Over the past few years i have a friend Jay who has been thinking about getting in to hunting. For this year he finally got his paperwork in, applied for an antlerless tag here in NB and was drawn his first year having a hunting license.
For opening morning we planned to hunt a friends uncles farm. There's lots of deer around and we've hunted it often enough that we generally know where we're likely to see deer the first couple of days of the season. He lets anyone hunt the back fields so there's usually a lot of traffic so after the first few days the deers patterns get thrown completely off.
So that first morning we were a bit late leaving so we got to the farm a few minutes after first light. We parked at the turnaround and i showed him where to sit near the old brush blind that we'd made years ago and has long since fallen down and i packed up to head to the bottom of two small fields down by the brook. When i got down there i didn't see any deer immediately in the fields and the brook was too high to wade across to my normal spot with my rubber boots so i looked for a decent spot to sit on this side of the brook where i could see as much of both fields as i could. I noticed movement at the top of the hill of the right hand field and looked up and saw an enormous coyote come out of the woods left to right. He made it 10or so yards out of the tree line and noticed me, hesitated a second then spun around and headed back in to the woods before i even had a chance of thinking about getting a shot at him.
A few minutes later i get a message from Jay that he was sitting tucked in behind some spruce trees near the old brush blind and a huge coyote just ran past him like 20 yards away up through the field, he thought it was very was cool to see and it had no idea he was there.
10 minutes or so later i get a picture from jay of a doe standing in the field that he is looking at. I kept listening for a shot but it wasn't until 3 or 4 minutes later i finally heard one and got a call it was him that shot and the doe was down. I packed up my stuff and go over to help him with his deer.
When i got over to his field there was a car with a man and a woman, his daughter who had seen 4 does cross and 3 went up the woods and the one jay shot turned and went through the field instead. She said she just started hunting and asked if she could watch the field dressing so we had some company for the gutting. So we got it cleaned up, registered, skinned and into the cooler at the butcher and his first season was over within an hour of the sun coming up.
For the second day i've been lucky enough to get some agriculture nuisance tags for a farm run by a friends in laws. they always seem appreciative of helping take care of the deer there that decimate their squash and carrots and i appreciate having a full freezer so i always try and use my nuisance tag before my regular deer tag.
Since his season was over so quick and he was off on vacation anyway Jay came along with me to sit for the day at the farm.
When we first pulled in it was super foggy and i didn't have my blind set up in the field yet. There's often deer in the field before you get there and i didn't want to stumble around in the dark and fog and bump deer all around while trying to figure out where to put my pop up blind so we decided to wait in the truck until the fog lifted so we could see where we were going. Normally it only takes 20 or 30 minutes after the sun comes up to burn off the fog but this morning it didn't clear up enough to see anything until almost 11, so that morning was a bit of waste.
After we got our spot picked out with a decent view around and everything set up we sat in the pop up out in the field until 10 or 15 minutes before dark and started walking back to the truck. The field is pretty rolling hilly and there's no one spot where you can see the whole thing so i like to take my time walking back to the truck and see if there's deer in any of the hidden spots. We had just started walking when i noticed one doe by itself behind the hump we couldn't see. We snuck back down by the truck to try and get into a position to get a shot at it. I dropped my pack at the truck and tried to sneak closer behind some hay bales and jay stood by the truck watching through his binoculars. While i was trying to poke around the edge of the hay bale and range it with my rangefinder to get a distance Jay was just lifting up his binoculars and moved a bit and her focus locked onto him, which was convenient for me to get set up in place and wait for her to turn enough to get a shot off and down she went.
On the third day i only had a half day to hunt so we headed back out to try and fill my second nuisance tag. We were a bit late again and were pulling in to the field just as the sun was coming up. as we pulled in i noticed there was a car already half way up the drive. There are other people who hunt the farm and although there wasn't supposed to be anyone else there that day we left and checked out a few other spots for a bit and then headed home without seeing any deer.
