Which Is Better: Opening Day Or Thanksgiving?

It's a toss-up whether Nov. 15 or Thanksgiving Day has been more productive for me on whitetail bucks. There have been a raft of deer taken on each day during more than 50 years of deer hunting.

Of the two days, I've always enjoyed shooting a buck on Turkey Day because it gives me more time to shoot a buck. The opener, for the 23+ years I was the staff outdoor writer for The Detroit News, was spent traveling around much of the state gathering information and photos.

The opener would always find me heading for the buck poles in many northern towns, talking to some successful hunters, taking a picture of them with their buck, listening to their stories and then writing a feature story for the following day.

Not much time to hunt Opening Day when I was on the clock.

The extent of my opening-day hunting was the first two hours of daylight, and if the story was done and sent in, the last hour of daylight could be the best time of all. Hunting wasn't my priority back then; getting photos and the story was the big deal. It's what put beans and bread on my table.

But there are a number of opening-day stories and a bunch of Thanksgiving Day stories when we'd have our traditional dinner about 7:30 p.m. And, thinking back, it seems pretty evenly divided between the two days when it comes to deer taken.

One year, after finishing my newspaper duties, getting the story written and sent to the paper, I was able to pull into a hunting spot about 4 p.m. I donned my Hunter Orange gear, grabbed my .264 Winchester magnum along with a handful of cartridges, and walked to my stand.

It was 4:15 p.m. when I got settled, and roughly 90 minutes of hunting time remained. Snow covered the ground, and deer tracks dotted the snowy ground wherever I walked. I sat in my stand which was nothing more than a jumble of logs with one at the proper height to sit on. Another fallen log was at just the right height to lay my left hand, palm-up, and rest the rifle's fore-end on my hand for a well-placed shot.

Time was running out on that opening day.

The minutes ticked slowly by, and soon it was 5:35 and not much shooting time remained. The thought of getting skunked on opening passed through my mind when I caught sight of some movement. A buck was seen walking through some snow-covered pines, and occasionally there would be a glimpse of white antlers.

The buck appearrf and disappearrf from sight, and then he stepped out of the pines and walked through a screen of tag alders. He stood just inside the edge, looked around as I checked my watch, and two minutes of legal shooting time remained. This was cutting a little too close for comfort.

The buck, now visible at 125 yards, was headed directly toward me. It's a shot I'll take with a rifle but not a bow, but I still preferred a broadside shot. The buck stepped out, heard a noise behind him, and turned part-way around, and offered a shoulder shot. The crosshairs of my Swarovski scope settled low on his shoulder and the trigger was squeezed. It was a nice 8-point, and a good opening-day buck back then, and it would still be a good buck today.

One year, about 35 years ago, I was hunting north of Flint. My buddy and I had scouted out some great areas, and although we both normally scored on bucks on opening day, that year he took a good buck on the opener and I was still hunting on Thanksgiving Day.

Shotgunning for a Thanksgiving Day buck.

We decided to drive a narrow woodlot near a farm field where we had permission to hunt. It was just me and him, and I'd driven his buck to him and now he was trying to repay the favor.

The woodlot was thick, perhaps 75 yards wide and 100 yards long. My position was at the down-wind corner closest to another patch of thick cover, and John circled way around and got upwind. He came into the woodlot and heading slowly downwind. He would shuffle off to the left side of the woods, stop and then angle back toward the other edge, stopping and starting as he went.

Somewhere ahead of him was a buck looking to avoid the oncoming hunter. John would go right, and the buck would go left, Back and forth they came, but he was judging where he had to go left to force the buck out to the right, which would put the buck in front of me with him on the other side of the cover where he'd be safe if I shot.

It worked. The buck, another nice 8-point, came sailing out of the woods and jumped a huge fallen log in front of me. I saw the buck leap, and my Remington Model 870 3-inch magnum shotgun swung ahead of the deer and the trigger was pulled. A full load of No. 4 buckshot hit the deer in the near-side front shoulder, and he folded up.

Deer hunting provides its memorable moments, and these are just two from a lifetime of memories. Perhaps another will be added to the memory bank between now and Thanksgiving.

Time will tell, not only whether my back is still up to it or whether a buck will show up and offer a shot. We'll see.

11-17-09_droblog_WhichIsBest:OpeningDayOrThanksgiving?_((tag: bucks, Dave Richey, deer, Flint, hunting, Michigan, opener, outdoors, pines, shotgunning, Turkey Day, woodlot))

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors