Opening day of regular deer season in New York begins at sunrise on the 3rd Saturday in November. This year it came early on November 16 and sunrise was at 7:05 am.
I like to arrive in my deer stand an hour before sunrise, so that the deer have a chance to settle down before first light. The weather was clear, but quite cold. It was 15 degrees and weather.com reported that the wind chill made it feel like 2 degrees.
In the early twilight I saw a couple of does walking across my hunting field. It was much too early to shoot and they were like ghosts in the darkness. Sunrise finally arrived, and at 7:18 two does walked across the field in easy shooting distance. Unfortunately they were quite small and I decided to pass on them. I saw no other deer that morning and after 4 hours in the cold, I needed to go inside and warm up.
After lunch and a short nap, I returned to the hunting stand just before 1 pm. All was quiet for an hour and a half, but around 2:30 I saw a good size buck at the far side of the field - 108 yards away. I put the crosshairs of my trusty .308 hunting rifle behind his shoulder and released the shot. He jumped at the shot and went into the brush area between the fields. I was fairly certain of my shot, but when they run like that one becomes uncertain.
I waited about 10 minutes in my stand before heading across the field to track him. As I approached the place where I shot him, the massive blood trail eased all my doubts. It was a good hit and he wouldn't have gone far.
Here is a video shot the day after walking along the Buck's path.
The buck was easy to track and he gave up the ghost less than 15 yards into the brush. A nice 4 pointer with a big body. Lots of venison for the freezer!
Here I am diligently filling out the tag for the DEC.
We loaded the deer into the bucket of my tractor and brought him back to the barn for cleaning.
Here is the reason why the deer did not go very far. The top of his heart had been obliterated by my shot.
Another successful hunt and we will continue our tradition of having fresh venison as a side dish for Thanksgiving.