By: Mark Wallers Pre Rut Bow Hunt and Camping Trip Hello friends, I think that you will find this week's column a tad bit different with an interesting point of view thrown into it. If you disagree, that is fine, but be nice. w Wednesday, October 16 High 63, low 27 It's always a rewarding feeling bringing meat back to camp. My plan was simple, drive to the Durand area for a 3-night, 4-day bow hunting trip on the backwaters of the Chippewa River. This is a remote, very hard to get to location and if you are blessed with harvesting a deer, getting it out of the swamp can be a challenge. Rrst set back, I am driving on the interstate and my mood is excellent when I realize that I am one day off on the date that I have to leave for my Montana elk and mule deer hunt. Staying three nights on this hunt would only give me 48 hours at home before I have to leave. This hunt is now cut short to 2 nights. Here is the zinger for this hunt. On my elk and deer hunt, both Selina and I have deer and elk tags. I am thinking we are going to make some meat. What I would like to harvest on my Chippewa River hunt is a buck or a very young deer. Why a young anterless deer? Because the quality of the meat is absolutely incredible. Think about it this way, the taste of a 27-inch walleye compared to a 15-incher, a rooster compared to a young fryer, a steer compared to an old bull. On this hunt I paddle to where I set up my portable stand and I have seen some beautiful bucks here. On my afternoon hunt, I saw very little sign of the rut but was well past due to sit in a tree and watch the world. A half hour before dark, I had a very large doe cross a marsh and come right at me. I made and stood by the decision that she was going to live because I want a young deer or a buck. Thursday, October 17 High 72, low 35 ma I recently rebuilt my 14-foot duck skiff that had way too many leaks. Unfortunately, it still has a leak but as long as I pull it out of the water when I get to my stand and back to camp, I am fine. For myself the adventure is what I seek in my bow hunts. I am pretty sure that by this point in my life I could have found a cush situation for bow hunting and put a hurting on some big bucks but that would bore me. This morning I did not see a deer. This afternoon a humongous doe offered me an easy shot at 17-yards. She was actually smelling where my shoulder had brushed up against a tag alder branch. No matter what you think or do, they can smell you. This doe was the largest that I would have harvested in my life but she was given a free pass and I had no regrets. Despite a leak, this old duck skiff got the job done. Friday, October 18 High 73, low 41 My paddles to the stand are either going to the stand in the dark or back in the dark. As I have written in the past, I paddle by a beaver lodge and it is crazy funny and interesting how the local beaver family attacks me by splashing their tails in the water as loud as they can and in some cases I even get water on me. In the dark you have to have nerves of steel and keep on paddling. I am always on my stand a half hour before daylight and I have to admit that for this hunt, I was simply too early for the rut but had no choice as I am heading west. Just after daylight a young deer appeared from out of nowhere and was 7-yards away. It was too close to pull back on and '*• (I then was in the brush. I had no cares, but it was the kind of animal that I am looking for. The big, old stuff will come in Montana. i 1PJfcfo About an hour later I give a grunt on my grunt call and a deer i comes at me pretty steady from across a marsh and I am thinking, t’vjl tasty critter. At 10-yards I let an arrow fly that made perfect con- Ink * tact and thus my goal of a young deer was met. I hunted another 2 hours for a buck and had no luck. I dressed my deer, paddled it back to camp and in 45 minutes had it skinned, quartered and fOT* iced. In the future I am going to harvest more young deer as no matter what anyone tries to say, the quality of the meat super- ♦ffjffj sedes the 'I've gotta shoot the old, tough as leather goat' Montana and mountain adventure, here we come! ‘ Sunset A very curious pine squirrel. % vfewsottfVocessiHg MARK'/ EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER /“V ty « CHEVROLET Catering • Weddings Company Meals Family Reunions • Funerals 715-223-2777 smithbrosmeats Hwy. 13 South • Colby, Wl 54421 www.smithbrosmeats.com Klemme Sales Inc. 125-129 Second Ave., Stratford, Wl 54484 ph: 715-687-4511. fax: 715-687-4507 By: Mark Wallers Pre Rut