I finally got tired of fighting wind and called it a good hunt, ending up with two and enough to make my sausage and jerky.
Today is actually the last day but the wind at 7 this morning was already wild and out of the worse direction ever for the area I hunt, which is smack on the highest area within maybe twenty miles. I was in the stand yesterday from about 10 on, hoping the deer were going to be on the movie when I left home but they were picking corn on an adjacent property until around 2PM and then the rain took hold in earnest and the SE wind really ramped up. I cut the bottom off a 55 gallon trash bag and slipped inside with just my head showing when the rain began to get blown into the covered stand I was in. Done that before and it works quite well to keep the bulk of the carcass dry. From the time they ceased with the noise in the corn until around 4 I had three bucks come thru but my buck tag was already history so I let them pass on to the nephew. WHO never even noticed them! Right at the end of shooting hours 9 does and fawns came out into the pick field only on the far side so no chances for shooting there.
On the way off the mountain I hunt on the atv trail I walk up on was now greasy mud. I managed to stay on center areas where the grass was intact and was fine with footing but as we descended the steep part of the hill I het an area of nothing but dirt[mud] and down I went. Thankfully I felt it coming and was able to go down mostly gracefully. The nephew was right in my tracks and before I could warn him he stepped right where I had and went down hard, but he landed on top on his rifle and the only rock in the whole area found his scope. Once we had gotten the stars out of our vision we looked his gun over and it wasn't good. A large dent in the scope body and rattling sounds inside ended his hunt for today so he too called it a season with no deer and a spendy scope to replace.
The heavy duty wind and early high temps really screwed the season this year. We had one day with what I would call decent hunting conditions and that was the fifth day, the day I got my first doe tag filled using the pistol. The third day, the day I filled my buck tag, was actually not a bad day after a weather front came thru and got animals moving late in the day. Out of nine days of hunting the fifth day was the only day we had with a manageable wind.
All in all it wasn't an all bad season and I spent more time afield than I have in the past. I love being in the woods and just can't seem to get enough of it. Must be getting old. I did real well with climbing and copd and a new medication and additional inhaler. I'll be 70 in a couple weeks and hope my health and lungs hold out for another fall in 2021.
