Dec 6

Written by: Clint Patterson
12/6/2011 5:38 PM 

Every now and then I need some entertainment. When that time comes I give Derrick Outen a call. This past Saturday morning we were lined up to go hunting with Derrick Outen. Derrick said he’d been getting some deer on game camera and felt sure someone in our group would get some action. The forecast promised a cold morning and it was very accurate.

We met up with Derrick at 5:30 in the morning. I thought that was a little early, but I had forgotten to budget in the time necessary to let Derrick bend our ears a little before heading out.  After our ears got warm we headed out.

Derrick and I were hunting out of a tall tower stand overlooking a food plot bordered by a cutover on one side and some woods on the other. The sun reflected off the ice that covered the trees, plants, and underbrush that surrounded us below.  We watched the sun rise while we scanned the field below for movement.  At a certain point the sun was shining directly in our eyes, the stand was facing east. For about 20 minutes I could only look left and right out of the sides of the stand avoiding the front of the stand where the brightness of the sun shined through.  Eventually the sun got high enough to where we could see out of all directions of the stand easily. It felt like it was time for something to happen. 

We surveyed the field looking for any movement. I would zoom in with the camera looking around the edges of the field while Derrick looked through his binoculars. Around 8:20 a hawk appeared out in front of us at about 80 yards and perched on a tree branch. The hawk would swoop down as if to catch something and then return to the branch. It did this several times so I decided to turn the camera on to hopefully get the hawk catching something on camera. I turned the camera on and got the hawk flying off and returning to the branch one time. Just a few seconds after the hawk returned Derrick said “look at those deer”. Sure enough two does had walked out in a shooting lane to our left while this hawk was chasing his breakfast. I rotated the camera over to film the deer as Derrick slid down from his chair into shooting position.

At first we weren’t sure if the does were going to be big enough to validate taking a shot. After looking at them closely we decided that the first one was decent enough size to make a shot. I had the camera in place and Derrick was ready to make the shot. As I looked through the camera I heard Derrick say “Are you ready” and I whispered back “yes”.  A millisecond after I said yes the deer was laying on the ground. Derrick wasted no time pulling the trigger after hearing that I was ready. The smaller doe scurried off with the loud booming sound of the shot. There was no doubt on this one. Derrick had a made good shot.

We sat in the stand for a bit to let the nerves settle a little and then we got down out of the stand. Getting down out of that tall stand is a process for me because I don’t like being up that high in the first place. I made a point to go slowly and after I got down I filmed Derrick as he got down from the stand as well to show the height of the stand.  We went over to the deer and loaded her up. Derrick says that he aimed at the base of her neck. I’m not so sure about that, but whatever the case is…he hit the deer at the base of the neck. The doe weighed 113lbs and we had another good morning in the woods.

Derrick came through again and I got my fair share of entertainment.

Regards,
 

Clint