2011 Doe Season Review

This past Saturday ended West Virginia's rifle season as a whole,although the last week was doe only. Today it moved onto a week of muzzleloader before heading back to bow for the final two weeks, but as for myself I'll be headed back to my bow. But for now, I'll share a little bit about last week.

On Monday, the first day of doe season, I caught something out of the corner of my eye before I even made it to our property. If you remember me talking about the new pair grouse I had jumped back in the first week, I got a picture of one of them. At this point, my day was already made from getting a few great pictures. As I made my way into the stand, I managed to spook a flock of 10+ grouse and doves from my stand area. We went from thinking we only had a pair of grouse to now having at least a handful or more. The morning was slow from then on out but a trip to check one my trail camera let me see a doe with it's two yearlings cutting up over the hillside at the top of the property. After not getting a shot at these deer, I decided to head over to a spot that I hunted a few years back and have been thinking about hunting next year. After radioing with Rick and deciding to call it an early day, I headed over there spot just to see if I could have any luck. Within 12 minutes of sitting down, in the location I want to put a blind up,  I saw two does walk through, two more run through, and then a buck I'd been waiting to see all rifle season, but that wasn't it. Soon there after I saw two more does run through with another little spike trialing them. It was a great day to be in the woods, even though I wasn't about to get a deer in my cross-hairs.

It wasn't until Friday that I was able to make it back out due to the start of finals, but it was a great be back out there in all the fresh new snow. That morning had to be one of the most beautiful morning of the season so far. I didn't get to see anything that morning but, I was hoping again to take a deer that afternoon and I knew there where a few around from the massive amount of track marks in the snow. After sitting most of the morning and not seeing anything, I decided to go for a walk, I knew there was a spot where a lot of deer like to bed in bad condition. I took off for a little walk, as soon as I made it across Heartbreak Ridge and into Fisher Hollow, I looked up to see the flicker of two little tails and then I saw two more start trotting behind them, it wasn't a long to take a shot, nor would I have wanted to take a shot at that angle, but I did what I wanted to do. I tested out how well I knew the area and figure out where the deer where, I didn't get to harvest one, but I was happy enough I knew where to be expecting them next time.

Saturday was my last hope and a half day hunt at that, with family coming in on Sunday and dinner date planned, I thought it couldn't hurt to go for another hike. Who would have thought, on my way into my stand to check the trail camera, I bumped up that same doe and fawn that is always around my stand, they took off and I didn't even attempt to take a shot, it wasn't worth it at this point. After a little deliberation, I decided to take the hike I took the day previously, it didn't pan out the same way. I didn't see any deer, so I decided to sit at the top of my food plot on a downed tree for my last half hour I had planned to hunt, within a few moments a little spike walked in, the same one I let walk on the last Saturday of Buck Season. I watched him for a while, but nothing was spooking him. My phone began to buzz so I looked down and Jay was calling me so I decided to take it, figured I wasn't going to shoot the spike and I was ready to leave. During our conversation that spike proceeded to walk within 10 feet of me. A crazy way to end rifle season for sure.

Now to leave everyone with a throught,  I was tweeting with Michelle (@sdo_mlt) during my final hour of rifle season and we were talking about just being happy to be out and see deer, she said something that I can't agree with more, so I'm going to share it with everyone.