Deer Season- Karen

Karen drew a Deer tag for the Whitehorse zone, which is south of Hwy 95 from the border of Neveda to the border of Idaho. I tried, but was not able to draw one, so I had to Bow hunt, and was lucky enough to get a small Buck here at the house. When I was working, deer season was a big deal and we used to go all out to get a deer to eat. Large antlered Deer have never been as important to us as it is to most people. Meat has always been the objective rather than bragging rights. Karen drew a tag for this area last year, but somehow Bucks were very hard to come by, as well as getting sick the second day of the hunt, so last year was a bust.

A good friend of ours, Paul Arritola, grew up with one of the larger land owners around Jordan Valley, and he graciously agreed to take us hunting there. Since we were not particular about horn size, the arrangement was perfect. He could take the big ones, we could have the tasty ones.

We managed to get everything done and fed by 5:40 AM and made the drive to Jordan Valley arriving well before daylight to meet Paul. Since we are on Mountain time and he is on Pacific we were there an hour before he expected us. Since we are on the rear edge of Mountain time, it takes a long time to get light enough to see here, about 7:45 AM at this time of the year. In almost no time at all we saw three deer at one of the hay stacks on the ranch and one of them was a nice little spike Deer. His horns were longer than his ears and he was a bit bigger than the doe he was running with. So he made the perfect candidate. He was about 150 yards off, so Karen took careful aim, and at the sound of the shot he fell over backwards and never twitched. Karen had hit him right at the base of the neck, taking out the juglar vein. No meat wasted, and he was blead out as well. It just doesn't get any better than that. Paul and the two boys with us were astounded and I was pleased as I could be.

Paul and the boys went on looking for a big buck while we stayed and took care of the deer. Karen had prepared a back pack with every thing that we would need except for one thing- The Camera. :-/ The field was nice and dry with a good clean cushion of clover and grass hay, so we cleaned and skinned him there while we were waiting for them to finish hunting.

He isn't a real big deer, but he will be nice and tender and tasty, and Karen is as almost as pleased as I am. The best part however, is that we can stay inside the next few days as there is supposed to be some storms heading our way with some moisture. I also get to continue with my conditioning of Peg and Jessie. Duck season will be here before you know it, and Jessie is getting anxious.