Happy Monday, friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather around here was absolutely perfect (and still is), and we were able to spend the entire weekend outside… And by “outside,” I mean I spent around 10 hours in the deer stand. Oops. But! It was actually a successful weekend for me on the deer hunting front – doe tag filled, freezer [on its way to being] filled again! Since we ran out of venison a few months ago and really haven’t had much time to do some serious deer hunting, it was definitely at the top of my to-do list to at least harvest a doe for us. And if a nice buck walked out instead? Well… I think you and I both know what I would do.

So, late Friday afternoon, it was into the stand for me, with John setting up in another field, and our pal Davis doing the same. Between the 3 of us, we knew we had to have some success. There are oh-so-many does on the property, so it was bound to happen. It was a gorgeous afternoon, too, so that made it extra fun.
Yes, this is the same stand where I sat before, and 99% of the time I am at least entertained by some sort of wildlife – everything from talkative turkeys to fox squirrels too large and loud for their own good. And while I did have a bit of a slow start to my hunt (hardly a bird for the first hour), it wasn’t too long before the real entertainment started. Around 5:30, a nice-sized doe wandered out from the woods, followed immediately by another slightly smaller deer.
What is cool about this particular stand/feeder is that we’ve got a trail cam set up on the tree right at the edge of the field. If you look closely, you can see a tiny black box near the base of the pine. With the camera taking photos, it was neat to see what my hunt looked like from the field:
(Its date/time is off by 1 day and 1 hour, so this was 10/24/14 at 17:36, or 5:36 pm)

It was clear to me that I was looking at an old[er] deer an a young deer – the first was quite grey and just looked much more weathered. As I watched for the next 10 minutes or so, a 3rd little deer came out to join the first two. I raised my rifle to take a look at exactly what I was seeing – I absolutely did not want to mistake a button buck for a doe, and sometimes it is really hard to tell (particularly from 90 yards away).


Sure enough, the harder I looked, the more it became apparent – this was a little button buck, and the second deer was, in fact, a small spike. They milled around, snacking and sniffing, for a few more minutes, and the doe started to wander back towards the woods (out of the trail cam’s field of view).


The doe was over to the right and back about 15 yards from this photo’s point of view. After another 10+ minutes, I knew that if she went much farther I would lose my shot & my chance to bring home some venison. Even though I had the rest of the weekend to hunt, I had no idea if I would get another chance. And I’ve really been craving a good bowl of chili. So, I focused my rifle, waited a few second for the doe to turn broadside again, aimed & took a deep breath. When I fired my shot, the two little bucks looked up & froze, obviously startled, for a split second before high-tailing it back into the woods.

And the doe? Dead as a hammer, right where she’d been standing. Never knew what hit her (I say that as I pat myself on the back for a clean, spot-on kill shot – I hate to do otherwise). Incidentally, it was almost the exact spot where this guy fell last year.

Since it was still pretty early in the evening, I knew the other guys in the stand would want to sit until dark, so I was on my own for the next little while in trying to get out of the field with my harvest. I would have just waited until dark to move, but the crows & other birds started making such a racket with a dead deer in view that I knew my chances of another deer coming out were super slim. I waited another 20 minutes or so before climbing down, and went to check out my deer. I must have been just out of view, but I so wish that the trail cam had captured me dragging this deer towards the field’s exit path & my oh-so-sad-but-probably-hilarious attempt to get it on the 4wheeler. I am not exactly a weight-lifter, but I fancy myself in at least decent shape (thank you, wedding prep). And yet, I could. not. make. this. happen. I can only imagine the photos as I tried for the next 30 minutes to [very unsuccessfully] “do it all by myself.” It hit me around the time when I was standing on the seat of the 4 wheeler, the deer’s hind legs in my hands,a rope that went from her waist to my waist for extra pull, leaning back at what I am guessing is about a 45* angle and the deer still not budging, that, oh wait, I am incredibly accident-prone and this might not turn out so well if I don’t quit while I don’t have a broken limb. Sad Hollis. And thank you, Davis, for your help when you were finished. When I say I couldn’t have done it alone, we know I actually mean it.

In all of my excitement & frustration, I never even took a picture of my kill once the hunt was said and done. I know! I am kicking myself. I wish I had a photo for you. Once we got to the processor (sans phone or camera, of course), we had the doe weighed – right at 100 lbs. Solid! Seeing as that is about 75% of my own body weight, it’s [now] not a surprise I couldn’t lift it. Me? Stubborn? Never!