First year hunt in retirement, Multiple successes with Irony

[hueyjazz]

I retired this last April at 62 from a job I had been doing for the last 40 years.  I was responsible for building, maintenance of a few large facilities, their equipment and a very precise environment.  So, I was the guy.  It was hard to take off at work but I did have good people I hired and part of my parting gift was making sure they understood the operations and components of systems to a high level.  

I finally don't have to decide what season I will have enough time to participate in as before always I had limited time.  I would have to choose what days I could allocate between:      Bow, crossbow, gun or muzzle loader

Now this year I have all the time in the world to hunt and we've moved to our retirement home we purchase on the mountain where our land is.  I can walk out the door and hunt any season.  In my younger days I would walk miles in terrain.  This year I invited my SIL and likely future SIL of my second daughter to hunt our property.  Neither have hunted deer before but can shoot and I deem responsible.  I give a crash course to them on what I know of deer habits, this land, what to do and what not to do.  I put them in my two better stands.   This hunt is going to be about them and not me.  I'm not worried about getting in stand before daybreak or any of that.  Relaxed and casual for me so I radio them up and monitor if needed or questions and don't even go out.

10 AM during crossbow "future" bags a nice 8 point.  I have him wait in tree for half hour as he didn't see it go down.  I go out inspect, see major blood from lung and have him get out of tree and teach him how to track.  The deer doesn't get real far but it does go in a really bad direction.  I do have a new neighbor in a weekender cabin and deer has die in view of his back yard.  I get to meet the new neighbor I've never met.  It goes well. 

We dragged deer back deeper into property to gut deer.  First deer I ever gutted by pointing but he deer very well and SIL watched too.  Drag deer out to hang.  Put SIL back in his stand and I decide to hunt other stand thinking little hope after all the racket we must have made.  Wrong, nice buck.  My bow season over and I didn't spend two hours actually hunting.  SIL gets nothing but he only had the weekend to hunt and has to travel back home.  He said he would come back for opening gun.

Gun season, I put SIL in good stand and at 9 AM he scores a nice doe as he was lucky enough to score a DMP for our area.  Teach him how to track but this was one smart deer.  It walked down a creek for a while but it was still blowing major blood so I found a hint.  I liked the challenge and thing actual left creek and them came back and died in creek. 

This now makes the second deer I gutted by pointing.  Get it dragged back and hung and I decide to go up in a stand.  Twenty minutes later, bang.  I score a nice buck.   Now I do feel really good about all of this.  Mostly training two hunters in proper and safe ways to hunt with obtaining sucess on their first outing.  That's not normal here.  Camp North of me has four seasoned guys hunting and they have yet to score a deer.  (They had several beers with us admiring our deer.)

But the thing I find most ironic is having all the time I've ever wanted to hunt and only have spent 2 hours and 20 minutes this year.  I can't tell you how many passed years days and days were spent for zip and it always seem just a bit more stressful.  Not the hunt.  The before and after.  Even a bad hunt was better than a good work.

I kind of really want to hunt the Christmas Muzzle Loader on my back country skies.  But do I really need another deer.  $6 hamburger might say yes and I was kind of counting on hunting occupying more of my time.  Done other critters and I'm no longer interested in anything but deer.

[Otto]

Congrats on your retirement! It sounds like you know how to do it.  

You can always donate another deer to a food pantry!  So I would break out the XC skis and be ready. 

[ApexerER]

Awesome! Post some pics!!

[hueyjazz]

ApexerER

This is Son in Law in front of beasts.  Deer on left is his and the right is mine.   The "Future's" deer I wasn't able to get a shot of it until he started to skin it.  Really not presentable for all.

SIL actually lives in Greenfield.  He just moved there with my daughter from Long Island to an old farm house with a few acres but it's mostly coral.  I sent him back with my Rem 870 shot gun to look for a buck.   Any recommendations you can give?  How is hunting around there.  Pretty area.  I went to college in Albany.  Love SPAC.  Really love it now that I get curb service to concerts.  Got three booked for 2022 already.

[Moho81]

Awesome story man! 

[Steuben Jerry]

Congratulations on your retirement, and very awesome of you to use your season to take two new hunters under your wing like did. Big thumbs up!

I know exactly what you mean about having the time to hunt and then not hunting that much. My job was horrible to take time off of and the fourth quarter was always the busiest, almost impossible to get away. Used to really piss me off. After I retired 10/1, it took me a little over three weeks to get into hunting mode. I was worried I was losing interest. 
I am also looking forward to muzzleloader season and will also enjoy every day (especially weekdays) of rifle season until then!

Enjoy your time Huey!

[mlammerhirt]

Congrats all around!!
We demand pics.....j/k.
Pics of the harvest are always nice.

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[cdbing]

I noticed that the deer are hung from the front hocks. Is there an advantage to this?

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[mowin]

Congrats on the retirement and the success. 

[rachunter]

Congrats on the retirement!!!!



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[wolc123]

7 hours ago, cdbing said:

I noticed that the deer are hung from the front hocks. Is there an advantage to this?

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I am guessing because it is easier to get the hides off of them that way.

I hang them from the neck for that reason.  If it is a “special” antlered buck that I want to remove the cape from for a shoulder mount, then I flip them, after first removing the half of the hide behind the shoulders. 
 

I then hang them from a gambrel (like Huey uses) but attached at the tendons of the back legs, and remove the remaining front part of the hide, down to the base of the head.
 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by wolc123