Bow Hunt and Camping Trip Hello friends, I think that you will find this week's column a tad bit different with an interesting point of view thrown into it. If you disagree, that is fine, but be nice. w Wednesday, October 16 High 63, low 27 It's always a rewarding feeling bringing meat back to camp. My plan was simple, drive to the Durand area for a 3-night, 4-day bow hunting trip on the backwaters of the Chippewa River. This is a remote, very hard to get to location and if you are blessed with harvesting a deer, getting it out of the swamp can be a challenge. Rrst set back, I am driving on the interstate and my mood is excellent when I realize that I am one day off on the date that I have to leave for my Montana elk and mule deer hunt. Staying three nights on this hunt would only give me 48 hours at home before I have to leave. This hunt is now cut short to 2 nights. Here is the zinger for this hunt. On my elk and deer hunt, both Selina and I have deer and elk tags. I am thinking we are going to make some meat. What I would like to harvest on my Chippewa River hunt is a buck or a very young deer. Why a young anterless deer? Because the quality of the meat is absolutely incredible. Think about it this way, the taste of a 27-inch walleye compared to a 15-incher, a rooster compared to a young fryer, a steer compared to an old bull. On this hunt I paddle to where I set up my portable stand and I have seen some beautiful bucks here. On my afternoon hunt, I saw very little sign of the rut but was well past due to sit in a tree and watch the world. A half hour before dark, I had a very large doe cross a marsh and come right at me. I made and stood by the decision that she was going to live because I want a young deer or a buck. Thursday, October 17 High 72, low 35 ma I recently rebuilt my 14-foot duck skiff that had way too many leaks. Unfortunately, it still has a leak but as long as I pull it out of the water when I get to my stand and back to camp, I am fine. For myself the adventure is what I seek in my bow hunts. I am pretty sure that by this point in my life I could have found a cush situation for bow hunting and put a hurting on some big bucks but that would bore me. This morning I did not see a deer. This afternoon a humongous doe offered me an easy shot at 17-yards. She was actually smelling where my shoulder had brushed up against a tag alder branch. No matter what you think or do, they can smell you. This doe was the largest that I would have harvested in my life but she was given a free pass and I had no regrets. Despite a leak, this old duck skiff got the job done. Friday, October 18 High 73, low 41 My paddles to the stand are either going to the stand in the dark or back in the dark. As I have written in the past, I paddle by a beaver lodge and it is crazy funny and interesting how the local beaver family attacks me by splashing their tails in the water as loud as they can and in some cases I even get water on me. In the dark you have to have nerves of steel and keep on paddling. I am always on my stand a half hour before daylight and I have to admit that for this hunt, I was simply too early for the rut but had no choice as I am heading west. Just after daylight a young deer appeared from out of nowhere and was 7-yards away. It was too close to pull back on and '*• (I then was in the brush. I had no cares, but it was the kind of animal that I am looking for. The big, old stuff will come in Montana. i 1PJfcfo About an hour later I give a grunt on my grunt call and a deer i comes at me pretty steady from across a marsh and I am thinking, t’vjl tasty critter. At 10-yards I let an arrow fly that made perfect con- Ink * tact and thus my goal of a young deer was met. I hunted another 2 hours for a buck and had no luck. I dressed my deer, paddled it back to camp and in 45 minutes had it skinned, quartered and fOT* iced. In the future I am going to harvest more young deer as no matter what anyone tries to say, the quality of the meat super- ♦ffjffj sedes the 'I've gotta shoot the old, tough as leather goat' Montana and mountain adventure, here we come! ‘ Sunset A very curious pine squirrel. % vfewsottfVocessiHg MARK'/ EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER /“V ty « CHEVROLET Catering • Weddings Company Meals Family Reunions • Funerals 715-223-2777 smithbrosmeats Hwy. 13 South • Colby, Wl 54421 www.smithbrosmeats.com Klemme Sales Inc. 125-129 Second Ave., Stratford, Wl 54484 ph: 715-687-4511. fax: 715-687-4507
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