Virginia's early archery season for deer opens tomorrow. It's a day I've been looking forward to for about nine months.
As eager as I am to get back out there, I'm not as excited as I should be, my enthusiasm tempered by temperatures.
Forecasters are calling for a high tomorrow of 84 -- another nice August day, as I told my buddy Freddy McGuire during a scouting trip yesterday afternoon. The problem is it's October. Actually, that afternoon high isn't such a bad thing. Worse is the projected low, which isn't supposed to get below 60. Plus, it's humid. Yuck.
Deer move better when it's cold, but they'll be moving tomorrow morning and evening even if it's feeling tropical. We saw a number of deer late yesterday evening. I'm confident I'll see something tomorrow, although getting a shot will be another story.
It's just uncomfortable to hunt in the heat. There's also the issue of dealing with a downed deer. A quick recovery is pretty much mandatory. And, unless you have a cooler, you're not going to want to hang a deer outside when it's not dropping below 60 degrees at night, even for a day. So, that means a kill will lead to at least two hours of skinning and quartering the thing so it fits in my spare fridge.
Last year I got really lucky and shot a nice buck on opening day. My chances of duplicating that feat are slim, and that's fine. My bowhunting philosophy is to shoot any mature deer that presents a good shot, and I'll be happy as heck if that's a doe.
Of course I could just blow off tomorrow and wait for cooler weather, which appears headed to the region by late next week. But I'll get out there for a couple of hours around dawn and dusk and see what happens.
For everyone else whose season starts tomorrow, good luck and be safe.