That was it for the first week of rifle season.
The second week, October 31, Halloween. I was on my way back out to the farm to use my nuisance tag. Jay was back to work so i was solo.
It had snowed a bit overnight and everything had been wet and froze up so it was very crunchy. When i left the truck there was 1 doe along the back fence line that saw me and ran off into the woods and 5 or 6 does and a nice 8 pointer in the low spot at the back of the field that i can't see until i crest the hill where the blind it set up. There was one doe up higher that i couldn't hide from well and between that, the crunchy snow and the wind blowing generally towards them they spooked and ran to the back of the field. They did stop at about 230 yards but i was too sweaty, shaky and unsteady with my heart hammering after seeing them to chance a shot.
They left so i set up in the popup and got to waiting. Close to 1 oclock i was about to pack up and head home when i looked to my left and in the middle of the field there was a deer looking right at me. I leaned back, slowly grabbed the rifle and bipod and tried to line up a shot. She watched the blind for a bit facing head on. I wanted to wait for a broadside shot so i settled in and watched for what felt like 10 minutes but was probably less than 2 and then finally she turned and started trucking to the back end of the field headed up hill to bed for the afternoon. It wasn't a scared or nervous run, she just wanted to get to the bedding area up on the ridge and was late to the party.
I couldn't get her to stop so i timed a shot when she slowed down to almost a stop at one point and hit her perfect. She ran up the hill and fell just before getting to the fence. I could see where she dropped so i didn't need to worry about tracking, but between the snow and the spray of blood i could have followed her through the pitch black if i needed to. Nuisance tag number 2 was punched and i was happy to have meat in the freezer.
I didn't notice at the time but there was a second doe coming up behind her as well headed for the back of the field. that ran off after the shot. When i climbed out of the blind though to go get her there were 2 more does down by the hay bales where i got the first one on the second day. They didn't seem too worried about the loud noise of me shooting but they saw me before i saw them and ran off to the far end of the field.
The rest of the second week i had to work and had other plans so it was a short week for hunting.
For opening morning we planned to hunt a friends uncles farm. There's lots of deer around and we've hunted it often enough that we generally know where we're likely to see deer the first couple of days of the season. He lets anyone hunt the back fields so there's usually a lot of traffic so after the first few days the deers patterns get thrown completely off.
So that first morning we were a bit late leaving so we got to the farm a few minutes after first light. We parked at the turnaround and i showed him where to sit near the old brush blind that we'd made years ago and has long since fallen down and i packed up to head to the bottom of two small fields down by the brook. When i got down there i didn't see any deer immediately in the fields and the brook was too high to wade across to my normal spot with my rubber boots so i looked for a decent spot to sit on this side of the brook where i could see as much of both fields as i could. I noticed movement at the top of the hill of the right hand field and looked up and saw an enormous coyote come out of the woods left to right. He made it 10or so yards out of the tree line and noticed me, hesitated a second then spun around and headed back in to the woods before i even had a chance of thinking about getting a shot at him.
A few minutes later i get a message from Jay that he was sitting tucked in behind some spruce trees near the old brush blind and a huge coyote just ran past him like 20 yards away up through the field, he thought it was very was cool to see and it had no idea he was there.
10 minutes or so later i get a picture from jay of a doe standing in the field that he is looking at. I kept listening for a shot but it wasn't until 3 or 4 minutes later i finally heard one and got a call it was him that shot and the doe was down. I packed up my stuff and go over to help him with his deer.
When i got over to his field there was a car with a man and a woman, his daughter who had seen 4 does cross and 3 went up the woods and the one jay shot turned and went through the field instead. She said she just started hunting and asked if she could watch the field dressing so we had some company for the gutting. So we got it cleaned up, registered, skinned and into the cooler at the butcher and his first season was over within an hour of the sun coming up.
