THE DAY BEFORE THE OPENER - 11/14-08

THE DAY BEFORE THE OPENER- 11/14/08

Today is the state-wide “Day of Anticipation” here in Michigan. The firearms portion of the state-wide whitetail deer season opens tomorrow, November 15, as it does every year. Personally, I get a bigger challenge from hunting deer with a bow and arrow than I do with a gun, but I’ll still be out there in the swamps before sunrise on the “opener” as everyone calls it.

I’ve been on the phone to my hunting partner Duane several times today, making last-minute changes to our strategy for tomorrow morning. We have been hunting together for many years, and the sense of anticipation just gets more intense each year.

We do not hunt from permanent hunting blinds like so many others in this area. Instead, we carry backpacks and sit out in the open alongside natural cover like fallen logs, uprooted tree stumps, brushpiles, or simply sitting beneath the branches of live spruce trees. In 2006 I shot a fine eight-point buck while hunting in this way.


I remember one year when I got settled in far out in the cedar swamps on the Stonington Peninsula, east of here and shot a buck within a minute or so of the legal shooting time (thirty minutes before sunrise). My season ended so fast I hardly had time to enjoy it!

This year is a little different. Most years have something that sets them apart from the rest. We will be hunting far back in the marshes and swamps well past the end of an old logging road – out in the open as usual. We will use deer calls, scent that is supposed to attract deer, and we’ll rattle antlers as we do when bowhunting. These actions are all geared toward getting a buck to pass near enough for a shot. But… if you think this is a couple hunters just trying to fool a dumb animal into making a mistake, think again. This is a hard way to hunt, and the deer are a lot better at surviving than a hunter is at killing them.

The final part of the hunt is the chance to see other hunters – Duane has five brothers – and swap hunting and fishing stories that have transpired since the last season. Glenn will bring big jars of pickled eggs up from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We’ll sit around the woodstove out in brother Tom’s garage, Bruce, Larry, and Jim will show up on the evening of the 15th, and we will laugh, swap tales, and strategize about what we’ll do on the 16th.

I wouldn’t miss this for anything! I’ll post something on Monday the 17th. See you then.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008