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I have been working at it since Saturday, and finally made it happen this morning. I really was not sure what to expect when trying to return to this sport after nearly 20 years of letting it fall by the wayside, but with the advice of some good friends, and my buddy letting me borrow his Muzzleloader, I have some meat to put on the table. Stephanie and I celebrated the occasion with backstrap, mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing and rice for dinner. Probably the best tasting meal I have ever had.
I still am somewhat in disbelief of the whole thing. I set my expectations low for this first season trying to get back into it, but a little bit of persistence paid off.
I really was not sure how to approach it this morning. Should I walk around the woods and try to still hunt? Or just sit on a log for a few hours and see what happens? Sitting on the log appeared to be the key. Right when I started feeling like I should try and change spots, I started hearing some noise from behind me. I managed to slowly turn around, and saw what I thought at the time was a doe working her way along the ground browsing for food, with seemingly no idea I was sitting right there. I swore to myself up and down that I would keep my cool when I finally saw a deer but that went right out the window. I thought the deer would hear my heart pounding through my chest and my hands started to shake as I kept the sights on the deer waiting for it to get into an open spot to shoot. I kept arguing in my head whether to just take the shot before it spots me or wait. The moment I was hoping for finally came though, he stepped into a clearing and I took my shot. Unfortunately, in my excitement I bolted right up from the spot I was sitting and headed over to where I thought the deer had just been standing. I wandered around a bit and found nothing. No hair, no blood, couldn't even really tell where it had been standing when I shot. I kept wandering back to the spot I had fired from and trying to figure out where the hell the thing was standing when I fired. I started to wonder if I had somehow missed such a close shot, the entire body of this animal nearly filled the scope before I pulled the trigger though, it seemed impossible. I started to feel dejected, and just began wandering in bigger and bigger circles looking for ANY sign of what had happened. I actually ended up finding the deer before I found the blood trail, lying maybe 150-200 feet away on the other side of a thick, vision obscuring patch of young pine. I cannot even try to put into words that feeling when I came across him laying there. I didn't care about the spikes being tiny, or it not being some monstrous trophy. I was, and still am, just wicked excited to be a part of this long standing tradition here in the Adirondacks. 20231017_095243.jpg 20231017_091324.jpg
I still am somewhat in disbelief of the whole thing. I set my expectations low for this first season trying to get back into it, but a little bit of persistence paid off.
I really was not sure how to approach it this morning. Should I walk around the woods and try to still hunt? Or just sit on a log for a few hours and see what happens? Sitting on the log appeared to be the key. Right when I started feeling like I should try and change spots, I started hearing some noise from behind me. I managed to slowly turn around, and saw what I thought at the time was a doe working her way along the ground browsing for food, with seemingly no idea I was sitting right there. I swore to myself up and down that I would keep my cool when I finally saw a deer but that went right out the window. I thought the deer would hear my heart pounding through my chest and my hands started to shake as I kept the sights on the deer waiting for it to get into an open spot to shoot. I kept arguing in my head whether to just take the shot before it spots me or wait. The moment I was hoping for finally came though, he stepped into a clearing and I took my shot. Unfortunately, in my excitement I bolted right up from the spot I was sitting and headed over to where I thought the deer had just been standing. I wandered around a bit and found nothing. No hair, no blood, couldn't even really tell where it had been standing when I shot. I kept wandering back to the spot I had fired from and trying to figure out where the hell the thing was standing when I fired. I started to wonder if I had somehow missed such a close shot, the entire body of this animal nearly filled the scope before I pulled the trigger though, it seemed impossible. I started to feel dejected, and just began wandering in bigger and bigger circles looking for ANY sign of what had happened. I actually ended up finding the deer before I found the blood trail, lying maybe 150-200 feet away on the other side of a thick, vision obscuring patch of young pine. I cannot even try to put into words that feeling when I came across him laying there. I didn't care about the spikes being tiny, or it not being some monstrous trophy. I was, and still am, just wicked excited to be a part of this long standing tradition here in the Adirondacks. 20231017_095243.jpg 20231017_091324.jpg
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