Season Summary

The 2013 hunting season turned out to be a great year of hunting. The season started off quickly but as soon as we switched gears to Vermont momentum came to a screeching halt. That doesn’t me we didn’t have fun, we just didn’t kill any deer. In case you missed the updates during the year, here’s how it all went down. 

September 22 – My fifth time out for the year and first time in this particular tree. I had a run-in with a deer I named “The Snorter” from this same location on the previous hunt but I was standing on the ground. I had arrived late but about an hour after I settled in this nice little doe walked underneath my stand. After going deerless the year before, I decided she was worth shooting. To Read the full story click here: NH Archery: Hunt 5 – First Deer 

September 28 – It was a beautiful early fall evening and Dad, Josh, and I were all out hunting together. I was hunting a new set up a decent distance from Dad and Josh who were only a couple hundred yards apart. It was a slow evening until Dad let us know he had just shot a buck. At the time, this was fantastic news since the last time he shot a buck the Red Sox won the World Series. But, just like the forthcoming World Series, the search for this buck wasn’t without its tense moments and it appeared the recovery of the deer and the Championship was in jeopardy. The shot was good but the arrow reacted strange and deflected up in to the neck of the deer. We learned all of this the next morning when we found the deer just as thoughts of giving up the search started to creep into our minds.  The deer had run about 300 yards and appeared to have died on the run, but he hardly bled which made the search difficult. To read the full story, click here: NH Archery: Hunt 7 -Dad’s Buck 

October 23 – After a brief hiatus from the New Hampshire woods to chase deer in Vermont I was back and in a sweet set up. The little wind blowing was perfect and the woods were dead quiet. Late October is a perfect time to call, especially with a doe-in-estrus type call. Just before dark this little fella responded to one of my calls. Until then I was fairly confident that I was going to wait for a bigger buck, but then he presented me with a shot. So I shot him. I thought it was an awesome hunt but not many people read my story about it. I’m not sure what that means, but alas, I continue to write my stories, if not for my own satisfaction. To read the full story, click here:  NH Archery: Hunt 8 – My Archery Buck. 

November 13 – Opening day of Rifle season in NH was perfect. It was cold and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, and Dad and I were in position at first light waiting for THE BIG ONE. About an hour after legal light I heard Dad shoot. At first, we couldn’t find much sign but a little while later we were standing over him. Two hours later I shot a deer of my own, a small four-point, that I stumbled across on the way back to the truck. I was half filled with regret for shooting another small one but once the biologist told me it was a 2.5 year old deer I felt much better about myself since the rack was so small. Of course, I didn’t know that when I shot but it still made me feel better. I guess I was just living for the moment and our first ever double! To Read the full story, Click here: NH Rifle: Hunt 1 – Double Up! 

November 16 – December 15^th – Vermont Rifle and Muzzleloader seasons were, shall I say, uneventful. I did see a spike (twice) during the muzzleloader season which brought my season total of deer to 5 (4 really, since I counted the spike twice). Let’s just say the season wasn’t packed full of deer. The good news? I could tell from a hundred yards away that the spike weighed about 4 pounds heavier than his predecessors 10 years ago so I couldn’t be happier. However, 5 deer in approximately 60 hours of hunting leaves me at .83 deer for every 10 hours in the woods, well below the state average of 2.52 in 2012. Oh, and four of the five deer were in groups of two…so that means I was probably only looking at deer for 10 minutes out of the 60 hours in the woods. So 99.7% of the time I was looking for deer, not looking at them. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute in the woods, I just hardly saw any deer.   

And that sums up my time in the woods this fall. There were other highs and lows but nothing that doesn’t happen to every hunter during the course of a season. I don’t spend much time in the woods during the offseason, due impart to the fact that I use up all my brownie points in the fall, but if I happen to get out I’ll be sure to share my experiences with you. Thank you all for taking the time to read my stories this past fall. I can’t wait to share my stories this coming fall. Only 8 months to go…

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