Kelly Bostian: Keeping tabs on deer email season
BY KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors
Thursday, October 18, 2012
10/18/12 at 5:38 AM
Go to Kelly Bostian's blog Original Print Headline: Keeping tabs on deer email season
Archery deer season is under way, youth season is this weekend, and the deer email season is in full swing.
Doc Geiger dropped a note today, "I took a beautiful 10 point last week that green-scored 140. He field-dressed 155. I took him to Siegi's and so many folks have turned in deer that they are already one month behind. You might want to pass that on," he said.
Passed along. Thanks, Doc.
A couple mystery deer also have come across my desk and I've got some story-chasing to do on those, including one about a nice big buck out of southeast Kansas that is an eye-popper.
The great thing about the emails and photos shared is that, if you ask a few questions, usually there is a good story about the hunt, the hunted or the hunter.
When sending in a photo, keep a few things in mind:
If you send it via text, please include your name. The contact list in my phone is long, but not always long enough. Gosh, I hate to send those return texts: "Hi! Great buck, thanks for sharing. Uh, who is this?"
If you send it via email, please include a phone number so I can call for a little follow-up information if needed. Include the names and ages of children and the names of the adults they hunted with. If you'll share the county where the deer was hunted that is appreciated as well. You're welcome to share any other details, like the type of weapon used, whether it was public or family land, or any other information you care to include.
Glen McGuire shared a photo of his daughter Jordyn's first deer this week.
"I always told her to let me know when she was ready," McGuire said. "A few months ago she said she wanted to give it a try and we started working on it."
McGuire set up the 13-year-old with a crossbow, something the Archery Outpost owner wouldn't have done just a few years ago. When crossbows were first allowed in archery season the die-hard bowhunter wasn't crazy about them.
"I had blinders on for a long time and didn't like the law when it first changed," he said. "I was wrong in the aspect that it doesn't matter what you use to harvest the animal when you're out there, what matters is you're participating in the first place and it puts more opportunities on the table for people who might not be out there otherwise."
As an archery shop owner, he knows a lot of people can use a crossbow to take an accurate and ethical shot with a crossbow when they just don't have the time to commit to practicing with a vertical bow.
In Jordyn's case, she just doesn't have the strength yet to pull a bow of a weight that would be legal for taking a buck.
The pair scouted three bucks hanging in a bachelor group and McGuire noticed a couple weeks ago they began to split off from each other. He set up a pop-up blind on a hay meadow and brushed it in more than a month ago.
Trail cameras are a big help in tracking movements this time of year. McGuire called it the October lull. "Those older bucks, the testosterone is starting to flow," he said. "They will split off and spend a lot of time in seclusion. ... You've just got to stay persistent and watch your wind."
McGuire and Jordyn spent four evenings in the blind before one of the larger bucks presented a shot. "I told her I'd make a grunt sound with my mouth to stop it when it came into the clear," McGuire said. "When I did she started giggling and she giggled right through making the shot."
Jordyn made a good shot and the deer walked only about 70 yards before it fell; her first archery buck, with a crossbow.
"A lot of us old diehards didn't like it at first, but I've kind of seen both sides of it now," McGuire said.
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