First deer

An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Mark Walters sponsored by

Hello friends, Last fall Michelle Chiaro, who is an ICU nurse and a mother of four, took part in her first bear hunt.

This spring I was sitting with Michelle when she harvested her first turkey, which was a dandy and is currently at the taxidermist where she is having a full body mount done on it.

This summer Warren Bartels, who reads this column in the Price County Review gave Michelle a Horton Summit 150 crossbow. Michelle has been practicing with her bow ever since and, this fall, she began bow hunting for white-tailed deer and to date we have sat in the woods 16 times together and that is what this week’s column is about.

In reality this story began with Michelle running bear baits with me for three summers before she got a tag and deciding that she liked bear hunting, or should I say hunting all together.

Eighteen months ago, I was given permission to put a food plot on my neighbor’s land behind my house and began the huge job of clearing land with a chainsaw and a rototiller. I put trail cameras on the plot and there were some big bucks working it with regularity and lots of does.

Last fall I could not get an antlerless tag for the zone my plot is in and there was one buck that was a pure sumo working the plot all summer that I hoped to put an arrow in. Here is another interesting fact. I go on some really cool bow hunting trips. If I fill my tag in my plot on Sept. 20, those trips do not happen. So as crazy as this sounds, the two years that I have had my food plot I have been a spectator.

So, on opening weekend of bow hunting Michelle took off work and we sat in a ground blind on the food plot and I had even planted European wheat in the spring to hide the blind. She had a doe tag as well as her buck tag. Long story short, after six hunts in a row morning/ night we decided that we like sitting in a tree over on the ground.

On almost every hunt we saw deer. What was very interesting was that, for the most part, the deer that we saw could care less about the food plot as they were eating acorns. Michelle and I had our stands placed about 60 yards apart and, to be perfectly honest, hers was the one that was going to get the action.

Our morning and evening hunts always started out in the dark or ended in the dark. For me it was like watching a movie as we generally had one or two deer experiences a hunt, and I could have easily taken a 6-pointer on one of the hunts, but I had plans and wanted Michelle to have the action.

I mentioned earlier that we started hunting in portable tree stands. I always make sure Michelle makes it up the tree and then I climb part way up, hand her crossbow to her, and then climb down and go to my tree. When our hunt is over, I climb back up her tree and get her bow.

What I am getting at is that it is pretty cool to watch a gal who is pushing 50 go 16 feet up climbing sticks, make the maneuver on to a stand and do it effortlessly. I have helped introduce a couple of dozen people to hunting from a tree and my number one teaching rule is both hands and both feet count. If something goes wrong, you still have three to count on.

So last Tuesday night I am watching the movie, which is Michelle bow hunting and the forest in general. A large doe was, as usual, feeding on acorns but this time it was heading Michelle’s way.

I mentioned earlier she practices a lot with Warren’s bow and she can hit both shooting free hand and from a rest in a tree stand. When the doe was about 20 yards away, Michelle let a bolt fly and that is how she was introduced to and got her first deer, which was a very large adult doe.

It is very cool to meet someone whether they are 10 or 49 who wants to hunt, but does not have a clue how to hunt, and teach them how to hunt.

Next is my turn. I am headed to the Chippewa River near Durand, where I will travel by canoe, sleep in a tent and spend my days in a tree. No cares on the size of the rack, just want to make some meat and a memory.

Live like there is no tomorrow! Sunset