Monday, December 2, 2024

 


The sun came up and took the darkness away this morning and that was the last I saw of it. The rest of the day was somewhat gloomy, and it chilled me to the bone. I couldn't have asked for a better morning to sit. As I wandered through the woods in the darkness, I got to a spot and my inner voice spoke loudly. It told me to go no further and park my ass in that spot. 

  As the morning progressed, I felt good about the choice to stay there. Although I hadn't planned it, I felt confident. Around 9:30, I looked to my left and saw a deer standing under a hemlock tree. It's back was to me and it was looking at another deer. I pulled my glasses up and saw that it was a nice buck. After further examination, it was a 7-pointer that would've been an 8, but he was missing a brow tine. 

  Then, he began grunting and all hell broke loose out in front of me. I watched him run the doe all over, stopping no more than 20 yards from me on two different occasions. It just wasn't the deer I was after, so I chose to let him go. I've been on a mission this year and threw all of my eggs into one basket. I can live with that, as this is the fourth Adirondack buck I've passed this year, with one of them being an 8-pointer, and one of them being this wanna-be 8-pointer. I love venison, so these choices have not been easy. I also have seen less deer than I have seen in the last 10 years. It makes passing deer pretty difficult. When deer sightings are limited, it can allow frustrations to take over. I'm glad I held things in check today and stayed the path. 

  I enjoyed the rest of the day and felt good about what transpired. I didn't see anything else, but I did see where a lot of deer came off a few different hills on my journey back to the truck in the dark. It's supposed to be another cold day tomorrow. I plan on putting Dad in one of the spots I saw all the sign. I'm hoping one of us gets an opportunity to put a buck on the ground. Since I had an opportunity today but chose not to cash it in, it's only right that Dad gets his chance now. I'll be rooting for him tomorrow. 

  As frustrating as the last few weeks have been, I've enjoyed every minute of it. I like the game, and I love deer hunting. I'm a hunter and hunting is in my blood. 

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