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Another Bow Season is Behind Us |
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Written by Webmaster
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November 1, 2006
It's November 1st, 5:15 p.m., 54 degrees, overcast with a 12 mph north wind. I like it. Colder would be better, but there is a definite chill in the air and I'm not griping.
I'm actually sitting at my parent's kitchen table right now looking out over the pasture down in the creek bottom and watching two small bucks feed in food plot about 400 yards away. I came over to check my cameras and do a few things around here this afternoon and I figured I'd stay until dark and watch for deer from their house. Wow! Just as I was typing that sentence I glanced up and saw a deer running full speed ahead from down a hill into the pasture and into my line of sight. I grabbed my binoculars and literally leaped to my feet. It was a doe and when she reached the wheat she slammed on the brakes and looked back behind her.......and nothing else followed. Whew, that got me excited for a second though. I just knew I'd see a big buck come barreling in behind her.
Well, the title says it all. The Texas bow season is over. It ended last Saturday and there is a dead week of no deer hunting between it's closing and the opening of gun season this weekend. I didn't take the time to give an update during bow season simply because there was nothing exciting to write about. I did a good amount of hunting and while early on I saw almost no deer, the movement picked up as the days passed and I ended up seeing a lot of deer on almost every hunt, by the last week of season. Amazingly enough however, I never managed to get a mature doe within bow range! I had many young bucks and two fawn does in bow range but never anything mature. I had several hunts when I had a large group of does feeding on my wheat and getting close but never close enough for a bow shot. Oh well, that's bow hunting!
As I mentioned in my last entry, I've been getting photos of a couple very nice bucks and I've gotten many more photos of those bucks since I first mentioned them. However, the three mature bucks seemed to have disappeared in the last two weeks, which really isn't a surprise. In late October the buck's patterns really start to change and they seem to move further up and down the creek bottom as they start to prepare for the rut. The good news is I'm sure the bucks are still around and hopefully one of them will present himself during gun season. Only time will tell.
Saturday morning is the gun opener and hopefully the temperatures will remain fairly cool and the north wind will stick around. Depending on how the deer movement is, I will probably go ahead and try to kill a doe this weekend. We need to kill as many as possible but I will sometimes wait until after opening weekend to start shooting them. I've got high hopes a big buck will show himself and it's sometimes hard to pull the trigger on a doe when you think a buck might step out behind her. However, you can't wait forever and if you are going to kill does, you can't wait till December to start shooting them.
Ok, I've rambled long enough for now. Andrew and I are not only gearing up for the Texas gun opener, we are getting ready for our trek north around November 18th for the Oklahoma gun opening weekend also. More details on that trip in my next entry. Take care and good luck in woods.
- Jason
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