Well it is just about halfway thru the Michigan deer archery season and I finally got out in the woods to hunt yesterday. I have been really struggling to find time to get out hunting with all of the activities that my kids are involved in. It has seemed like almost every weekend there were soccer games on both Saturday and Sunday. I really don't have the option of hunting after work because where I hunt is an hour drive from my house. My saving grace was that I had 5 vacation left at work that I had to use up before the end of the year. So I decided that I was going to use them for deer hunting but I wanted to wait until closer to the rut to take them. So my first vacation day that I took was yesterday. I had planned ahead and gotten all of my clothes washed with Dead Down Wind scent free laundry detergent the weekend before. After that they went into the dryer will an earth scent dryer sheet. Then straight from the dryer to a huge Ziploc bay which is then backed into an air tight plastic tote. I am very conscious of my scent when deer hunting and since I don't have any ScentLok clothing I take it extremes and over the years I have been very successfully in get deer to come in close and not even know I was there. I had also repacked my backpack as it was still loaded with my stuff from turkey hunting in the spring. Then I sprayed it down with Dead Down Wind scent eliminator spray, let it dry and packed it into an air tight plastic tote. I also had all of my stuff in one spot in my garage so that all I had to do was grab my totes, bow and go. I was ready.
Tuesday night came along I had wanted to go to bed early but as usual that never happened so it ended up being 12:30 before I finally got to bed and I had set the alarm for 4:30 am to get up. Now I like to get out in the woods early and since I had an hour drive to where I hunt I needed to up that much earlier. Then for whatever reason I couldn't get to sleep and it ended up being 1:30 am before I finally fell asleep. After what seemed like 5 minutes my alarm was going off at 4:30. As I rolled over to turn the alarm off I could hear rain hitting the skylights in our house. My first thought was, "You have got to be kidding me." With the rain and the lack of sleep I was having a very hard time getting motivated to get out of the house. Finally I got out of the house, about 25 minutes later than I had planned, and was on my way to my hunting spot.
I was finally at my hunting spot and now I was about 35 minutes later that what I wanted to be so I knew I better get moving to get out there before daylight. Now since I take scent control so serious I never wear the clothes that I am going to be hunting in on the drive there. I change everything but my tidy whites before I go out. Since I was at my buddy's house I was changing inside my truck. Once I had my clothes change I got out and put on my fleece camo suite, sprayed myself down with some more Dead Down Wind, strapped on my backpack and my tree saddle, grabbed my bow and was on my way. For those you that don't know I don't use the conventional tree stand but use a tree saddle to hunt out of. If you don't know what one is you can check it out at www.trophylineusa.com. It had stopped raining and since the rain was suppose to stop in the morning and when I check the radar before I left home the area I was hunting had no rain. Therefore I left my rain gear in the truck figuring I wouldn't need it. Now I am hunting in farm country and my stand is between two fields. This year the field behind me was planted in clover and the one in front of me, that I am actually hunting, is a bean field. On my walk there I notice that just a little ways from my buddies' house was several sumac trees that were all rubbed upped. This was good sign but still a ways away from where I was hunting but at least that meant there were bucks in the area. My walk to my stand consisted of a walk thru a sunflower field to the fence row then to follow the fence row along thru the clover field to my tree in the fence row that I would be hunting out of.
Once I was there I sprayed down with some more Dead Down Wind spray and it was only a matter of minutes till I was ready to hunt because I already had my steps in my tree. By this time it was already starting to get daylight. Did I mention that I was behind schedule as always? I don't know exactly what the temp was, I would guess mid 50's, but it was a little warmer than what I would have preferred, and the sky was overcast. It was also a little foggy out so I couldn't see the far end of the bean field very well. The woods were very quite that morning. The only thing moving were some birds. After about an hour or so it started to rain. Figures since I had decided to leave my rain gear in the truck. Obviously though I stayed out hunting in the rain. After all rain has never stopped me before, I just wish I would have brought my rain gear. Oh well… Other than the rain the woods were still quite. Finally at about 10 I saw a flock turkey out in the field but still no deer. I could hear what sounded like combine on a field the other side of the woods to the east of me so I would hoping that maybe they were picking a corn field and would push some deer my way. But as luck would have it I didn't see anything. Finally about 11:00 or so I was soak all the way thru and was getting cold so I decided call it quits and head back to my truck. Well I didn't see any deer but it was still a great day in the woods. My plan is to take next Friday off from work and go back out there hunting again.
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