Well another opening seasoning has come and gone and yet another memory filled year. Opening day of gun season here in Michigan. The memories are filled with hunting and non hunting experiences.
Some non hunting:
I cut my finger and received 7 stitches and have permanent nerve damage in that finger.
Sprained my ankle the night before and had to walk a half mile to the blind. I did bag a deer that morning!
I forgot my boots at home. Not cool well it was cold VERY cold. I washed a old blanket and wrapped them around my shoes when I went to the blind.
A buddy throwing his back out picking up his gun opening morning.
and this year.., I’ll explain later.
Some hunting:
I shot 2 deer with one shot, a button buck was behind the buck, luckily I had 2 tags!
Hitting a 9 point perfect, found a warm peace of heart and it having NO blood trail at all.
A 100 class deer a shot went over on the neighbors property and not letting me go and claim him.
a buddy misses a nice 6 pointer at 10 feet with his shotgun, the year before he dropped a doe at 120 yards with the same gun.
Now this year.
This year is no exception, my heart is heavy this year because a family member has cancer, it is in God’s hands and I know he will do what is best, but I still have my head in other places when I am in the woods, it is usually a release but this year I am bringing the problems with me.
I was already blessed with a doe during bow season and I have a great friend, Mark, that came home after 20 years and is back in the hunting game and want him to get a deer.
Both of us couldn’t go up opening morning because I was waiting on an update on my family member and Mark made an appointment to the doctors, so we decided to hunt at Green Acres, a place where I have bagged numerous deer and the land owner has no restrictions. A place where Mark can see deer and maybe get a shot at one.
Opening morning, we arrived got our sitting assignments and went to the blinds. It was about 20 minutes after shooting light and 9 or 10 shots in the distance I seen a huge spike, the antlers must have been atleast 10 inches and decided to pass on then about 20 minutes later…BANG! I know the shot came from the land owner’s blind. He came and got me and told me he shot a doe. I got out of the blind and about 20 minutes later we got the guys together and started looking.
It was a great blood trail then it looked like a EMS deer came to the woods, either patched him up or took him to the deer hospital, because the blood just stopped. We laughed about how strong the deer are in this area, bionic even, but could do anything about it, the land owner decided to call it so we went back to get our stuff ready for Deer Camp.
I started to put my hunting clothes in the bag, Mark asked “Hey have you I seen his keys.” “Nope” I answered and looked over at him. He had a blank stare, not good.
We took apart the entire truck. No keys.
We look to and from the blind. No keys.
We looked where we tracked the deer. No keys.
We searched for a good 2 1/2 hours yep you guessed it, no keys.
We decided that Mark had to take my vehicle to get a new set of keys. No worries, we had only a 2 hour drive to Deer Camp. Which I am looking forward to, I don’t get see 2 of my closest friends anymore and was looking forward on catching up and some good old fashion bantering.
Then I received a text.
It basically said that one of my closest friend, where we go to Deer Camp with had a blow up with his brother because he didn’t inform him that Mark was coming up.
I wasn’t surprised at his brothers actions, he is that kind of person but my heart sank.
Mark went up and helped us set up and repair the blinds on his own dime, my friends brother was a no show, he also hasn’t seen Mark 20 or so years, and now he has to throw his weight around was mad because he wasn’t informed?
I can go on and on about this but that is what happened in a nutshell.
I know what would happen if we would go up there, it would be a tense environment to say the least.
I decided to leave it up to Mark. When he came over I had everything packed and ready to go, I told him about the text and I could tell he was upset. So we decided not to have a tense Deer Camp and stay in town and go back to Green Acres.
My wife had some plans for a girls night at our house so we packed up my stuff and left for Marks house and to pick up something to eat.
We decided to eat at Five Guys now I don’t eat out a lot, this was my first time there. I know this isn’t a Ruttin Review but this place had the most incredible french fries in the world, a great burger, and they have Peach Sprite, my favorite soda. It was a place I will definitely come back too.
After we ate we went to his house watched a movie and went to sleep.
We went out the next morning and everyone was ribbing Mark about the keys. I seen that nice spike, again, I hope he is around next year, I thought to myself, he’d be a good addition to the wall posse. I said there were no restrictions but I have my own standards I will not shoot any buck with 6 or fewer points unless it is injured it has already been shot. Mark seen some deer but nothing in shooting range. Even though there was no deer taken, we had fun, I got Mark back in the hunting game. I will never let someone ruin my time in the woods, it might not be what I wanted to do but it will be another memory I will not forget.
Drive Safe!
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