Recently I alluded to not being able to hunt. I didn’t want to say much at the time because I had a concern of people knowing I wouldn’t be living at my home. I moved into my mother’s home in early October while my sister was dealing with a surgery and staying elsewhere to heal. It must be remembered of my mother’s bad stroke in June.
I didn’t hunt the early muzzleloader season. I managed to go out once in the fall turkey season with success. I failed to hunt the bear season. However, it felt good enough to leave the home to go out for deer on the first day of the 2024 deer season. My mother encouraged the hunt saying she would be fine. I planned a half day hunt.
That first morning I would see plenty of deer including five bucks. I almost shot one legal buck but decided against the action. I guess I wasn’t in the hunting mode for once the deer was identified as a legal buck, the crosshairs were in place and the safety was off. I passed on several antlerless shots too.
I would see a flock of turkeys and hear a pair of Great-horned Owl’s courting. Later I would second guess my decisions. I heard a Screech Owl, too. At one time, I heard running deer. It was a doe being chased by a four-point buck. The two came right to me.
December 2, I was out to hunt again with a different hunting mode in place. I would harvest an antlerless deer. I saw a number of deer that morning, too.
I returned home on December 4 upon my sister’s return. The deer was butchered and ground into burger by December 5th.
Larry A. Smail's Blog 
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