Friday, September 23, 2011

All the work comes into play with tomorrow's archery season opener

It is now D-Day-Minus One as tomorrow marks the start of Ohio’s long archery deer-hunting season.

For nearly two months I’ve been preparing for this season. Maybe a bit too much.
Certainly more than I have in the past, and that has me pretty tired all ready.

There are even a couple of unresolved details to iron out. Included is the need to stuff my go-to backpack with all of the essentials for a couple-hour stint to be spent in one of my three grounds blinds.

Yep, you read that correctly, three blinds, each located in a separate county and each accompanied by a Moultree electronic game feeder. And they are each filled with 200 pounds of shelled corn.

The first blind/feeder unit was made operational in August, the second on Labor Day and the third, just yesterday.

I even posted a trail camera at the first site, the camera not exactly an expensive model. It is good enough, however, to have captured reoccurring images of several deer. Among them have been a four-point, a six-point, and an eight-point buck.

Along with a few does and their respective tribe of fawns, some of which have yet to fully lose their spots.

Not to worry, neither Bev (my wife) nor I intend to shoot a spotted fawn.

Oh, yes, I did mention Bev, didn’t I? If I haven’t she is one of the reasons for the placement of three deer-hunting ground blinds. There exists a need to diverse the opportunities.

Then too, not only will I be assisting Bev I’ve also pledged time to my 83-year-old father-in-law who has booked a flight next month from his Florida home. He wants very much to shoot a deer with one of my Horton crossbows, having failed to connect during last year’s acorn-rich archery season.

And my son-in-law is arriving from his home base in Tennessee to hunt with me as well. That week-long effort will commence during the second week of November, right at the tag end of the rut.

Gabe fashions using his new Matthews compound bow instead of one of my Horton crossbows. That’s fine by me.

Even so, I’ve had to get ready some more deer-hunting stations to accommodate the added task of enabling both my father-in-law and son-in-law to hunt. So I’ve placed both morning stands and evening stands, complete with their own game feeders, fabric ground blind,s folding camp chairs and other amenities.

As one friend opined; I’m not just a hunting guide, I’ve become an outfitter. Fair enough, I think.
S
ure it’s been a lot of work to get ready for Saturday’s four-month-long archery deer-hunting season. I’ve had to not only buy and assemble two of the Moultree feeders I’ve also had to purchase another ground blind and haul 50-pounds bags of corn to the feeders.
Likewise, each week or so I’ve exchanged the camera’s digital card in order to see what kind of activity is around the one feeder.

In examining the images I’ve seen not only deer but also wild turkeys, squirrels, crows and Canada geese elbowing their way to the feeders. On two occasions I’ve also recorded the appearance of a coyote which has sniffed at the mineral block that I placed on the outskirts of the game feeder.

Not lost either is how I’ve played around with two of my Horton crossbows, tweaking their optics so the instrument can shoot dead-on at a deer. That even meant me buying a new style of aluminum arrow along with Rage mechanical broadheads, recommended by fellow News-Herald reporter and deer hunter, John Kampf.

Anyway, just about all of the work is finished with the backpack to be filled this evening with the items that I’ve pulled out for the occasion.

The season’s been a long time in coming and my plan is to hit the woods before daylight. That is, if I’m not too exhausted from all of the preparatory work, in which case I’ll simply roll over in bed tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off.

Hey, I’ve got until February 5.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFRischkorn@News-Herald.com

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