Every June is a big deal in this bow & arrow deerhunter’s life. Why, you might inquire? For two reasons; The first one is Bucks.
Soooo … let me show you what I mean. Let’s say you came along with me in June and you and I are sitting in one of my ground blinds that’s located in a large thicket of Live Oak scrub trees. The sun behind us is getting lower in the sky and its rays are shining brightly on the outside leaves of the trees directly across from us, creating dark shadows underneath the overhanging canopy of tree leaves and branches.
A slow, slight movement in those shadows catches your eye. The shadowy figure 10 yards away takes a step closer and you identify the shape of a deer. You raise your index finger, our pre-decided signal that a deer has been sighted.
I glance to see which direction you are looking and then scan that area, too. The sunlight shining on a small section of a June deer’s reddish-tinted spring coat tells me where he is. Very slowly, I raise my camera and find the deer in the camera’s viewfinder and zoom in a bit, it’s a buck in velvet.
I square him up and take a couple of pictures of him.
In total silence the buck gradually moved along perpendicular to us and and stealthily turned on a trail 15 yards to our right and walked past our position and continued into the woods behind us.
At this moment, based on some past experiences, some of you are thinking, “You saw a buck with dinky antlers. Well, so what!”
But I’m hoping that, if you’re the one sitting in the blind with me, you understand the true excitement of this moment. We’re in the deer woods. It’s quiet and serene. A buck with his 2016 “beginner antlers” appeared only 10 yards from us. And we got to watch him, in his world, (and even take his picture) as he silently went on his way.
Indeed, it was an exciting afternoon in the June deer woods and I’m glad I got to spent it with you.
