2012 Season

Finally--The 2012 deer season is almost here!!!

We're getting started early this year in Arkansas--September 15th. Last year, the first day of archery was October 1st.

This year has been very different for us. In past years, we have hunted our land (40 acres/pasture) and a connecting neighbor's land (40 acres/timber). The neighbor's land is where we have our food plot and where we have always concentrated our efforts. In the past few years, the hunting pressure has really increased in this area--I even had the one Tom I was watching get poached this Spring :( That incident, along with more people in my neighbor's family hunting his land (I totally respect that), we made a last minute decision to join a lease.

Instead of joining one of the leases close to our home, we found a lease in a Northern Arkansas county, about 1.5 hours away. This county has a reputation for bigger Arkansas deer...we'll find out, hopefully! Here is one of the mountain top views from the lease:

The lease is 5300 acres with around 40 members. For the past two weeks we have been going up there on the weekends and scouting around. After hiking our butts off like two mountain goats, I think we finally picked our stand spots. They're both very far into the lease, located on a funnel and near a natural spring. Our "theory" is to walk farther than anyone else is willing to in the hopes of finding a very low-pressure area (Hard to find in AR).

After finding our spots, we put some corn out and managed to get a few pictures.

If you're one of my Mid-Western friends, I'm sure you consider these guys small. I will pass on the one on the left side...but I'm afraid I will be going after the one on the right! And I'll be very happy about it, too! Lol. I do have two buck tags though, so my plan is to get my first one out of the way and then use the rest of the season to concentrate on getting the biggest one possible. I can't wait!!!


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Bear Hunt--RAWHH

The most exciting hunt I ever had was black bear hunting at our property in Parks, Arkansas. This was my husband's first bear hunt too, so we were complete novices. A month or two before season opened, we set our bait spot and readied our trail cameras. Within forty-five minutes of setting out bait for the first time, we got pictures of a big bear. With beginner's luck, we continued to get pictures almost every day up until the season started. It is hard to describe the feeling I had that first morning as we walked into the bait site, everything still pitch black outside. My imagination ran wild--I pictured a huge bear sitting there eating breakfast and us walking right into it. To my relief, we made it to the site and climbed up our trees with no issues; however, I will admit that I was climbing that tree as fast as I could go.

Before the sun rose, we could hear a lot of rustling underneath us. I was squinting down into the darkness trying to make out a figure when a wicked growl sounded. I jumped so hard I think my heart skipped a beat or two. Low growls and scuffling continued underneath us as the sun began to rise. As daylight broke, our ferocious bear turned out to be two raccoons fighting over the corn pile. The bear from our camera never showed back up again, but we did come home with a lot of laughs and a good story.

My first deer...finally!!

Finally, in October of 2011, I made a great 30 yard shot on a doe. By this time I was shooting a BowTech Heartbreaker at 53#. If this doe would have been a target I would have scored a 10 or 12. I could not have been happier with my shot. As she went crashing into the thicket, I could barely contain myself. Mikey was videotaping and we were full of "high-fives" and hugs. I think he was just as excited as i was. After waiting a few hours, we went to search for her. There was a good blood trail, but after about forty yards it disappeared. After searching throughout the night and over the next few days, we never found my doe. I was devastated. I cannot remember any other time in my life where I felt that disappointed in myself. I had convinced myself that my third year of hunting was finally going to pay off and now I had blown it.

At this point, I relented to Mikey and went rifle hunting. I badly wanted my first deer to be a bow kill, but I was ready to get some meat in the freezer. We went to our rifle stand that following Saturday. Like clockwork, a large doe came out at around 225 yards. I looked through my scope, long enough to determine that she was a doe and not a spike, then pulled the trigger of my .270. She dropped in her tracks. I could not believe it was over so fast. We spent the rest of the day showing her off to my family, taking pictures, and posting my story online. I wanted the world to know that I had killed my first deer; the streak was over.




My first deer

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