What a Year
Once again, my favorite time of year has come and gone like the breeze.
Another season full of highs and lows, triumphs and mistakes, good choices and bad, they are all now in the rearview, waving goodbye as I head on full steam towards the 2024 season. All the plans that came to fruition, the adventures, the laughs, and the tears, are gone. There is no time to dwell on what I could have done better or what I wish I could change. There’s only time to look ahead.
Well, maybe I have a second to look back.
I am one of those guys that logs and journals each hunt throughout the year. I track my stats and write a brief story every time I leave the woods. That way, at the end of the season, I get to look back, tally up all my stats, and relive some of the best moments in my head. I can look at my mistakes, learn from them, and plan not to repeat them.
So here is a breakdown of how my 2023 deer season looked statistically:
38 Whitetail hunts
4 complete days mule deer hunting
151 hours spent in the woods
3 states
63 doe encounters
15 Buck encounters
3 kills
2 bucks
1 doe
5 big bull elk
I am very fortunate to have a job and supervisors who allow me to take off whenever I please, as long as I have the time saved. So naturally, I save up all my time for October and November.
The year started with some early struggles. I struggled to decide where I would hunt, which property, which deer, and public or private. As October rolled around, I killed a deer I had on camera all summer, and it was a huge relief. My best buck to date fell early and gave me time to breathe.
I followed that deer up with a public land hunt, where the rutting bucks chasing through the pines burned the sights and sounds of that morning in my memory forever.
Another short week went by, and I struck out for New Mexico, tagging along with a buddy on a mule deer hunt. That trip was full of rugged country, and a bunch of elk sign. We were unsuccessful in the end, but the lessons learned were invaluable.
Shortly thereafter, we left for an old-school deer camp in North Alabama. Hunting the low-density mountains proved to be a real challenge in several ways. The country was much more rugged than what I was used to, and the deer acted differently than what I was used to. A frigid bluebird day brought some high winds and led to a slip hunt, easing up a logging road and looking for a deer doing the same thing we were doing. As a small 8 blew and bounded off, I whiffed, and my buddy had to clean me up. He made a running shot that rolled the buck like a rabbit stretched out in front of a pack of beagles. The excitement of having success following a week of struggle was the highlight of my season.
A group hunt with good friends was a great way to end the year. The winds were high and cold, but as prime time rolled around, the shots cracking off in every direction made me laugh. I ended up killing the biggest of six does I saw, and I couldn’t help but smile when I got to drop the hammer of my old Henry .45-70.
As I sit here and reminisce on this past season, I cannot help but thank God for every moment that I got to experience. The fact that I get to live in a place and time where I can travel the country and hunt in His creation is a blessing. Each moment of success is just icing on the cake. So, with that, I close the 2023 season for myself and have nothing but high hopes for the one down the road.