Posted on: January 6th, 201009 Season at a Glance
As I was sitting in my very cold and wet tree the last night of bowhunting in MN I started thinking of the past season, and the first thought that came to mind was disappointment. This is only the second time in my life that I was not able to harvest a whitetail in my home state. Then I actually started thinking about all my hunts individually and yes there are some that were very uneventful but for the most part I actually had a decent season.
The state of MN decided to make my areas I hunt a one deer area this year which means either a doe or a buck but no extra management tags, that alone effected the number of deer I was going to be drawing back on in 2009. I am not one to pass up an opportunity at a mature doe and having to let I don’t know how many of them walk by was not an easy task. I knew if I shot one early I would regret it all season long so I made a deal not to shoot a doe until the month of December rolled around. I had a food plot that was getting destroyed but I also had a work schedule that didn’t want to budge through out the whole month of Dec.
I actually had more encounters with mature bucks this season than any other season in the past, that right there is an accomplishment in itself, the area I hunt is not public but very pressured private land and honing in on a mature whitetail can be tough. Sometimes us as hunters measure success by the number of animals we down in a season, which I am very guilty of but if we actually would weigh out all of the experience and knowledge we gain in any given season every year would be a success. Hope you all had “successful” 2009 seasons and I am looking forward to 2010