The whitetail rut in the Maryland and Virginia area has begun. The normally recluse bucks are on the move looking for their once a year girlfriends. Great news for the archery deer hunter. Hard to take news for the archery hunter who is living two hours from his hunting grounds and archery equipment.
Behind The Safety of the Park Fence The Bucks Tend Their Does
Truth is, I was so amped up for the October duck season and the muzzleloader deer season, that I lost sight of the Holy Grail two weeks of deer hunting. Neither of which of those seasons played out as I had planned or hoped, thanks to flooded rivers and lack of deer movement.
All is not lost however, and in true Augie’s Adventures fashion, I have twisted the lemon and made lemonade. A short few miles from the week day city apartment, deer abound in a local park. The property with deep wooded ravines and mowed fields is not open to hunting. Whitetail deer live out their lives uninhibited by hunters, legal ones that is. How much poaching goes on, I do not know and do not care to find out.
The last few days I have visited the park after work. With my new camera in hand, I stalk searching for mature whitetail bucks. So far I have found and photographed several bucks. Most of which I would have arrowed given the opportunity. Instead I have captured them on film. Digitally that is. The bucks I have seen so far are not the old masters of the woods, but as the rut heats up, I hope to find the real bruisers.
The excitement of the hunt is there, even if incomplete. While I have and will continue to enjoy the chase, a photograph is truly not the same as filling the freezer with venison. For now this is what I have and I am making the best of it. As with life, I guess, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need. Hey, I think there is a song in there somewhere.
