Last Saturday the 12th of November, Yet another Deer Season was upon us. In the pitch blackness of early morning. Dale, Jeff (Olsen) and I met to go and do our annual ritual of getting a deer. Now we aren't like alot of the hunters around here. We are out there for the meat, not the size of the antlers. I find antler stew kinda hard to eat. On this Saturday morning we planned to split up and Dale and Olsen went to the north end and I went to the south end. Well it started bad for me right off the bat. It seemed that 3 of the deputies had also decided to hunt but they were unsure of where the fence lines were. I graciously pointed to the fence in the north corner of where they were standing and said that over there is ours. I drove on up to the gate it is now starting to get alittle light out. I check my binoc's, my gloves, my rifle, my shells; poured me a cup of coffee and started to wait. Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. You stupid ass, you don't have your orange. It's a law here that you have to wear orange so other hunter's can see you. Well, we are on private land and I'm thinkin I can get by without it. Then I think I have county deputies a quarter of a mile behind me and who knows about those idiots. So I get on the walkie talkie and tell Dale I'm going back to town(a six mile drive) and get my orange. I also tell him about the deputies so he knows they are there. Off I go. Home get orange, put it on and off I go. Now I think I'm pissin off the deputies as I've gone past them now 3 times. They leave and we never saw them again.
The area we hunt is private land that Dale has hunted for at least 20 years. I have only been there 5 years. It must be an area of 640 acres plus. Divided up into 4 parts: CRP ( this is ground that at one time was farmed but the government (USDA) paid the farmer not to farm and now it is grassland) to the very west, hilly rocky canyon pasture ground all around a pivot field down in the valley in the middle of the whole thing. There is farm ground to the east. Which is either newly planted wheat or stubble each year. We also have permission to hunt the pasture that lays directly to the north of this ground. It also is full of ravines in the hilly rocky short grass pasture.
Now that you have an idea of the lay of the land I will continue. When I get back and start hunting from the south end. I walk directly to the west up this long hill. To the southwest of me is a deep rocky canyon, supposedly a hangout for deer. Not on this day. So I continue to walk down the draw that leads to the northwest. The wind is coming up. I come to the southeast corner of the CRP an decide to walk along the fence line up pass the wash out about the middle. I get to the middle and on my way I found a piece of flint. On the other side of the wash is a bunch of buck brush. I just have a feeling that there is something in it. I scope the hell out of it and find nothing. Finally I throw the rock in it and nothing happens so I cross the fence an walk the burm along the fence. The wind is building all the time. I hear the report of a 270 going off and know that Olsen has shot at something and only one shot so I'm assuming he got it. Then I hear the 22-250 go off only once and I'm assuming that Dale has gotten his deer and I am the one screwed without a deer. I keep walking the burm. I hear the 22-250 go off four more times. This tells me that we have a wounded deer somewhere. So now I am at the end of the CRP. I go back into the pasture to go and checkout two of our favorite draws. Now I am walking up and down some pretty steep grades. As my feet, ankles and knees aren't what they used to be it gets to be pretty slow painful going. I walk the north fence line going east. I finally get to where Johnson's fence line runs north and can see an orange vest out in the middle of that pasture. Then another 22-250 shot. I can now see my pickup at the south end, about a 2 mile walk and I can see Dales pickup to the east, about a mile and a half walk all up hill. Well I'm assuming that they have gotten the wounded deer so I decide to go to Dale's pickup. It turned out to be very bad going. As I was about 50 yards from the fence two does went whizzing by. I ran back the direction I had just come to try an get a shot but they had gone the other way. Now I wasn't hurtin during the adrenaline rush, but now that it is over ouch. Turns out Dale and Olsen had spooked the does on their way to the pickup. I slowly got to the pickup and was it ever good to sit down. Where's the schnapps bottle. Why in my pickup of course.
So the 3 of us start off to get Olsen's deer he shot a good size doe. We are in Johnson's pasture which we don't know that well so we are looking for a gate. We find one that isn't in the best of shape. We enter and much to my dismay decide that we need to close the gate. Guess what? Ya I'm ride'n shotgun. Out I get shut the gate. The doe is down clear on the other end of the pasture. So up and down and side to side we go watching for any hole or rock that might stop us. Get finally to the doe and finish cleaning her out and wash her really good. Load her in the truck and drive back a different way than we came in so as to check out the lay of the land. We get back into our pasture, as now I have only opened and closed 2 other gates. We decide to work our way back to my pickup. We then get a shot of schnapps after I open another gate, which I close get into the pickup only to decide to leave that gate open. So I get out and reopen that gate. At that point I am done. But that shot of schnapps helps me get talked into walking the original canyon of my journey one more time. We did an nothing. We go back to town, check in Olsen's deer, take it out to his house, hang it in the shed and go to Harvey's for a snorter. To be continued.........
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