Deer Hunting: Hunting Humor & Whitetail Deer

I shot my first Deer in November of 2004. We were hunting private land in Pine County, MN and it was freezing outside. Swede and I were stand hunting and after sitting for about 2 hours in 12 degree weather, I was frozen. I hadn’t seen nor heard a thing except for the farmers donkey, when i heard that ” Snap”. I looked behind me and there was a nice 9pt just walking along, smelling the rut, without a care in the world.

I slowly turned, raised my 30.06 and fired…..CLICK! My rifle misfired, so i quickly rechambered my bolt action, raised my rifle and ClICK!…Another misfire. This happened 2 more times, before I had to completely reload my rifle. Surprising, the Deer didn’t even noticed me. It continued to slowly walk, it’s nose to the earth, completely oblivious to my frantic attempts to get my damn gun to fire.

So, now i have reloaded my rifle and sure enough, I cant see the deer anywhere. Looking through my scope, I final catch a glimspe of its tail through the woods. My first shot misses and yet the deer doesnt run. I reload and fire again….BANG and the Deer disappears.

At this point, I am crushed as I figured there was no way that I had hit the deer. I climb down from my stand and walk in the general direction of where I think the deer was standing. As I approach, I see it laying on the ground…No blood nothing…I had hit it in the spine and dropped it where it stood. The Deer never knew what hit it

Deer Hunting

If hunters held a popularity contest for wild animals, the whitetail deer would win every time. Admired for its speed and jumping ability, a deer can run 40 miles per hour and leap over a fence 8 feet tall. Besides their beauty, Deer are also extremely challenging animals to hunt.

Deer move silently through the woods, constantly aware of the hunter’s presence and can disappear from sight in the blink of an eye. Deer are naturally camouflaged and their acute sense of smell is 1000 times more powerful than humans. Even the best hunter can leave the woods after 3 straight weeks, without firing a shot.

Hunting GearA few things every hunter needs are deer stand, weapon, waterproof boots, knife, tags, orange clothing, rope and a permit. There are two different types of deer stands, ladder stands, and climbers. Ladder stands are ladders with a platform on top of them chained to a tree. Climber stands are platforms with a seat that may be carried on your back and then placed usually about 4-8 feet off the ground on a tree.Waterproof boots are not essential but they come in very handy, especially since deer do not always fall down where you shoot them and may run for a few miles into the woods. Knives are essential for skinning and field dressing deer. Tags and permits are required to hunt deer legally; they may be purchased from local sporting good stores or your state’s DNR website.

Rope is necessary for dragging your deer after the kill. Adult female white-tailed deer can weigh 145 pounds, males 170. The heaviest whitetail ever recorded in the United States was a 500-pound Minnesota buck.

Hunters and environmentalist alike will agree that deer hunting is an extremely valuable wildlife conservation tool that ensures the biological success of our natural resources, while supporting the nation’s economy.

38 Million Strong, the American Hunter pours $70 billion into the economy annually–with a whopping $179 billion in ripple effect. This makes the American Hunter among the most prominent and inflectional of all demographic groups.

The American Deer Hunter, Men and women from all walks of life, doing what they love, growing the economy, helping conservation and contributing to society.

Summer’s officially over even though you can’t tell because it’s still so hot and sticky outside. Most of us have finished pre-season scouting, and have hung our tree stands along well-traveled deer trails, hopefully next to a mature white oak that will begin dropping acorns soon. Finally, the time of year we’ve been waiting for is here, the beginning of football and better yet, Archery and rifle deer hunting season.

If hunters held a popularity contest for wild animals, the white-tailed deer would probably win. Admired for its speed and jumping ability, a deer can run 40 miles per hour and leap over a fence 8 feet tall. Even from a standstill, a deer could jump straight up and over your orange covered heads. People like the beauty and graceful movements of the white-tailed deer. The buck’s antlers look like an ivory crown. When it walks, a deer seems almost to float. It moves silently into the woods, sometimes disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Whitetails also make a fine dinner entree, are good for you and taste great.

(Personally, I like Jerky, but any of these cuts wil do)

Archery season provides a great opportunity to take a trophy whitetail and hunting the rut is arguably one of the best times to do so. If you’re stealthy enough and have done your homework, you’ve got a good chance of having a nice one walk out in front of you.

As a matter of fact, a lot of the rutting goes on until right before the start of rifle season. During rut doe scent works great. Post rut, these guys are beat, smelling like dirt might be better than trying to sex up your stand. Remember, those little buggers have been rutting for weeks so come November, they are tired and could go for some acorns and a nap.After rifle season starts and the pressure to rut has passed, a lot of your mature bucks go nocturnal. Since their not chasing ruting mates, you might not see that big buck again for the rest of the season, except for maybe a picture taken from your game-cam sometime during the middle of the night.

Note: Only bows may be used during archery season. No bows, crossbows, spears, daggers, Medieval pole arms, battle axes, tomahawks, Pikes, Lances, fauchard, Glavie, Guisarme, Wu Jian or Shuriken Daggers, may be used to harvest deer during rifle season. Other things you can’t use during rifle season include explosives or drug-injecting arrows, a machete or bows equipped with electronic computational or laser sights.

This behavior is not allowed!

You also can’t use dogs to hunt deer, but you can use bird-dogs if you are hunting birds. Otherwise, the only time you can have a dog in the woods while hunting is if you have one on a leash, or if you are trying to make it look like an accident.

Towards the end of rifle season, if you still haven’t seen anything and you’re quite the marksman, rabbits and gray squirrels make good substitutes to shooting the real thing. In a pinch, Raccoons, opossums, coyotes, nutrias, skunks and beavers also may be used to satisfy your craving for hunting glory.

As far as legal shooting hours are concerned, you’re allowed to let your bullets fly one half-hour before sunrise and one half-hour after sunset

Well, I hope I’ve helped answer any questions you might have had regarding the rules and regulations of deer hunting as some of these rules can be a bit confusing. ( See Note:)

Here’s hoping all your preparation and persistence pays off and wishing you luck on taking that monster buck.

As always, have fun, hunt safely and we’ll see you soon!
Ole Grey