Sorry folks, need to vent a bit...

Well, I'm back from my second seasongun weekend. (Didn't go out for the first one.)
Not only did I not get a deer, not take a shot, and not even see a deer during hunting hours, but it was actually worse than that. I ended up on the wrong side of a deer drive, and was sick for two days.

The landowner had invited me out and said I could hunt2 of his properties and just wanted me to blast any coyotes I saw in return. (Cool, more shooting.) I brought the bowfishing bow too for some show and tell since his grandkids want to learn to hunt and fish.
I was hoping to nail a deer or yote early on in the weekend so I had some bait to lay out for more yotes after dark. Didn't happen.

The trip started Thursday nightin the snowstorm from heck. I headed west all the way across the Northern part of the state with 25 mph winds and drifting snow. I can't tell you how many cars I saw in the ditch since I stopped counting after 20. I did manage to get one drunk driver off the road by calling the police and following her until the cops caught up when she exited. I have no tollerance for that kind of crap, and I'll even get to my hunting spot late to get one arrested.

Anyway, the first morning I was beat from the drive and got up late, but was excited about hunting this one wooded ridgeline where I knew the deer bedded during the day. I carefully still-hunted my way crosswind along the top of the ridge carefully glassing ahead on both sides of the slope. I found several beds, rubs, fresh droppings, and heavy trails. Not bad for not being able to scout it out beforehand. After spending about 4 hours moving along painstakingly slowly, I saw the orange of another hunter in the distance, then another one, then a third. As it turned out, I was right in the middle of a four man deer drive. [:@]There was a miscommunication between the landowner and his brother who had given his son (and his buddies) permission to hunt that weekend, and the landowner didn't know about it. It was all on the up-and-up, they just didn't coordinate it. I found out that the reason I was finding empty beds instead of deer was that this same crew had already done a drive early that morning and spooked them all out without getting a shot at any. What a waste. I could have had one the way I was doing it.

I was bummed, but I still had the other property to hunt the next dayand after verifying that I was to be the only hunter out there, went to go check out the adjacent field after dark to see where the deer come out. I saw 2 doe and got excited about the next morning's possibilites.

The second day, I woke up as sick as a dog and spent the next 24 hours in a heap of discomfort. The third day, I just wanted to get on the road and spend some time decorating my house for Christmaswith my wife and kid who had been asking for me to come home twice a day since I left.