Sorry, I've been away

By Mac Arnold

RTO Photo by Stacie Arnold

A new day has arrived with the big Sanilac County, Mich., doe transported

on top of the Jeep Oct. 23. I'll have to admit, it's easier done with a truck.

RTO Editor

Yes, it has been a while between posts.

But I've been hunting.

Imagine that, here it is late October and your blog editor extraordinaire is out hunting?

With the fat doe bagged Thursday, Oct. 23, at the camp in Sanilac County, Mich., this season is kicking in nicely.

The Wasp broadhead anchored on a Beman arrow launched from the Martin compound bow did the trick.

A neck shot dropped the girl right in her tracks. Had a premonition the kill would be a neck shot, and here it happened. Strange how things like that happen.

And I did say compound bow in this day and age of rampant crossbow use. Not bad for a guy who has had torn rotator cuff surgery on each shoulder.

Now don't get me wrong. In fact, the morning of the kill the weapon of choice was the Parker crossbow.  Yet, somehow, in the early morning autumn fog when I pulled the trigger with a fat doe in the crosshairs, the crossbow failed to fire.

Seems it wasn't cocked correctly.

Need to follow up on this because a hang fire on a doe is one thing but if it happens on a 10-point, it could be sickening.

***
For the vacation after-action report, I was out in the deer woods five of the 11 days I had off work.

Another morning was spent along the goose pond, and one shot put more breast meat in the freezer for jerky I plan to make for the November deer gun season.

Really only had good deer action the evening the big doe was taken. For about an hour, a decent buck -- couldn't make out points -- chased seven or eight does around 80 yards from where I was perched in an oak tree.

And in October, if the Halloween deer hunt comes off as planned, it will be 12 outings total, with whitetails seen four times split between the Sanilac County camp and the spot behind the Monroe County house.  A buck that appeared to be no more than a fork horn was passed on by this editor at dusk in Monroe.

Hopefully the sightings and the action will pick up, which is expected once the temperatures drop as November winds begin to blow.

It still has been warm most days with it being a ridiculous 79 Oct. 26 that had me not even bother unloading the gear in the Jeep at the Petersburg State Game Area and move on to other endeavors. Just too dang warm.

***
On a side note: Some readers may notice a slight name change to the blog. That is because the old name was similar to another outdoorsman's name for his television show and enterprise.

To tell you the truth, I like this one better. What do you think?