2021 Hunting Season.

My bow hunting season started October 22 this year even though opening date was September 3 of 2021. That was the date of my first sit. But as most of you know hunting season goes pretty much year-round. We are either planning our hunts, thinking about our hunts or doing our hunts. As soon as bow season is over I am thinking about the next season. Throughout the summer I am setting up trail cams and checking pictures weekly. I cannot get enough of bow hunting.

I only had three trail cams set up this year. They were all within a mile and a half of each other. I knew there were big deers in the area and I didn't need to go any further. Sometime in July I started getting some nice pictures of bucks and they got me all giggity, again.

Another thing I do to keep myself occupied between hunting seasons is applying for other tags or buying points in North Dakota or other states. When applying for North Dakota rifle tag this year I was about to put in for my home unit 2B. I hunted unit 4C last year with good friends Enslow and Don B, but never pulled the trigger. (For the 4C hunting story click here.) But this year just about when I was going to hit enter to apply for my home unit I got a call from Sam who grew up in Medora and he asked if I had applied for my rifle tag yet. I told him I haven't applied yet but was just about to. He said, "Don't hit send, you should hunt out here in 4D. I think I can get you on some prime land to shoot a big muley!" How could I say no to that?

So I applied for that unit and surprisingly got lucky. After I received notification that I drew the tag I immediately made reservations in a motel in Medora because I knew the town gets pretty packed during rifle season. The dates of the hunt were going to be November 10 through the 14th. This is what worked with Sam's schedule and being the second week of rifle season makes the hunting even better. These dates also worked for Taylor who volunteered to be our pack boy. I couldn't wait to hunt some new territory, especially in the Badlands.

I don't like hunting early bow season because of the mosquitoes and heat. My favorite time to hunt with my crossbow is late October and November. To me it feels more like hunting season when the leaves are changing and the bugs are dead. Mosquitoes suck… Get it?

I hunted a handful of times in October with not much luck. For some reason not much was moving. I would see some skinheads but the only buckaroos I ever saw were pretty small and I knew there were bigger ones in the area. The last week of October I wasn't feeling the greatest but I went hunting a couple times. On November 1st, I made an appointment to get checked out and she told me I had pneumonia. Good times. I got some antibiotics, a steroid shot and a nebulizer to do four times a day. Two days later on November 3 I was riding in an ambulance to the hospital. You can read more about it here, Pneumonia Sucks.

What are the odds? What are the odds that I would get sick and my hunting trip I was looking forward to all year was going to be canceled? I was in the hospital until November 8 and I was supposed to take off for Medora on November 10. I didn't want to but I called Sam and canceled the hunt. That sucked. There was no way I would have the endurance to do a hunt in the condition my condition was in.

Anyway, back to hunting. November 16 was the first day I was back in the blind. I still wasn't feeling the greatest but I would rather feel like crap in the blind than feel like crap in the house. I hunted a handful more times in November with no luck.

When I woke up on December 19 I believe it was 9 ° and I could hear the wind blowing. The wind was out of the south, with that it was going to warm up to around 30°. But it still sounded gross out as I laid in my warm bed. Around noon I decided I was going to go hunting for the 14th time of bow season. Even though I shouldn't hunt this spot with any wind out of the south I was going to press my luck hopefully just one more time. If the deer come from the east or straight north they will bust me in this spot. If the wind is out of the southeast this spot is a no go. But with the wind out of the south or southwest I was hoping they would come from the northwest. That was my only chance.

I got in the chair around 3 PM and started putting on the layers of clothing to keep out the North Dakota suck. Once I was bundled up, dad grabbed my crossbow and attached it to the wheelchair. Then he grabbed the hand crank cocker to pull back the string on the crossbow. With that, mom said, "Good luck," as I went out the door.

A couple weeks before dad cleared a path to my blind with the Bobcat. He didn't have the Bobcat plugged in so after dinner he had to shovel some of the snow that had blown in from the southwest. That was only a couple hours earlier and my path was already getting blown in again. So I had to put my wheelchair in third gear and hit it hard. I made it with a little help from dad pushing on back. Once we got to my pop-up blind camouflaged in Mossy Oak, dad lifted the front of the blind and I backed in. Then I get close to the front of the blind so he can reach in and place the arrow on my crossbow. This is the same process no matter who is helping me get ready which is usually mom, dad or Don B. Then dad reaches in and takes the crossbow off of safety. He then said good luck and was on his way.

As soon as he is walking away I make sure everything is lined up and I also make sure what my shooting zone is, left to right. Once that is done I settle back and let everything else settle down around me.

Pretty soon the birds, rabbits and squirrels are running around like I am not there. This is my me time. My happy place. Anything I do is up to me and only me. I can just enjoy nature or pull the trigger. Or both. Totally up to me.

