We saw one buck opening morning. He was a small 6 point and too small to be interesting. Especially on the first day of the season. It was cold out and there is some evidence that the rut is underway. That little guy had just one thing on his mind!!!
The next morning we came around a bend in the road and there was a hog rutting around the edge of our road. He was 50 yards away, 125 pounds and down wind. It would have been an easy shot, but we passed on him. No point wasting a day of deer hunting cleaning a hog.
When I first started hunting, I shot the first buck I saw. That took three years of trying. Than a few years later, I shot the second buck I saw. Then one year I went hunting with a guy from work who had about the same luck I'd had deer hunting. We talked about it and decided to hold out for better deer. With two sets of eyes, we spotted allot more deer. We stuck to our word and let all the little bucks go. By the end of that season, I'd shot the best buck of my life to that point and seen more bucks in that one season than in my entire life before then.
It's easy to say, but was a hard lesson to learn. Don't shoot the small ones and you'll see more big ones.
Hunting also turned into something more for me after that. Before it was a frustrating battle of disapointment and wishful thinking. Now it's all about enjoying the outdoors, seeing the animals and enjoying the time it takes to find quality animals.
Now that I have a wife who is just getting into hunting, I find it's even more fun working towards getting her an animal. She gets so exited when we see something, and what's realy amazing is how quickly she can spot an animal. She spotted every deer and hog we saw over the weekend first except for one doe that I saw first. She's just an amazing woman!!!
She never even hesitated about passing on the hogs we saw. There were three of them over the entire weekend. Some we could have shot easy, others would have taken some effort. She knows that it will take effort to get a good buck and doesn't want tow waste any time with hogs that we can shoot year round, or killing a small buck early in the season. If she doesn't have one by mid December, than she'll take what comes along, but until then, we're having allot of fun!!!
Good luck everyone,
Eddie
