Opener eve tradition

[Boar]

Sounds like your "Down with the sickness" I think were all a little disturbed when it comes to deer hunting. Nothing creates more tostesterone in a man like puttuing on blaze orange or a tux. This is our rut. Just cant have multiple doe's anymore. Well myself anyway.

[Phunnyfarm]

itsashooter...I KISS THE BULLET! I don't think I've ever told anyone that I do it, no one has ever been around me when I've done it, and no one ever told me that it's something some hunters do. I just started doing years ago because I genuinely wanted to! That is really funny that you asked if others do too!

The dreams have been going strong for me for the past couple weeks now, and I will actually start losing sleep because of restlessness in another week or so. Trying to sleep the night before opener is just a joke now...it's just 6-7 hours of rolling around and looking at the clock every 15 minutes. I have NEVER needed an alarm to wake up on opener morning! I always seem to look at the clock 30 mins before the alarm is set and just think "Close enough for me! I'll just get an extra cup of coffee in while I'm getting ready!"

[itsashooter]

Thanks for admitting kissing the bullet , Phunnyfarm, I feel better. I think the kiss is also just sayin, I'm here in the woods where I belong! Now time to Enjoy the experience. Good luck!

[JBone]

saftey meeting in the garage with windsors

[ANYFISH2]

Hey welcome, good post, but sorry im pretty dull but i guesse its a tradition of getting ready an checking the list, got that, thats ther, this over here, set the coffe pot, wallet is here in this pocket, knife is sharp, no mayo, crud, run to store, make sandwhiches, put hot water in thermos, check wallet again, look for lisence, find lisence cant find wallet, turn on ovev to preheat, got socks, boots, long johns, Honey take out the garbage! Im busy! i mean ok.... find wallet put lisence in it an back in pocket, oven is ready for potatoes, potatoes are for hashbrowns in the morn. Were outa potatoes, crud back to store, take out garbage, return from store to find fresh coffe cause i hit ON instead of timer. potatoes are in the oven, new pot of coffe set on timer. Locate shells an put with gun at front door, wrong shells, locate right shells, gun fell over from cat brushing up against it, crud good thing its a luepold scope, kick the cat, potaoes burnt, new potates in oven, thermos has hot water in it but dumped out the mold for last year, Honey have you seen my... never mind found it, put that there, Honey tommorow you need to rake the leaves up, Dear Im hunt tomorrow, WHAT YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT, I MADE US PLANS FOR BINGO, sorry dear, silent treatment in place, very good. all set, jump in bed its only 2 A.M. remember oven is on, Crud potatoes burnt again, guesse its cereal. Lie down again, get up check timer on coffe pot again, kick the cat. Man i cant wait!.

I laughed so hard I got a tear in my eye! Thanks for the truthful post.

[Red Miller]

Kick the cat twice??? Hey, three times a charm!

[Boar]

Well when i wake an find a nice hot pot of water cause i forgot to put in the grounds, then the cat makes a feild goal.

[pikerliker]

Saturday night is of course hunters supper in Grygla and a quick stop by Fourtown for a few beers and off to bed again around 9 or 10 to do it again the next day. We are pretty casual deer hunters and apparently also a pretty boring group.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I don't know what her deal is. You'd think she would be happy to see people up there buying stuff. She kind of acts like it's an inconvenience for her. We still end up going there once in the weekend and to register deer.

[nwhunter]

I have NEVER needed an alarm to wake up on opener morning! I always seem to look at the clock 30 mins before the alarm is set and just think "Close enough for me! I'll just get an extra cup of coffee in while I'm getting ready!"

I laughed, I do and say the exact same thing!!

[saunasisu]

We have 6-8 guys in our group, showing up between 3-5 friday night. It starts with guys unpacking/hanging gear with a couple of pops as we wait for the sauna to become white hot.

Then it's off to sauna with coolers in hand to catch up on the past year and gameplan for the hunt. After a jump in da lake its time for the shrimp boil and Gopher hockey game. A couple of snorts and it's off to bed.

We also have a couple of pre-made egg bakes that we toss in the oven in the morning with two coffee pots going.

Nothing better than a weekend in God's Country with buddies from each segment of my life. A high school teammate, college teammate, a college buddy,a guy I've coached with, my son and my father.

I can't wait, best time of the year.

