One Season Ends & A New One Begins

As deer season comes to a close in North Carolina, I can't help but reflect on how things went for the year. What could I have done differently? What will I do to make next season better? It was also the close of a short chapter in my hunting career as the time has come to expand my hunting locations and begin to explore the vast opportunities available across the country.

When I first moved to North Carolina, I was blessed by a family who invited me to hunt on their ranch. I got my first whitetail deer during my first morning hunting there as deer after deer passed in front of me until I was mentally ready to take one for the first time. So many in fact that I began to take for granted the vast opportunity for the does available every time I went out hunting that year. Because of this, I became hyper-focused on waiting for the big bucks I kept hearing about from the property owner and ended up letting many does pass me by. It wasn't until the end of that season that I took another doe to help add to my freezer.

This left me overconfident for this year as I planned to fill my doe tags early before even thinking about getting a buck off that property. Unfortunately, what awaited me this year was silence. Nothing came through despite the flood of deer from the year before. I was even given permission to put out deer corn toward the end of the season and it still didn't help. After some investigation around Christmas, we came to find out through signs on the property and checking old trail cam photos that there apparently had been trespassers that had gone unnoticed crossing the property. I failed to recognize this issue because of activity going on this year on other parts of the property involving college students doing an experimental chicken-raising project. I had mistaken the strangers I had seen on my trail cam earlier in season for these students. Sadly, it seems that they may have contributed to scaring away deer from this perfect corridor between the forest and the lake at which the tree stand was facing. If this was the cause, most of my visits to the tree stand this year were in vain. This only helps to prove that the one deer I did get (read Where God Wanted Me) was truly a blessing from God.

While a new fence was erected to prevent this problem from happening again, I likely won't be back to this stand except for possible doe tags toward the end of next season. The time has come for me to venture out to new hunting spots. Not because this spot has been ruined, but because the rancher's grandsons have started to come of age to hunt here. It's time for me to step aside and allow the next generation to hunt the stand in this great spot. I'm sure I'll be returning with my own kids when they're ready, but it is time for bigger and better things. I feel blessed that I have had the opportunity to cut my teeth on whitetail deer here these two years and am overly grateful for the hospitality this family has provided mine. Regardless, I'll still continue be spend a lot of time at this ranch going forward as I get all my eggs and meat from this rancher, and my eldest son is friends with one of the rancher's grandsons. This family has been one of the great blessings we've been granted by moving to North Carolina.

So what's next? I've had my eyes set on a few things that I'm eager to jump into. For one, I've had an interest in growing my community and getting involved in conservationist activities through hunting clubs. I've also been looking into public land that I can camp on and try hunting by tracking deer to their central location. Something I have been unable to do on the limited space of private land. Most importantly, I am ready to jump into the challenge of bow hunting. I still plan to rifle hunt on land where my hunts require long-distance shots, but for my local hunts, I want to venture into the sport of bow hunting. This will also enable me to hunt areas that were previously off-limits for rifle hunts.

But deer season isn't the next hunt on the list. Now I am now entering into fowl hunts with duck, quail, chukar, and of course my favorite; pheasant. That combined will take me through February. Then I have turkey season in April. Considering turkey is how I got started with hunting, I've been very much looking forward to it all year.