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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How It All Started

Growing up, I often went hunting with my dad. I loved getting to spend the time with him, but I hated the cold. As I got older, I hardly ever went hunting anymore. Instead, I showed horses, did pageants, and was a cheerleader for my high school as well as an all-star competition team.

It was while cheerleading in college that I met my now-husband, Mikey. He practically lived outdoors; if I wanted to spend time with him I was going to have to learn to love the things that he loved. Our first dates often consisted of fishing, but when deer season rolled around it was a whole new ball game. Mike would beg me to go hunting, but I was reluctant. I kept reminding him that I was not a cold-weather person. He finally suggested bowhunting. Since Arkansas bow season starts in October, the temperature is typically around eighty degrees--sometimes even higher. There was no way I would be complaining about the cold.

I agreed that I would give it a try. The summer of 2008 we got married and I bought my first bow, a PSE Chaos. We shot 3d tournaments all summer to get me ready. I practiced nearly every day in order to gain enough strength so that I could pull back 40# (AR legal limit) by that fall. I even practiced inside my house. I discovered that my hallway is conveniently twenty yards.

Over the next three seasons I hunted fiercely. I was working a full time job and going to school, but I always found time to be in the stand too. If it meant going to work at four or five in the morning so I could get off earlier to make it to my stand, that is what I did. After three seasons, I never got a good opportunity at a deer. The closest I ever came was killing an armadillo.

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