For the second day i've been lucky enough to get some agriculture nuisance tags for a farm run by a friends in laws. they always seem appreciative of helping take care of the deer there that decimate their squash and carrots and i appreciate having a full freezer so i always try and use my nuisance tag before my regular deer tag.
Since his season was over so quick and he was off on vacation anyway Jay came along with me to sit for the day at the farm.
When we first pulled in it was super foggy and i didn't have my blind set up in the field yet. There's often deer in the field before you get there and i didn't want to stumble around in the dark and fog and bump deer all around while trying to figure out where to put my pop up blind so we decided to wait in the truck until the fog lifted so we could see where we were going. Normally it only takes 20 or 30 minutes after the sun comes up to burn off the fog but this morning it didn't clear up enough to see anything until almost 11, so that morning was a bit of waste.
After we got our spot picked out with a decent view around and everything set up we sat in the pop up out in the field until 10 or 15 minutes before dark and started walking back to the truck. The field is pretty rolling hilly and there's no one spot where you can see the whole thing so i like to take my time walking back to the truck and see if there's deer in any of the hidden spots. We had just started walking when i noticed one doe by itself behind the hump we couldn't see. We snuck back down by the truck to try and get into a position to get a shot at it. I dropped my pack at the truck and tried to sneak closer behind some hay bales and jay stood by the truck watching through his binoculars. While i was trying to poke around the edge of the hay bale and range it with my rangefinder to get a distance Jay was just lifting up his binoculars and moved a bit and her focus locked onto him, which was convenient for me to get set up in place and wait for her to turn enough to get a shot off and down she went.
On the third day i only had a half day to hunt so we headed back out to try and fill my second nuisance tag. We were a bit late again and were pulling in to the field just as the sun was coming up. as we pulled in i noticed there was a car already half way up the drive. There are other people who hunt the farm and although there wasn't supposed to be anyone else there that day we left and checked out a few other spots for a bit and then headed home without seeing any deer.
That was it for the first week of rifle season.
The second week, October 31, Halloween. I was on my way back out to the farm to use my nuisance tag. Jay was back to work so i was solo.
It had snowed a bit overnight and everything had been wet and froze up so it was very crunchy. When i left the truck there was 1 doe along the back fence line that saw me and ran off into the woods and 5 or 6 does and a nice 8 pointer in the low spot at the back of the field that i can't see until i crest the hill where the blind it set up. There was one doe up higher that i couldn't hide from well and between that, the crunchy snow and the wind blowing generally towards them they spooked and ran to the back of the field. They did stop at about 230 yards but i was too sweaty, shaky and unsteady with my heart hammering after seeing them to chance a shot.
They left so i set up in the popup and got to waiting. Close to 1 oclock i was about to pack up and head home when i looked to my left and in the middle of the field there was a deer looking right at me. I leaned back, slowly grabbed the rifle and bipod and tried to line up a shot. She watched the blind for a bit facing head on. I wanted to wait for a broadside shot so i settled in and watched for what felt like 10 minutes but was probably less than 2 and then finally she turned and started trucking to the back end of the field headed up hill to bed for the afternoon. It wasn't a scared or nervous run, she just wanted to get to the bedding area up on the ridge and was late to the party.
I couldn't get her to stop so i timed a shot when she slowed down to almost a stop at one point and hit her perfect. She ran up the hill and fell just before getting to the fence. I could see where she dropped so i didn't need to worry about tracking, but between the snow and the spray of blood i could have followed her through the pitch black if i needed to. Nuisance tag number 2 was punched and i was happy to have meat in the freezer.
I didn't notice at the time but there was a second doe coming up behind her as well headed for the back of the field. that ran off after the shot. When i climbed out of the blind though to go get her there were 2 more does down by the hay bales where i got the first one on the second day. They didn't seem too worried about the loud noise of me shooting but they saw me before i saw them and ran off to the far end of the field.
The rest of the second week i had to work and had other plans so it was a short week for hunting.
