Opening Weekend of Deer Season

Our season opened up on Saturday, October 1st. The night before, I came down with the flu. Luckily it was only a 24-hour type, but I sat in my blind on opening morning with a fever, body aches, and trying not to puke.

The wind has been constantly out of the SE for the last 2 weeks which is not a predominant wind in Oklahoma, so we don't have but 1 or 2 locations that will really work for it. On the first, I sat in a ground blind on a funnel of young pecan trees that you, our readers chose during the pre-season. I didn't see anything besides a few birds and was glad to get home and rest.

Sunday evening I felt much better and Matt and I rushed to get in stand as our schedules were packed throughout the afternoon. I chose a climber spot and Matt took a ladder stand as his climber wasn't at his house. When we got to the parking area, there was one other vehicle there. We didn't think much of it as there is so much land there that the chances of seeing the other hunter(s) was slim. I get up in my climber about 4:45 and realize that I hadn't fully setup my camera tree arm so I couldn't use it without making a lot of movement and some noise. We have never sat in either location, so we were optimistic. About 6:45 I hear footsteps 100 yards in front of me. I stand and get ready to draw. Then I see it, camo is moving through the woods. He walks within 50 yards and I whistle. He yells back asking where I am. There goes my hunt. He says he's looking for his ground blind and proceeds to walk all the way to my left and about 150 yards out. He starts making a terrible racket; snapping large limbs, zipping the blind very quickly, thrashing about in the brush. A moment later, I spot him walking behind me now and there's another hunter with him. Why are they packing up at prime shooting light? They complete a full circle around me while stepping on every stick possible.

This is what makes public land so difficult. You never know when another hunter is going to crash your setup, setup with the wrong wind, or just show a blatant disregard for everyone and the woods. Given these points, I'm ready to shoot a monster spike. Below is a video recap of the hunts.