Post #23 - "Snowy Land Delight"

Perhaps one of the most confusing seasons ever in terms of just general weather in MN in November, but also one that moved away from the back yard and more into the back 40 of the woods in a brand new tripod stand. The stand was placed in the middle of what we call “The Circle”, as the path through the woods comes to a point that then circles around to come back into itself to lead home. I had been working on clearing out the Circle by hand/back with my double bladed ax, and moving the downed brush into large piles that seemed to rival any bonfire pile around town. Hours upon hours was spent clearing the area, and by the time of season start, I had a solid 20-30 yard half circle of wide open space in front of the stand, and while being up 15 feet in the air I could see for quite a ways. All things were coming together nicely, that is, until the weather decided to be extremely poor.

By definition I often think of November as the first month that goes from cool to cold, and that’s when the layers end up coming out as well as the heavy jackets. This November however was cool in the morning for sits, and by evening I was dying from the heat and sweating through my t-shirt and camo pants. There was no need at all for any layers in the evening, and it was clearly affecting how the deer were moving (as they weren’t). There were slim to no shots heard all season long, and even sending out feelers to others on social media revealed that no one was seeing any deer at all with this heat. As we all were sweating it out, the season slowly trickled by as hunting opportunities were slim when faced with the requirements of work, school, and clinicals. Then as if out of nowhere, the Friday before the final weekend of the season, it’s as if the floodgates of snow opened up.

By floodgate I mean we received almost a foot of snow all within a day. Looking outside as classes were cancelled left and right by teachers, all one could see was heavy flakes continuing to come down and add to the already growing mounds of snow being plowed. Making the trip home from Duluth after class finally let out took roughly 2 hours (typically takes 45 minutes on a normal drive). The snow made the woods appear to be a “winter wonderland” as all the boughs of trees were heavily laden down with snow and would enjoy nothing more than to rain down upon me as I moved limbs out of the way to get to the stand. The snow also made the trek out to the woods even longer, as sinking down into the snow drifts took extra power and energy to move through it. Though making it to the stand and climbing up inside, revealed something of a new perspective on hunting for me. Seeing the blankness of the white landscape in front of me with the only colors being the black from the Aspen trees and the green from the many varieties of coniferous pines in their small pockets. If one were to be wearing a white bed sheet and then stopped, they would appear to be almost invisible.

While the struggle to get into the stand was immense, however it was in vain for the last Saturday of the season, and I was reduced to return to the trudge home without seeing anything. Knowing the dawning of season end looming about me as I took one last look at the house before walking to the stand that Sunday, I could feel the pressure building up. Thankfully, I would not have to sit long that day, for as I had been sitting with my Powerpoint slides in hand and had gotten down to studying, I could sense some movement and color entering the white landscape. Securing my notes, I peered over the side to spy 2 deer coming in towards the stand, both antlerless and of fairly decent build for being just newborn earlier in the year.

Waiting for the two to figure out their plan to come into my zone, I reached down to lift up my .243 rifle and awaited the deer to set up. They opted to be on my right hand side and roughly about 30-35 yards away and were pawing through the snow to try and get down to the grasses below. Raising my rifle I had some initial difficulty in finding them in my optics, as shooting from this close of a distance the reticle tends to be distorted and focus on closer objects instead of being crystal clear for longer shots. After finally finding the two, I opted for the deer on the right, for they were presenting me the greatest shot opportunity as well as was already broadside to me. Reaching my left index finger into the trigger guard I slowly pulled back and applied pressure.

“Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmm!”

The deer rocked and slowly took off before disappearing behind a thicket of Aspens. Calling into the folks to let Dad know to gear up and bring the sled out, I gathered up my gear and made my way slowly down the steps of the tripod stand. Going to the initial spot of impact I could see some blood drops, which wasn’t too shocking to me as I’d upgraded from 80 grain up to 100 grain .243 rounds, but still it was unique to me as typically blood is never found with my small caliber rifle. Tracing the footprints from the impact scene to the thicket of Aspens, I did not have far to go (roughly 30 yards away) and there with a heap was the brown backside of my deer. Flipping the back leg over I found that it was a button buck, and his little knobs atop his head barely perceivable. This time it was great relief to find the deer’s backside, as it stuck out like a giant sore thumb with all the white snow around it, as typically I’m looking into a brown/grey landscape trying to find more brown.

My father arriving with our family bright orange sled in tow, we quickly got to work dressing my button buck up, the snow being dyed a deep red as the blood spilled out from the deer. Loading up the deer into the sled and the snow acted as a conveyor belt and the ease in which it took to transport it back to the house. Never before had I had a transport this easy, normally it’s a dragging match between me and the ground as I used a modified noose with a handle at the end to haul deer behind me.

As we walked back to the house, it was one of the first times that my father and I could remember where we’d had a deer photo for the wall with snow in it. It was a true snowy land delight.

Ty G. Anderson

February 28th | 2020