Thinking back to other bow openers

I sit here at this computer, staring at a blank screen, and contemplated today's topic. Remembering this year’s and past bow season openers is a walk in the park for the past 10 years or so, and on a few other key days.

Each of these bow opener was something special in its own way. Four year's ago, the opener provided sightings of several bucks but nothing within my 15-yard limited shooting range. That changed the second day when a big 8-point and a 10-point locked antlers within 10-15 yards of me and my pit blind. I shot the big 8-point, and it's the earliest buck I've killed with a bow in 25 years.

Two years ago I saw a massive 12-point and a big 8-point sail past my stand and only 12 yards away, but they were blocked by the first tiny snarl of tag alders. The deer would have provided shots had they not been in the tags. I knew the 12-point was there, and saw him six times during the bow season but could never get a high-percentage shot.

Seeing the big bucks and shooting one depends on one’s skill and luck.

I passed up five bucks on opening day that year, and eventually shot the big 8-point during the rut as he was chasing a doe. I killed the buck, but probably shot too soon because the 12-point was probably nearby. A rifle hunter 250 yards from me shot that 12-point on the second day of the firearm season.

The year of 1989 was when Michigan had perhaps the largest number of bucks in history. That year it was possible to shoot two bucks with a bow and two with a firearm, and does if you had the proper tags.

That year, on opening day, I saw seven different bucks within bow range and passed on all of them. I'd seen a big 10-point, and spent my time hunting him,  and in mid-November, just before the firearm season would start, I shot a big buck that weighed well over 200 pounds but he only wore spikes. Those spikes were formidable. They were as big around as a silver dollar and nearly a foot long.

It was that same year that I passed up 47 whitetail bucks within bow range during the month of October. I drew down on each one as if planning to shoot, but I let up and let the little guys live. I shot a pair of 8-points, a nine-point and that spike. It was an odd year; lots of bucks but very few racks of any size.

The bow opener has always been attractive to me. It's like the last-Saturday-in-April trout-season opener. I wouldn't miss either one.

This is a vitally important season opener for me.

It's a time when bucks of all ages are more gullible than at any other time of the hunting season. Recent bow hunts have been much more exciting than those of years ago, at least in terms of nice bucks. I did hunt last year’s bow opener but shortly after that injured my back  that had been messed up several years before, and it was a painful year for me. I hunted only five days last year, the fewest days in 59 years of bow hunting.

I remember well the 1972 bow-opener, and it was the first year the DNR offered Successful Deer Hunting patches. I wanted one bad, and was hunting near my old hometown of Clio, just north of Flint.

I had a pit blind dug at the base of a hillside, and right near the edge of a soy bean field. A fence-row behind me was crowded with sumac, and I sat in the pit and waited. It wasn't too long before a fat and hefty 8-point came feeding by within 20 yards. The buck stopped, turned at a quartering-away angle to watch some other deer, and my Shakespeare recurve came back and the arrow cut in and lodged against the off-side shoulder as the animal raced away.

My first Successful Deer Hunter patch from 1972.

The deer could have headed for heavy cover but he raced out into the middle of a muddy bean field and dropped. I slogged through the mud, tagged my animal, and skidded it out near the road where he could be loaded into the car. I drove him to a deer check station, had him checked, and obtained the first of what is now a complete set of Successful  Deer Hunter patches, and that complete set is now worth a very good chunk of money.

Other bow openers have come and gone, and for the most part, I no longer shoot bucks on the opener. Other than three years ago, and taking a second-day buck, I usually wait until the rut before shooting a good one.

Bow hunting means vastly different things to different people. I view it as the first day of the rest of my year that will be spent hunting deer. It is important to me because it marks a very special day in my life when everything in the world seems right and I revel in the glory of autumn.

Having a bow in hand is just the frosting on a bow hunter’s cake.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors