Lets have some opening morning stories!

[WaitForIt]

For the first time in 4 years I had to miss opening morning - not that opener has been all that great to me but I miss not being there anyway. There is a certain anticipation, a quickening of the pulse when one thinks of the start of a new season. I woke involuntarily at about 530 this morning imagining I was about to head out.

My brother-in-law hit the woods today for his first solo hunt (16 yrs). In the past I've always gone out with him to make sure he is able to get his stand setup, remembers to wear the harness (and hook it to the tree), has something to eat, etc. He did not see anything this morning but I'm proud anyway as he was able to do it all by himself.

Anybody shoot anything this morning?

[Rippinlip]

Was unable to go this morning, heading out in about an hour to sit until dark.

[Powerstroke]

Not me either. I'm heading out tonight to sit in the ground blind. I'm hoping to tag a doe for the freezer. I'm bringing my 9 yr old daughter with me for the first time. SHe's very excited.

[Gilgamesh]

Didn't see anything

[HavocTec]

Seen a doe and a coyote this morning, both too far for a shot. That was the best looking yote I have ever seen. Would of made a nice mount. Should of brought the cam with.

[Jameson]

Got in my 'sweetcorn' stand about 5:55 am. By about maybe 6:05 I had a deer tearing into the area near the far end of the sweetcorn. I have five 50 yard rows of sweetcorn (picked about 50% or 10 dozen ears this year) with a 15 foot wide swath of clover on one side and a mix of RR corn/soybeans wrapping around the other three sides. The deer stuck around for maybe 20 minutes. I don't think the deer ever ate any sweetcorn, but instead slowly browsed around it in a circular pattern. It was dark enough that I could never make out the deer very well, despite it only being 15 yards away for about 5 minutes.

About 7:30 nature called. While I was in full squat a flock of pheasants decided to take flight a little ways away and fly straight at me. One that was about to land in my lap noticed me at the last second and continued on it's way. When I stood up, another 3 birds spooked. I got back up my stand and for the next half hour I had the rest of the flock pick me off one by one, and then they too would bust out of their.

Called it quits about 8:30. Not an exceptionally long sit, but it's early and warm, and I do not want to burn myself out early in the season.

Facing North. From close to the stand going away their is prickly ash, 'prairie', RR corn/soybeans, sweetcorn, clover, grasses, cattails, and beyond that is a farmers field with yellowing soybeans. The deer started feeding to the right of the pic, worked the clover edge right to left, and then worked the corn/soybeans left to right back to where it started. At the nearest point the sweetcorn is about 17 yards from me.

Facing West. Their is a nannyberry tree and beyond that I spread a bunch of oats a few weeks back than mowed the small 20' x 20' ish area. Oats are growing nicely, but show no signs of browse.

[MikeEiden]

Left just before sunrise to the stand which is about 200 yards from the house. Climbed up the stand and got set in. Knocked an arrow and then it hit me.... I felt something was missing... oh ya, my RELEASE! I have shot my bow a couple of times for kicks using fingers but never practiced it. So I packed up because sun was rising and left. I didn't want to be wondering back and forth during this time so I left it alone.. ended up taking the wife and 3 kids fishing this afternoon so I'll try it all over again tomorrow morning..

[bottom-bouncer]

took my fiance out this morning for her first hunt. got in the blind at 5:30am at about 6:15 had a coyote howl rite behind us i am guessing maybe 50 feet after I cleaned out my shorts. we could here deer moving just down the wood line from us as is usaully the case it took forever for the noise to show it self it was a doe. me not thinking and her not really sure what to do we watched her for a few minutes and then it donned on me so I asked her are you going to shoot it. she then hooked her release on the string loop and brought her bow up took her three tries but she finally got it pulled back. made a decent shot at 16 yds the doe only went about 60yds and piled up. after the fact while we were waiting I asked what the problem was with drawing her bow she said my arms wouldnt work. gotta love the jitters when your first deer comes in. all in all it was a great experience for both of us she is looking forward to shooting a buck next and I had more fun than if I had let arrow fly. I did tell her that not to expect the next one to only take a totall of a hour and a half today was not the norm. I cant wait to drag the next one out for her..

[archerystud]

BB, great story and congrats on getting her to connect on her first deer!

[bottom-bouncer]

this morning we were talking about her deer again. I brought up the fact that the next one will probably not come so fast that it will probably take a little more time to connect on a buck. she wants a wall hanger. she just said why it wasnt that tough yesturday. I just had to chuckle. Thanks archery stud. I will post a pic later today I have to figure out how first..

[uplander]

Had my first ever deer hunt in shorts and a tee shirt last night(and mesh 3d camo)...and I still sweat just sitting there..The woods were quiet except for the piliated woodpeckers sounding like someone was building a stand 60 yds behind me..No deer!