I believe I watched dad walk away right at 3:30 PM, perfect. That day legal shooting time was until 5:14 PM. Usually the deers in this spot don't show up until at least 45 minutes before dark if they show at all. Most of the time it's the last ten minutes when they make an appearance. As I was looking around the snow covered ground there weren't too many deer tracks. There were a lot of rabbit and bird tracks. Then I remembered my cousin Jason called me the day before and said he saw herd of deer in their wintering grounds not too far from where I was. I wasn't sure if these deers had left or not. I started to think maybe this was going to be a very slow evening.

I really don't mind sitting in the blind and not seen anything. Maybe because I am used to it or maybe it is just because I enjoy being out there, just me and nature. But I have been lucky in this spot even though it is very hit or miss. Mostly a lot of misses, meaning not seeing any big game. But I knew I had slayed four buckaroos in this very same spot. Three of which have been in the last three years.

I knew the time was coming up, that golden time when if something was going to show up they were going to show up. I looked down at my phone to see the time and it said 4:24 PM. Right at that exact same time I heard crunching of snow. I have spent enough time in the woods to know that this could mean many different things. Things like a field mouse or a goofy squirrel can sound like a deer when things are quiet. But as soon as I looked up I knew different. Through the little shelter belt in front of me I could see a deer making its way through the rows of trees. I was kind of taken back because I do not expect it that early. Then I looked up to see an antler and I got excited. Once he made his way into the clearing I recognized the buck from numerous encounters throughout that season. It was the 3 x 0. During the second week in November one side of his rack got busted off. He walked right in. Inside of 10 yards and just stood there. He stared right into the blind and I wondered if he would see me. But he did not. When they are that close even though it is dark in the blind you cannot make any movement or you will get busted. I wondered if he would smell me with the wind pretty much at my back. But he did not. He stood there foraging for ten minutes while I was enjoying the show. It is awesome being that close and knowing they have no clue that you are there.

I was trying to make up in my mind if I was going to take a shot if he gave me a shot. He was aimed right at me so I knew I would have to wait until he was broadside. That may never happen. I also knew that the forecast sucked. The wind the next several days was going to be from the south or southeast which is a no go for this spot. Then it was Christmas Eve and Christmas and after that the negative North Dakota suck was coming in until the end of season which is January 2 this year. I also knew that my freezer was getting low of deer meat. A couple rings of country style ring sausage and a couple logs of summer sausage were about it. Gosh I love meat in tube form. But I digress…

I was thinking about all these things while he was still munching on some golden nuggets. I looked down at my phone and it said 4:42 PM. He had been in front of me for almost 20 minutes just eating but every once in a while he would look back to the north. I thought maybe there was something else coming in but there was no other movement. All of a sudden his backend started to drift a little bit to the south. He was just about broadside when he reached back with his head to lick or itch something on his left side. I knew this was my opportunity, so I lined up the crosshairs of my scope on the Carbon Express Intercept crossbow behind his right shoulder and a little below the middle mass of his body and pulled the trigger. The next thing I knew is his back legs kicked up as I heard a big crack. He took off straight to the east and was out of sight within a second. I started shaking as normal and I looked at my phone and it said 4:45 PM. I listened to hear him crash but in the snow I knew this would be futile. I then looked out of the blind at the snow and saw some blood on the fresh snow. I knew it was a good hit but you never want to be confident. It is impossible to follow the arrow when you are shooting 365 feet per second at a target that is 8 yards away. But I was confident I was aiming in the giggity spot.

I collected myself and dialed home at 4:47 PM. Mom answered and said, "Hello. What's up?" I was holding back tears when I replied, "I shot a buck!" She replied, "A big one!" I responded, "Nope. Not this time. I shot the 3 x 0." I could hear in her voice she was excited and she said, "Awesome. I will be out shortly."

After that I sent a SnapChat video to the BS group I am in that said a lot of expletives with I shot a buck. This group is made of 20 or so guys from North Dakota who enjoy hunting, laughing, joking, drinking and a lot of other stuff and things that shouldn't be said here.

I then began to look for more blood out the windows of the blind. I thought I could see some more towards the direction he ran. I then dialed Don B at 4:54 PM. He answered the phone with, "What the hell do you want?" I giggled because I knew what he meant. He knew I would only call this time of day for him to come help track and gut the deer. I replied, "I shot a buck and I think it's a good hit." "Good job. I will be on my way shortly," he explained. I then asked him, "Is T-rav home? Could you give a jingle?" He said, "He didn't know but he would call him right away." If you have read my other stories T-rav is my other tracker and gut man.

By that time I could hear mom's footsteps through the snow. I had her lift the front of the blind and I drove out. I asked her to look for some blood and she followed the deer's tracks a little bit and saw some spatterings here and there. But there sure wasn't a lot. I was kind of nervous as I said we should just head in and wait for the boys. At this point it had only been about 15 minutes since the shot and you should wait at least a half-hour to start tracking, preferably an hour.

Once inside I had mom take the crossbow off of my tray on my wheelchair so I could tilt back and give my derrière some relief. I was just about to recline when there was a call on my phone from Sam. He is in the BS group. He answered the phone, "Good job killer!" He asked about the shot and we went over it. I told him about the buck. He gave me the confidence that I was going to find the buck dead. About that time I saw headlights coming down the driveway so I got off the phone. I told Sam I would for sure keep him and boys informed on what happens.

