On Thursday night, before our big outing with Brian, Dad and I sighted in our new shotgun. We paced out 30 yards and started shooting at our make-shift turkey heads. Dad shooting at 30 yards. Dad's pattern. My pattern. My comment to Dad after I took two shots at this piece of paper: "As long as a turkey comes in from my left, I should be in good shape." Oh the irony! Dad and I were confident that as long as a turkey was within 30 yards, we would be in good shape. I worked on setting the bead in the middle of the gun so that it would not pull to the left. It was a new gun for us and long - 28 inches but it was comfortable and I was confident that I could shoot it. We went to bed around 8pm so that we...
Here we go! Turkey season has kicked off in Maine and as Dad and I are getting ready to head out with my friend Brian, I can not help but think of where we werea year ago. I wanted to shoot a turkey while I was pregnant so that I could say that I got both a deer and turkey while waddling around in the woods. It didn't happen but Dad and I learned a lot about this new critter that we were hunting, which is why I asked Brian to take us out for a day. We need to learn how close they need to be to us in order to take a successful shot and we need to learn how to get them to come to us. We were successful last year in having them call back to us, but we were not able to get them to come to us. I think (hope) that is...
While we were on our walk and looking for sheds, we can onto a deer trail that had some blood! The hunter in all three of us kicked into high gear and we started walking slowly, hunched over like a detective with a magnifying glass looking for clues. The first blood spot we noticed. A close up of the first spot we noticed. Maybe a cut above the hoof? If we had had enough time, we would have back tracked to see if there was more blood in the opposite direction than the one we traveled. We could not find many more drops between steps and once we got to the stream, we decided to just keep going and head back. Just another example of something unexpected and interesting you find in the...
Dad, Hubby and I set off to see if we could find some sheds. Dad has found them before but I really wanted to see what sort of bucks lived through the season. On Saturday, with a light snow falling, we took to the woods. A very active deer trail Dad had been out doing some cutting and had found a rib cage (sorry that I forgot to take a photo of that!) but he was not sure if it was a coyote or a fawn. He also found a strip of hide. Frozen deer hide We headed towards my tree seat to hop on some deer trails in search of sheds but also, to check out the improved shooting lanes that Dad cut for me. I have already been told that I will be spending a lot of time in my tree seat next fall, so Dad wanted to make...
Our first tree house. During the last two weekends of hunting season, we headed over to the spot where it all started! ~~~ While Hubby and Dad decided to still hunt on the mountain, I needed a place to sit. Dad said that our original tree house was still safe if I wanted to go there. He advised me that the roof (made of canvas) had caved in a bit and that could pose an issue. I hate to be on the ground and trying to hunt, so I figured I would take my chances. When I approached the stand the first time, it looked good. Not as good as it did when we first built it seven years ago, but stable and strong. When Dad and I built it, (this was our first attempt at a tree stand), we haphazardly nailed boards to the tree...
This is what 7* looks like 7 degrees. 7 flippin degrees is what the thermometer read when we headed outside on Friday morning. I was as bundled up as possible with hand and toe warmers. Hubby headed to the Sky Condo with instructions to start walking around 7:30am. Dad dropped me off at our newest tree seat and he took off to make a loop around me. The plan was for Hubby to come from the right, Dad from the left and me, in the middle, shooting any deer that happened to get jumped. If it had antlers, it was going down. When it is this cold, I go into owl mode where I really don't move much more than my eyes. Plus, I had on so many layers, I could barely move. Ready for this: 3 pairs of socks...
For the past 10 1/2 seasons, we have been a two hunter show. I sit, Dad walks and we either find deer or move to a new spot. This time Hubby came along and it added new challenges for us. Dad and I have three seats up and decided that we would each get a spot to sit during the first few hours of Saturday morning. We put Hubby in the Sky Condo because he has not hunted/shot from a tree seat and we have some tiny/slanted seats that Dad and I are used to. It seemed a little awkward to try and get everyone in place early enough so that the last person was sitting at an early enough time to beat the deer moving. At 5 am, we were out the door and heading into the woods. The wind was flipping COLD!!! I was my normal,...
It was definitely not the best day of hunting we have ever had. We had planned to skip Friday afternoon so that Hubby could come up with me, but thanks to an illness, he didn't come and I missed the opportunity to catch the last couple of hours with Dad in the woods. With the moon almost full, Dad and I figured that we would walk in extra early on Saturday and get set up before the deer started moving. My 4 am wake up call (Mom coming to wake me up so an alarm does not wake the baby up) came at 4:26. I have never jumped out of bed and dressed so fast! The problem is that I sit when I hunt, so I dress in many, many... many! layers. It also means that it takes me more than 30 minutes to get dressed so that I...
Dad has hunted on the land that houses the Sky Condo for the better part of his life. About six years ago, we built the SC and started hunting there full time. At that time, there were no other hunters near by. A few years ago, a hunter bought a bordering piece of property, re-did the old camp that was there and brought his buddies along. We haven't had a lot of incidents with them (trespassing last year, putting pink ribbon on my tree seat and lying to us when we asked them what they shot - a search through the list at the tagging station said an 8-point buck). Two years ago, Dad bought a piece of land that is separated from the Sky Condo property by a powerline and a driveway that is privately owned by...
