First Deer Season

As my first deer season approached I needed to make sure that I had all my “hunting gear” in order. I was fortunate enough to find a couple of yard sales that had some Under Armour cold gear, base layer cover!  That is a must have for those cold days in the blinds. My mother in law bought me some brand new Red Head button up shirt and pants, I'm going into my third year of hunting and they are still like new. Last I found a great deal at Bass Pro shop on Red Head boots water proof and 450 grams to keep my feet warm.  Below is a picture of me and the family I’ve got all my new camo and I’m ready to get after some Whitetails! And I cannot forget my camo and orange reversible beanie, GO VOLS! We all used rifles that first year, a couple of Browning’s and I used a Remington 7mm bolt action. This was a gun that my grandfather-in-law had used and now I was using it. Solid, solid hunting rifle being that I had never shot it before it was very easy to use and shoot straight and accurately.

I nearly drove my wife crazy that first year to get EVERYTHING that I thought I “NEEDED”. We hunted the entire week after Christmas. Mainly hunting from shooting houses and a Ameristep pop up blind. Depending on the weather I really prefer the house, it keeps a lot of the wind off you and you can move around and little bit more without the deer seeing you.  As for the first 3-4 days we really did not see much a few does and turkey’s but no shooters. Being that I had not hunted before of course I wanted my first deer to be a “MONSTER”.  So I decided to wait on my big buck to walk out to take my first shot. I figured that in a week I would have plently of time to get a nice buck and at least one doe. Boy was I wrong! In the state of Mississippi you are allowed to harvest 3 bucks and 5 does in a hunting season.  That entire week we did not even see a buck that you could legally shoot. A legal buck in MS in the county that we hunt has to have a 10” inside spread or a 13” main beam.

My cousin-in-law actually had a shooter come out in his food plot on the 5^th day and was able to get 2 shots off at him. We waited about 15 minutes and texted him to ask if he had hit the deer and if we need to come help. He let us know that it was a big buck and that he shot and the buck jumped and kicked then took off. (Usually a good sign) We had to of tracked that deer for 2-3 miles with a blood trail the entire way. After what felt like about 5 hours we decided to give up on the deer that day and head back in and come back out that next morning and pick up where we left off. Again the next day tracked and tracked and we came up with nothing. We never found that deer so, we are hoping that it was just a flesh wound and Mr. Buck ended up being ok. That first year I had set out to just try out hunting and see if I liked it. It only took one week and the “Buck fever” had me and there was no looking back after my first year.