[Born2Fish]

Get up north early Friday morning. Get everything out to the stands that needs to be there for Saturday morning. Go back to the shack, remember around 8pm that we forgot a few things to bring out to the stands, make an attempt to write a "list" of things we need in the morning. Lie awake for about 6 hours thinking about the shooting lane we made 4 weekends ago. Practice the shot in your head for the remaining hour of "sleep". Wake up, grab the egg bake, eat 2 bites...too nervous to stomach any more. Fill up the backpacks, eat 2 more bites of the now cold egg bake. Grab thermos, fill with coffee, get blaze all the way on, now nature calls and take blaze back off. Get to the outhouse, do the deed...great, forgot the TP. Find old issue of Field and Stream, tear out fishing related articles...Finish, turn on headlamp to realize TP is behind stack of Field and Stream. Go back into shack, realize I have no idea where I just put my gloves. Search for 10 minutes to realize they are in my jacket...sometimes they are actually on my hands. Then finally check the clock...only 5 more hours until it's legal shooting time!

[bigbucks]

Mine's kind of continually evolving. Take Thursday & Friday off & hunt what I think are the hottest big buck sites depending on the wind. Perhaps do a little extra stand prep here or there to my stand, somebody else's, or one we may use later in the season. Always bow hunt Friday night too. More then once it's been go find the deer after dark, gut it out, hang it in shed at Dad's, used to be haul up to Uncle's shed show to the other gun guys already there. Go home repack the truck & backpack from archery stuff to gun stuff, camo to orange. Figure out what we're going to eat tomorrow. Run to Uncle's or make a couple of phone calls to discuss the plan for Saturday as far as if we'll do any drives or not.

Get up dog tired when the alarm goes off about the same time it's been going off for bow hunting the previous two days, stumble to shower thinking it's too early... Gave myself plenty of time to leave by 5:30 it's now 5:58 & I'm still wondering if I have everything. Try to decide how much to wear walking to the stand, put on very little, carry almost everything. Get to stand, still too hot. Take ALL shirts off & sit in stand, probably have pants unbuckled too, almost light enough to shoot, dang should have been here earlier, load gun, put shirts back on. Start looking at shapes trying to decide what they are. BOOM! Who the heck was that? What are they possibly shooting at at this time? & so it begins...

[Phunnyfarm]

...only 5 more hours until it's legal shooting time!

That was a GREAT way to end it!

We're getting close enough to opener now where it's starting to physically PAIN me that it's still 10 days away. I've got a gear list on my phone, in Excel at the office, and hand-written on my dresser.

[Musky Buck]

Eat uncles Chili, wonder why I need Pepto Bismol, that stuff works better than the turbo lax on dumb and dumber, Jeff Daniels has nothing on my uncles exlax turbo chili with a few warm Schlitz beers, have mercy. What is the deal with that stuff ? Beer or not we need to leg wrestle for the outhouse.

[nubbin]

We watch "Escanaba in da moonlight" every friday night.

[toughguy]

"Buckless Wonder"

[lungdeflator]

Lie down again, get up check timer on coffe pot again, kick the cat. Man i cant wait!.

HAHA! I too like to kick the cat before going to bed!

Like most other camps, we all get there and its a late bedtime and minimal sleep after catching up with everybody, cold brews, and hearing where everybody is going to sit opening day!

[rbs]

we were trying to remember the name of that movie you were talking about at the youth hunt...I will look it up now!

[fr0sty]

My wife, daughter and I stop and eat at the Harvest Thyme Bistro in Wadena on our way up to Mills. They have really great food, made from local meat and produce. It's been a new tradition for us the past three years.

From there, it's on to my inlaw's house. I pull the cam sd card from the cam just inside the swamp, have couple glasses of home made wine and scan through the pics hoping for a monster

[nubbin]

rbs here are a few clips from youtube

[rbs]

hulu has the whole video...been watchin it!

[InTheNorthwoods]

At our camp folks usually show up throughout the day on Friday. Friday night is always consumed with a big meal once everyone is there. We usually settle in to a game of liars poker or Texas Hold'em at the poker table that doubles as a dining table. There are always stories about years past, ribbing about misses and small deer shot, etc. We'll have more booze than necessary on hand, but no one ever seems to over-do it and not be able to make first call for breakfast and first light.

One fun thing we do is create a "table" on a paper plate with categories for "first deer", "smallest deer", "first miss", "biggest buck", "first shot", or whatever else we come up with. Everyone guesses and over the week its fun to look at how things shake out. It always starts off as being a bet, but no one ever pays, its more about bragging rights. More than anything, it is fun to look back at years past and see how the picks stay the same, change, etc.

Really, the night before opener is just a chance for good friends to get togheter and catch up. For me, my serious hunting is done during bow season and outside of opening weekend.