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   The long-anticipated gun season for deer arrived this past weekend. It was finally time to thin out the herd of deer that had been eating my wife’s flowers all summer long. The weather Saturday morning could not have been much better. A fresh layer of snow covered the ground making it easier to spot deer approaching through the timber. The temperature was near freezing with only a light wind. As I am the old guy of the group, I and one other person are designated blockers while the rest of the party walks hills and ditches driving deer toward us. At least, that is how it is supposed to work. In reality, part of the deer circle back to or between the other drivers and part of them exit the timber in unexpected places giving nobody a shot at them.

   Prior to the start of the hunt, we decided to only shoot does if possible since everybody has all the wall mounted deer they need or their wives will allow, and we were looking to fill our freezers. Since a person cannot eat antlers, we would let the bucks grow another year. On the first drive of the morning, nothing came out to me like they were supposed to. Damon was blocking a couple of hundred yards away on top of the hill at an alternate exit point. One deer ran by him appearing to be a nice doe. He dropped it with one shot only to discover it had little spike antlers. So much for our doe only hunting. Later in the day, we set up one of my favorite hunts. I stand next to a hedge tree while everyone walks a patch of timber toward me. From my vantage point, with the snow cover, I can see deer coming down the hill well before they break into the open. This gives me time to get in the ready position and pick out the deer I want. There had been a few shots from the drivers, so I was on full alert when I saw three deer breaking over the hill coming toward me. One was slightly larger than the other two, so I assumed this was a doe with two fawns. The edge of the timber is about fifty yards from my tree. There is a several seconds window as they run full speed across the open pasture before they go into the next timber behind me. I pulled up and was ready when the three deer came tearing down the hill directly toward me. I let the first two pass off to my right as I drew a bead on the larger deer. It dropped in its tracks when I shot.

   I waited for the drivers to come out in case they were pushing more deer. Damon was the first to approach my deer and did not hesitate to inform me, I had also broken the no bucks policy. I had not seen the little antlers on the four-point buck. He was a good-sized deer, noticeably larger than the does with whom he was running, unfortunately for him.

   The rest of the party showed up shortly to join in on the good-natured ribbing. I was well into the process of field dressing my buck when my knife slipped and made a nice clean cut across my thumb. I stood back and watched as they finished my deer, and I tried to stop the flow of blood.

   By the end of the weekend, we were well on our way to filling the freezers and the only mishap was one injured thumb.

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