[archerystud]

I took one of my best friends out for the first time with the gun and got him to connect. I think it was more fun to have him get a deer than myself. Now my buddy hunts every gun season.

I'm hoping to take my son out for the first time next year and do the same for him.

[Wanderer]

Congrats Bottom-bouncer on your guiding trip!

I took my daughter out for her first hunt to SE MN this weekend. She's been pretty anxious for this year.

Unfortunately her asthma and allergies were getting the better of her so I couldn't get to the spots I wanted to take her. Too much hill hiking.

I opted to work a field edge the farmer had been seeing tons of deer on this summer including a nice buck. It was the easiest walk I could offer.

Some squirrel hunters fudging with the property line kept me from setting up where I wanted to so we moved down the edge further after leaving a trail cam at option 1 spot.

We saw two raccoons below the stand for a while and watched and bleated at two does at dusk about 80 yds out in the field. They would look but were too busy grazing to worry about it.

My daughter wouldn't get up this morning at 4 am so I headed out to collect our stands and hunt a bit before retrieving the trail cam. Nothing on stand this morning.

While working my way back to the trail cam I was wondering where all these all day deer were that I was told about. Well, dang it, another squirrel hunter out and about by the trail cam. He scooted as soon as he saw me.

The trail cam showed two turkeys and one nice doe at 4:24 pm yesterday. Guess we shoulda just hunted it.

It was the warmest deer hunt I've ever experienced. The leaves are starting to drop and the walnuts are raining down in the woods. They sound like the crack of a bat on a baseball broadcast when they hit the branches on the way down.

[Chef]

Saturday morning, got on stand at about 6:00 a.m., not 5 minutes later, I'm still getting situated and I hear gun shots (youth Duck opener?) on Womman Lake and then I hear Deer running my way. They stop about 30 yards from me and one is pounding the ground, snorting. This lasts about 10 minutes, then they amble down to the swamp to bed down.

At about 7:30 I hear something coming, look down to see a Pine Martin staring up at me. It runs into the swamp too.

At 8:30 I decide the Skeets have had enough of my blood for one morning and I go check on my buddy and his Son who are about 1/2 mile away. They are following a blood trail...One in the bag, a Doe.

Saturday night, I take my 7-yr. old son to the stand and we got chowed. He's miserable and fidgity and asking when we're going to leave. He also says--Boy the hunting shows we watch don't show you any of this boring waiting stuff--I laughed. How true.

Back on stand at 5:30 Sunday a.m. alone this time. All I hear is raining Acorns and a few birds. Then I hear the familiar putter of a Grouse behind me, so I turn and watch this guy cruising over logs and generally having a good time. It's fun to watch and helps pass the time.

Well, as I'm watching this Grouse, with my back turned from where I should be looking, I hear the stomp of a Deer and sure enough, I'm being stared at by a huge Doe and two fawns about 30 yards away. I turn my head slowly to see if I have any chance of turning around without alarming her any more and I see her head is turned, so I pivot around and see she's not looking at me, but she is working her way to my right, intently looking at me.

She gives me the opportunity to reach for my Bow and get it off the hanger, clip on my release and then she starts to blow the alarm and runs back into the woods with her fawns close behind.

I can realx, but then she comes back at me as fast as she leaves, stops, stomps her foot for about a minute, blows, runs, turns back and paces across this path 30 yards away. Now I'm sure I want to take her if I get a broadside shot. Her head is down, I draw and put the 30-yard pin on her boiler-room, release and the arrow goes into her lungs, nothing but fletching showing as she scrambles to re-gain her footing. The fawns bolt and the Doe piles about 30 yards away.

That was one of the most fun archery kills I've had. It lasted a long time and I got to test my patience and skill. Practice at 30 yards pays off huge.

We saw probably 20 Deer between the three of us this weekend and took 3 home. It was really fun despite the heat and bugs.

[HOT SPOT]

Saturday morning, my Dad, Brother in law and I decided to go to a public peice that we have been seeing a few really nice bucks. When all said an done I was the only one to see anything sat morn. I passed on a nice litle 8 pt and 2 does and two fawns.

Saturday night was slow for all three of us, we didnt see anything within 600 yrds.

Sun morn me and my bro in law went to my farm and it was a little better. at about 615 i had a real nice buck walk by at about 50 yards to dark to tell how big big. At about 10 to 7 I started to feel sick So being I was ground hunting at a new spot I decided I better lay down. After calling myself a baby I sucked it up and sat up and sat back in my chair and as soon as I did that I have three little bucks coming my way. All three of them got within 7 yrd of me. Overall a decent weekend for me nothing great but Still great to be out.

[HOT SPOT]

Where are you guys hunting? I am assuming that you are useing managmnet tags to shoot Does. Where I am hunting I can only take 1 deer.

