Iowa Deer Shotgun Season One

Whitetail Deer shotgun season one opened here in Iowa last Saturday, December 3rd.

The weather was cloudy with temps in the mid 30's at the start of the day, wind was headed out of the south.

This year I can say Hubby has picked up the bow, and the shotgun to try his hand at" bringing home" the deer to put in the freezer, and avoid losing them to the local predator populations, which has been my plight in the past.

We headed out the door at 6:30 AM on day one to get positioned in our respective locations,since it wasn't very far for us to go to try our luck at the morning deer movement back into the timber from their nightly grazing activities.

On the way to my spot I raised a startled deer snort, and wondered  how many were standing within my range just before the sunrise. I was trying to decide exactly where I wanted to get out of sight and out of the wind.

I waited for the does and fawns to come feed in the yard,which had been a ritual since about the middle of October, of course it didn't happen that morning. If a buck or two happened along I certainly wouldn't turn down the opportunity to put a deer slug in their direction. Ah, yes, and making a lethal connection to the whole affair would have made my day...

Hubby's observation for that morning from the hub-blind had the deer deviating from their normal path too, which seemed pretty constant during the now closed first archery season.

We had company in the vicinity and heard guns going off consistently throughout  the day.

During a lull in the afternoon I moved our pop-up blind to a spot where deer  travel in all four directions, during the morning it is usually a north/south  movement, and the evenings, east/west. However, as you well know variables do come into play and spur of the moment adaptations do arise.

The late afternoon, when many others were shooting whatever they saw, I didn't try. Instead I waited and headed for the blind on Sunday, the second day.

Day Two

The forecast for dense fog was extremely accurate for the second day of  Shotgun Deer Season One.

Both Hubby, and I headed for the blind to get out of the drippy, wet air hanging over the State.

We saw shadows passing as three deer, 2 does and one buck cast a silhouette when the wind shifted the heavy moisture at brief intervals.

As we watched you could see the buck with nose to the ground following a scent trail - one of the does that moved passed was wearing a provocative perfume; at least to a buck.

We ended our first  sitting session about 7:45, after we felt that was the end of the morning passage.The light came up; however,the fog remained  until almost 11:00.Throughout the rest of the day you could see residual effects of temperature and moisture hanging in the air, moments of  tree top clouds dotted the timber.

Onto the afternoon...in the 3:30 time period, I was trying to get Sadie satisfied with food and attention so I could escape awhile.

Four o'clock rolled around. I grabbed my gun and headed off to sit alone this time. Leaving Sadie with Hubby as he spent his time working on our new abode, still in the construction phase.

What I hadn't counted on was our Miss Kitty trying to get my attention shortly after I had pulled the doorway zipper closed half-way. She started batting at the bottom of the blind, testing the structure to find an entrance, or maybe to get a response from me. Well, I didn't attend to her advances at that moment. I didn't want to make any sound.  Whoops! Mistake!!! She came lunging through one of the open corner windows. The curiosity of a cat was  keeping her busy for a few seconds,ultimately I knew what she wanted. Time to eat! Silly me and keeping things to a schedule. Deviations are not allowed according to my animal charges, that is if I want peace and quiet.

So, I ended my extremely short evening hunt to feed the animals and get some knitting done on a project I need done by Christmas. (Hopefully done by Christmas)

Come back tomorrow and see the turn of events that happened during the second morning hunt on day three of Shotgun Season one.