got it into the freezer, by the way it's looking I have enough room for one, maybe two if I'm lucky, but who knows. The second half of the day was used to travel to Cassie's parents for Thanksgiving.

Thursday - 11/24 - Thanksgiving

This was the first time I was able to hunt on Cassie's parents land. I was very eager as this land is close the Ohio River and I knew that a few of the locals had told me about some great looking deer in the area. At day break, Cassie's dad and I heading out. He went to his stand, which he saw a bobcat at Monday, and I headed to the furthest field edge from his stand in hopes of pushing a few deer this way on my walk back in to another stand. I felt like a little kid exploring a new world trying to hunt this area. As soon as I cut down into the woods I jumped up two does and then a moment later I saw a rabbit take off. I slowly crept through the woods until I made it to the stand I was using that day. Shortly after getting into stand I saw a figure of a deer in the creek bed, roughly 150 yards from me. At this point the fog was so thick I couldn't see much more than a figure. Around 9:00 AM, her dad texted me to see what I saw thus far, I told him and he told me he had 6 turkeys, 3 long beards included in front of him for the last 45 minutes. We proceeded to text as I had a doe walk up the hill in front of me towards his stand. In hopes that it would work its way towards him I let the deer walk. Around 10:30 AM the fog finally broke and I texted him that I was going to continue  heading towards him trying to push him that doe I saw earlier. Before I even made it out of stand 25 yards I bumped up a young doe, At this point Cassie's brother texted me that he'd gladly take a deer if felt like shooting one for him considering he didn't hunt much or at all. I decided to head to the field to wait for it to make its way out. After waiting for it for a while I decided to slowly head back down the path to see if it was still there. I didn't even make it five yards back into the woods before I had a 48 yard chip shot. Normally in this situation I wouldn't be taking a doe this young, but someone else was wanting the meat. I laid the cross-hairs on it's neck and dropped it in it's tracks. This left me just enough time to take it to the processors and get back and get a shower before turkey time!

Kick Off

Friday - 11/25 - Backyard Brawl


With taking my second deer of the week and still trying to recover from the tryptophan, I slept in and took it easy as we packed up to leave and head to the last WVU home game of the season, The Backyard Brawl, WVU vs. Pitt. I know I didn't get to hunt, but I did get to watch WVU beat Pitt in possibly the last Backyard Brawl so I'll take it.

Saturday - 11/26 - Exploring Foggy Mountain

I had plans of getting up and hunting all day on Saturday, but after a late game and not getting home until nearly 2:00 AM, I slept in again and went breakfast with Cassie, something we rarely get to do in hunting season. I still managed to get in an afternoon hunt. Late in the first week of the rifle season I prefer to still hunt and explore more of the property, mainly because you never know at this point and time where the deer are going to be hiding. This also gave me time to look for where I want to put my own lean-to blind next year, like I said I'm learning and staying dry this past week would have been nice. My hunting strategy paid offed, I ended up seeing two does, I had a shot on both, but with only being able to take one more buck and doe I held of considering I still have a week of buck season left and two in doe. I also stumbled onto those same two grouse again as well as a massive gray squirrel. I also pulled the camera cards from my trail cameras and I must say that everyone is in for a treat tomorrow.