December 11, 2006
Just a little excited
Belinda Thurman sent in this shot of her first buck, killed with a crossbow on Dec. 6 on private property near Christiansburg.
My favorite line from her note was this: "I was so excited I lost half of my belongings in the woods and had to go hunt for them the next day."
That is the pull of hunting, and it's something people who haven't done it just don't understand.
Belinda's picture is proof that at least a few people are still getting out and hunting. The first couple of weeks of December are probably the quietest weeks Virginia's deer season, which runs about three months starting with the early archery season.
The lull is due to a few factors. One, many hunters have pushed it so hard since October that they're ready to finally ease off. With the holidays approaching, this also tends to be busy time with family obligations. There will be a little jump in action once the late muzzleloader season open Saturday, but it won't be much of one.
I actually slipped out to Bedford County for a quick hunt Saturday afternoon. I didn't even get into my stand until 4 p.m. but I was hunting the stand for the first time and that always is the best chance to see something good. Well, when I got into the stand I found out that it wouldn't be that stand's first hunt. Someone else had been in the thing. I don't know who, but I'm glad they left the thing there.
It was quiet for the first hour but just after 5 p.m. I heard a deer coming. It turned out to be a super fat 5-point buck. He had an interesting rack. One side was a typical, small forked antler. The other went straight up with a triple fork, like a trident.
The buck ended up walking directly under the stand, where he milled about for a couple of minutes. Then he casually kept going, turning at one point to offer a perfect quartering away shot at about 12 yards. I didn't shoot. It's not like I'm saving my two remaining buck tags at this point, but I figure he has a good chance of making it to next year. Of course that doesn't mean I'll get a crack at him next year, but you never know.
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