Learning A Bit More About The Ways Of Nature

The great Minnesota deer hunting season is underway. We participated once again, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. It was my most successful hunt ever. Why do I say this when we harvested does in contrast to when I shot an 8-point 250 pound buck three years ago?

For years I hunted alone and rarely sighted even a doe. I was totally raw and unskilled, enjoying little success considering the level of effort and expense invested. For a few years in northwestern Minnesota we party hunted with some friends and began to harvest animals, and see deer. But our success and outcome was due to dependency upon the skill and knowledge of deer and terrain as shared with us by our friends.

We bought a smaller property 89 miles north of town. Last year we hunted alone and again did not even see one deer, antlered or anterless of either gender.

At my job this summer I worked with the plumber Mike who owns a property around Aitkin. They enjoy successful hunts almost every fall. I asked him what his secret was. He related that over time he got better and better as he learned his property and how the deer moved about on it, where they fed, traveled and slept.

Here was a man with a simple system of hunting but it worked over time. I knew that we would apply Mike's technique. We had a deer stand and a ground blind to hunt from. I had spent some time scouting the property and knew from from personal observation and from knowing neighbors where the deer quartered, traveled and fed. The afternoon before opener I was staking the tent and putting a metal folding chair in the blind/tent. I heard loud grunting, and snorting about 30 feet away. I knew it was a dominant buck very close by. I sat on the chair and did not move. After a couple of minutes I looked out and watched the 8-point, 200 pound buck amble away leisurely to the north until he disappeared.

Thirty minutes later I was sitting in the blind 800 feet away enjoying the afternoon sun when I watched a 4-point buck trail a 130 pound doe northwest until they were out of sight. They did not know I was there. I would not see those two again for the remainder of the hunt.

Saturday passed with many hours in the stand (the strong wind was southerly). About 11:00 a.m., out of the corner of my right eye, that big buck burst into a full trot and ran around the swamp into some timber to the southeast. I thought he was scared and had busted me. That was not the case. He sniffed out an eligible lady in heat and pretty soon these 150 pound lady came trotting passed me, with him sauntering 50 feet behind, paying her rapt attention. I did not see them again, but Sunday morning we filled out our tags with does, from the same stand. Why did I not shoot at the buck? It would have been a running shot and I likely would have missed, wounded the animal or sent lead flying for no reason.

I have always known that people that are 'lucky" fisherman or hunters really are mostly skilled predators, who are tenacious, patient researchers that learn to know the ways, habits and thinking of the prey they seek after.

It took me twelve years to gain some level of skill as a deer hunter. I feel now that I have made it, though in future years there will be learning more about the property and where to post or stand, and how these beautiful, clever creatures use cover to move about on their own highways unseen like ghosts only a few hundred feet--or closer--from the house. Sunday morning when we bagged our does, I spooked a deer in the dark about 30 feet away as I left the farmhouse to go out to the stand.

The hunt was a chance to measure our skill against these savvy, worthy opponents. To enjoy the woods, sunsets, blue jays and ruffed grouse were rewarding extras.

Only this fall do I feel that I have made it as a deer hunter, with the forest-craft and hardiness to make it on one's own. To become somewhat skilled at what one endeavors to master is an exhilarating feeling like few others. Finally, to do something well bolsters the self-esteem.

We will have some annual hunts go better than others, but we have broken the code. never again need we be dependent on others to succeed in this area. Never again will we not have command of the skills basic to wrapping our arms around a property, a chunk of Nature, knowing how to proceed and work with her local, special features.