Geezer’s Corner: Hunting Season

Here in Idaho, it is hunting season. Archery season generally starts the 1^st of September and runs through the end of September and then it is the General rifle season from the 1^st of October through the end of October. It’s the time of year when everything takes backseat to the annual hunting trip. Try to get a court date this time of year and you’ll find yourself waiting until the end of hunting season, everything is on hold.

When I was going to College, I took an archery course for a PE credit. We were using long bows (that should tell you how long ago it was) and I was amazed as to how accurate they were. So it seemed to be a no brainer many years later when my sons talked me into going hunting with them during archery season. My youngest even had a spare bow he loaned me.

The bow he loaned me didn’t look anything like the long bow I had used several years ago, and it was a little harder to pull than the long bow. With a little practice though, I felt like I was good to go archery hunting.

We had scouted the fields around our town so we knew where all the big bucks could be found, we thought. When hunting season started, there wasn’t a buck to be found anywhere near their old haunts. Early one morning we finally found two smaller bucks in the National Forest. We watched as they climbed a slope and settled in on a rock ledge that overlooked the valley below.

My youngest son thought he could trek over to a ridge that ran perpendicular to where the deer were sitting and then drop down on them from above. My job was to hide behind a ridge below the rock shelf where I couldn’t be seen by the deer in case they got spooked and tried to run down the side of the hill.

From my hiding spot, I could see my son climbing on the hill above where the deer had settled in, but I couldn’t see the deer. As I watched him carefully descend the hill, I suddenly saw him start frantically waving, and I took that as a sign that the deer were moving. I knocked an arrow and drew my bow as I stepped forward to view what was happening on the other side of my hill.

As I stepped forward, I heard crashing in front of me and suddenly it looked like a huge herd of deer (actually probably no more than three or four) was coming down the hill right at me. I knew I was going to get trampled to death, but I was going to take one of them with me. I let my arrow fly, and it drove straight into the ground. I don’t know whether it was the sight of me or the sound of my arrow hitting the brush, but the deer suddenly veered to the right and were gone.

That was my first and last archery hunt. I’ve been hunting a few times since then, but always with a rifle. With a rifle, you don’t have to fear being trampled, the deer are always several hundred yards away. In my experience they have been so far away that you can’t even see them.

Have fun you intrepid hunters. I’ll get my hunting thrills these days from the Discovery Channel.