ND Deer Season Wrap-up

Well, though the gun season doesn't end until this Sunday and the archery season goes until just after the first of the year, my ND deer season is over and what a fun season it was!

It started off in September when my daughter shot her second deer during the youth season and then the following weekend I was able to help my daughter's friend take her first deer.
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Next came opening weekend of the gun season. Though Dad said he wouldn't shoot one right away unless it was big, that all changed when there was a 3x3 bedded 30 yards from his blind the morning of the second day of the season. He said he couldn't turn down a gift like that.

While he was gutting his deer, my wife and I along with another couple we hunt with were watching over a big wetland area. My wife and I watched a pretty nice buck leave the wetland and drop into another slough a short distance away but never saw him leave. We contacted our friends, formed a plan to "surround" the slough, and I commenced to walking back and forth through the 10 acre combination of waist-high slough grass, cattail tangles, and 8-foot high sweet clover in an effort to flush the buck out. It took me 45 minutes but I finally was able to get him to leave his hiding spot and my buddy dropped him.
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From there on out we sat mornings and evenings waiting for the deer to move while during the days we mostly walked sloughs trying to push out a buck.

Last weekend was the first my oldest was able to get away from college in an attempt to fill his buck tag so along with the gang from the opener we left the house on Veteran's Day to find a few bucks. The first to score was my wife who dropped her buck with a single shot to the neck with her trusty 7mm-08.
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While Dad and the missus were loading her deer the rest of us decided to walk a couple of nearby sloughs. I snapped this picture while doing so and thought it turned out pretty cool given the frost that was left behind after the night's fog was burned off.
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The following evening my son and I decided to sit in the same blind my wife had taken her buck from the day before but while walking in I spotted a big-bodied deer nearly a 1/2 mile away. Turned out to be a nice buck who was trying to keep his lady-friend corralled in the same frosty slough we had walked the morning prior. A plan was formed, a sneak was executed, and after some belly-crawling with our elbows my son dropped a pretty decent buck.
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And then Grandpa supervised while my boy gutted it out.
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So now that everyone else was done, it was my turn. Given the weather forecast for the end of this week, I decided to take the day off to try and fill my doe tag on a river bottom ranch that I drove through with Cappy and jb on our way out pheasant hunting too many years ago. Dad and I left early to make sure we were in place when shooting time started and it worked out perfectly as about 3 minutes into legal shooting time my doe hit the ground. We stopped in to thank the rancher, whom has gotten to be a very good friend over the years, and proceeded to spend more than 3 hours just shooting the breeze. Good stuff.

The doe needs to be cut up tonight and then we need to decide on a weekend to make sausage but other than that, my deer season is officially over. Not it is time to get the young pup on some more birds, hopefully get in a goose hunt or two, and get to calling coyotes.

Life is good!

Nice report, John! And a productive season! When does the sausage making start?

BKB

Now, that's a trip report!


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Who could ask for a better season than that?

awesome trip/season report!!!!

Nice report. A very successful season.

Great report, gives some of us quitters a reason to engage again...