After a long summer of getting ready for the start of deer season, it was nice to see the opener finally arrive -- full moon or not.
NAW TV cameraman Mike Clerkin gets footage at the Washington border: a location rarely seen by anyone hunting whitetails.
When you're eager to climb a tree after months of waiting, bright nights don't seem like such a big problem to deal with. At least, not until you're out there, wishing the deer were on a better daylight movement pattern. And any whitetail hunter who was afield the first week of September had to deal with that glowing orb: beautiful to look at, but not such a positive factor in terms of getting a trophy buck shot.
The first week of September, Stan Potts, my co-host on North American Whitetail Television Presented by Arctic Cat, headed back to his usual season-opening spot in Wyoming. My partner has long been a first-week fixture in the camp of Trophies Plus Outfitters for that first week, and for good reason. He and his various Mathews bows have enjoyed a ton of success there.
But things didn't quite go as planned this time. While Stan and cameraman Barry Greenhaw saw plenty of bucks (some in velvet, some in hard antler), that pesky moon threw a wrench into the hunt. Stan says the bucks came out to feed later each evening, and the right shot never quite materialized. Fortunately, Stan will be back in early November, and for this return trip he'll be toting one of his Thompson/Center rifles. I'd bet heavily on a punched tag in Round 2, even though that hunt also is scheduled to be during the full moon.
As for myself, I spent the first week of September dealing with that bright moon in a new state: Washington. I'd been intrigued by the whitetail potential in this part of the world for two decades, but despite having hunted both Idaho and Oregon, I'd never made it to the Evergreen State to hunt. That all changed when I hooked up with Garry Greenwalt, who just started Wild Country Guide Service near the small town of Tekoa. Throw a rock to the east and it might roll into Idaho, but Garry's whitetail hunts are all (for now, anyway) in Washington. He's arrowed six trophy whitetails there himself over the years and has decided to let some clients in on the action as well.
The wild apples so abundant in this area were starting to fall (a bit earlier than usual, according to Garry), and the whitetails definitely had noticed. We scouted a number of good-looking locations on the pine ridges overlooking valley grain fields, and the most reliable pattern we saw was deer hitting apples and water on their way out of the timber each afternoon. About halfway through our hunt we zeroed in on a couple of spots that were great for hanging our new, ultralight Summit tree stands.
NAW's Gordon Whittington glasses a valley in eastern Washington, a sleeper area for trophy whitetails.
One of the locations in particular was classic: two early-dropping apple trees next to a cool spring at the end of a timbered point halfway up a ridge. And sure enough, the first evening we hunted there, a wide 10-pointer decided to waltz through with about 10 minutes of video light left. As Mike rolled with the camera, I drew my Mathews DXT and prepared to send a Muzzy-tipped Beman toward the deer's lungs.
Enter that annoying element often called "human error." The buck was a bit nervous, so as he walked down the trail toward the field, I elected not to try to stop him. I quickly drew, slapped the sights on his chest and released before I really had settled in. He heard the bow, ducked . . . and voila, a miss, just over his shoulder.
You'd think I'd know better than to miss high at close range, and I do. But I ended up making that miscue anyway. Chalk it up to getting in too big a hurry, I suppose, but regardless, the result was the same: a buck that received a free education, courtesy of a hunter who shouldn't have let him get away.
Ah, but such is bowhunting. We might not like the blown opportunities, but they'll always be a part of the equation. For the deer hunter who can't handle them with a smile on his face (even if it's fake), this is a really tough game to play.
All in all, then, the hunt with Garry was a success. We explored some new territory with the NAW TV cameras, observed an interesting early-season feeding pattern and made some great friends along the way. (I'd be remiss not to give a special shout-out to Christina Walker for her cooking and other hard work around the lodge and to guide Travis Feldner for his assistance in glassing for possible stand sites.) It's hard to call a hunt like that a failure, even though my Washington deer tag is still in my wallet. Maybe next time I get out there that 10-pointer will be even bigger, and I'll take the time to let my pins settle a bit lower.
What's next? More early-season efforts. In fact, NAW editor Duncan Dobie and cameraman Mike Clerkin will be in central Kansas later this month, trying to shoot a big buck on a Buck Forage oat plot at John Butler's property. Here's hoping Duncan get it done!
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
To check out the hunting options in Wyoming or Montana with Mike and Esther Watkins of Trophies Plus, visit: www.trophiesplusoutfitters.com. For information on what Garry Greenwalt has to offer in Washington, email him at: garrygs@aol.com.
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