Mason, Lathe and I had a great gun opener. Lathe and I started the day off in the turtle overlooking a big crp field. The same field where Mason killed his deer last week. There are several nice deer around and I hoped Lathe would get a shot at one of them. Mason took an umbrella and set up down the fence row south of our position. Lathe and I remained dry and comfortable, feeling pretty bad about Mason being out in the elements. We saw a doe but Lathe didn’t want to shoot one at that time so we let her walk off. I called Mason to let him know deer were on the move and to check up on him. He said he was fine but that one of his gloves was wet and his hand was very cold and couldn’t get it warmed up. Seeing an opportunity, I suggested he head to the truck to get warm, and that if he decided to do so, he should circle to the south to move some deer out way. His path would put him walking through an area we always bump deer while bird hunting...
About a half hour later I get a text stating he had bumped a nice young 8, one we have a lot of pictures of, and that he was heading out way. First on the scene was a group of three does followed closely by the 8. Lathe said “there he is”, but didn’t do anything. I said, “ shoot him”! Lathe opened the window, stuck his gun out and busted the buck while he just stood there wondering what the heck was going on inside the big green egg looking blind. The trail was pronounced and short.
After loading up the buck, we headed off to do some pushes with me as the lone hunter still carrying a buck tag. Lathe and Mason put on about 8 miles. I saw around 25 deer, only three of which were bucks. One was nice and I probably should have shot him since the guys had put a lot of work into it, but I didn’t.
The rain and snow made it a challenging day but we all had a really good time. We worked hard and will sleep well tonight. Such a fun day, I wish we could do it more often.
