It’s deer season. Bow hunters have been in the woods a couple weeks and many ranches with managed land permits allow hunting with all legal weapons. Acorns are on the ground and leaves of sweetgum, elm and hickory are just beginning to turn.
This is my 63rd year hunting deer. I’ve only missed a couple years thanks to obligations to Uncle Sam and family matters. In retrospect, that is a long, long time to do anything. I’ll be 75 years old in a few months and have been blessed with good health. I can still drag a buck back to the where I can load him in a truck, climb a tree stand, albeit much slower and more cautiously than I used to. I still bow hunt but cranked that 70-pound bow down to 55 pounds years ago. Thanks to modern technology the bow I shoot today at this lighter draw weight is faster than some of the 70-pounders I hunted with years ago.
If you are younger than your mid-30s, you will probably scroll through this column and mark it off as the ramblings of an old hunter, but If you’ve spent a lot of time in the fall woods pursuing deer, you can probably relate. When I was a teenage hunter and throughout my 20s, deer hunting was all about filling a tag and shooting a big buck. Oh, how I wish I could do a take two on some of those hunts back in the day. I would surely slow down and as the saying goes, “take time to smell the roses.”
Don’t get me wrong; I still hunt as hard and probably much smarter than I did 50 years ago. My goal is to put two or three deer in the freezer each year, but these days, just being out there in the fall woods is every bit as important as antlers for the wall or meat in the freezer.
The camaraderie with family and friend is a big part of deer hunting and deer camp. Setting around a campfire outside a cozy cabin on a crisp fall evening, telling stories of deer hunts of the distant past as well as that big buck that “Ole Joe” missed on opening day is far better than watching the evening news on TV or even that outdoor show where the hunter seems to bag a monster buck on every episode.
And there are the sights and sound of the woods that might or might not include the sighting or harvest of a buck. How about that giant spider web made by an orb-weaver spider that was glowing silver from dew that you almost walked into on your way back to camp from the morning hunt? Few sights in nature are more amazing. How long did it take that little spider to create such a perfect geometrical structure?
Did you take time to stop and study the iridescent colors of that dragonfly perched on the top strand of the barbed wire fence you just crossed? That little bug’s life was quickly coming to its end with the cooling weather but its colors would put a rainbow to shame.
What about the color of leaves adorning a stand of hickory trees on a distant ridge on a late all afternoon, aglow from the suns slanting final rays of the day? Did you pause a minute to soak in the beauty? I know I never took the time back in my younger days as a hunter. Oh, I’m sure my eyes took in these sights but seriously doubt I stopped to realize or fully appreciate nature’s beauty I was being gifted.
How about the smell of wood smoke on a crisp fall day or that pot of steaming coffee bubbling on the camp stove? Or the smell of a big breakfast of fried eggs, bacon and potatoes? Who could start a morning’s hunt without first stoking up on a big breakfast?
How about late in the afternoon, just before the end of legal shooting light, did you ever listen to a gray (cat) squirrel make those soft mewing sounds much like a house cat anticipating a big saucer of milk. Just about the time the sun sets, how many times have I heard a distant coyote open up with its mournful howl only to be answered by others of his kin from distant parts of the woods. Are those yotes sounding off in efforts to assemble in a pack or simply alerting others to the section of woods they will be hunting?
Owls have a way of telegraphing there location through the woods. Usually I hear one sound off then another and another. I’ve often wondered just how far back into the evening woods these night hunting birds are saying “good evening” to each other. Or are they actually communicating to each other? Do they all just begin hooting when the sun sets? There are many things about hunting deer and spending time in the woods that I sort of take for granted without questioning why but the older I get the more I wonder about such things.
After a successful hunt back at camp, is there anything tastier that fresh fried venison back strap? Most deer hunters know that venison is best when aged a few days but tell that to a group of hungry hunters at camp after someone has taken the time to carve off a few tasty venison steaks, season them with salt, pepper and garlic, dust them in flour and expose them to some hot grease in a cast iron skillet over a bed of glowing hardwood coals. This and a pan of cream gravy with a pot of rice on the side is the stuff memorable deer camp meals are made.
We deer hunters have once again made it to the time of year we treasure most. With the opener of rifle season in a few weeks, campfires will be glowing brightly all across this great state, from the Pineywoods to the Panhandle. Here’s hoping this time honored tradition goes on forever. I fully intend to be a participant as long as possible and share my passion for being out there in the wild places.
I better wrap up this week’s column now; it’s time to check the scope on my old deer rifle and make plans for my first rifle hunt of the season with my friends in Kaufman County. The bucks should be coming to rattling horns in a week or two. The sight of a mature buck slipping through the woods, hoping to sneak in and elope with the doe those two bucks he hears fighting over is something to behold.
As one old hunter once told me around the campfire, “If you have any adrenaline in your body, a buck coming into the horns will get it pumping.”
Email outdoors writer Luke Clayton through his website www.catfishradio.org.
