It really begins on the Friday before the actual shooting can start. On my SO's deer lease the rule is "if you shoot it you have to mount it." In other words, if it is not a trophy deer, let it live. The idea, I guess, is to keep trigger-happy hunters from shooting anything that walks out of the woods and into their gunsights. While I was there the only thing shot was a large feral hog. There is no season on these creatures. They have become such a nuisance, and so overpopulated, that the season on them is year-round. I have come to believe that every hunter in Texas could shoot a hog every day of the year and still not put much of a dent in the population, they are that pervasive. And they are destructive, as well as dangerous. So my soft heart did not bleed over the humongous hog in the back of one of the hunter's pickup.
But back to the rituals. Friday evening, after everyone who is going to participate in the opening weekend festivities has arrived, each hunter goes to his designated blind to sit with binoculars and see what comes out in front of them. Each blind is accompanied by a feeder, usually set with a timer to go off and scatter corn at a certain time. If the hunter has been rigorous through the year with keeping his feeder full, the deer are used to the noise of the timer as it performs it's job, and in fact, they often stand nearby waiting to eat the corn. They seem to have some sort of internal clock and begin to congregate around the feeders within twenty minutes of the mechanism throwing out corn. While I was with my SO in his blind, there was once a large buck standing directly under the feeder when the timer threw corn, and the buck simply sidestepped a couple of feet and let the feeder do its job. Within three or four minutes all the other deer who have been standing around waiting, came in to gobble corn, and others appeared from other pastures, either having heard the spinning wheel that flings the corn, or from prompting by their own internal clocks.
The hunters dutifully watch the deer as they eat the provided corn, and some, like my SO, take notes on the deer they observe. The SO leaves his notebook in his blind, and so we were able to compare opening weekend 2009 to opening weekend 2008, and found that weather conditions were similar and numbers of deer had slightly increased. By the way, any conversation that takes place inside a deer blind is done in a whisper, even though I accidentally dropped my binoculars, they made a loud bang, and none of the feasting deer even so much as flinched at the sound.
After the sun goes down, all the hunters come into camp, which is a collection of motley buildings, campers, etc. Deer camp is the place where the dead or worn out accoutrement of life end up -- things like ragged towels, bent chairs, crapped out bedding, etc. It's part of the spirit of "roughing it" that reigns at deer camp. There is also a lot of cooking that goes on, and a required camp fire, even if the temperature outside is in the 80s. Everyone stands around discussing in great detail the deer they witnessed that evening, paying particular note to the male deer and their antlers, using technical terms like beam length, spread, the presence or absence of brow tines, symmetry, and of course, number of points. The points are all important, as is body mass. Guns are also discussed, the best options, the age of the guns they are each using, the older the better it seems, and scopes are also all important.
Then the eating begins. Meat is the main dish. Meat of all kinds, pork ribs, spare ribs, roasts, steaks, brisket, fajita meat. Vegetables are not part of the menu, except for the odd jalapeno pepper or bag of potato chips. There is also dip, manly dip like bean dip or cheese dip, with tortilla chips or possibly even jalapeno chips. Desert is a storebought pecan pie or nutty brownies, if there are deserts at all. I made the mistake of taking an orange cake. Only one piece was eaten. Cake requires the use of plates and forks, which is also out when it comes to camp food. Unless it happens to be chili. There are always chili bowls available. The single piece of my cake that was consumed was eaten out of a chili bowl with a spoon. Ahh mee.....
On opening day, the hunters are up at 4:30. The smell of coffee is strong in the air. Nobody speaks much. They climb into their vehicles and drive slowly to their blinds. After daybreak, gunfire can be heard and you speculate on who did the shooting and what they might have shot. Most of the gunfire at our camp came from too far away to be any of our gang. The only nearby shot opening morning came from one of our group firing at a coyote, which he apparently missed.
At about 9:30, everyone heads back to camp to eat breakfast. Bacon and sausage, eggs mixed with onion and potatoes. There is euphoria even though nobody shot anything. Tales of antler points abound. If anyone needs to go to town, now is when they make their trips. Others take naps. Someone keeps the camp fire going, and all the jobs just fall in place without assignment.
That evening was when the large hog was shot. And it was also when I decided to go home. I was tired of just meat meals. And tired of the radio broadcasting one football game after another. Our group were not drinkers, but there were also no cards or dominos played like at some deer camps. I enjoyed sitting in the blind and watching the deer. I even got to see a fight between two bucks with larger racks. But I was a little worried somebody might kill a deer, and I didn't want to stick around camp for that.
The SO just came home. It's Sunday morning, and he reports that no deer were killed. Thank goodness for that. Maybe those gorgeous creatures we watched through our binoculars will go on to live through the season. My fingers are crossed for that.
Onward ....
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