Hi Guys:

Michigan's deer season started yesterday, November 15, 2004.

Some deer seasons are a bust. Others are GREAT. This one, through no special talent or effort on my part, has been a GREAT one.

Rob, my generous and energetic younger brother, decided that we needed more deer blinds on Dad's property. He constructed two more. He uses a combination of used and new material. For example, he uses uprights of treated 4X6s and used recycled garage doors for siding.

His first effort stood as the pinacle of deer blind perfection for 15 years. We called it the Taj Mahal. The Taj was 5' by 8' and was a "two holer" which is very nice for social deer hunters. The Taj had many ammenities that were rank luxeries to the Spartan Hecksel clan. For example, the Taj had a roof and a propane heater. Don't get me wrong, the Taj is a serious hunting platform: It has 355% of un-obstructed view (the roof was supported by a 2x4 in each corner) and the sill of the shooting windows is at exactly the right height to provide a benchrest for the guns...and they are padded for stealth.

The Taj was located just South of a "thumb" that stuck out from a 400 acre, fist-shaped swamp. A 20 yard by 100 yard spruce plantation ran North from the Taj. Assorted mid-Western farmland in CBWM rotation (Corn-Beans-Wheat-Miami) surrounded the thumb. The deer in the swamp used the thumb as a highway to the CBWM grocery store.

Rob figured he could improve upon the Taj. He made the new blinds taller. The floor of the Taj was 6' above ground level. The floors of the new blinds were 10' above ground. The Taj was a "two holer" that was 5' by 8'. The new jobs were 6' by 8' and had higher ceilings. Rob shoots a short barreled Remington 870 so the tight confines were not a problem for him but it was tougher for those of us with longer barreled Mossbergs and Muzzle-blasters. But he listened to us and made the new ones a little bit bigger.

John, Rob's brother-in-law, was visiting from Norfork, Virginia. He goes deer hunting with us every couple of years. He loves to hunt. He pays the BIG non-resident licence fees and gets to hang out with us. John's great ambition was to shoot a buck. There are a lot of deer in Eastern Virginia but it is difficult to get permission to hunt them.

Rob wanted John to have the best possible time. After all, John drove 700 miles (one way) to go hunting. It is kind of like having visiting royalty. You trot out the good china.

So Rob decided to spend opening day with John in one of the new blinds....the one smack-dab in the middle of the thumb of the swamp.. Rob graciously let me spend opening day in the blind formerally known as "the Taj".

Jim, Lucky, Doc, it was unbelievable! I "limited out" by 8:00 am. The temperature had dropped to 20 degrees that night. Every leaf crunched like a bag of potato chips. We must have had a "hot" doe in the neighborhood because we had bucks up the ying-yang. I shot a doe, an 8 point and a 2 point (would have been a 4 point if it had both antlers). My longest shot was 30 yards. I shot them all with a cheap CVA muzzle loader, patched roundballs and 80 grains of Hodgdon's 777, The 8 point ran 40 yards. I saw him fall down behind a patch of blackberry brush and heard him thrash around and then die. The doe ran 50 yards. The 2 point ran 20 yards and I was able to watch every second of his demise.

Rob's new blind was no slouch...John got his buck, a very respectable 6 point with a gray muzzle. Rob...well, an opening day deer just was not in the cards for him. Like the gracious host he is, he let John shoot the buck.

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I had never been in the position of having "limited out". I had three days off work. I planned on taking my 14 year old daughter hunting that evening and Michigan requires that people carrying guns afield during hunting season have valid hunting licences. What to do?

So I picked up another over-the-counter doe licence when my daughter and I stopped into the Hunt and Hook to pick up hunting licences for her. Michigan has very liberal doe licences policy for counties that have over 500 deer-car traffic accidents a year. Eaton county is one of those counties.

We saw some deer that evening but Rachel passed up the shots because they were either too far away or the light was too marginal.

Tuesday morning: I am back in the Taj. Mist is falling. No crunchy potato chips today. I am sleepy. I had been working second shift. Waking up at 4:00am when your body is used to falling into bed at 3:30am is a little tough. I nod off. I wake up. I eat some frosted spoonsized shredded wheat. I drink some tea from the thermos (tea smells like leaves, coffee smells like fire/humans, one of my pet theories). I wait. I am really not even sure why I am out here except it feels like I still had some unfinished business. I am ambivalent about taking another deer. Three deer in one day seems greedy, especially when the average success rate for the State of Michigan hovers around 30%.

I had a Bible with me. I almost never read the Bible. Life moves too fast. The last book I had chewed on had been Luke. I started on Acts. Boy, they sure had a lot of miracles and signs in those days! Small print and short attention span makes for many breaks where I take a break and think about stuff and look around and think about stuff.

Part of the time I thought about my friend Tom. I wrote a story about him http://www.castbullet.com/hunting/th01.htm Tom's success hunting deer with a .357 Magnum inspired me to buy my first handgun this summer. The gun nurishes several of my fantasies....canoeing up north where the White Pine and Black Bear are king. Running a trap line. Maybe even taking a deer with it. You know, that kind of "manly" stuff. I had the Stainless Steel Ruger Blackhawk on the seat beside me with six handloads in the chambers.

Just for the record the handloads were 158 grain Remington semi-jacketed hollow points in front of 6.8 grains of Unique and CCI 500 primer. I use .38 Special brass and seat the bullet to .357 Magnum OAL....Not a recommended practice but it is my gun and my fingers. This load in the hard cast lead bullet chronographed at 1230 fps. The JHP is probably 100 fps slower. I find this to be a very comfortable load to shoot out of the 6 1/2" barreled Ruger. It qualifies as a Magnum load, but just barely. I loaded up some hotter rounds but decided to "dance with the one that brung me" at the last minute.

Tom had a patch of bad luck and was not able to go hunting with us. The next couple of years also look kind of iffy. Tom loves hunting and his entire family loves venison. I had dropped off two of the deer at Tom's house the day before. He had been very appreciative. He said he and Jeanie had about decided to buy a side of beef to fill the freezer. They were not sure where the money was going to come from.

Tom does not have a conventional college degree. He has a Ph.D in Life. He is one of the Weebles. Life has given him some pretty serious blows but it cannot keep him down. I want to apprentice under Tom when I retire. I figure that if you want to learn how to live a great life with more-time/less-money, find a pro. Tom is not just a pro, he is my hero.

Rob and I had talked. We decided that half a beef was way bigger than two, 120 pound field dressed deer. There was probably still room in the freezer if our party took anymore deer.

I had just finished reading the first 11 verses of Chapter 5. It was a story of Ananias and Sapphira, a married couple who were half-hearted in their commitment to the Church. They both died at the feet of Peter. That is probably a double meaning; they physically died and they (and all who are of two minds) metaphorically failed the Judgement.

So I think to myself: Here I sit half-heartedly hunting deer...not even sure if I will shoot if presented a shot. I have the licence. I have the gun. I have a friend who needs the meat. I look up. I see a doe 15 yards from the Taj, standing broadside in the middle of the two-track. She looks over at me when the Ruger's hammer makes the second click. She gives me that "Well, get on with it." look that only females can manage. She ran 200 yards and died....left a beautiful blood-trail to boot.

There are still miracles and signs. At least there are during deer season in Michigan.

-Joe