I recently gained permission from a former patient of mine to hunt on a small piece of private property about 10 minutes outside of the small, southeastern Ohio college town where I live & work. While the property is only about 30 acres total, its absolutely loaded with deer, and to say I was excited about the opportunity would be an understatement!
I was able to get out and do a fair amount of scouting throughout the summer. Sign was abundant, and I knew that if I could get the right set up, this could prove to be an amazing place to hunt.
By the end of the summer, I had decided on 3 basic locations for my climber. With trees prepped and shooting lanes cut, I decided to go with the spot that put me up in an oak on the side of a secondary ridge, with two mowed trails on either side for the opening weekend of Ohio’s archery season.
Pictures from my treestand looking from far left to far right:
Opening day saw me sitting in a classroom for a continuing education course on dry needling (read: sticking surprisingly long needles into muscles to relieve trigger points and referred pain). It’s oddly effective, if a little unsettling to think about at first. Either way, I digress. So even as I was having a 100 millimeter needle buried into my side to release my quadratus lumborum muscle, I was dreaming of being up in a tree.
Luckily, I was able to get out of the course by 4 and make it to the woods by 5 that evening.
I’d like to say that everything came together as planned and I walked out of the woods with a deer that night, but truth be told, all I saw while in the tree was a glimpse of a deer at about 70-80 yards out that never came my way. Though I did manage to see quite a few on my way out of the property that night, and I left determined to be back in the same tree for the next morning.
Sunday morning came quickly and I managed to get up in the same tree again on time and uneventfully. I know its been said before, but there’s just something amazing about watching the woods wake up in the morning. I’m not nearly skillful enough to describe it with words, but all I know is there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
As I sat there enjoying the morning and contemplating life’s great mysteries (just plain spacing out might be the better term in my case lol) from 15 feet up, I caught some movement from the top of the mowed trail to my left.
Topic: Ohio opening weekend doe (Read 1116 times)
