Back in the stand.

Well on 11/16, Friday afternoon, after work, I slipped in to a stand I have on a small food plot. It was very windy, and pretty darn cold too. I figured this would be a good spot because it’s hidden back in the cover a little off the field, which gives the deer some security and protection from the wind in the open field. I have noticed the past few days that the fall colors are just barely past their peak, and it’s the middle of November. We don’t usually have leaves on the trees this late into the year but I’m enjoying the brilliant display of falls finest these last few days.

My foodplot finally came up and actually grew pretty well, thanks to good rainfall and warm temperatures later in the fall than normal. It’s mostly brassica’s, and usually by this time of year, the deer have really turned on to this food source. However this year they haven’t touched them. I don’t understand it. There are basically no acorns on this part of the farm, the bean fields have been harvested for some time, and my brassica plot seems like it would be a likely place to see a deer, yet the plants look untouched. I quickly climbed the tree and settled in anyhow, thinking maybe today would be the day they decide to start on the plot. The tire tracks through the plot were just a sign of bad things to come, and evidence of why hunting has been very slow on this piece.


The wind whipped the trees around until just before dark. At 5:02pm, I heard a shot so loud it nearly made me jump form the stand. Someone had just fired into our hayfield, probably at a deer. I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket and hit the game wardens number on the speed dial…voice mail, figures. I left him a message and tuned my ears for sounds of a vehicle entering the field. After straining for ten minutes, I didn’t hear anything that sounded like someone retrieving a deer, but I did hear a snap and turned to see a small doe 10 yards away. She had slipped in under the cover of the gusting wind and was now nervously pacing the edge of the plot. Whether it was from the strong wind, or the shot in the field, that deer was extremely wary and she never got up the nerve to enter the open. As shooting light faded, I scurried down the tree and hurried to the edge of the hayfield. I waited there for some time to see if the poacher would attempt to recover a deer under the cover of darkness, but really didn’t even know if the outlaw hit his target. After 20 minutes of no action, I returned to my truck and stowed my gear.

On my way home I stopped at the neighbors house to see if she had heard the shot and noticed a vehicle. She said she hadn’t on this particular day but, according to her, people shoot into that field once or twice a week from the road, and trucks are driving in and out of it all the time, has been that way all year. She related that a few times a week, she sees them drive into the field and vanish into the woods, will often hear shots “back there”, and then see the trucks drive out, sometimes as late as 11:30pm. The road out of the hayfield leads through the woods, through my plot and to the harvested bean field. From seeing the tire tracks through the plot, I can tell the poachers have been visiting this place regularly over the last few weeks while I was in Ohio.


She said she has called the State Police so many times they don’t even respond any longer, and at that moment I understood why our luck on this farm has been so bad. I could do an entire book on how much I despise trespassing jerks like those that constantly plague our leased property, but I don’t feel like getting that angry right now. Hopefully I’ll be writing in the next few weeks about how I caught the poaching dirtbags in the act and got the last laugh.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’ll be out trying again. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Good hunting-DV