[Chef]

Longville/Hackensack

[BradB]

I saw the big buck I'm hunting on Saturday morning at a distance. I sat all day and saw nothing else. On Sunday afternoon I set up and was treated to some trespassers on motorbikes who went 3 yard from my stand and never saw me. Oh the joys of hunting in the city.

[FishingWebGuy]

I posted this over here also

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2012593#Post2012593

But I'm so proud I'm posting it again

We checked our camera at his spot when we got up there and every evening over the last week the does had been coming out. Which was weird because for 20 days before that there weren't any pictures of them.

I dropped him off at his stand at 5:15 Saturday morning. I've been building him up all summer on the fact that it may take a lot of sitting and you probably won't see many deer but the secret is good scouting and persistence. Many of his friends have been hunting for years but have never filled a tag and I told him it's probably because they sit for 2 hours, get bored and leave.

I talked to him at 4:00 and neither of us had seen anything yet. He said he was probably going to climb down and go shoot some small game. I told him this was the best time to be in the stand as the sun sets. He said that sounded like a good idea. A couple hours later I still hadn't seen anything so I said a little prayer hoping the boy would at least get to see one. As it turns out, between 6:00 and 7:30 he would see 3 does. We never had 3 does in one evening on the camera.

Anyhow, after 14-1/2 hours in the stand I hear him walking towards my stand yelling for me. When I respond he tells me he got one. I quickly climb down from my tree and we walk over to the area where he hit it. Being a smart kid he stuck an arrow in the ground marking the spot. He tells me which direction it ran and sure enough within a couple of feet are leaves covered in blood. We follow a nice blood trail for about 20 yards when it gets to some brush. Thinking the deer is probably in the brush we opt to give it some time and head back to camp for sandwiches and to grab our cleaning gear.

Now it's been an hour since he shot it and we check inside the brush and sure enough she had laid down were there was a big puddle of blood but had moved again -- probably when we were tracking earlier. We followed the trail for another 20 yards into some more thick brush and there she lay. A nice big doe. Not sure how old she was but all of her teeth were pretty worn.

Luckily it was 55* by now because it took me an hour to field dress it -- being my first one. Maybe sometime someone can explain all the air she had in her that was pushing the paunch tight to her hide. A couple hours later she was in the cooler and I had one excited boy.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I couldn't have wished for a better first time out for the boy.

Some pics of the boy and his doe...

As you can see, it wasn't quite in the boiler room but luckily he hit an artery so she bled quickly.

She looks a lot smaller with the guts out. She released a lot of air while gutting and stunk the place up pretty well.

[sticknstring]

Way to go! No deer were seen over opening weekend for us. Lots of acorns coming down though. Hopefully the temps will drop as well. Last year I remember frost on opening weekend.

[musky796]

I didnt make it out on saturday I ended up working all day. Sunday morning I made it out though. I got up at 415 and showered and was in my stand at 530. About twenty minutes after sitting I had one walk by but it was still dark and I couldnt see it. Right then I new it was going to be a good morning. About 645 I broke out my book and started reading and not long after that i heard a stomp and looked over as a doe at 30 yard right down wind of me took of and started blowing as she ran. Its amazing how quite they are. So I figured as much noise as she made it kinda screwed up the morning so I picked up my book again. Ten minutes later I heard a little crunch and I looked over my shoulder and a nice 6 pointer walked out broadside 8 yards from my stand. I put my book down slowly and grabbed my bow. Pulled back and let it fly. Double lung right behind the shoulder. It was amazing. My buck didnt run 50 yards befor falling over. Those rages sure to the trick. Huge hole and lots of blood to follow. This is my 4th year hunting and my third deer ever and puttin one down at 10 yards is priceless. What a rush.

[eyeguy 54]

I went wading and released 29 smallies. :>)

[charliepete]

I got out for few hours Saturday morning and few hours Saturday night (in between chasing grouse). I didn't see any deer on stand, but I did get to watch a fisher (which was pretty cool). I capped off the weekend with a massive headache and a high temp and getting a ticket while dragging my sorry but home sick as a dog early on Sunday (after skippng the morning hunt). No rest for the wicked...hopefully this weekend will be better.

[bottom-bouncer]

congrats FWG 141/2 hrs on stand he earned that one. it will get easier to dress them the more you do

[Mercman1]

Holy cow... Was out last Saturday night and seen a really small buck (I mean really small) with with huge rack 10-12 pointer... Was at full draw and let down... Thought what he would look like in a few years... 15 years archery never seen nothing like that! I have say intensive harvet area management must be working used to see herds of does not many bucks... My son observed all bucks as well one of them being the biggest he has ever seen. I was looking to put meat in the freezer at this point...Looks like a good season... Let the fun begin