I thought it was Don B and T-rav but then I saw the clearance lights and I knew it was dad. He was there to help get me out of the blind when I was done hunting. He had no clue that I had shot anything yet. I told him the story and what was happening. After story time I saw more headlights coming down the driveway. Dad said he was going to plug-in the Bobcat and the guys came in the house. I told them the quick story and the three of us went out to the scene of the crime. The snow had blown in my path on the way back out so I had to give it the onion to get through the North Dakota suck.

When we got to the crime scene, I told them where the buck was standing and which way he was looking when I took the shot. I explained the direction he took off and they started looking for blood. Don B asked if I had found the arrow and I explained that I heard a big crack after I shot him I figured my arrow hit a tree and ricocheted off somewhere in the snow. As like mom found, there was little bit of blood where the arrow went through the buck but not a whole lot. Don B said he would look for the arrow as T-rav shined his flashlight in the snow for more blood. Surprisingly Don B found the arrow laying on the snow not far away from the impact site. It was lathered in blood from tip to knock. It's a good thing to see. My confidence went up a little. He placed the arrow on my tray and they both took off to the east.

This is always a nerve-racking time for me. Thinking to myself, "Are they going to find it? Was it a good shot? Am I going to eat deer heart or deer liver tomorrow?" These are the things I think about when they are tracking. As they were following the track I could hear one of them say, "Here is some blood." "More blood over here," was repeated until I could hear them talking to each other. The next thing I could hear was them dragging something through the snow. Don B yelled, "Next time shoot one with both antlers! It would be a lot easier to drag!" We all laughed as I could see them pulling him into view with Don B pulling on the antler and T-rav pulling on a front leg. They brought him in front of me and I asked how far he went. T-rav responded, "Maybe 50 yards." He then explained, "By the look of the tracks, it looked like he was running and didn't know he was dead. It looked like he piled up into a ball mid jump." T-rav then grabbed the tag off of my tray and started cutting the dates out and applied it to the antler. As we were doing this Don B was pulling out his knife and saw to get the field dressing underway. Don B then said, "Look at this weird coloring of hair on his chest in between his front legs." He then said, "I think his mother was a skunk!" I shook my head and laughed. Good grief. There was white striping in between the legs. It was neat. T-rav also pointed out how the buck broke off his antler directly from the skull. It wasn't snapped or cracked anywhere. Completely gone and there was still some redness around the area. Maybe he shed the other one off and this one is just awnery. Anyway, weird scenario.

I then said I needed to head back of the house to get mom to take some pictures. On the way back to the house I passed my dad in the Bobcat. That is a lot easier than dragging it the 60 yards or so to the shop where the pickups were. By the time I got mom and back to the crime scene, the buck was already gutted and in the bucket of the Bobcat. I explained that we needed to take some pictures and T-rav drug it to the snow pile to take our annual pictures. Mom and dad both snapped pictures.

Then they put it back in the bucket of the Bobcat and we followed my dad back to the shop. We then decided we were going to bring it to MapleValley Meats, the meat locker in town to get the carcass washed out nicely instead of hanging it in the shop overnight. They put it in the back of my dad's pickup as I burned back to the house to tell mom what was up. T-rav helped me in the house so I could tell mom the plan and all I had to say was, "Can I have you…" I couldn't finish my sentence and she replied with, "Yes Clint. I can make you a cocktail!" T-rav and I giggled.

It didn't take long at the locker for them to get it washed out nicely. I thanked the guys and said I would buy them a beer. They said you better call James to see if the Spare Time is open. I gave him a jingle and explained the situation. He said I saw your buck on snap and yep sure come on over but use the back door. I burned over there in my wheelchair and bought the boys a beer. I believe there was only one round and they decided they had better go home because it was a school night. I of course had one more while James cleaned up and got ready to close the bar. As I got outside I realized mom and dad went to the Friendly. So I burned down the middle of Center Street and was cheered on by a couple local idiots as I was in fifth gear making little time of the block distance. My pickup was running and mom was coming out of the bar as soon as I was ready to back in to the lift.

As soon as I got home I had something to eat and was in bed by 9 PM. I watched some of the Sunday night football game and was sleeping by 9:30 PM. It was a good night.

This hunting season was a different one for sure. It wasn't the hardest and it for sure wasn't the easiest. But I know one thing for sure, it was for sure worth it. Even if I hadn't shot a deer this year, it would have been a success. I am always learning something new about hunting and the outdoors every season, along with learning new things about myself.

I want to thank mom and dad for always helping me hunt whenever I want to. Even though I know sometimes it is the last thing they want to do. I want to thank the landowners who always offer up a place for me to hunt every season. I want to thank my good friends who are always there to help whenever I call, Don B and T-rav just to name a couple. I want to thank Leslie at the probe shack for the samples. You all don't suck. I can't wait to do it next year. Bow season starts in 254 days…

I am very lucky. I truly am the lucky boy in the wheelchair…

Thanks for reading, Clint.