Bow season has commenced

By Mac Arnold
RTWO Editor-In-Chief

Another Michigan deer archery season is officially under way,  and I've been out twice, once on the Oct. 1 opener and another time Oct. 4.

RTWO photo by Mac Arnold

I may look comfortable but I'm not. 

Northeast winds above 15 mph have

prevailed so far this early season and 

have kept it brisk in the stand.

I suppose there was a primer in September that would count since I went out for one of the two early firearms days with the Parker Thunderhawk crossbow.

What has amazed me so far is there haven't been any snafus, which usually run rampant for me the first few times out, such as leaving the release in the Jeep or forgetting the pull rope. Well, maybe dropping the battery cap from the crossbow scope out of the tree Sept. 20 would count but I was able to find it once I touched down.

And I'm not baffled I haven't seen nary a deer ... OK, that might not be true. What did look like three deer scampering across the fallow field could have been coyotes. They were a ways off. Or were they just small?

Some veteran woodsmen would say get your eyes checked or pull out your binos. But the wind was fairly intense Oct. 1., clocking in about 15 mph, according to Accuweather, and made it tough to follow running targets.

But whatever they were, they were on the other end of the field from me and small enough that I was only mildly amped. Now, the coyote thoughts had me more pumped up because I need to trim that population. Plus I thought I heard pups earlier in the morning.

Nothing ever did swing past the stand, nor two days later on the birthday gig.

It's early.

The next two days planned are for evening watches. These prove to be more fruitful than morning this time of year, although I will have a special guest, John Paulin, for Thursday.

Quads and the Double Bull Blind with crossbows are being rolled out. This type of hunt -- albeit is loaded with fun -- usually isn't programmed for stealth and is geared more toward camaraderie, which I could use plenty of right now anyway. In other words, I'm not expecting to see much.

But first, let's see what today's hunt brings along with more ... you guessed it: northeast winds.

Oh, snap.